During the course of my criminal and social justice studies, I have come into contact with a variety of information that has shaped my current understanding of the field. While I can certainly say that a large portion of the knowledge is new to me and aligns with the way I understand the world around me, there is also a number of viewpoints that have altered my perspective. I think that the process of education in this field is very fruitful for gaining a fuller outlook on the world, in particular some of the more complicated topics. To give an example, I think I have become far more aware of the effects certain pieces of legislation have on people. When a new law is introduced, it is often explicitly aimed at combatting an important issue. However, the method in which a law can accomplish that goal is varied, depending on the secondary motives of its writers and the complexity of the issue. A case where legislation introduced to combat a specific problem ended up being detrimental to the general wellbeing of the population can be seen in the Anti-Terrorism US laws. After the tragedy that was 9/11, America has drastically altered its course of response to potential threats and taken active action to make sure that an incident such as this would not happen again. The ambition of fighting terrorism was supposed to be fulfilled with the introduction of the Patriot Act which has significantly expanded the ability of government agencies to affect the public. Being pushed as a tool for preventing terrorist attacks, the legislation allowed the police and law enforcement a means of establishing unregulated surveillance of the public, including tapping into people’s phone calls and other communication methods without prior notice (Surveillance Under the USA/PATRIOT Act). The law also allows police officers to conduct secret searches of private property and use private information collected by other organizations.
Before coming in closer contact with social studies and criminology, I was not able to fully understand the impact of this change, and the ways it has gradually affected society. In the past, I thought that any intrusive actions of law enforcement were justified by the threat to public security, and, therefore, necessary and excusable. After conducting further research, however, I was able to understand that the legislation was a major invasion of privacy, an action that has harmed far more individuals than the potential of a terrorist attack could. Many people were held accountable for unrelated charges as a result of anti-terrorism action, and many more were accused of entirely false premises. The introduction of laws such as the PATRIOT Act is what is primarily responsible for the erosion of privacy that society experiences today (Laperruque). The idea of private affairs between people has almost entirely been extinguished. Information is actively collected and analyzed on a daily basis contributing to national registries and databases. The practice not only presents a large security vulnerability but also has a number of negative connotations on the future of criminal justice and law (Surveillance Under the Patriot Act). I was only able to understand the full gravity of the issue after coming to see it in a more academic light, thanks to having a deeper understanding of criminal justice. I think that cases such as this will be especially helpful in considering the positive and negative impacts of legislative action. In my future practice, I want to be able to fully consider the implications of different social changes. The example of the PATRIOT Act is especially useful in this regard, as it stands as a shining example of government legislation being misappropriated.
References
Surveillance Under the USA/PATRIOT Act. American Civil Liberties Union. (n.d.). Web.
Surveillance Under the Patriot Act. American Civil Liberties Union. (n.d.).
Laperruque, J. (n.d.). The History and Future of Mass Metadata Surveillance. Project On Government Oversight.