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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This 3 page paper contends that courts should consider the individual circumstances of a case and not operate behind a veil of ignorance. Bibliography lists 2 sources.
Page Count:
3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: AM2_PP676236.doc
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
violence is a very real problem in modern society. While men can be victims of domestic violence, most often the victims are women and children. Indeed, the U.S.
Department of Justice (2005) reported that in 2005 an estimated seventy-three percent of domestic violence victims are women. How we deal with the problem, however, is sometimes highly controversial.
Consider, for example, the real life example presented in the film "The Burning Bed". Francine Hughes killed her husband after having endured thirteen years of abuse at his
hands. Although she confessed to murdering her husband, Francene Hughes was found not guilty by reason of insanity. The intent of this paper is to argue the thesis that
judges and juries are just in considering the individual circumstances of such cases. For them to adopt a "veil of ignorance" when the rights of the community conflicts with
those of an individual would be for them to ignore numerous legal precedents. Philosopher John Rawles, of course, would
likely find fault with the thesis presented above. Rawles held that justice was the outcome of fair contract and that could only be achieved when the contracting parties could
not take advantage of one another. In cases of domestic violence, however, this fair contract simply cannot be present either between the abuser and his victim or between the
victim and the court system. Such cases cannot be fairly tried behind Rawles "veil of ignorance" where the court does not take into account individual circumstances. Indeed, criminal
justice as a whole is something that is almost always weighted according to the specific circumstances of a crime. This is certainly true for murder. When a murderer
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