Though theoretical, the absence of an appropriate adult during the initial questioning stage might lead to wrong conviction of a suspect or even witness. Mark, 2006, restorative justice looks at the concept of allowing adults presence in a trial of a mentally vulnerable persons or children for that matter. He tries to dissect the implications that the absence of an adult would have or mean for a case involving a mentally vulnerable individual.
The main concern in Mark’s book is the way in which mentally vulnerable criminals with cases of mental vulnerability are viewed by the police. The author describes evidently why such mentally vulnerable criminals deserve more recognition and in the police custody as opposed to what is accorded to them. In most cases these mentally vulnerable criminals also referred to as remedial, basic and/ or poor mentally vulnerable criminals due to the limited opportunity and narrow understanding in them and not because of insufficient skills and intelligence. Social and economic forces have a profound influence on the performance and intelligence of mentally vulnerable mentally vulnerable criminals. According to Rose, the contemporary method of assessing and learning are misused and short sighted especially when dealing with mentally vulnerable criminal.
In relation to the author’s argument, it is evident from my own experience in some criminal cases. The police in some cases do not recognize, leave alone appreciate the presence and according assistance to the mentally vulnerable mentally vulnerable criminals. In most cases, mentally vulnerable criminals have failed to understand what they are questioned in the cells and ended up implicating themselves during the questioning Some give unreliable witness accounts which may eventually lead to false implication of a given suspect. Even a mentally convenient criminal would not perform well if he/she is undergoing through domestic stress in the family, this has failed many mentally vulnerable mentally vulnerable criminals in most courts. When the mentally vulnerable persons are being questioned, especially when they are having other pressing problems they tend to have fear within them. a factor which makes them agree with most of the police’s implications and during court proceedings, they are likely to articulate to a lawyers advantage leading to inaccurate ratio dacidendi. As the author illustrates, the mentally vulnerable mentally vulnerable criminals require an adult’s presence during the questioning to enable for the provision of accurate information in a given case. Due to these arising situations due to the lack of an appropriate adult, Ross provides the best avenue for assistance by bringing in the appropriate adults to help the mentally vulnerable mentally vulnerable criminals or witnesses. The justice system is based on how mentally vulnerable criminals and the adult’s presence introduced to the police for questioning usually impacts on the less mentally vulnerable criminals who needs more attention in order to provide reliable information in the particular case. "More often than not we admit, an absence of an adult is social more than intellectual in origin" (225), this is directly linked with the nature of questioning and testing experience in that most mentally vulnerable criminals retain mental incapacities and hence are not solely reliable for the information they provide to assist in investigation of a particular case. They are often blamed for such mistakes which evidently result from their cultural and social backgrounds.
According to Rose, the best way of addressing disparities in adult’s presence is through one on one contact between the mentally vulnerable criminals and the adults. "Healing possibilities of the teacher-student relationship" (123). Ross(204) states, "so many platitudes about motivation and self-reliance and individualism" The hasty nature of the modern classroom does not provide ample time for instructor to detect social, cultural, and developmental lapses which bar children from finding their literacy potential. When mentally vulnerable criminals are allowed to participate actively, they tend to develop interest in questioning and lose the real idea which is to only provide relevant information and so chances of them succeeding are low. In the normal questioning environment, adults have not had time to devote themselves to mentally vulnerable criminals to understand their the nature of their communication thus how to get information from them. But when the available adult is a relative or close friend for that matter, they tend to easily understand what the mentally vulnerable individual may be trying to communicate. Based on Rose’s adult’s presence theory, the adult should use familiar methods which facilitate active information retrieval where mentally vulnerable criminals answer questions, come up with their own questions, solve problems, discuss, and brainstorm during classes. This is different from the usual interaction where everything is done by the adult. Under this theory, mentally vulnerable criminals are presented with challenges and learn of the nature of the present system. In the normal questioning, mentally vulnerable criminals are not well placed to fully comprehend whatever they would be answering.
Based on adult’s presence theory by Rose, mentally vulnerable criminals are subjected to a significant amount of language through interesting contents. This provides an excellent technique of imparting language skills among underprepared mentally vulnerable criminals who get explored interesting contents and engage in relevant activities that are legal dependency. As stated by Rose (204) “many platitudes about motivation and self-reliance and individualism." Rose’s adult’s presence theory promotes useful information provision that is entrenched with appropriate communication context rather than isolated language fragments. In the obvious police custody, mentally vulnerable criminals are always subjected to regular method of questioning. This minimally impacts on the information provision of the mentally vulnerable criminals as opposed to the technique discussed by Ross.
To help in understanding the dynamics involved in influencing a case, we would have to look at the psychological backing of the same.
0 comments:
Post a Comment