James Watson
Dr. Hauptman
Criminal Courts
12 November 2014
Assignment #4: Chris Brown
If a regular individual who no ones knows get convicted of beating up his girlfriend, that
individual will be highly frowned upon in society because men physically attacking women is
completely and totally unacceptable to the majority of society. Because of this, that individual would be
prosecuted and punished to the fullest extent of the law. Therefore, when a celebrity is put in the same
situation and they are not punished near as harsh as a regular individual, many will see this as a failure
of the criminal courts system. This is especially true for the situation from a few years ago involving
Chris Brown and his girlfriend at the time Rihanna. Brown pleaded guilty to the charges against him
and ultimately ended up getting out of jail time. The first issue with this is that Brown as a celebrity
should be held to a higher standard because whatever happens in his case will be seen by people all
around the country. The penalties set against Brown were heavily criticized because of the fact that he
was not punished to the fullest extent of the law. The second issue is that the overall punishment in no
way did anything to punish Brown for the crime that occurred. Five years probation and community
service serves no purpose to rehabilitate him for what he did wrong, and it could ultimately be seen as a
forced punishment because of how popular he was. Any other individuals who were in the same
situation would have likely been used to make an example of that men beating women is totally
unacceptable. However, in this case, Brown was merely punished so that the public could see
something was done against him as a celebrity to ensure that people did not think he was receiving
unfair consideration. The ultimate issue with that is that the punishment was so lenient it was
considered a significant dis to the courts system.
