Create a new account

It's simple, and free.

The Right to Privacy

No specific right to privacy is formulated in the U. S. Constitution. Yet, various aspects of privacy are touched on in the provisions of the first, fourth, fifth, and other amendments. Privacy issues related to law enforcement would, ordinarily, be worked out over time. But, in the present climate, with an enormous crime rate and the always-current politicizing of drug-related crime, the privacy rights of suspected criminals have become a major issue. Criminal justice approaches to drug crime are preemptive, proactive, and generally guided by the paradigm of a "War on Drugs." In this war, the rights of suspects and defendants are, increasingly, abrogated by law enforcement officials, courts, and legislators who believe that the crime problem is significant enough to warrant setting aside a few personal freedoms. Unfortunately, though this feels intuitively, instinctively, right, it is entirely the wrong approach to take. Despite the undeniable magnitude of drug-related crime, the basic goal of all law enforcement activities is to uphold the law. Setting aside a few rights is a seductive strategy, given the current situation, but to do so is to put into practice a disregard for Constitutional freedoms that is a greater evil than the crimes the strategy is designed to curb.

Over the last few decades, privacy issues have been at the base of some of the most complex law enforcement questions. Search and seizure issues, for example, are all related to the fourth amendment's guarantee of freedom from unreasonable searches or seizure of property. Probable cause and search warrants have, therefore, become standard means of protecting this freedom from unwarranted intrusions in those places where people have the right to expect a certain degree of privacy. In recent years, other privacy issues have become more complex, as technology becomes more sophisticated. First amendment (freedom of speech) and fifth amendment (freedom fr...

Page 1 of 7 Next >

More on The Right to Privacy...

Loading...
APA     MLA     Chicago
The Right to Privacy. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 10:11, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1708104.html