anurag1.2005 said:
Criminal penalties always reflect community standards and expectations EXPLAIN
Hrm..
This is a very broad area to explain..
Obviously you would introduce with something about how the Australian legal system is filled with methods to constantly have the law reform to reflect community standards and expectations. your point of arugment should be that this is to suit the majority of the Australian community's standards/expectations, but obviously some minorities, groups etc may not be happy with particular criminal penalties.
see the section on "criminal penalties" in the syllabus..i.e:
"penalties
- types of penalty: fine, bond, probation order, community service order, home
detention, periodic detention, imprisonment
- penalties no longer available: capital punishment, corporal punishment
- penalties that infringe human rights laws: cruel and unusual punishment (see
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights)"
Now..the good thing about this topic area is that there are crap loads of newspaper articles, current affair programs, case material (and many newspaper articles, current affair progs etc that respond to particular cases) - you need to find some examples of these and show how criminal penalties DON'T always reflect community standards/expectations. again, re-raise your pt of argument that it may reflect in some way, as it is meant to suit the majority..but often it wont yada yada.
You can also raise an interesting discussion on criminal penalties (and the goals while sentencing) available to children, and minority groups such as ATSI people..you can contrast these to the criminal penalties and goals while sentencing to average everyday citizens.
i hope that has been of help!