Remorse is a term used to describe the elements of feeling guilty for doing something that was wrong. It may also be founded on the idea of personal repentance for the actions that have been taken. If a correction is not made at that point, the oppressed group will turn to engaging in a number of actions that will improve their quality of life. Similar to this, various opinions have been drawn regarding the function of criminals' regret in the criminal justice system. Judges will also offer different conclusions about the practice as these instances often happen, based on a particular incident. According to Templar (2012, p. 19), an individual’s rules are subdivided into; themselves, their partners, friends, family, and their social circle. Nevertheless, there is a need for the community to embers legal change as certain crimes in society hardly attains equitable rule in society. A particular group is always considered to be the advantaged thus having a better opportunity of suppressing the minority in society. Therefore, the provision of better leadership in society will help attain a better way of living as the majority in the community have the idea of the procedures that have to be followed to attain justice. This paper will discuss the importance of remorse of legal justice, and the role played by the constitution or indigenous people in society.
Analysis
The reason why remorse became a valuable contemporary for the offenders was that the judges used it to gauge or measure the potential a person had for rehabilitation. People who are remorseful after committing offenses had a high likelihood of being rehabilitated successfully. The consideration of remorse as a mitigation factor is allowed in many judicial systems around the world (Niedermeier et al., 2001, p.20). This is permitted due to the modern policy of criminal punishment. It has four divisions which include deterrence, rehabilitation, Retribution, and incapacitation. Remorse is not just the discomfort a person exhibits after committing offenses. It is also the emotions exhibited and also the cognition about the situation that leads to the emotions. Therefore, understanding the roles of four theories of remorse in the legal system can help in determining the role remorse plays in the constitutional changes (Maroney, T.A., 2006, p, 18).
Importance of Remorse in Legal Change
Remorse is an elaborate exhibition of emotions of an individual. The emotions expressed in this case are merciful, and as a result, a person forgives another individual. It can also be defined as the deep regret for doing a thing that is considered wrong by the society. Remorse plays an important role in the sentencing of criminals and other offenders. When a criminal shows remorse, the judges tend to give him or her minimum sentence. Repentance became a big deal in the 18th century. This was because of the changes that occurred in the judicial system. There was a change from the fixed sentences to indeterminate sentences. Hence, people could use remorse to take advantage if the system and hence be given fewer sentences. The change from the fixed sentences to the indeterminate sentence was due to the changes in the views of the judges. They started to view sentencing as a way of punishing and also reforming an individual. Hence, a person could get a less sentence for a certain crime provided he showed that he regretted committing the offense and that he would not repeat the offenses in the future.
There is a need to focus on an apology to attain a change in the legal processes that are being implemented in the community (Friedman, 2006, p. 3). It will offer a basis for the creation of an alternative way of dispute resolution other than the use of courts. Nevertheless, the role of remorse in judicial proceedings has been addressed in different platforms with the conclusions giving rise to controversial presentations. Remorse can in some means be associated with acts of pornography: in most cases, the public does not know precisely what it is, but they only understand this aspect when they witness the acts. This spontaneous methodology is usually satisfactory in ordinary life when incentives are little and rigor is needless.
However, in the kingdom of criminal law, the assessment of remorse takes on superior consequence. Remorse has often been considered to be an applicable contemplation for the courts, predominantly during the condemning phase of illegal chronicles. (Zhong, 2013, p. 14) Despite the recognition of the lawful significance of remorse, these issues are further complex in individuals with mental illness, whose behavior may hardly offer information to be used in the courts of law. The use of a better way to solve criminal practices will help in the attainment of a sanitized community compared to instances of applying similar approaches of court proceedings (June Price Tangney, 2012, p. 710). Modification in the court proceedings will help in the aspect of minimizing disputes in society. Nevertheless, the instances of emotions and culpability among individuals will act as a stepping stone in rehabilitating. The creation of a juvenile institution various places will act as a scare to the community limiting them from committing a crime. The society will only concentrate in instituting better ways of improving services in the community.
According to the theory of retribution, it further considers the punishment to be an end in itself and not just a way of reducing the harm caused by the offense a person commits. It creates a change in the legal procedures as the public will have an ideology on the approach that will lead to justice (Braham, 2012, p. 199). However, there are two broad divisions of the retribution theory that are often documented by scholars. They are the character-based and act-based retribution. In the fact-based case, the emphasis is placed on giving the offender a punishment that is equivalent to the crime or offense he committed. On the other hand, the character-based retribution does not just focus on punishing the individual for the crime he committed. It also concentrates on the morals of the individual. These include the external conditions, state of mind, and other factors that might have influenced the individual to commit the crime. Therefore, in the character-based retribution, the individual who is remorseful is given less punishment than the individual who has not shown any remorse (Zaibert, 2016, p. 149). The character of a person is important in retribution. Hence, a person who shows genuine remorse is considered to be of good character. A person who has a good character might have made the mistake of committing a certain offense, but this does not mean that he is a bad person. Hence, when he expresses remorse, it becomes easier to reduce the punishment to be imposed on him.
Impact of indigenous people
The indigenous people in society are viewed as the people that have set specific rights based on their historical affiliations in a given territory. However, their unique culture and history is a dominant factor in the majority of the political activities that are being carried out in the country. These classes of people can also be considered as the pioneers of living in a given location and also play a significant role in the drafting of certain solutions (Tate, 2014, p. 4). It is also a complex task of modifying the rules that were being followed by that time. Therefore, scholars interpret the precautions of going against these laws as a bad omen creating the essence of respecting the directives from these leaders. On the other hand, the modification of the law should also be based on the laws that were being implemented by that era. It will play a significant role in identifying the laws that will affect activities in the society (Holmgren, 2012, p. 17). Continuous implementation of bad laws in society will have a direct impact on the future as the entire population will be accustomed to these rights as they grow.
Creation of courts
The models of conflict resolutions that were being used by the indigenous people have a direct impact on the acts of improving legal acts in society. For example, the creation of uniformity of the panels will hardly create harm to the parties as they will all have a chance in expressing their acts to the jury (Schwartz, 2014, p. 46). Furthermore, the community will have limited opportunities of creating chaos during these proceedings, and the jury appropriately makes their presentation. Similarly, concerning the interpretation of the issue of “indigenous peoples,” the comprehensive understanding of the concept is that no ceremonial universal description of the term is necessary. For practical purposes an individual will need to have an understanding of the term commonly accepted is the one provided in the Martinez Cobo study mentioned above.
However, certain cases cannot be influenced by remorse or the previous means of conflict resolution due to their seriousness. These include matters such as multiple homicides, multiple rape cases, and other crimes that have frequently been committed by an individual. Therefore, the judge cannot change the punishment as a result of the remorse shown by the accused in cases like this. The offender cannot rely on the expression been of remorse to reduce his or her sentene3c. It does not make the punishment less harsh. Additionally, research has also shown that the lack of remorse in serious cases like this does not warrant a more stringent punishment (Linder & Levit, 2014, p. 212). Remorse is more useful and meaningful when it comes to minor cases that do not require heavy sentences. This is because the offender can have his sentence reduced slightly for the sake of ensuring that he gets another chance to do the right thing. Punishment should not just be a way of punishing a person for committing a crime, but also making sure that the person is rehabilitated. Therefore, the application of a modern model of correction will help attain an answer by using current means of resolution to solve the current type of conflicts in society.
However, the current legal system should also embrace the previous ways of solving issues in public. The means can also be factored into the current system, thus helping in the ways that the judges can improve their jurisdictions. Some of the modern ways of conflict resolution have differences that will create a delay in attaining justice (Michael Proeve, 2016, p. 46). However, the population should not apply the traditional means of identifying a problem as it may have a direct impact on the religion. Therefore, remorse is an important factor to consider in the legal processes. The expression of remorse by an offender has the potential of leading to a reduction in the punishment that the person is given by a judge or a jury. This is because the show of remorse shows that a person has taken the responsibility of his actions. A person who has taken responsibility for his actions regrets committing the offense, and hence he or she is less likely to repeat the crime in the future. Consequently, remorse leads reduce the punishment. However, it is also clear that remorse sometimes cannot change the impact of the sentence (Smith, 2014, p. 296). There are certain cases that the show of remorse lacks the ability to influence the punishment. These include multiple crimes such as multiple homicides, multiple rape cases, and much more serious
According to the judges, a person who does not show any remorse is more dangerous, sociopaths, and hence he or she is most likely going to commit the crime again. However, it is good to mention that the show of remorse is not a necessity in the legal process. This is because as much as remorse can lead to a reduction of the sentence, a person who is facing specific charges does not have to exhibit remorse (Huang & Bernhardt, 2014, p. 286). According to law, the person who stands accused of committing a crime is perceived to be innocent until proven guilty. Hence, a person cannot be considered to be innocent if he is remorseful. Remorseful people are the ones who have confessed to committing a crime, and hence they are not innocent at all. A person who admits to committing a crime is no longer innocent.
Conclusion
Remorse refers to the aspects of an instance of feeling guilt for an activity that has been wrongly done. It can also be based on the aspect of repentance as an individual over the activities that have been executed. This paper discusses the importance of remorse to legal justice, and the role played by the constitution or indigenous people in society. Remorse is an elaborate exhibition of emotions of an individual. The emotions expressed in this case are merciful, and as a result, a person forgives another individual. It can also be defined as the deep regret for doing a thing that is considered wrong by the society. Remorse plays an essential role in the sentencing of criminals and other offenders. When a criminal shows remorse, the judges tend to give him or her minimum sentence. It can further be concluded that the application of a new legal system in the community will not a direct impact on the president.
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