Criminal Justice Levels

The federal government helps tremendously when it comes to the United State fighting crime. Providing funds to police agencies makes and has made big changes in policing and we can thank the federal government for providing this aspect.

Local law enforcement agency officials who basically represent cities, townships and villages, are mainly the initial enforcement front for criminal’s laws and traffic laws. The mayors, municipal police officers and chiefs among others, protect citizens and enforce laws although they are limited to their assigned jurisdiction. Local law enforcement may provide crime prevention, community policing programs and other programs to help in protecting its jurisdictions. One of the main role of the State law enforcement is to patrol and enforce the laws on state highways and rural areas. The also back up the sheriffs and local law enforcement areas when called to do so.

Local law enforcement is a very diverse field ranging from simple School police to regional police, each deriving a part/all its authority from the local governing body. There main purpose is to investigate local crime along with protecting the local populace inside its jurisdiction. The United States initial

The first segment of the U.S. criminal justice system that is important to the overall flow are our law enforcement personnel. Law enforcement personnel such as police officers have the task of keeping our streets safe by arresting individuals who commit crimes. Police officers are the ones who not only arrest offenders but the do the initial investigation of the crime and when needed provide their testimony within the courts.

Since the beginning years of American history and basically every other country has been kept safe by the police or police type department. In the United States, there are three levels of law enforcement, there is the Federal level, the State level, and the Local level. The levels of law enforcement have various duties but most duties are very similar. Every day in the field is very different. The job can also be extremely stressful, and law enforcement professionals need specific training to succeed. A career in law enforcement is a secure job to have because crime never stops. What is law enforcement? It is a system where members of society perform in such manner to enforce laws by discovering, deterring, rehabilitating, or punishing the members of society who violate the laws that protect society. In other words “The generic name for the activities of the agencies responsible for maintaining public order and enforcing the law, particularly the activities of prevention, detection, and investigation of crime and the apprehension of criminals” (BJS).

The Public Policy of Crime and Criminal Justice, by Nancy E. Marion and Willard M. Oliver. Published by Prentice Hall. Copyright © 2006 by Pearso

Today, more than 2 million Americans are incarcerated in either a state facility, federal correctional facility or a local installation (Batey,2002). Due to longer sentences, incorporating harsh sentencing guidelines, and mandatory minimum punishments (NeSmith,2015). With each inmate costing taxpayers an average of $30,000 annually. The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 were increased sentences for a broad range of offenses, as well as establishing federal penalties for most murders and a large number of other crimes already subject to state law (Batey,2002). In addition to reducing the discretion of state judicial systems; as well as 85 percent of sentence satisfaction and establishing a mandatory life sentence for those convicted of three serious violent crimes or drug offenses (NeSmith,2015). .

Since the founding of the United States, the responsibility for enforcing laws has been given to state and local governments. The biggest strength that this distribution of power has granted is that the citizens can have a connection to their officers because they are feeling that they are being policed by one of their own. This keeps the law, law enforcement, and your connection to it close as opposed to (only) having it enforced by entities who do not know your area or the people that live in the area. Along similar lines, local policing provides the opportunity to build relationships with the people they serve, which can go a long way in reducing crime. Despite these two strengths, the biggest weakness is that local law enforcement agencies can, and often are both underfunded and understaffed, preventing the agency from being able to combat crime and help their communities to the level that they wish. The other big weakness to local law enforcement is that due to there being so many localities (most with their own law enforcement agencies), there can be some confusion to the overlap of jurisdictions. The alternative to local policing, which has been gaining some steam in the United States since the start of the 21st century, is placing the responsibility for law

Most would agree that departments need more funding. However, there are discrepancies regarding where to place these funds. "Police

The cost benefit analysis program for the justice system usually aims at advancing the use and application of various cost benefit decisions in criminal and policy making programs. Within the policing departments, the leaders usually place major focuses on improving the services offered by the police. However, in most cases, the police have not taken major step up on answering calls as it used to be done before. This has really affected the ways of how the public view the police. However, there are a number of things that can be done to increase the benefits achieved and reduce the costs of policing.

Crime cost an enormous amount of money in the United States. It is spent on criminal justice at the federal, state, and local levels. I believe at the federal government, the money is better fluctuated to influence the criminal justice policy at the other levels of government. I am thinking that both the state and the local level bear most the costs of the criminal justice in the United States. “Criminal justice is primarily a state and local function; state and local government spent about 86% of the 2007 total” (Bohm, R. & Haley, K. 2011, p. 20). Both the state and the local levels of government share the costs for criminal justice. For example: providing witness protection in exchange for a testimony to put the criminal(s) away is costly

Over the last several years, most police departments have been facing numerous financial challenges. The main reason is law enforcement agencies are expected to do more with less and the stagnant economy. The combination of these factors has been placing pressure on many departments to begin imposing budget cuts. Evidence of this can be seen with a survey that was conducted by the University of North Carolina. They found that 67% of police departments made some kind of budget cuts for 2011. The most severe reductions were occurring in large police departments such as Los Angeles, Atlanta and Detroit. (Delfem, 2011, pp. 199 - 205) This is illustrating one of the most pressing issues affecting a wide variety of police departments across the country. To fully understand what is happening requires: examining the situation, how they are able to interact with other agencies (i.e. state / federal) and recommending the way this relationship can be improved. Together, these elements will offer specific insights about how police departments can effectively address this problem.

At the core, there are three main part of the United Sates criminal justice system: law enforcement, courts and corrections. Modern-day criminal justice continues to be a complex part of our society. The United States criminal justice system is broken down into three different parts to maintain the philosophy of dealing with criminals in a different stage of their criminal activity. The first component of the criminal justice and perhaps the most important within the system is law enforcement. This aspect of the criminal justice system includes the local police department form each state with their police officers and detective and personal. Law enforcement is a key aspect within the main components because they are the ones responsible for investigating /capturing individuals who break the laws set forth by the state and federal government.

The criminal justice system of the United States is based on a system fragmentation and operation. This system consists of overlapping powers between the state and federal laws that creates a conflict with regards to criminal justice. Consequently, this generates a dysfunctional and inefficient system that a times fails to produce credibility in criminal justice. The rationale behind this is that there is no clear interpretation concerning where federal law ends and where state law begins.

Criminal justice collaboration of agencies and processes which seek to achieve control of crime, minimization of crime and the enforcement of penalties for the commission of crime. Levels of the criminal justice system include a local level, a state level, and a federal level. For instance federal agencies such as the CIA or FBI operate on a different government level than your local sheriff or state police, but they have the same objective. With that being said, the media can both glorify and horrify the actual truth behind what occurs within different levels of the criminal justice system. For example, in the films The Longest Yard, American Gangster and Death Race, each movie displays a variety of frames and narratives that are discussed in Rafter’s and Surette’s text.