A Criminologist's Dairy-66

A Criminologist’s Dairy-66

Account Criminology and Criminal Ju...

Criminal Justice Administration JUST LIKE Government business.

“Government business, everybody’s business’.

‘Government business, nobody’s business’-they are probably the words or felt impressions of the common man and they cannot be without any basis. Government businesss takes it own time and its own course. The general public develop such feelings and make such expressions as a result of their felt experiences in transacting business with the Government. The questions here are-

How much is the delay between the registration of a case and the completion 0f investigation of trial etc.? The answer will be shocking to human conscience to admit that the delay can be/may be several years!

What is the delay in the investigation of criminal cases alone? Presently, criminal cases are investigated by unqualified or under- qualified officials, are investigated in a perfunctory manner, are done in a ritualistic manner .Investigations are done by several officials one after another, one agency after another agency, one set of officials after another set so much so that there are criminal cases whose investigation is going on for decades together-even for fifteen or sixteen years of long delay. The expenditure incurred will be something which only human imagination can conceive of.

What about the nature of investigation? The nature will be from total negativity to excessive positivity, from extreme benevolence to extreme atrocity; from extreme indifference to extreme enthusiasm and all depends upon the persons involved and the situations demanding. The Government is a headless entity and precisely therefore, the officials transacting business can do it in “this way or that way” as they decide. Though many say that the law will take its course, the experience proves that any law will take its course depending upon the officials enforcing the law. Even big rivers change their course as some people want them to and if so, the Government business is as the Government wants-as nobody wants and precisely therefore, as the vested interests want it. This may be applicable not only during investigation but also during prosecution, trial and incarceration.

Who is that much interested to administer proper criminal justice? People who are entrusted with the administration of criminal justice look ‘up, down, above, below, beyond, amidst and in between’ to ensure that they are in a safe position and in comfort zones. Accordingly, they manage and manipulate things while they transact business for the Government. Today’s ruling political party becomes tomorrow’s opposition and today’s opposition becomes tomorrow’s ruling political party. Hence the officials are like a pendulum swinging left and right while they transact business for the Government in power. Instances are plenty to show that many officials who transact business for today’s Government are put into extreme trouble and peril by the next Government which comes into power. There are cases of many civil servants being shut in prisons for transacting business for the Government. Thus one sees abuse of power or misuse of authority for self-interest and for the vested interests while the business is transacted for the Government.

This sort of behavior as explained above is seen in all areas of legislative, administrative and judicial functions. Hence transacting business for the Government can or will include commission of several crimes in all descriptions. Thus, in one way, the Government in power becomes the biggest criminal!

A Criminologist's Dairy-65

A Criminlogist’s Dairy-65

Account Criminology and Criminal Ju...

PSYCHOLOGY of JUDGES

‘Offences against women should be tried by women judges’-this is a demand often raised by the Women’s Organizations in India. According to them, woman judges are psychologically better than men judges to administer proper and just justice to offenders who commit crimes against women. In one study, it was found that woman judges who tried rapists were seen to be awarding lesser punishments to rapists than men judges. Why? Judges who had very poor relations with their life partners (husbands or wives as the case might be) were more inclined to grant divorces whereas those who had good relations with their family simply refused to give divorces. They made every attempt to see that rupture did not take place in family life.

Judges are not divinities .They have their weaknesses, frailties which human beings have. They have a past, a developmental period, a personality, an outlook, an attitude, a vision, drives, motives, emotions, education etc. and they have their influence in the psychology of judges and their behavioural dynamics. If a member of the suppressed religious community in India behaves in a particular manner to a member in the upper community, he may have visible or invisible reasons for it. A judge is not an exception and he cannot be so.There are no bias- free judges as everyone has his prejudices and preconceived notions about issues, events and individuals.

A judge is born into a community, brought up in a community and precisely therefore he has his mental script written accordingly. The gown of the judges does not and cannot transfer him totally from that existence to a supernatural existence. He is a man- a human being after all and he behaves exactly like other human beings. His philosophy, affinities,’…ologies”,’…isms’, likes and dislikes affect him a lot to be a judge, to function as a judge. Certainly, his judgments will reflect all those things over which he has little or no control. There is a story about Galileo and the story is as follows. He said that “the earth rounds the sun”. The Church was against his observations as it was different from what the Bible taught. Therefore, he was taken to the Inquisition and the clergy said that he would be pardoned if he just said: “Excuse me, it is the Sun that rounds the earth and not the earth that rounds the Sun as I said earlier”. Galileo was assured of a pardon. Galileo agreed everything and said kneeling to the Inquisition that the Sun rounds the earth and then stood up and faced the people and said: “Yes, it is the earth that rounds the Sun”. Of course he was awarded death as a consequence. Likewise, the conviction in a man has a decisive influence upon his decision sand judgement. The judicial judges are no exceptions to this general rule. Any number of instances are quoted by lawyers to say how a judge would behave if he were to take a decision Nevertheless, they too are amenable or susceptible to influences, introductions and recommendations. The stories of corruption and malpractices among the judicial functionaries are coming out in battalions and therefore, the psychology of judges too is exactly like the psychology of other human beings with strengths and weaknesses. Modifications in their psychology take place just like they take place in other human beings. They are mortals and nothing more and nothing less.

A Criminologist's Dairy-64

A Criminologist’s Dairy-64

Account Criminology and Criminal Ju...

QUALITY OF JUDGES

‘Once a Judge, always a Judge’, ‘Once a Judge, always a just man’- people say so or better believe so. Yes, it only a belief which means “having confidence in the truth, the existence or the reliability of something, although without absolute proof that one is right in doing so”[Webster’s].It is a question of faith in somebody or something. Faith means belief that is not based on proof. Judges are human beings-mortals and precisely therefore, the unquestioned belief or faith in Judges has been without sufficient empirical evidence. The empirical evidence proves that a Judge is not always just and the merit of a Judge is decided by the quality of his judgement and the quality is decided not by the Judge himself but by the people in a democracy.

India had, till recently, no test to enroll oneself as a lawyer. Once, a person is enrolled as an Advocate, he becomes eligible to become a judge if he is selected or appointed. The selection process does not have any objective test to assess the personality or aptitude of those entering into judicial positions as magistrates, munsiffs or judges. Allegations are plenty-open and otherwise-that people who are not qualified have entered into the judicial service- even to the higher levels. Of late, there have been many allegations of corruption and malpractices against judges of the higher and highest judiciary. Some of the judges and judicial functionaries of lower service have been detected as people of little or no integrity and their judgments have been found to be qualitatively inferior.

In USA, once a study was conducted to know the justness of white judges to the black. The result of the study has been shocking or far away from being satisfactory. In India, no such serious studies have been conducted to know the quality of judges and the same of the judgements pronounced by them. Nevertheless, the judges of the superior courts, Supreme Court of India, retired judges/chief justices and so on from time and again, speak loudly that a specified percentage of the judges (One Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India said that 20% of the judicial officials in a public address at Kollam in Kerala State) are corrupt, are people of questionable integrity, honesty, fairness and justness. Why do they become so? The reasons are many and various. Some of them are-

(1) They become susceptible to the influence and recommendations.

(2) They become a spatula of politicians who offer them positions and postings.

(3) They become corrupt and people of no moral values.

(4) They become the nexus partners of crime syndicates and white collar criminals.

(5) They become friendly with corrupt lawyers and other affluent/influential people.

(6) They suffer from lack of knowledge in law and other sciences.

(7) They suffer from psychological problems, affinities, prejudices, pre-conceived ideas and parochial loyalties.

The list can be very long. Now attempts are made to rectify the defects, but it may take time.

A Criminologist's Dairy-63

A Criminologist’s Dairy-63

Account Criminology and Criminal Ju...

SCALE to award PUNISHMENTS

What is the scale to award punishment? Bentham and Beccaaria suggested that the severity of punishments should be proportionate to the gravity of the offence committed. Perhaps, this idea had its origin in St Thomas Aquinas, a catholic theologian who proposed a similar scale for the award of punishment to the sinners after their death and it was done during the 13^th century or so. Accordingly, those who committed mortal sins were entitled to get ‘HELL’ after death and those who committed venial sins would receive purgatory after their death. The days which must be spent in purgatory for purification of the soul after death depended on the gravity of the venial sin committed. The classification of crimes as cognizable and non-cognizable under the Indian law had its roots in the classification of sins by St. Thomas Aquinas. Non-cognizable crimes are of less serious than the cognizable crimes like the venial sins and mortal sins in Catholic theology.

When Bentham and Beccaria suggested the scale basing on the hedonistic calculus, the objective of punishment was not even ‘incapacitating’ as seen in the Indian Penal Code-1860.When Macaulay framed the Indian Penal Code, he prescribed imprisonment for almost all crimes and the imprisonment was punitive in nature. Of course, it changed into peno-correctional and later to correctional and still later to correction, reformation, rehabilitation, resocialization and reintegration to society back. The latest approach is ‘to the development of human personality in an upright way in the right direction’ The questions that arise now are-

(1) Are the Thomist and Benthan-Beccaaria scales relevant today to award punishments?

(2) What is the criterion by virtue of which the gravity of crime is decided by the Judge?

(3) What is the purpose of punishment? If the objective is to develop human personality in an upright way in the right direction, then how must a Judge decide the severity of punishment?

(4) If the crime doer has not developed his personality in an upright way in the right direction during his jail sentence, what is the liability of the Judge awarding the punishment? What is the responsibility of the prison staff for the failure of their mission?

(5) Are the Judges and the jail staff competent enough and qualitatively up to date to award the punishment and to attain the objective of the punishment? If not, what are the factors responsible for the failure?

Questions are many and the answers are nil. In fact, there exists no scientific criterion or scale to award punishments to crime doers. There exists no diagnosis of the crime and the crime-doer. And what is done today is a sort of ADHOCHISM or AVANAVANISM (i.e., arbitrarily deciding the punishment as the Judge feels or likes) in administration of justice. It needs discussion today extensively.

A Criminologist's Dairy-62

A Criminologist’s Dairy-62

Account Criminology and Criminal Ju...

LESS JUSTICE Administration

I wrote a book titled THE JUSTICE LESS ADMINISTERED and I wrote in it what was meant by LESS JUSTICE. I do not want to say that it is ‘duplicate justice’ or ‘fake justice’ or ‘adulterated justice ‘or ‘injustice’. It is not ‘wounded justice’, not ‘miscarriage of justice’, not ‘perverted justice’, is not ‘decayed justice’, not ‘injustice’ at all and that is all!

‘Full justice ‘means 100% justice. Any justice less than 100% justice is called rightly LESS JUSTICE.

Make an analysis of the following situations-

(1) Commission of crime was taken note of police, but they took an indifferent attitude or they closed their eyes. Pressures exerted and then a case was registered.

(2) Commission of crime was reported to police, but they took a negative attitude. Influence was exerted and then a case was registered. There was undue delay in the registration of the case.

(3) A case was registered, no further steps were taken seriously to protect the scene of crime, inspect the scene of crime and collect evidence. Political force was exerted and then necessary steps were taken.

(4) Inspection of the scene of crime was done in a perfunctory manner by unqualified or under-qualified police officials. Resultantly, contamination of evidence took place without any malicious motives.

(5) Evidence collected from the scene of crime was not sent for forensic examination; was sent but in an unscientific way. There was contamination of evidence and the test results were far way from being satisfactory.

(6) Many people were unnecessarily questioned and harassed. A few people were arrested and interrogated by unqualified or under-qualified police officials. Witnesses were interviewed in an unbecoming way by investigating officials. Third degree methods were used for getting confessions and torture was resorted to for getting information.

(7) Search was conducted at odd hours even by intruding into the privacies of, seizures were made in an untrustworthy manner, property plundered and not included in the search list, false witnesses were produced.

(8) Overenthusiasm and extra-sense of justice made the police to concoct evidence, to produce tutored witnesses and manipulate records.

(9) The prosecutors conducted the case in an indifferent way or with overenthusiasm and extra-interest or with false witnesses or with fake evidence etc.

(10)The judges were partial, prejudiced, parochial and unjust with preconceived theories, bias and prejudices. They had a defective development of personality and perverted attitudes and outlook. They wrote the judgments accordingly.

(11)The prisons were punitive institutions and thus one sees administration of ‘something’ which is’ less than justice’ and one may call it ANYTHING but not justice proper! This is called LESS JUSTICE.