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Death Penalty: Australia and Malaysia Jurisdiction Regarding the Use of Drugs

发布时间:2017-03-22
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Death Penalty: Australia and Malaysia Jurisdiction Regarding the Use of Drugs

Introduction

Society has always depended on its established laws along with its punishments to achieve order and peace in the society. Within the list of punishments, the idea of using capital punishment to punish criminal has been quite a controversial topic. Capital punishment is known to be the most serious form of punishment to deter crimes and to uphold justice (Leechaianan & Longmire, 2013). Its existence has also caused political tensions between countries that upholds this form of punishment and countries that have abolished capital punishment (Keally, 2007).

For many countries, this form of punishment has been a norm for many centuries within numerous jurisdictions, it is reserved for the most dangerous crimes and a means to ensure that its society is totally free from any dangerous criminals (Leechaianan & Longmire, 2013).Nevertheless, the capital punishment over the years has been seen as a crime against humanity by many human rights organizations, the outcry from these groups has caused the validity of capital punishment in all jurisdiction to be questioned (Amnesty International, 2014). Many countries, including Australia have abolished using the death penalty practice as a form of punishment (Potas & John, 2012). Malaysia, on the other hand, still have laws regarding thecapital punishment (Amnesty International, 2014).

This essay aims to complete a comparative case study of crime and justice, by comparing the similarities and differences of crime control mechanisms with its crime trends for the use of drugs between Australia and Malaysia jurisdiction. This essay will also explore mainly on the idea of using the death penalty as a form of crime control, to decide if it is a just form of punishment, and if the death penalty should be abolished.

Objectives

  1. The objectives of this essay is to first, compare the jurisdiction between both Australia and Malaysia, in order to find out how each nation deals with criminal who are guilty of trafficking drugs or using drugs.
  2. Malaysia claims that the use of capital punishment is reasonable because it aids with the deterrence of drug use (Leechaianan & Longmire, 2013). The second objective is to explore the drug use trend between both Australia and Malaysia in order to find out if using the death penalty as a form of crime control is a valid reason.
  3. Lastly, this essay will discuss if the death penalty should be abolished.

Methods

The appropriate choice of data which will be used to assess the trend of drug crimes in Malaysia is the annual government report from the Malaysia Ministry of Home Affairs (2013) and a report of substance abuse from the Malaysia National Institutes of Health (2013); which archives the national database on drug abuse in Malaysia.

The appropriate choice of data which will be used to assess the trend of drug crimes in Australia will the annual government facts and figures report from the Australian Institute of Criminology (2013), a Drug Use among Police Detainees report from Australian Institute of Criminology (2012) and an Illicit Drug Data Report from the Australian Crime Commission (2014) which maintains the drug crime rate database of Australia. Data collected by the Amnesty International (2014) will be used as it has the number of death sentences and executions rate of Malaysia.

There are however limitations to these data collected which will be used in this comparative study. Issues such as the effectiveness of comparability between jurisdictions as the data collected by agencies from Australia and Malaysia, which have both very different social culture from each other. Moreover, the unit of measurement is not the same for all the data collected. For instance, the some courts may archive each case as an individual level, however police services archive the details of each offence.

Additionally, some agencies label and grouped their data by year, hence the precise period of time will differ between agencies. For example, some agencies uses the financial year which starts from July 1 till June 30 of the subsequent year, on the other hand some uses the calendar year which starts from January till December of the same year.

Lastly, it is possible that there might be a lack of transparency accompanying the amount of data being shared or even to downplay certain records for reasons such as: to avoid the limelight of the public, evade any chance of public scrutiny or to uphold any form of reputation.

Settings

Australian

With over 7.68 million square kilometers, the Commonwealth of Australia have a population of about 21 million, Australia is a democratic and multicultural country with a strong economy status (National Gallery of Australia, 2013). As a federal parliamentary democracy, Australia consist of six states: Western Australia, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland; and two territories: Northern Territory and Capital Territory (Leeming, 2012). Each of them have its own criminal laws, prisons, juvenile institutions, courts, police services and other correction facilities (Leeming, 2012). Additionally, the Australia government also creates their own laws which can apply to all its jurisdictions (Leeming, 2012).

Table 1: Illicit drug arrest in Australia from 2004 to 2014

Source: (Australian Crime Commission, 2014)

Table 2: Drug seizures in Australia from 2004 to 2014

Source: (Australian Crime Commission, 2014)

Table 3: Proportion of Australian population aged 14 years or older reported for drug use from 1993 to 2013

Source: (Australian Institute of Criminology, 2013)

Malaysia

Located in the Southeast Asia with about 30 million people, the nation of Malaysia consist of 3 federal territories and 13 states with a land size of about 329,850 square kilometers (Stanton, Ramsamy, Seybolt, & Elliott, 2012). They make it a point to enforce the capital punishment to any citizen or foreigner guilty of murder, offences against the person of a Ruler, taking hostage, having any possession of firearms, for discharging a firearm during crimes even if nobody is injured and for trafficking specific quantity of drugs (United Nations, 2014).

Table 4: Quantity of narcotics that initiates the mandatory death penalty in Malaysia

Source: (Malaysia Ministry of Home Affairs, 2013)

Table 5: Seizures of drugs in Malaysia from 2004 to 2012

Source: (Malaysia Ministry of Home Affairs, 2013)

Table 6: Arrested for opiate and cannabis related drug use from 2006 – 2012

Source: (Malaysia National Institutes of Health, 2013)

Table 7: Arrested for Dangerous Drug: Party drugs related use from 2006 – 2012

Source: (Malaysia National Institutes of Health, 2013)

Table 8: Arrested for Heroin and Amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) abuse in Malaysia

Source: (Malaysia National Institutes of Health, 2013)

Brief Description

In 1973, the Australian government have abolished the capital punishment for all states and territories, with Queensland being first to abolish in 1922 and New South Wales the last state to abolish in 1985 (Roth, 2011). The first state execution took place at Sydney on February 27th, 1788; Thomas Barrett was found guilty for stealing food from some public stores and he was hanged (Roth, 2011). In 1967, the last criminal in Australia executed was Ronald Ryan; he shot a prison guard while trying to escape prison, he was found guilty and was hanged (Roth, 2011). Australia is one of the 140 countries around the world that have abolished the capital punishment (Amnesty International, 2014). Australian policy against drug emphases on the partnerships between health services, law enforcement, government sectors, education system and along with the criminal justice sector to reduce drug crimes (Australian Institute of Criminology, 2012). Additional vital groups that aids to this harmonized tactic include the media industry and local community centers; such collaboration between health services, education system in schools and law enforcement have been known as the crucial link for Australia's drug policy (Australian Institute of Criminology, 2012).

Malaysia have been using the death penalty as a means of crime control for the most serious crimes and regard drug use as threat to society, hence very strict laws have been implemented against drug use and drug trafficking in the jurisdiction (Miin, Guru, & Mohammad, 2012). Despite such strict regulation, the drug crimes in Malaysia continue to show no observable sign of slowing down. Since 1960, Malaysia had sent more than 440 people on death row as means of crime control, yet the rising demand drugs have caused the accessibility of heroin to increased (International Narcotics Control Board, 2004). In the year 2013, Malaysia executed 78 individuals (Amnesty International, 2014).

Results

In Australia, there has been approximately 113,000 arrest for illicit drug use in the year 2013 and 2014. According to Table 1, the ATS arrests in Australia has increased in 2013 and 2014 which amounts to 23.4 per cent, drug arrest from cannabis continues to be the largest proportion of illicit drug. Furthermore, the amount of heroin arrests in Table 1 accounts to 2.5 per cent in that reporting period, however there has been a gradual declined by 16.4 per cent from the year 2004. The overall drug seizures made in Australia in Table 2 has been increasing slowly since the year 2004, with cannabis drugs accounting to the largest number of seizures. Furthermore, in the year 2013 to 2014, the heroin seizures in Australia account to 2.9 per cent, which is a rise from 1.9 per cent decade low reported in the year 2012 and 2013. There has not been much changes for the use of meth/amphetamine over the year since 1993 to 2013 according to Table 3, which remains at around 2.1 per cent. There is however a significantly declined of heroin use in the year 2010 from 0.2 per cent to 0.1 per cent in the year 2013, this was the first decrease accounted for since 2001.

In Malaysia, there appears to be an increase of drug seizures, especially the increase of heroin drug which initiates the mandatory death penalty in Malaysia. Table 5 shows that from 2004 to 2010, the yearly seizures for heroin drug increased to around 22 per cent. However, from 2010 to 2011, heroin seizures have drastically doubled. The number of police arrest in Table 6 refers to cannabis and opiate use in Malaysia, between 2008 and 2010, there has been a rise of about 20,000 arrests followed by a decline from the year 2010. Table 7 displays the number of arrests made for using dangerous drug to be increasing, the individuals that have been arrested were tested positive for using dangerous drugs such are ecstasy, ketamine and ATS. There has been almost a fourfold increase of arrest made related to dangerous drug crimes in Malaysia from 2006 to 2012. Although the death penalty will be imposed on users of heroin, the surge of drug users is still very noticeable in the timeline of Table 8, displaying the arrests made for illicit use of ATS and heroin demonstrating a steady increase of people initiating heroin use since the beginning of late 1960s.

Conclusion

The drug crimes in Australia have been increasing slightly since 2004. In order to reduce its drug crimes, Australia have chosen a more humane way of creating policies which aims to reform the community instead of executing the criminals. Australia have emphasized that the crucial link for Australia's drug policy against crime to work; is when health services, media industry, schools and law enforcement working together to create an environment which shapes a drug free community.

Malaysia have been using the death penalty along with many other nations in Asia (Amnesty International, 2014). Even though the capital punishment offences need the prosecutors to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the offender is guilty, it can never promise the assurance that the judgement is made without any human error. Additionally, Malaysia claims that death penalty is necessary to deter crimes, but from the results above, there is still clearly an increase of drug crimes arising.

This essay determines that the capital punishment is a disproportionate to the severity of drug-related crimes for the following reasons: (1) the claim that trafficking of drugs is among the most serious crimes is debatable as the nature of the crime does not result in the kind of outcome e.g. how loss of life homicide could produce; (2) the quantity of each drugs resulting the death penalty differs from other countries e.g. Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand; and (3) there will always be a risk of wrongful conviction due to human error when using a capital punishment.

References

Amnesty International. (2014). Death Sentences And Executions. United Kingdom: International Secretariat.

Australian Crime Commission. (2014). Illicit Drug Data Report 2013–14. Canberra: Australian Crime Commission.

Australian Institute of Criminology. (2012). Drug use monitoring in Australia. Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology.

Australian Institute of Criminology. (2013). Australian crime: Facts & figures. Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology.

Hood, R. (2013). The Death Penalty in Malaysia. London: The Death Penalty Project.

International Narcotics Control Board. (2004). Report of the International Narcotics Control Board for 2004. Austria: International Narcotics Control Board.

Keally, M. (2007). Punishment and political order. Michigan: University of Michigan Press.

Leechaianan, Y., & Longmire, D. (2013). The Use of the Death Penalty for Drug Trafficking in the United States, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand: A Comparative Legal Analysis. Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, 115–149.

Leeming, M. (2012). Authority to decide: the law of jurisdiction in Australia. New South Wales: Federation Press.

Malaysia Ministry of Home Affairs. (2013). Malaysia Country Progress Report of Drug Contrrol. Malaysia: Prisons, Anti-Drugs & Civil Defence Division.

Malaysia National Institutes of Health. (2013). Substance Abuse and the HIV Situation in Malaysia. Malaysia: Ministry of Health.

Miin, Y., Guru, D., & Mohammad, N. (2012). Capital Punishment in Malaysia and Globally: "A tool for justice or a weapon against humanity". Legal Network Series, 1-23.

National Gallery of Australia. (2013). Australia. London: Royal Academy of Arts.

Potas, I., & John, W. (2012). Capital punishment. Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology.

Roth, M. (2011). Crime and punishment: a history of the criminal justice system. California: Cengage Learning.

Stanton, A., Ramsamy, E., Seybolt, P., & Elliott, C. (2012). Malaysia: 1900 to Present: East and Southeast Asia. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, Inc.

United Nations. (2014). Moving Away from the Death Penalty: Arguments, Trends and Perspectives. New York: United Nations Human Rights.

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