This is one of the roles of justice, but it is also one of the reasons why wealthy people are convicted less often. While it often delivered as a narrative of wealth corrupting the system, the reality is that usually what they are buying is the justice that we all should have.
So yes, a judge can let a stupid teenager off on charges of child porn selfies. but without the resources, they are more likely be told by a public defender to cop to a plea.
And those laws with ridiculous outcomes like that are not always accidental. Often they will be deliberate choices made by lawmakers to enact an agenda that they cannot get by direct means. In the case of making children culpable for child porn of themselves, the laws might come about because the direct abstinence legislation they wanted could not be passed, so they need other means to scare horny teens.
From The Truth by Terry Pratchett, with particular emphasis on the book's footnote.
> William’s family and everyone they knew also had a mental map of the city that was divided into parts where you found upstanding citizens, and other parts where you found criminals. It had come a shock to them... no, he corrected himself, it had come as a an affront to learn that [police chief] Vimes operated on a different map. Apparently he'd instructed his men to use the front door when calling on any building, even in broad daylight, when sheer common sense said that they should use the back, just like any other servant. [0]
> [0] William’s class understood that justice was like coal or potatoes. You ordered it when you needed it.
Sure, but I'm not sure how AI would solve any of that.
Any claims of objectivity would be challenged based on how it was trained. Public opinion would confirm its priors as it already does (see accusations of corruption or activism with any judicial decision the mob disagrees with, regardless of any veracity). If there's a human appeals process above it, you've just added an extra layer that doesn't remove the human corruption factor at all.
As for corruption, in my opinion we're reading some right now. Human-in-the-loop AI doesn't have the exponential, world-altering gains that companies like OpenAI need to justify their existence. You only get that if you replace humans completely, which is why they're all shilling science fiction nonsense narratives about nobody having to work. The abstract of this paper leans heavily into that narrative
Oddly enough, Texas passed reform to keep sexting teens from getting prosecuted when: they are both under 18 and less than two years difference in age. It was regarded as a model for other states. It's the only positive thing I have heard of Texas legislating wrt sexuality.
Really? That "model" has the common, but obviously extremely undesirable, feature of criminalizing sexual relationships between students in the same grade that were legal when they formed. How could it be regarded as a model for anyone else?
I think they refer to the fact that, exposed as GP did, looks like there is a loophole if 2 teenagers started their relationship at 17 and 15, and once they become 18 and 16, sexting is suddenly illegal.
Huge IANAL disclaimer, but I don't think it is. It is decriminalizing some of the edge cases where reasonable, and missing the one you mention. That one isn't criminal where it wasn't previously, just unchanged, AFAICT.
I'm not claiming that the text at issue changes whether sexting in that relationship is criminalized, just that it is criminalized,† which should disqualify the law as a piece of model legislation.
It's true in a technical sense that where sexting is legal anyway, the "model" text wouldn't make it illegal, but that isn't an interesting observation, because where sexting is legal anyway, the text has no effects at all.
> it is also one of the reasons why wealthy people are convicted less often.
A teenager posting own photo and getting away with it is massively different then a rich guy raping a girl and getting away with it. Or, rich guy getting away with outright frauds with thousands of victims.
> While it often delivered as a narrative of wealth corrupting the system, the reality is that usually what they are buying is the justice that we all should have.
This is not true. Epstein did not got "justice we all should have". Trump did not got "justice we all should have". People pardoned by Trump did not got "justice we all should have". Wall Street and billionaires are not getting justice we all should have either. All these people are getting impunity and that is not what we all should have.
You're right, it's not a two tier system, it's (at least) a three tier system, where the middle tier is getting the "correct" justice, and the low tier unfavorable and the high tier preferential.
The pardons (the non-purchased ones) were not out of charity to the pardonees but to foster future behavior beneficial to the pardoner.
Whole "democracy" thing is legal framework that wealthy and powerful people built to make safe wealth transfer down the generations possible while giving away as little as possible to average joe.
In a countries without this legal framework its usually free for all fight every time ruling power changes. Not good for preserving capital.
So wealthy having more rights is system working as intended. Not inherently bad thing either as alternative system is whoever best with AK47 having more rights.
>"So wealthy having more rights is system working as intended. Not inherently bad thing either"
Sorry but I do not feel this way. "Not inherently bad thing either" - I think it is maddening and has to be fixed no matter what. You know, wealthy generally do not really do bad in dictatorial regimes either.
> "You know, wealthy generally do not really do bad in dictatorial regimes either."
Until they found dead with unexpected heart attack, their car blow up or they fall out of the window.
In dictatorship vast majority of wealthy people no more than managers of dictators property. Usually with literal golden cages that impossible to sell and transfer.
Once person fall out of favor or stop being useful all their "wealth" just going to be redistributed because it was never theirs.
Who are you defining as "wealthy" here, billionaires? Or anyone with any wealth?
The system does provide protection against wealth because that is what we strive to work hard for our families. It's important that there is a system setup to protect it. Not just for "ruling class" but for everyone who works.
Otherwise we all end up with our own militia to protect it. And I'm not going to enter into any debate about capitalism itself.
So yes, a judge can let a stupid teenager off on charges of child porn selfies. but without the resources, they are more likely be told by a public defender to cop to a plea.
And those laws with ridiculous outcomes like that are not always accidental. Often they will be deliberate choices made by lawmakers to enact an agenda that they cannot get by direct means. In the case of making children culpable for child porn of themselves, the laws might come about because the direct abstinence legislation they wanted could not be passed, so they need other means to scare horny teens.