International crime refers to crimes which affect the safety or peace of more than one country or state, or a crime that whose nature is so reprehensible that it justifies and warrants the intervention of international agencies in an attempt to affect intervention, sustain investigations and secure prosecutions. Some of the conventional examples to international crimes include war crimes, piracy and crimes against humanity. Genocide and terrorism have recently been included within the rubric of international crimes, while efforts are being concerted to include aggression therein.
Transnational crime on the other hand are those that have the potential and/ or actual effects across the national frontiers, or/ and crimes which take place at the intra state level yet offend the fundamental values of the international community. The main cache herein is border crossings accompanying a criminal activity as its most essential part.
Therefore, whilst international crime may include crime against international law, war crimes, crimes against humanity, international criminal law and crimes against peace; transnational crimes on the other hand covers crimes such as human trafficking, sex slavery, torture, terrorism, apartheid, arms trafficking, drug trafficking, smuggling of cultural or archaeological artifacts, and money laundering.
There are several reasons which underpin the need to study comparative justice. Given that comparative justice adopts an international approach of comparing the justice systems the world over through the use of various political, historical and descriptive approaches, the solving of international problems becomes more feasible and tenable. This is due to the fact that this adds an international perspective to the understanding of law, different cultures and government systems; and how these affect the institutionalization and management of criminal justice system across the globe.
At the same time, studying comparative justice dispenses the reality on the manner in which criminal justice systems have undergone transformation with time in respect to how the incumbent criminal justice system operates, the correctional modalities that should be orchestrated so as to ward off past mistakes; and how the correctional changes are likely to affect the future dispensation of criminal justice system.
The fact that studying comparative justice endows one with the legibility to secure himself sound grasp on matters pertaining to legal administration procedures, the functioning of the police, and governance, terrorism cannot only be discounted, but the same also enables one to secure himself lucrative careers.
The US' history evolving forms of punishment, the rights for offenders and victims, political ideals, economic conditions and policing have been greatly borrowed from the UK's criminal justice system. This is because the colonial America was bereft of trained lawyers, and formal law, thereby necessitating borrowing from England (also, France and Holland). This is especially seen to be seen in the Common Law system which not only solved legal problems in the society, the law making procedures, and the bifurcation of basic crimes into misdemeanor and felony.
Some of the underlying principles extant in the criminal justice system are justice, equity and restoration or restitution. For instance, justice demands that the rights of the victims are safeguarded while due processes are followed in the dispensation of justice.
The merit of following a dialectical approach in the studding of comparative justice system is that it helps inculcate the understanding in the manner in which criminal justice systems have undergone changes chronologically, in respect to how the incumbent criminal justice system functions, the correctional modalities that ought to be mooted and ratified in order to correct past mistakes; and how these correctional changes are likely to affect, positively, the future dispensation of criminal justice system.
National Crime Information Data Centre (NCIC) is the agency that can be able to offer the most reliable type of information and which can be relied on by a number of persons and organizations. As the rate of technology keeps on changing, it has become mandatory for the people to seek for methods and techniques that are most efficient and reliable to them, methods that they do not waste a lot of time on. This is what NCIC provides to them. NCIC utilizes computerized indices in the recording of criminal activities. Issues such as crime records, stolen goods, fugitives and a number of missing individuals are recorded in the indices (Dammer & Fairchild, 2006). Similarly, the information in the centre is only available to the federal, law enforcement agencies, the state and a number of criminal justice agencies. The centre is also operational twenty four hours a day; 365 days a year meaning that one authorized can access the information anytime for major inquiries. The records at NCIC are protected therefore can not be tempered with. The data available here is received from the state, the federal local and foreign crime agencies.
It is logical that a number of crimes are due to take place in respective places at different rates. At the same time for the sake of selfish reasons, a number of countries may want to hide the real figures reflecting on the rate of crime in these nations. However, it should not be forgotten that in these countries, there are foreign representatives representing their member states. So in such circumstances, hiding or concealing matters relating to the real picture of crime in the countries is very difficult. In addition to the foreign representatives, we have local and foreign criminal agencies which keep an eye on the crime rates in the nations. The human rights agencies too can be able to provide the exact figures reflecting on the crime rates in the nations. All these data provided by the different agencies can be compiled together to give a clear picture of the crime rates in respective counties.
Studies and statistics have indicated Japan to be a low crime rte nation. However, it has not been a smooth sail for Japan to curb its crime rates to such a low level. Some of the measures it has put in place to curb criminal activities include the gun control laws, cultural practices and the general environment. It is logical that where guns are crime has to take place. Guns are for criminals and if you take away these guns, then the number of criminals will reduce significantly. In Japan, any person in possession of a firearm can get up to 20 years prison sentences; the same case applies to possessing ammunition. The Japanese's culture believes that a person should not carryou8t an activity that will bring dishonor to him or the society, hence they avoid crimes. In addition, studies have indicated that the environment one inhabits plays a role as far as crime is concerned.
Dammer & Fairchild (2006) asserts that in American there are numerous factors that have led to the high crime rates. For instance the weather, the geography and the economy all play a hand in crime. In addition, racism, legal and illegal possession of guns and injustices has played a significant hand in increasing the rates of crimes in the US. According to reports from the FBI, those areas that are highly populated are associated to high crime rates.
Statistics from across the world have indicated that we are currently living in a safer world than in the past. Similarly, crime in the US has declined; US streets have now become a little safe. Similarly, the world criminal trends have taken a downfall and the world is becoming friendlier. Though, despite this, the US still ranks as one of the highest nation with high rates of crimes in general among the developed nations.
From the table there is a clear disparity between the crimes in one nation with crimes in the other nations despite the fact that it would be assumed that the rates of crimes in these nations were similar. However, there are some factors that may lead to these disparities. They include the crime rates reports and the officers recording these reports (Dammer & Fairchild, 2006). The officers recording the information may not be well conversant with the crime that has been committed and how it should be recorded. Similarly, the differences in ruling regarding which offences should be accounted for leads to having differences in the data provided. The variance in the quality of data, the differences in criminal and legal justice systems and the differences on how a crime is measured also do play a significant role in bringing about the differences in crime data.
There are different types of law that a country can apply in determining cases that include common law or sometime times referred as pure laws, socialist laws, sacred-traditional laws and civil laws. Since the countries in the world do not apply strictly one type of law; they apply two or more laws in a system referred to as hybrid system. Hybrid system of law is most common in many countries as the countries often borrow its laws from other countries.
Constitution is a formal document that comprises of the laws that govern the citizens of the particular countries. All other lows that are formulated within the jurisdiction of a particular country should be consistent with the constitution otherwise the law is declared repugnant to the extent in which it contradicts the constitution. It is possible for some countries not to have the written formal constitution but it has to use law to maintain law and order and ensure that people in particular community co-exist. In case a country, say English lack a formal constitution it will apply indigenous laws in determining the case. The indigenous laws are borrowed from the traditions of the natives of the country; it is believed every society had its tradition and thus they had ways of disciplining the offenders who did not follow the stipulated norms in the society. For indigenous laws to be applicable in determining the cases, it should be determined that the law indeed existed in that society and they should be a person in that society to affirm that.
China has responded to an increase in the rate of crimes in the country with the new strike hard campaign. The Americans in the recent past have applied the same policy to combat crime of terrorism. In China serious crimes are met with the strict punishment such as hanging to deter people from committing such crimes; the harsh punishment has accounted in large extent the reduction of crime rates in China. In the same breath the American judicial system has offered strict punishment to those who have committed terrorism act such as life imprisonment.
Exodus is the historical development that may have had a major effect on the formation of the criminal law and the criminal judicial system. The exodus refers to the journey that was taken by the Israelites from the slavery in Egypt. On the way God gave them the Ten Commandments that sometimes they are referred to Mosaic laws. Some communities like the Egyptians, Hebrew, and Mesopotamian adopted these laws in the determination of cases in their community. Hebrew in particular is recorded in the bible as having adopted these laws in around 1200 B.C. Hebrew laws are referred as Torah or Pentateuch and it is believed that Moses was given these laws by God on Mt. Sinai on the stone tablets.
There are great contrasts in the approach to the judicial system adopted by the countries in the world. Saudi Arabia for instance applies sacred laws in the determination of criminal and civil cases. The sacred laws are sometimes referred to as Sharia laws and get it roots from the Islamic religion. On the hand United States adopts secular based legal tradition where there is a clear distinction between the state and the religion; the religion does not influence decisions in the determination of cases. China on the other hand applies hybrid system where it combines different legal system in determination of the cases which includes common laws, Roman laws and sacred laws. It should be noted that all the model countries uses the common law in determination of its cases.
The demographic characteristic that accounts for the difference in crimes rate is the religion of the population. In Saudi Arabia, the Sharia laws are very strict that makes the population not to commit crimes. The government of the Saudi Arabia does not make the data on crimes public thus it's sometimes difficult to compare it with other countries. In America, the States adopts secular legal system thus the religion do not play any part in determination of cases. Also all information on the crimes committed in America are made public. The number of young people in America is high than that in Saudi Arabia thus the youth are more prone to commit crimes that the old generation.
If England lacked a formal constitution they would use the common laws as basis of dealing with criminal issues. These laws are developed through courts or tribunal's .The system is heavily influenced by the principle of precedent where punishment is determined by comparing similar situation that has been dealt with before and determining the punishment by comparison to what was done.
The Chinese Strike- hard- campaign is used to deter violent crimes such as gang crime, narcotics crimes, human trafficking, gambling robbery and prostitution. In the s campaign law enforcement officers are tougher on crime and the judicial hard out harsh measures to criminals to deter crime. The Campaign can be comparable to the USA response tom terrorism after the September 2001 terror attacks .The USA response included establishing prison bases outside the USA in order to hold terror suspect without trials. In their campaign the Chinese law enforcement officers have occasionally shot suspect without the benefit of a trial first. This implies that the criminal are punished even before they are tried similarly the USA has been holding terror suspects for years before they are tried.
Chinese laws are among the oldest in the world having been developed in the early twentieth century. Their laws are a mixture of their traditional laws and the modern western legal principles. Their traditional laws were evolved from moral philosophical teachings that guided the Chinese traditional society that were largely influenced by Confucian philosophy. It is after the 1911 Chinese revolution that their criminal codes were developed with heavy western influence. The country adopted the socialist system in 1949 which saw their legal system adopt more socialist laws. However with globalization their legal system is being slowly modified to adopt the rule of law principles in order to march with the rest of the world.
Most of the English laws were developed from the common laws. That dealt with crimes where the king had no interest. These laws were developed in England in the eleventh century and have evolved over the centuries and some are still applicable today. The laws were developed through common reasoning according to the arising situations .They were also adapted to the other countries which were colonized by the US like the USA and India.
Japan criminal system before the Second World War was largely based on the legal systems in Europe particularly France and Germany. But after the Second World War they reformed their criminal justices system and modeled it to be like the American justice system. This was after they adopted a new constitution in 1947.
Most of the criminal laws in Saudi Arabia are based on religious and since Saudi Arabia is an Islamic country their criminal laws are based Islamic laws. These laws follow the Quran's teachings. However in Saudi Arabia there is no written criminal code .the country follows the Islamic as put down in the Quran any additional law are decreed by the king as he sees fit or as a result of necessity. The Islamic principles are very strict when punishing crime with the death sentence being imposed for such crimes as drug crimes which accounts for the lower rates in narcotics trafficking in the Middle Eastern country .The differences however arise when they are dealing with commercial laws. Most of their commercial laws were developed after the Second World War the guide commercial transaction .their implementation is overseen by an administrative court but the influence of sharia laws is still evident since commercial laws that differ mostly with the sharia laws or Islamic principles are ignored.
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