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Essay / Benefits of Police Discretion - 2422
The term discretion has several meanings: The freedom to decide what should be done in a specific circumstance is a general universal definition. But when it comes to criminal justice and police work, the description changes a bit. The definition of discretion in criminal justice is as follows: Police discretion refers to the power given to a police officer that allows them to decide how best to handle a given situation. The aim is to increase the flexibility of the criminal justice system, as punishment is not always the right approach to dealing with crimes. Discretion can also allow a police officer to overlook a minor offense by giving the offender a warning. But by exercising discretion, the police try not to delay the application of the law by not arresting each person for each small crime they notice. In a sense, much of police discretion rests with officers who decide to what extent the law will be enforced based on how they will be enforced. seriously, they think crime is in the situation. This tends to show that police officers are kind, reasoned people whose judgment is very important when it comes to who gets arrested for a crime and who doesn't, even if the offender and the evidence are well matched. view, like catching someone with a small bag of grass. and just take it off and let them go. Another example would be having a college party and catching underage teenagers drinking, not arresting them and charging them with disorderly conduct and simply allowing them to go home. Discretion is something that must be practiced and exercised. Because police departments don't have enough officers to patrol entire areas, monitor them at all times and make sure there is no crime and it's simply impossible to catch everything . Learning to be in the middle of paper can't be eliminated from a statistical standpoint, because it actually helps balance a lot of things, like the fact that they can't be everywhere and they're understaffed and They can't arrest every Tom and Jerry they see committing any crime. They would flood the system, costing the state money to house the criminals. In conclusion, human nature, the way some officers are raised, they don't want to just go out and arrest everyone they see breaking the law, it's human nature to want and help people, can -be giving them a break, like stopping a woman who is a single mother of two and gets caught speeding to pick up her kids from daycare, a human police officer would just warn her and let her go with a warning in a situation like this, giving this woman a ticket would leave a negative perception of the police by not showing mercy based on her situation