Justice: Restoring Justice in the Society - Essay Example

People seek justice to claim their happiness. However, justice is not a mere concept of happiness; it involves a number of concepts like fairness, equality, ethics, and other moral aspects. It is the duty of every individual to walk on the lines of justice, but the fact that such a state is never achievable calls for the creation of special institutions to impart justice. Often courts are the institutions that are designated to impart justice.

The need for justice is necessitated because of claims made by an individual or groups on the other on the ground of misconduct or unfairness. Crime is one of the prevalent forms of such misconduct and hence it calls for the development of a special branch of the judiciary system which is known as the criminal justice system. The extent of the crime rate has been on the rise and continues to be so present. However, the question that comes up is whether justice has been able to reach each of the victims and has led to the happiness of the society through its regulation. The answer to this question is well–known to all.

Daily reports of crime show the extent to which such activities have increased and how the perpetrators go about moving freely in society. This does not imply that the concepts of justice have changed, it only reflects the underlying inability of the concerned authorities to impart it. Justice is a social order that keeps individuals safe from crimes such as thefts, murders, assaults, and abuses. In the macro sense, it protects countries from wars, terrorism, and other types of ‘unjust’ activities. Justice also ensures a person’s freedom and autonomy in making choices. However, the role of justice in taking action comes into play when such freedoms are misused by those individuals. (Kelsen)

Criminal justice has been formulated to control incidents of crime as a part of the justice imparting system. The role of justice is not only to give the seeker his due rights but also to create an environment that is not conducive to crime. That is to explain that it does not only punish the perpetrator and thus gives justice to the victim, it also has a duty to transform the perpetrator to avoid recidivism. Further, in the eyes of justice, everyone is equal. Justice does not show biases and favoritism. Thus, the punishing of a criminal is the duty of justice not for the sake of the victim but also for the sake of the criminal. Punishment is a form of rehabilitation of the perpetrator to turn him into a new leaf so that when he is released into society again, he will have no difficulty in settling down with the standard norms of the society. Therefore, criminal justice does not only punish the perpetrators of crime but also deters and mitigates the incidence of crime.