Criminal Justice Issues Paper

This first week the assignment was to Define crime, its relationship to the law, and the two most common models of how society determines which acts are criminal, Describe the government structure as it applies to the criminal justice system, Identify choice theories and the their assumptions in regards to crime, Describe the components of the criminal justice system and the criminal justice process, Identify the goals of the criminal justice system.

With the increase of diversity in the country, comes a wide variety of issues facing all sectors. In the criminal justice sector we see issues such as racial profiling, discrimination amongst others.

Criminal Justice Administrators must be analytical and creative while looking at the needs of the people from the public’s perspective. Administrators can use corrective tools to identify objectives to meet and improve on. For example, Visual management allows Criminal Justice Administrators to realize that waste will always be present allowing room to improve performance. Administrators must take time to understand what creates a defect and what creates an opportunity. It is the responsibility of the Administrator to provide opportunities and incentives for employees. This will cause employees to become energized about hearing the voice of the customers. The presence of quality provides an opportunity for all employees to become knowledgeable and involved in meeting the needs of

This following paper is on contemporary challenges for the criminal justice administrator and will focus on the courts area. The major issues and satisfactions of this particular role will be described also. Also the questions of whether or not this course has helped prepare me will be discussed as well.

Criminal justice practitioners are necessary for a civilized society. Without those who form boundaries to our freedom, and the ones that reinforce those laws, our community would be chaos. Some of the main social issues our society faces are drug abuse, gang violence, child abuse, and terrorism. The criminal justice practitioners face these types of issues daily. These professionals must act on the morals and laws stated by society rather than their own opinions, sometimes facing hard decisions. The criminal justice field is always active and busy, dealing with countless amount of criminal activity throughout the country.

For the past 50 years, America’s criminal justice system has encountered several significant changes dealing with courts and policing. According to Marion and Oliver (2006), the historical Supreme Court rulings like Mapp v. Ohio and Miranda v. Arizona mold the way courts and law enforcement handle individuals charged with committing crimes. This paper will discuss the evolution of courts and law enforcement reflects the diverse and changing need for today’s population which is first importance, the urgency for cooperation and communication among criminal justice agencies and law enforcement within the country. Individuals must

Since the beginning of time, the United States’ Criminal Justice System (CJS) has been scrutinized and will continue to be. If significant changes were to occur within the CJS it could potentially take decades. Different persons, institutions, governments, and even departments within governments have different views; it is a natural occurrence. Thus, as with any subject matter, there are always controversies that cause disruption within society. Often, the controversies stem from the lack of understanding and the historical patterns of unsupported data.

Fred is drunk and driving his dad’s car. Fred is a 21 year old student at Columbia College. Fred rams into a parked car at 10th and Rogers. Thinking no one saw him; Fred moves his car and parks it on an adjacent lot. He sprints to his dorm room in Miller Hall. A neighbor saw the wreck and Fred running to the dorm. Police are called and they arrive ten minutes after the wreck. The officers see several empty beer cans and a bottle of tequila (half full) in the front seat. The tags are traced to Fred’s dad, who is called by police. Dad says that Fred is a student at Columbia College. Police run Fred's record and determine that he has two prior DWIs within the past five years. The third DWI in 10 years is a felony. Police contact

A factor that the public don’t take into consideration when judging the justice system is budget and staffing levels. The different arms, although part of the criminal justice system, work independently to serve the community but can be affected by budgeting, staffing levels and space restrictions, in turn affecting public perception. In 2007-2008 approximately 70% (majority of this being salaries) of the justice system expenditure was spent on the police force showing that the majority of the budget is being spent on the investigative arm (Australian Institute of Criminology, 2009). The corrective services sector made up 24% and the criminal courts administration took up a tiny 6% of the budget. There has been a dramatic increase in prisoners which shows that police are apprehending criminals and Judges are providing suitable sentences but prisons are chronically overcrowded (Martin, 2010). The Government listened and announced that new prisons will be constructed, but this would take

Courts play a vital role in the Criminal Justice System in America, however; understanding how the courts work and function is essential. Even the general public should have a basic knowledge regarding the similarities and differences of the jurisdiction and structure of our dual court system – federal and state. In addition, there are ethical and diversity issues that can be experienced by each of the courts that could possibly impact the courts’ functioning.

The importance of analytics and the other requirements on education, info-gathering techniques, and the issues are more complex for criminal justice administrators. For the “new criminal justice” employee, commitment and dedication become questioned, and a career orientation will no longer seem realistic (Rainey 2004). The new criminal justice might be the beginning of the end of appeals to traditional hierarchy as the method of structuring criminal justice organizations. This is a great example of collaboration, Klofas and colleagues (2010) identify the efforts of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) as an example of a community strategy to enlist the assistance and support of many public and private agencies to address serious gun-related crime (Criminal Justice Organizations: Administration and Management). In the new criminal justice technology is one of the main and important parts of it as well.

The criminal justice system is forever adjusting to protect and serve a changing society. The paper evaluates, identifies and assesses recent future and current trends affecting the criminal justice system. Lastly, it defines the values of the system in a changing society.

Throughout the social development of individuals, there are several things that we learn through inclusion and the way in which parents raise us. We learn how to make appropriate social interactions depending on who is in our presence, we learn social expectation, what is considered good behavior, and finally what is considered bad behavior. Yet, awareness of what can constitute as criminal conduct has become increasingly prominent in our culture, especially with the strong presence in social media that it now has. However, what we are often exposed to are adult criminal assailants, and we rarely hear about juvenile, unless they have committed an extreme offense. But it is that last population, the one that we need to focus on, considering that it is them that can move to the extremes; to get blossom under help or to commit an increasing amount of crime.

Different forms of media, such as television, films, books, and newspapers, have similar ways of portraying the criminal justice system. The media constructs representations of crime and justice and in doing this, it presents an often dramatized representation of the criminal justice system; and this does not just influence on the public’s lay view of crime but also for criminal justice experts (Marsh, 2014). In the media it is commonly known that they are a business, and businesses need to make a profit. Because of this, the media’s portrayal of the criminal justice system has been very negative. With the news, their main purpose is to produce what sells. So many of them would edit the information they have gathered and make a story that will sell. Also the media does not show the full process of the criminal justice as a quick process, while in fact it is not. For example, last year, Netflix released a short series called “Making A Murderer”. Most people claimed that they feel like they can solve a crime when they finished watching a series. While that series is very factual, it does not hit every single step of the criminal justice process.

It is through the Criminal Justice System’s close collaborations with like-minded agencies such as the Police, Prison and Courts Services, that the public’s concerns and worries are resolved, in order to bring about justice in our communities (Cavadino and Dignan, 2007 as cited in Fox, 2014). With that in mind and out of the way, this essay will aim to explore some of the strengths and weaknesses, which are prominent within the Criminal Justice System. To do this successfully, the Police and the Courts Service will be the key agencies that will be explored in relation to the key Models that shape the whole Criminal Justice System. These Models were founded by Herbert L. Packer (1968) and Michael King (1981).