Results for: Criminal Justice System

A recent Pew Research Center survey found significant divisions between supporters of President Biden and former President Trump on topics characterized as “culture war” or “woke” issues. These include views on gender identity, the criminal justice system, and illegal immigration.

– Gender Identity: A vast majority (90%) of Trump supporters believe gender is determined by sex assigned at birth, while only 39% of Biden supporters share this view. Conversely, 60% of Biden supporters believe gender can differ from birth-assigned sex, compared to just 9% of Trump supporters.

– Criminal Justice: 81% of Trump supporters believe the criminal justice system is not tough enough, while only 40% of Biden supporters hold this view.

– Illegal Immigration: 63% of Trump supporters support national efforts to deport undocumented migrants, compared to 11% of Biden supporters.

– Legacy of Slavery: Only 27% of Trump supporters believe the legacy of slavery still affects the position of Black people in the US, while 79% of Biden supporters believe it continues to have an impact.

Despite these divisions, there are some areas of agreement between the two groups, such as the belief that increased artificial intelligence use in daily life is detrimental (59% of Trump supporters, 51% of Biden supporters) and that open discussions about mental health are beneficial (94% of Biden supporters, 79% of Trump supporters).

During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ontario prosecutors employed a policy to divert certain impaired driving cases away from criminal courts to alleviate court congestion. Crown prosecutors offered plea deals that downgraded charges to Highway Traffic Act offenses, resulting in fines, license suspensions, and loss of license under the act instead of criminal trials and potential records. However, the Ford government lacks internal tracking systems to monitor the number of cases that benefited from this policy. The policy remains in effect despite criticism from MADD Canada, which expresses concerns about mixed messages regarding zero-tolerance approaches to drunk driving and the actual consequences faced by offenders.

In Oregon, the path to mandated treatment for severe mental illness has shifted from civil commitment to the criminal justice system. This has led to a decline in civil commitments and an increase in the proportion of beds occupied by criminal patients in state psychiatric hospitals. As a result, long-term mental health care is often only available to those who have committed a serious crime, leaving those with acute mental illness cycling in and out of ill-equipped community-based options. Advocates argue that this system waits for individuals to commit a crime before providing treatment, and that care should not be predicated on the idea that there must be a victim.

A new study has revealed that racial biases persist in the execution chamber, with Black people having a significantly higher chance of experiencing a botched execution than white people. The study analyzed 73 botched executions out of 1,407 total executions between 1977 and 2023 and found that about 8 percent of executions of Black people compared to 4 percent of white people were botched during that time frame. The report also found that states like Arkansas, Georgia, and Oklahoma had the highest “observable” racial disparities when administering lethal injections.