Abstract
This proposal is going to explore the involvement of victims in criminal law. Under this discussion the analysis will be centered on the law process between international law and Islamic law. An in-depth analysis of this report has been widely explored under the following paragraphs. This is done with the aim of establishing the reason behind the involvement of the victims in this crucial process.
Introduction
Victims under the criminal law should be fairly treated and their rights should not be violated since such violations have been discouraged under the international law. Besides, the Islamic law supports this same argument that the violations on human rights should be prohibited in all regions across the globe. Therefore, it is important to realize that the Muslims have no exceptions to laws pertaining crime.
In essence, the international law provides some guiding rules on how to mitigate crimes as well as making sure that the victims under the criminal law process and given fair trials and justice. Therefore, for efficiency to prevail in the criminal law process, both the Islamic law and the international laws should be harmonized for the purposes of consistency (Nahal 63). Under this proposal, the Islamic law should be designed in such a way that it includes particular legal provisions, which are pertinent to the international law. These provisions are important when they are designed in such a way that they respond to crime specifics and are designed in conformity to the legal structures of a particular state. These specifics are instrumental in designing the criminal law process, owing to the fact that “both the legal systems as well as the legal traditions, which are eminent in several Muslim nations, are pegged on Islamic law” (Bales and Becky 49). This makes the study on involvement of victims in criminal law process between international law and Islamic a very crucial exercise. The victims ought to be involved in the process, especially on the Islamic law so as to enable them to understand the position of Islam on crimes (Bravo 74). Besides, the victims will be in the best position to understand criminal acts as well as their related elements, which are very crucial in the design and implementation of legal avenues under both the Islamic and the international laws (Baher 76). The following analysis provides some insightful information regarding this problem of study.
Rationale
The choice of this research problem of legal study is crucial and relevant to the current judicial system and legal processes. This is essential in the sense that many legal scholars have argued for the inclusion of the victims in the criminal law process (Cappalli 57).
Problem description
The practice of involving the victims in the criminal law process is necessary because it helps the concerned parties to understand and follow the entire court proceedings on a specific crime. This will enable the victims to be in a position of knowing whether justice has actually been followed through the proceedings. During such proceedings the presiding judge on the criminal case might involve the use of the interpreters, who would help the victims (Bernstorff 47). The interpreters are essential in such legal processes due to the fact that certain victims might not be in a position to understand the kind of language used by the presiding judge. This legal process should involve the victims, who could as well hire counsel to represent them in the criminal case (Elewa 64).
Hypothesis
This section of the report is going to present two different types of hypotheses, that is, the null hypothesis and the alternative hypothesis. These hypotheses can be stated under the following paragraphs.
- Null hypothesis (Ho): victims should not be involved in criminal process between Islamic and Muslim law.
- Alternative hypothesis (H1): victims should be involved in criminal processes between Islamic and Muslim law.
Literature review
Bales and Robins revealed that in the criminal justice system, a lot of changes have been witnessed (47). For example, the implementation of the US Patriot Act and the Department of the Homeland Security (DHS) that has greatly transformed the face of the criminal justice system, which favored the involvement of the victims in the criminal process. Kathryn found out that, in October 2011, the US patriotic act, which has since then signed into law, greatly affected the individual citizen’s rights as a result of the big inputs made by the authority of the law enforcement agency (Kathryn 39). As a result of the establishment of the department of the homeland security act that was initiated by the former governor of the Pennsylvania. Cappalli reported that Tom Ridge led the formations of the new organizations, which include transport security administration that is mandated to run all the security issues in the United States airport to counter threats of terrorism attacks (Cappalli 57). This come hand –in-hand with the increased surveillance in and around the airport to combat acts of crime.
Emergency response services and effective communication systems have been improved to promote the communication systems among the criminal law processes. This facilitates a proper response to react swiftly. Across the country, the criminal law processes have embarked on training programs that would help in averting the criminal attacks, which lead to many legal processes on crimes (William 63). The national commission on terrorist attack, a branch of the law enforcement agency was established after the bombing (Bravo 54). The agency helps in sharing information, logistical and military support to combat criminal acts. Efficiency amongst the criminal law processes has also been promoted through training and working together of the federal agencies.
The changes can be said to have been positive over time because the federal criminal law processes has been able to keep at bay the activities of terrorists away from the soils of the United States. Notable is the “Justice” that has been met by those who lost their loved ones, and the victims who were compensated (Cappalli 79). Activities of the criminal law processes have seen perpetrators of the terrorism and those who executed them being identified. The biggest achievement is the recent killing of the top leader of the Al-Qaeda terror network whose organization had claimed responsibility of the attacks. Some other members of the terror group have also been brought to justice to face the full force of the law. This forms a significant step and achievement in the justice system (Cammack 63).
According to Adolphe, the changes in the criminal justice system are very necessary, an idea supported by many analyst of the criminal justice system (56). This has made it easy to deal with the devastating effects of the criminal activities. Adolphe claimed that the attacks brought about fears among the citizens of the United States (Adolphe 57). The crimes caused massive loss of life and property, thus giving rise to many victims who ought to be engaged in the criminal legal process. Many people were severely affected since they lost very vital body organs, children were left orphans and the national pride of the country was greatly affected. The fact that these changes have yielded positive results is a subject of debate. Therefore, the federal criminal law processes cannot be blamed for these changes in the criminal justice system. The law enforcing agencies have done the best they can to prevent crimes in the country (Adolphe 72). One cannot argue that these particular changes were met by any negative responses from the professionals in this field. The truth is that some quotas were not fully scarified with the changes in the criminal legal system, arguing that either they were not sufficient or not effective. Contrary to this fact, many professionals agree that these particular changes were in the best interest of the innocent people, that is, they were adopted in the search for justice and should be supported (Adolphe 86).
On the other hand, some few members of the public echoed their concern about the crimes affecting the victims, and such changes would pose a big economic challenge to them in terms of taxes. However, majority of the people were behind the involvement of the victims in the criminal law process by giving their full support because they felt that such changes were very crucial to protect the land and citizens of the United States and other people from another devastating terrorist attacks and also to foster justice for the victims. Therefore, one can be attempted to say that these changes had a better support of the professionals and the public in the involvement of the victims in the criminal process as a means of facilitating justices (Adolphe 63). The criminal law process attempted to seek the support of everyone on board under the Islamic and international laws. Therefore, there is need to embark on legal education of the public on how these new changes were going to be effected and become effectively successful in the execution of the criminal law process. The criminal law enforcers also had to convince the public the victims must to be protected at whatever cost (Adolphe 76).
Research methodology
In carrying out this study several researches design methods were appropriate, but it was convenient to use structured questionnaire and personal telephone interview. Additionally, random and stratified sampling methods were adopted in identifying the sampling units during the study. The samples taken were various individuals with the intention of evaluating the interests of involving the victims under the criminal process between the international law and the Islamic law. Various data were collected and compiled for statistical analysis on this problem.
Schedule of Activities
On the day of research, the researcher is scheduled to sample the population into manageable strata, and then distribute the structured questionnaires to each stratum. The sampling of the population and distribution of the questionnaire will take approximately three hours. After distributing the questionnaire, the researcher will conduct interviews to the selected persons. The interview will last for about three hours. Once the researcher is through with the interviews, he will collect the duly completed questionnaire within 45 minutes, and settle to do the analysis. During analysis, the researcher will use the qualitative and quantitative data obtained, to make comparison and come up with the recommendation to arrest the capital financial crisis facing the small businesses in Saudi Arabia (Askin 96). The analysis and outlining the recommendations are expected to last for two days. A summary of the schedules and timeframe are as below.
Hypothesis Testing
The analysis of the hypotheses above can be shown by the following calculations.
Z = (p-hat – p) / sqrt (pq/n)
Where: n = total sample size of interviewed on the involvement of victims in the criminal process between international law and Islamic law. The following data were assumed for this statistical analysis on the research problem explored above.
- P- hat = p-value divided by total sample size
- P = p-value of the sample
- q = beta value of the sample size
Therefore, n = (51,318 + 37,888) = 89, 206
- P = 51,318
- q = 37,888
- P –hat = 51,318/89,206 = 0.575
Proportion on q = 37,888/89,206 = 0.42
Proportion of p = 1 – 0. 42 = 0.58
- pq/n = 0.58*0.42/89,206 = 2.73
Square root of pq/n = sqrt 2.73 = 0.00165
- P-hat – p = 0.575 – 0.58 = – 0.005
Hence, z = -0.005/0.00165 = -3.03 (ignore the negative sign)
Therefore, the calculated Z = 3.03
Hypothesis Validation
This can be done by comparing the calculated z-value with the tabulated z-value, and since the tabulated z-value is not given, there is need to calculate it.
- Tabulated z-value calculated
- Significance level = 0.01
- Assuming a two-tailed test
- Therefore, alpha = 0.01/2 = 0.005
- Using the normal distribution curve, the tabulated Z-value (0.5– 0.005)
- Z (0.495) = 2.575
In this case the calculated z-value (3.03) is more than the z-tabulated value (2.575), thus the null hypothesis should be rejected, thus leading to the acceptance of the alternative hypothesis that states it is important for the victims to be engaged under the criminal law process between the Islamic and the International law.
Voluntary response sample would best describe the sample. The voluntary response sample, involves people who choose for themselves issues to respond to the issue on the involvement of the victims in the criminal law process , especially the general appeal. In fact, voluntary response samples allow people to voluntarily voice their opinions regarding this research problem. In this case, the respondents were asked about whether they support the involvement of the victims in the criminal process, and individual person had a choice to respond to the question.
Focusing on the sampling method employed in this analysis, the hypothesis test used might not appear to be valid due to the voluntary response sample bias. The sampling method is regarded as bias because people who have strong opinions might negatively influence the response, especially those people with negative opinions (Bassiouni and Badr 57).
The choice of sampling method is the most important aspect on any survey research. Even if the study has been properly done, if the sampling method is poor, then the results from the survey cannot be taken as correct. Though, large sample size is essentially good for studying a larger population since it is more representative in nature than a small sample size, but it cannot compensate for a poor sampling method. In addition, very large sample size has some limitations in the sense that it is difficult to know the respondents’ representative about the population under study (Amna 57). In fact, a poor sampling method with extremely large sample size does not enable the researcher to know the characteristic of the population studied.
Analysis of Data from the findings
The following tabulated data were gathered for this reserach findings.
From the previous analysis, the beta-values were presented as follows:
The presentation of the above beta analysis is shown below:
Moreover, the findings on the p-values obtained were analyzed as follows.
Results/Findings
The statistical findings from this report ascertain that that it is crucial to involve victims in the criminal law processes between the internal law and the Islamic law. Such statistical findings on the research problem have been backed by the adoption of the alternative, which advocated for the involvement of the victims under the criminal law process (Adraansen 46).
Recommendation and conclusion
From this research proposal, it can be recommended that the victims should be involved under the criminal process between the Islamic law and the international law. Though, the Muslims might hold a different view on the international law, it is important to harmonize the two in order to facilitate the process towards attaining justice in the court system. The victims’ involvement and participation in the whole process will make them feel satisfied that their interests have been well presented for the sake of justice.
Works Cited
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