Criminal Justice System: Article Analysis

The criminal justice system is composed of three parts – Police, Courts and Corrections – and all three work together to protect an individual’s rights and the rights of society to live without fear of being a victim of crime. According to merriam-webster.com, crime is defined as “an act that is forbidden or omission of a duty that is commanded by public law and that makes the offender liable to punishment by that law.” When all the three parts work together, it makes the criminal justice system function like a well tuned machine.

Jane B. Spott who is part of the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology in Ryerson University and Anthony N. Dobb, who is part of the Centre of Criminology at the University of Toronto, collided to examine the gender treatment with in youths under the bail court system. Their examination consisted of 279 bail cases offered by a court in Toronto, through the extent of five years. After their study, they found that girls were significantly more likely than boys to be given the opportunity of attending a treatment program, especially if the offence was non-violent. This article offers a great perspective and information between the different treatments females and male youth encounter, when being held for bail. Some of the differences

There are three significant issues concerning law enforcement, namely enacting the law, police discretion, and assessment of criminal behavior. Different entities create and enact laws that are specific for the societies those laws represent.

Chapter 11 Article 1 The Supreme Court could soon deliver a crushing blow to the Sixth Amendment

In the United States of America, there is a system referred to as the criminal justice system. This system assists in managing crime and helps to control society through rules and regulations. If these guidelines are disobeyed, there are consequences that follow. These consequences consist of being arrested by law enforcement, going to court to pay a fine or to be sentenced, and even going to jail or prison (Bohm & Haley, 2014).

“13th” is a documentary directed by Ava DuVernay. It is named after the 13th Amendment to the American Constitution which outlawed slavery unless you are being punished for a crime. The film focuses on racism in the United States’ criminal justice system. According to DuVernay, the part of the 13th Amendment that says “unless you are being punished for a crime” is a loophole that has been used to allow slavery to continue in the early days during reconstruction and even now. This loophole coupled with the criminalization of the black man has led to mass incarceration of minorities. The United States which has only five percent of the world’s population but has twenty-five percent of the world’s prisoners. The prison population of the United States has exploded from 300, 000 in 1972 to 2.3 million now. Each component of the criminal justice system, law enforcement, the courts and corrections, has contributed to the perpetuation of slavery through its contribution to mass incarceration.

From identifying from the reading I feel as if the American criminal justice system focuses on the criminal control method . My reason as to why I feel this way is because the court system does not treat a prisoner that has been convicted of committing a high risk or low risk crime as not guilty. I feel as if  it should be you're guilty until you are proven innocent. The reason as to why I feel this way  because there has to be a reason as to why you are facing trial or being charged for such a crime. Also I feel like to be proven innocent you have to have the right evidence to prove it. I feel like the due process is just too loose for the criminal justice system. What if that person is guilty and you're just giving them the

There are more people incarcerated in the United States of America than any other country in the world willing to count their inmates (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2016). How can this be? Foremost, the criminal justice system in the United States of America (which is made up of the police, the courts, and the corrections) is not working toward reducing mass incarceration the way it should be. The criminal justice system is set up strategically to accomplish two goals: to bring in money and to gain power. The byproducts of achieving these two goals are mass incarceration, ethnic and racial profiling, and minimal justice. The system needs to change its goals to: reducing crime and doing justice. The police, the courts, and the correctional system all feed off of one another and affect each other. Therefore, if real change is going to be made, it needs to happen in all three branches of the criminal justice system. A system that seems to be working well is in Norway. Norway’s criminal justice system does not look like America’s system. The criminal justice system in Norway has different philosophies concerning crime, justice, and the corrections. "We don 't look at our inmates as criminals, but rather as regular people who have committed a crime." (Skulberg, 2010, p. 73) This is a quote from a Norwegian prison guard giving an example of the ideology in Norway. In order for the United States to reduce crime and to have true justice, first, the policing model needs to change

At the very young age of 16 years old Kalief Browder was sent to Rikers Island and accused of stealing a backpack. He was arrested a day before his 17th birthday. He missed both his 17th birthday and his senior year of high school. For the next three years of his life, he spent his time in the New York City jail complex. He spent at least two of those years in solitary confinement. He was never found guilty or even put on trial, and all charges against him were eventually dismissed. On October 6th, 2014 Jennifer Gonnerman wrote an article about him in The New Yorker. This article helped bring attention to the fact that the criminal justice system in America is unjust and in need of a major makeover. After being released from jail everything in Kalief Browder’s life seemed to be looking up, he got his GED and even started attending a community college. But he still could not cope with life after Rikers Island. On June 6th, 2015 Kalief Browder committed suicide. Browder was never able to recover from the irreversible mental and emotional damaged caused by the years he spent locked away alone in solitary confinement cell (“Schwirtz”). Solitary confinement has a long and horribly history behind it.

Garland (2001), view on “the criminal justice system in America was created to keep communities safe, to respect and restore victims, and to return offenders who leave prison to be self-sufficient and law-abiding. Treatment simply did not work either by therapy or broader social programs and became is a monumental failure that our states and nation can no longer afford” (p.61)

The United States criminal justice system can be described as flawed in many ways. Some of these flaws have a larger impact on the people of this country than others. Two of the largest problems we have currently revolve around the issues of wrongful convictions and prosecutorial misconduct. The whole criminal justice system revolves around making sure people follow the laws put in place, and if they do not punish them for their wrongdoing. This system is also about affording the same rights to every person that goes through the criminal justice system.

Alexander believed that rates and patterns of drug crime do not explain the fact that although the majority of illegal drug users and dealers nationwide are white, but prisons are only filled with blacks and Latinos. Now the statement she made is very much so true when it relates to the criminal justice system. Now I am not saying that blacks are not drug dealers but they are not along Whites sell three times as much as a black individual. Just recently down from my home, a white man who had been selling drugs for years was finally caught by the feds. However, if was living in white community with his black wife and mix kids he probably would have never got caught. This is because the police do not ride in the white area trying to catch someone

Many cases are heard only in front of a judge, and other cases are tried, and have a

This research paper discusses the issues of people who suffer from mental illness being placed in jails instead of receiving the necessary treatment they need. The number of inmates serving time in jail or prison who suffer from mental illness continues to rise. In 2015 the Bureau of Justice reported that sixty five percent of state prisoners and fourth five percent of federal prisoners suffered from mental conditions such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Individuals who suffer from these problems require special mental health treatment for their needs to be met. Many of our prisons and jails lack the necessary resources to care for these inmates and because of that inmates who do not receive the treatment they need are at a higher risk of becoming a repeat offender. Despite the research and findings that show that the criminal justice system is unable to deal with issues dealing with the mentally ill there has been limited solutions put in place. Given the challenges the criminal justice system faces it is important to address the problem and come up with better solutions. This research paper will discuss the various techniques and solutions that scholars have propped and their effect on the issue of mentally ill criminals and how the criminal justice system should approach the problem.

While the United States is often referred to as a democracy, it is not (Cronkhite, 2013). In a true democracy everyone would have the choice to do as they please and the result would be lawlessness. In a true democracy each individual would choose to do as they pleased, there would be no uniformity as to what acts are legal or illegal. The United States is a republic where the majority rules. Representatives are elected by a majority of voters to enact laws. This allows for the maximum freedom for all individuals (Cronkhite, 2013). Under a republic, individuals give up some rights in order to guarantee that they have others and in order to be able to peaceably coexist with others (Cronkhite, 2013).