Caylee’s Law
Introduction
The positions of politicians and media can often affect the assessment of separate cases and laws by society. Thus, it is very important to avoid speculations and abuse for the personal benefit of legislators or channels. This article aims to present the positions of different studies about the role of public institutions in the assessment of Caylee’s case and the legislation of Caylee’s Law. This article aims to define whether the law itself was based on the objective understanding of the causes that led to the tragedy, or it was rather a result of the public speculations.
Summary
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Do You Know Where Your Children Are?
Similar to McElroy, the author of this article discusses the role of government and media networks in the promotion of Caylee’s Law. At the same time, Catrocho (2015) pays particular attention to the limitations of the existing form of the Caylee’s Law. First of all, one of the limitations of the law is the absence of objective means to prove the amount of time that had passed since the disappearance of the child until the moment when the parents or other guardians have appealed to law enforcement agencies (Catrocho, 2015, p. 11). The definition of the age groups for the Caylee’s Law in different states also contributes to the constructive criticism of the law. The general conclusion is that Caylee’s Law is structured in such a way as to protect the children and harm the parents.
Political Rhetoric and Caylee’s Law
In this article, Socia and Brown (2014) discuss the use of political rhetoric about criminal cases as a tool of political influence on society and the state institutions, including the court. They noted that the politicians use the political rhetoric for three basic aims “to help influence voting decisions, as an education tool for the public, and as a way to help courts interpret the law” (Socia & Brown, 2014, p. 352). According to the conclusion of the article, the political rhetoric around Caylee’s case was focused on the demonization of the supposed killer – the girl’s mother (Socia & Brown, 2014, p. 367). At any rate, such a position regarding the role of the mother was only used for the promotion of the legislative changes that were proposed in the form of Caylee’s Law.
The Influence of Media
In this article, Sigillo and Sicafuse (2015) define the role of media in the social assessment of Caylee’s case. Though the role of media was already described briefly in previous articles, a more careful study is necessary to define the role of media in such court cases. According to Sigillo and Sicafuse (2015), rather than providing an objective picture of what happened in Florida, the media aimed to receive the benefits of broadcasting the case that was resonant and attractive to the public (p. 31). The authors present the conclusion that the active role of the media, in this case, had encouraged the society to form a negative attitude towards the case itself and create the conditions for the adoption of the Caylee’s Law. Unfortunately, the legislative actions in the field of child rights protection are based on the speculations rather than the careful study of the case by politicians and the society (Sigillo & Sicafuse, 2015, p. 36). As a result, the quality of legislative decisions may correspond not to the actual state of affairs in the case, but to the image that was created in the media.
Defending the American Jury System
In this article, Dearborn (2011) defines the arguments for the support of the American court system in its decision about Caylee’s case. The main argument of the article is that the existing jury system in the US can reach a more objective assessment of the discussed case compared to the position of the community, which is mainly based on the speculations of the media (Dearborn, 2011). In this way, the existing jury system is believed to be an effective counterweight to the usually totalitarian speculations of the media and serves the protection of the democratic values in the US.
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Critique
The Latest Black Swan
As a critique of the position of McElroy, it is important to highlight that Caylee’s Law itself cannot be considered only as a means of the demagogical response of the government to the needs of society. The terms of the law were based on the specifics of the precedent and were formed to avoid the occurrence of similar cases anytime in the future. Thus, the requirement to give information about the absence or death of a child in the shortest period should contribute to the reduction of the number of children’s deaths. The timely informing of the local authorities can allow the police to find and save the lost child, or collect fresh evidence of the murder in the place of the tragedy.
Do You Know Where Your Children Are?
Though Catrocho is right in his understanding of the limitations and issues of the Caylee’s Law realization in different states of the US, it is necessary to highlight the presence of certain logical mistakes in his conclusion. Here, the main idea is that the problems with the age groups and the required time window occurred not due to the limitations of the law, but as a result of the high autonomy of the separate state legislature in the US. Thus, it can be wise to standardize the requirements of the law for different states, rather than criticize it and avoid constructive propositions.
Political Rhetoric and Caylee’s Law
In their work, Socia and Brown quite effectively demonstrate the process of public humiliation of Caylee’s mother with the means of political rhetoric. According to them, the main difference between this law and earlier legislative acts was focusing not on the danger from strangers, but the threat to children from their next of kin (Socia & Brown, 2014, p. 368). Though such a position seems to correspond to the context of the case, it does not fully describe the actual actions of the state authorities. Caylee’s Law does not only regulate the reduction of the potential threat from the parents to the child.
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Sigillo and Sicafuse provide a quite fair description of the speculative role of media in the court cases such as Caylee’s case. Their main conclusion was that the decisions made based on the community sentiment may bring much harm to the society (Sigillo & Sicafuse, 2015, p. 39). As a critique of this statement, it is possible to say that the absence of adequate response of the state to the community sentiments is also a factor that can reduce the political stability of the state. Thus, it would be more sensible to talk about the reduction of the harmful influence of the media on the public processes rather than speaking about the negative factor of community sentiments in politics.
Defending the American Jury System
The conclusion about the role of the jury system, which was defined by Dearborn (2011) in her article, seems to be quite relevant and sensible. At the same time, it is possible to point out the limitations of her logic in this work. The existence of a disagreement about a certain case or law in society depends on the speculations of the politicians and the media, as was mentioned earlier in this analysis. In this case, it may be wise to highlight the importance of a public broadcast explaining the reasons that led to a certain decision of the juries in the court. The public character of the discussion of the case by the jury’s council can guarantee a reduction of confrontations in society.
Conclusion
The study of different approaches to the estimation of the role of public institutions in the legislation of the Caylee’s Law makes it possible to say that, unfortunately, the community sentiments and the media speculations were primal to the objective assessment of the case in the process of the Caylee’s Law passing. In this situation, it is important to create the conditions for a more objective description of similar cases in the future, define the real causes of similar tragedies, and form truly effective means of public response and prevention.
