Social Work in the Justice System Essay - 2769 Words

Running head: SOCIAL WORK IN THE JUSTICE SYSTEM 1 The Field of Forensic Social Work It’s Function in the Criminal Justice System and the Populations Who Benefit Jennifer A. Dimaira Seton Hall University Abstract This paper explores the many facets social work provides in collaboration with the criminal justice system escaping widespread notice as well as the roles played in the judicial court systems. This paper takes a look at the point and the many purposes of forensic social work. Covering their role in multidisciplinary mitigation teams and collaboration between social workers and lawyers in criminal defense also the type service social work practitioners provide to inmate populations; the active†¦show more content†¦It’s an issue I see as becoming a problem in the near future because of the field’s functions. The educational opportunity presented in teaching forensic social work is valuable. The functions alone include policy and program development. Mediation, advocacy and arbitration, teaching, training and supervision as well as behavioral science research and analysis just to name a few. We the students are at a loss by a lack of acknowledgement of Forensic S ocial work and it not being an offered course in our curriculum. Brownell and Roberts (2002) operationally define forensic social work as ‘policies, practices and social work roles with juvenile and adult offenders and victims of crimes’ (Brownell P Roberts AR 2002, A century of social work in criminal justice and correctional settings, Journal of Offender rehabilitation, 35 (2) 1-17, pg. 3) As times progressed a growing knowledge and understanding of mental illness and psychiatric problems became more of a deciding factor in the task of determining just and effective dispositions. The criminal justice system is not equipped to provide the proper type of facilitation needed to accommodate. Instead judges and lawyers reached out to community mental health agencies but they too were unable to adequately provide resources needed. According to Gary Whitmer (1983) resulting from this dilemma the courts adjudicate with a sense of futility, knowing that it is not theShow MoreRelatedSocial Work and the Criminal Justice System1282 Words   |  5 PagesChp. 13 Social Work and the Criminal Justice System Arrest crimes vary by sex. A little more than one fifth of all crimes are committed by women. Younger women, or juvenile women are twice as likely to be arrested. Men are more likely to commit violent crimes. Men commit murder nearly ten times the amount of women. Women commit more property crimes. Men are abandoning women which is making them commit crimes to raise and care for their family. Younger people are more likely to commit crimes. TheRead MoreSolving The Consensus And Conflict Model942 Words   |  4 Pagestextbook â€Å"Criminal Justice Today† the consensus model is defined as a criminal justice perspective that assumes that the system’s components work together harmoniously to achieve the social product we call justice and the conflict model is defined as a criminal justice perspective that assumes that the system’s components function primarily to serve their own interests. According to this theoretical framework, justice is more a product of conflicts among agencies within the system than it is the resultRead MoreThe Australian Criminal Justice System Is Shaped Largely by Our Society. Discuss This Statement.1269 Words   |  6 Pagescriminal justice system is the system the Australian public look to for protection and justice against those that disregard the law but there are mixed opinions from the general public that the justice sys tem is too lenient and that the public opinion isn’t taken into consideration when assessing crime and punishment. In this essay, I will argue that the Australian criminal justice system is in fact shaped largely by our society because if it doesn’t reflect social conscience, the justice system wouldRead MoreThe State Based Justice System1550 Words   |  7 Pagesdeveloped state, crime and social order was maintained through informal social controls, such as ridicule and expulsion. Behaviour was controlled through norms and strong desires to maintain in-group conformity and solidarity. These societies had no centralized agent for formal control. This was known as community justice (Griffiths, 2011, p. 13). As societies developed and evolved, the informal community justice system was replaced by the formal state based justice system. As a result, crime was enforcedRead MoreRestorative Justice And The Justice System1044 Words   |  5 PagesRestorative justice has can be seen to have multiple definitions among the most used are: A) a theory of justice that focuses on repairing the harm caused by criminal behavior and B) an approach of justice that aims to satisfy the needs of the victims and offenders, as well as the entire community. The most broadly accepted definition of restorative justice, however, is a process where all the parties that have equal power in a specific offense and collectively come to a solution on how to deal withRead MoreA Theory Of Justice By Rawls1317 Words   |  6 PagesIn his book ‘A Theory of Justice’, Rawls was dissatisfied with the traditional philosophical arguments about what makes a social institution just and about what justifies political or social actions and policies. The utilitarian argument holds that societies should pursue the greatest good for the greatest number. This argument has a number of problems, including, especially, that it seems to be consistent with the idea of the tyranny of majorities over minorities. The intuitionist argument holdsRead M oreCjhs 430 Week 1 Individual Assignment 2 Essay883 Words   |  4 Pagesï » ¿ Human service workers and criminal justice system Student Name: Instructor: College: Course: Date Human service workers and criminal justice system In the given case there is argument whether human service workers can provide psychotherapy treatment to the people. Because the social workers may have good intention for helping the needy people but at the same time they are not professional in providing psychotherapeutic counseling. The initial issue was that state police officeRead MoreHsm 315 Healthcare701 Words   |  3 PagesWeek 1 – The Concepts of Market Justice and Social Justice James R. Freehahn HSM 315 The American Healthcare System Instructor Dr. Cheryl Chance, PhD. February 27, 2015 The Concepts of Market Justice and Social Justice Introduction In this paper, I will describe the concepts of market justice and social justice, explain how the two principles complement each other and in what way they conflict in delivery of health care in the United States. Secondly, I will discuss how health care isRead MoreSocial Worker And Social Work Essay1076 Words   |  5 Pagesof what social work is. My view of social work was based off of movies that portrayed social workers as individuals who only worked with children. In these movies, the social worker was known as the Child Protective Agent and was called in when a child or children were being mistreated. After taking this course, I now know that my idea of a social worker, although right, was only the tip of an iceberg. The social worker does not only work with children, they work within a large social system that includesRead MoreStructural Functionalism And Structural Theory782 Words   |  4 Pagesbelieve social consensus is what holds society together; social consensus bein g a condition in which most members of the society agree on what would be good for everyone. Structural functionalists view society as a web of social structures, each structure being functional to fulfill it’s own needs, but dependent on all other structures for survival (Vago, 2012). The Criminal Justice system is a working system and can be explained through the eyes of a structural functionalist. It is a system comprised

Welfare Should Not Be Removed Completely - 1721 Words

Welfare should not be removed completely, for some actually need it, but it should be limited to prevent people from abusing the system and cheating taxpayers out of their money. Welfare is a program designed to help people in need, like the poor or the disabled, who want and diligently try to work, but lack the capability to find for a job that pays enough money for them to support themselves and their families. In that way, welfare is a beneficial program. There are people on the other hand who abuse welfare by being non-thrifty and improperly using the money to buy wants for themselves as opposed to needs for their families. So the question is, how to give a helping hand to those in need, but not allow abusers to cheat people in need†¦show more content†¦Perhaps the two biggest products that welfare abusers buy are drugs (like marijuana, cocaine, etc.) and cigarettes. Everyday addicts take their welfare checks that they were given to with the intention of buying necessities for their families like bread and milk, but instead buy addictive content such as drugs and cigarettes. Another way addicts get their hands on their â€Å"wants† is that the addicts will sell their food stamps for money to obtain these addicting products. â€Å"Approximately 20 percent of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) recipients reported having used an illicit drug at least once in the past year.† (Vitter 3). Another way welfare abusers abuse welfare is by improperly investing their money in the wrong places. An example of this is an investment in â€Å"living large equipment† (like cars, big houses, etc.) The money obtained to support the non-working/thrifty man is unfortunately supported by the working man’s tax money. Unfortunately, people who do these perhaps maliciously intended actions have a tenacity to last on welfare for a long time (generations to be specific). If this trend keeps up, then America will be spending 1 million dollars on welfare (which is much more money than is needed to support people who are fairly, valiantly, and legitimately using welfare because those people honestly need the money to support their families and are trying to make a difference. Not all people on welfare are guilty of these foul

CROSSING THE Great Plains Essay Example For Students

CROSSING THE Great Plains Essay The Oregon Trail was an overland emigrant route in the United States from the Missouri River to the Columbia River country, was the way to travel back in the 1840s through the 1860s. In 1843 the Great Emigration began and the west would never be the same after the out set of the travelers. The pioneers by wagon train did not, however, follow any single narrow route. In open country the different trains might spread out over a large area, only to converge again for river crossings, mountain passes. In time many alternate routes also developed. They originated at various places on the Missouri, although Independence were favorite starting points, the routes taken along with the wagon trails are the key points in which made it possible to travel west. Those starting from Independence followed the same route as the Santa Fe Trail for some 40 miles, then traveled to the Platte and generally followed that river to the North Platte and then the South Platte. Crossing the South Platte, the main trail followed the North Platte to Fort Laramie, then to the present Casper, Wyo. and through the mountains by the South Pass to the Colorado River. The travelers then went to Fort Bridger, from which the Mormon Trail continued to the Great Salt Lake, while the Oregon Trail went northwest across a divide to Fort Hall, on the Snake River. The California Trail branched off to the southwest, but the Oregon Trail continued to Fort Boise. From that point the travelers had to make the hard climb over the Blue Mountains. Once those were crossed, paths diverged somewhat; many went to Fort Walla Walla before proceeding down the south bank of the Columbia River, traversing the Columbias gorge where it passes through the Cascade Mountains to the Willamette Valley, where the early settlement centered. The end of the trail shifted as settlement spread. The mountain men were chiefly responsible for making the route known, and Thomas Fitzpatrick and James Bridger were renowned as guides. The first genuine emigrant train was that led by John Bidwell in 1841, half of which went to California, the rest proceeding from Fort Hall to Oregon. The first train of emigrants to reach Oregon was that led by Elijah White in 1842. In 1843 occurred the Great Emigration of more than 900 persons and more than 1,000 head of stock. By 1845 the emigrants reached a total of more than 3,000. Although it took the average train about six months to traverse the 2,000-mile route, the trail was used for many years. Travel gradually declined with the coming of the railroads, and the trail was abandoned in the 1870s. Many trail sites are now preserved in the Oregon National Historic Society. As the people traveled across the Great Plains and into the deserts they had some great obstacles to over come? But what kept them going was the new life they were ready to embark on, and embrace with open arms. All the hard work and effort that the Oregon Trail travelers put in would go down in history with America. BibliographyBibliography1) F. Parkman, The Oregon Trail (1989). 2) Federal Writers Project, The Oregon Trail (1939, repr. 1972). 3) E. Meeker, Story of the Lost Trail of Oregon (1984). 4) J. E. Brown, Oregon Trail Revisited (1988).