The Criminal Justice System

Legal and Ethical Issues

The criminal justice system exists primarily to ensure safety for communities. Comprising three arms: corrections, law enforcement, and courts, the criminal justice system serves several purposes. These include offering protection to the innocent, maintaining order through a fair and just process, and convicting criminals (Goodwin University, 2020). In summary, the criminal justice system pursues four key goals: incapacitation, rehabilitation, retribution, and deterrence. In my view, all the four goals are equally important in safeguarding peace and order in the society.

The question of whether or not a criminal defendant can be prosecuted twice for the same act is covered in the Double Jeopardy Clause contained in the Fifth Amendment. The clause states that it is illegal to prosecute a person twice for the same offense, meaning that once an accused has already been acquitted, he/she cannot be charged again (Legal Information Institute, n.d.). Even so, the Clause applies to criminal cases again. In the event that a criminal defendant is found guilty of an administrative or civil wrongdoing, he/she may be prosecuted for the latter offense.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, SOX Act, is defined as a federal law in the US that seeks to offer protection to investors through increasing reliability and accuracy of corporate disclosures. The Act stipulates that all financial reports together with statements must have passed the test of internal controls, be devoid of misleading omissions and false statements, and be a truthful representation of the firm’s financial health (Corporate Finance Institute, 2015). Still on the topic of eradicating organized crime, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act-RICO was created. RICO prohibits employees and any persons associated with foreign or interstate businesses from engaging in collecting unlawful debt (The United States Department of Justice, 2020). SOX Act and RICO are some of the laws that have been enacted in a bid to prevent or minimize white-collar crime, which is defined as non-violent crime whose primary motivation is of a financial nature, and which is typically committed by professionals holding a powerful or prestigious position (Corporate Finance Institute, 2021). White-collar crime include offenses such as insider trading, fraud, counterfeiting, and identity theft, among others,

The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act is a legislation enacted in the year 1986 to deal with the issue of hacking. Its purpose is to prohibit the intentional unauthorized access to computers with the aim of obtain government-restricted data. It prohibits accessing computers with the motive of defrauding; it also prohibits password trafficking and all manner of extortion that involves computers (National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, 2020).

A whistleblower may simply be defined as a person who goes public regarding unethical behavior within an organization (Gray, 2011). Much as whistleblowing is useful in preventing law breaking and unethical conduct, it usually encounters conflicting ethical duties. In many cases, whistleblowers are seen as treacherous people who are not driven by promoting the common good and who do not respect the rule of law (Wharton University of Pennsylvania, 2019). Additionally, whistleblowers may be perceived as being disloyal to their employer. Thirdly, faced with the requirement to provide factual evidence of the alleged wrongdoing, whistleblowers may enter into trouble when they access material they have no right of accessing (Wharton University of Pennsylvania, 2019).

References

Corporate Finance Institute. (2021). What is a white-collar crime? https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/finance/white-collar-crime/

Corporate Finance Institute. (2021). What is the Sarbanes-Oxley Act? https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/other/sarbanes-oxley-act/

Goodwin University. (2020). The importance of the criminal justice system and today’s professionals. www.goodwin.edu/enews/importance-of-the-criminal-justice-system/

Gray, J.W. (2011). Moral issues facing employees. https://ethicalrealism.wordpress.com/2011/05/11/moral-issues-facing-employees/

Legal Information Institute. (n.d.). Double jeopardy. www.law.cornell.edu/wex/double_jeopardy

National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. (2020). Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). www.nacdl.org/Landing/ComputerFraudandAbuseAct

The United States Department of Justice. (2020). RICO charges. www.justice.gov/archives/jm/criminal-resource-manual-109-rico-charges

Wharton University of Pennsylvania. (2019). The whistleblower’s dilemma: do the risks outweigh the benefits? https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/whistleblowers-in-business/

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