Criminal Justice

Introduction
Debates revolving around the criminal justice system can typically be reduced to a set of arguments that, while their importance and, in some rare debates, the arguments themselves may change, give general guidance asto the factors that must be considered in this style of debate. Debates around the criminal justice system are all topics involving penalties for criminals or changes to practices of the judicial system.

Examples

 * That juvenile criminals get off too lightly
 * That we should punish parents for the crimes of their children
 * That we should introduce the death penalty
 * That we should shut down juvenile detention centres
 * That we should institute mandatory sentencing
 * That we should institute mandatory minimums in sentencing

Cases
''Note: as distinctions between the affirmative and negative are often useless for this type of debate, it has been separated into the side in favour of strengthening laws and the side in favour or relaxing them. This should be fairly easy to determine based on the topic.''

Issues
In this type of debate, a third speaker will usually discuss:
 * Whether the crime deserves punishment
 * Whether the punishment will increase or decrease crime, taking into account its actions as a deterrent and its effects on rehabilitation
 * How it will affect the victims of crime