A Quote by Edna Buchanan

In the criminal justice system you see the worst people on their best behavior, unlike the civil system, where the best people behave at their worst.

Edna Buchanan

Quote Topics

Behave Behavior Best Civil Criminal Justice Criminal Justice System Justice Justice System People See System Unlike Worst

Quote Author

Edna Buchanan
American - Journalist
Born: March 16, 1939

My dad once said that in criminal law you see terrible people on their best behavior; in family law you see great people on their worst behavior.

Laura Wasser

The civil justice system is a backup system when the criminal justice system fails.

Ralph Nader

Black people are dying in this country because we have a criminal justice system which is out of control, a system in which over 50% of young African American kids are unemployed. It is estimated that a black baby born today has a one in four chance of ending up in the criminal justice system.

Bernie Sanders

The American people do not want people thumbing their nose at the law. It undercuts the very fabric of our society and the system of civil justice and of criminal justice as well.

Ernest Istook

Criminal court is where bad people are on their best behavior. It's much more dangerous for lawyers and judges in family court, where good people are at their worst.

Richard Dooling

Policemen and laws can never replace customs, traditions and moral values as a means for regulating human behavior. At best, the police and criminal justice system are the last desperate line of defense for a civilized society. Our increased reliance on laws to regulate behavior is a measure of how uncivilized we’ve become.

D. Todd Christofferson

One in three young African American men is currently under the control of the criminal justice system in prison, in jail, on probation, or on parole - yet mass incarceration tends to be categorized as a criminal justice issue as opposed to a racial justice or civil rights issue (or crisis).

Michelle Alexander

I think our criminal justice system has two problems. We have systematic problems and we have people problems. So if the hearts of people are not about justice than any system you have won't work.

Maya Moore

I see, from my vantage point as the vice-chair of the Legal Services Corporation, a serious crisis going on in this country. Eighty percent of low-income people have no access to the civil justice system, meaning anything but criminal law.

Martha Minow

There's an awful lot about our criminal justice system that is dysfunctional. Everyone who sets foot in a criminal courtroom will see myriad ways the system is dysfunctional.

Chesa Boudin

All we want is justice for John Crawford and everyone responsible for John Crawford's death should be held responsible, the criminal justice system refused to hold those accountable so the civil system must.

Michael Wright

We have got to do a better job recognizing and correcting the errors in the system that do reflect an institutional bias in criminal justice, but what Donald Trump and I are saying is let's not have the reflex of assuming the worst of men and women in law enforcement.

Mike Pence

We have this long history of racism in this country, and as it happens, the criminal justice system has been perhaps the most prominent instrument for administering racism. But the racism doesn't actually come from the criminal justice system.

Ta-Nehisi Coates

My father thought, and now I think too, that the system of democracy is entirely based upon the system of justice. If we do not have a system of justice that people believe in, the system of democracy will fail.

Henning Mankell

Our current criminal justice system has no provision for restorative justice, in which an offender confronts the damage they have done and tries to make it right for the people they have harmed. [...] Instead, our system of "corrections" is about arm's-length revenge and retribution, all day and all night.