Criminal Justice Policy

In the article entitled “Criminologists Should Stop Whining About Their Impact on Policy and Practice,” Wellford (2010) argued that criminologists should celebrate the influences criminology, as a discipline, has made thus far on policy and practice, rather than focusing on having a greater impact. Wellford (2010) examined two essential proportions on this issue, policies influenced by research and research influences policy.

The reason for policy analysis reflects around the assessment of policies from the government by critiquing the failures and successes. The United States implement several policies to deal with criminal activity and social issues, for instance The United States Human Trafficking Policy, this policy is not a successful one but this policy is steadily improving with sustainable reform. The criminal justice system practice the model of Packard’s Due Process, established with the promise

As mentioned in American Corrections, the effects can be separated into three categories, namely, the effect on crime, the effect on society, and the effect on the pursuit of justice (Clear 6). Data shows that the “experiment” has had little effect on crime itself. The crime rate has not significantly changed since the 1970s, when the “experiment” began, so it does not

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

Our criminal justice system is complex and multi-faceted. When people talk about criminal justice reform, they are actually referring to a number of distinct issues and problems. On a national level, the focus on reform can be seen as a recognition that the “tough on crime” legislation that was all the rage in the 1980s and 1990s – mandatory minimums, “three strikes” laws, enhanced sentences for drug crimes to name a few examples – created more problems than they were designed

If gun control is regulated, then we will have less crime. Access to firearms makes killing easy, efficient, and impersonal, which increases the lethality of crime. Josh Sugarmann, the Executive Director of the Violence Policy Center has once said, "We recoil in horror and search for explanations, but we never face up to the obvious preventive measure: a ban on the handy killing machines that make crimes so easy.”Allowing untrained people to carry guns puts others at risk and it can result in self-inflicting injuries both by suicide and unintentional incidents. Gun violence in America kills more than 30,000 and injures almost 70,000 each year. Guns can be misused and abused, which is why gun

While both policy monitoring and policy evaluation present different benefits to criminal justice policy, policy monitoring presents the greatest value to

A majority of the American people feel that gun control laws will help reduce crime rates because the waiting period would allow time for a person’s temper to cool down. They also feel that gun control will prevent repeat offenders because when a person tries to purchase a handgun, he will have to fill out a lengthy questionnaire. The questionnaire will include questions about the buyer’s past, for example, if they have a criminal record or a record of any mental illness. If there is a criminal record in that person’s history, he will not be able to make the purchase. Restricting handgun ownership would also reduce crime, because guns are used most often in robberies and murders (Mayer 28). They are very easily concealed under a coat, or even in the waistband of pants.

Unfortunately, the financial trend that has been seen in policing will likely continue for the foreseeable future, which will not only limit the ability to confront these new critical issues, but will likely exacerbate them as well (Police Executive, 2013). It is also foreseeable that new state efforts to combat their overall economic struggles will serve as a critical issue with adverse policing affects as well. More and more states continue to modify their early release policies, putting criminals back onto the streets sooner and in greater numbers than ever before, which has caused

Many tragedies have occurred recently that have spurred the debate on whether or not we need tighter gun controls. On one side of the debate are the gun control supporters, who claim that the easy access to guns is the primary cause for high rates of crime plaguing the United States. On the other side are people who argue that gun laws will not prevent criminals from obtaining guns, since they will continue to get them illegally. Guns are used for protection when in the hands of people who obey the law. It is crucial to not hinder law-abiding citizen’s ability to possess firearms with stricter gun laws, since gun laws do not lower crime, and guns can keep people safe.

Former Governor of New York Eliot Spitzer once said "Yes, people pull the trigger - but guns are the instrument of death. Gun control is necessary, and delay means more death and horror". Spitzer’s words makes one think: should we fear the person behind the gun or the gun itself? The majority of violent crimes that happen in America are not only caused by a criminal, but also the weapon in which the criminal is holding. America’s gun violence problem stems from the increasing accessibility of firearms. Many of the mass shootings in America could have been prevented if access to semi-automatic and automatic weapons were completely banned. Gun violence is an arising issue, and a change needs to be made concerning the gun laws in the U.S. Stricter gun control laws is necessary to prevent high accessibility to firearms and mass shootings, also research shows that Australia’s strict gun control laws are proven to be more efficient in preventing gun violence.

Prisons where essentially build to accommodate a number of prisoners but over the years it has reach over capacity. Today in the United States there are approximately 193,468 federal inmates that consisting of the Bureau of Prisons Custody, private managed facilities and other facilities. The inmates ages range from 18- 65 with the median age being in their late 30’s. This number is counting both male and female population with male being 93.3% of inmates and females being 6.7%. The number of inmates has steadily increase since 1980 with only having approximately less than 50,000 but today the number has gone more up. Drug offenses are the highest number for inmate’s imprisonment, the next highest offense would be weapons, explosives and arson; immigration and miscellaneous fall next in lines. The number for the other offenses such as robbery, extortion, fraud, bribery, burglary, larceny, property offenses and other offenses are lower. Overcrowding prison has become problematic as the prison population continue to increase leading to proper care and attention for prisoners.

The studies and research on gun control has opened up many ideas on how weak the current laws really are. Crime rates consist of high numbers. “Since 1982, there have been at least 62 mass shootings across the country, with the killings unfolding in 30 states from Massachusetts to Hawaii”

For decades, studies have been done using various empirical techniques employing different disciplinary approaches in an effort to estimate, as accurately as possible, the cost of crime to society. However, with challenges like unreported crimes, inflations and monetary conversion to quantify intangible costs, there are variations between estimates from the different techniques and drawbacks to implementing each of them.[1] Knowing the impact of crime to society is important in order to reaffirm that criminal justice interventions and policies made to mitigate, prevent and reduce crime are really effective. One way to do so is to look at the reduction in the number of attempted as well as committed crimes. However, the number of crimes does not portray the severity of each crime; a murder would be on the same level as theft.[2] Hence, researchers came up with a common metric as an alternative to judge the severity of crime, that is, the monetary costs of crime.[3] In policy-making, comparing the monetary costs of crime before and after a policy is implemented would judge how effective the policy is.

To begin with, statistics can be defined as the practice or science of collecting and analyzing numerical data in large quantities, especially for the purpose of inferring proportions in a whole from those in a representative sample. Criminal justice on the other hand is defined as the system of practices and institutions of governments directed at upholding social control, deterring and mitigating crime, or sanctioning those who violate laws with criminal penalties and rehabilitation efforts. The use of statistics has been around for decades in a number of scholarly disciplines. More specifically, it has been an important vehicle in obtaining better knowledge in the field of criminal justice. This paper will discuss the role of statistics in criminal justice.