In the United States of America, the work of law enforcement is hit hard with various polices and limitations that can be good for the accused criminal, but bad for the each of the citizens in the surrounding community that was affected by the accused perpetrator. Even though there are lot of limitations on how law enforcement does their work on a daily basis, there are two main limitations in criminal law that stand out amongst the rest. These two concepts of criminal law that affect the day to day operations of the law enforcement profession are known as statute of limitations and ex post facto laws. Each of the factors associated with these two concepts severely impact the work of law enforcement in some way shape or form. The first concept that impacts the work of law enforcement is ex post facto laws. Ex post facto is Latin for “after the fact” and is used to describe regulations that criminalize a certain type of conduct that was legal when the conduct was originally performed (“Ex Post Facto,” 2007). Because of the United States Constitution, these actions are prohibited from being used by the government. The main reason why this protection is in effect in order to avoid having the government spontaneously create laws just because they deem that the action was wrong in their opinion. An example of this can be seen in a situation where a person hugs a friend and the government spontaneously creates a law that hugging a friend is punishable under law, police officers
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.
A major difficulty facing law enforcement in the prevention of these incidents is working within the justice system of the United States. The police have to follow procedures and rule laid out in the Bill of Rights and subsequent laws. These laws restrict the rights of law enforcement and protect the rights of the citizens.
When it comes to the criminal justice process of the United States we should look at the law enforcement agencies as the most dynamic component of the organization. The organization is required to guarantee safety; the USA Patriot Act has amplified the effectiveness of the criminal justice process by authorizing law enforcement additional tools for the job. The USA Patriot Act has also increased the abilities of other essential mechanisms in the criminal justice process by making their processes easier to execute. If we compare the changes we can use the example of discretion. Discretion allows members in the law enforcement area to act freely to decide what should be done in any given situation.
There is a significant health issue facing the public as well as law enforcement every day, suicide. The numbers surrounding suicide are shocking effects people of all backgrounds. In the year 2010 more than 38,000 adults committed suicide. Then in 2011 around 1 million adults admitted to attempting suicide, while 8 million had serious suicidal thoughts. Law Enforcement officers are at an even higher risk then most due to experiencing such a large number of risk factors. These factors include but are not limited to poor physical health, access to fire arms, domestic abuse, substance abuse, exposure to violence and suicide; depression, anxiety and other mental diseases. These factors lead to an above average number of officer suicides every
Law enforcement officers must adhere rigorously to the proper conduct of the legal aspects of policing, which consist of police officers complying with the Constitutional Amendments and the Bill of Rights. These rules and regulation are widely known as the legal aspects of policing. The legal aspect of policing involves everything from individual rights to legal procedures during a search warrant, arrest and interrogations.
Grant, H.B. and Terry, K.J. 2008: Law Enforcement in the 21st Century. (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle, River, NJ. Pearson/Prentice Hall.
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 past trends of the criminal justice system are how we evaluate the system as a whole, and how we strive to make it better. The present is full of ideas towards a better future involving those better ideas made in the past. With today’s society of highly educated individuals, we can only speculate on what the future of the criminal justice system will be, but we can be assured of one certainty, it will change. The value of the criminal justice system in a changing society will also play a factor in what will become of the criminal justice system itself.
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
The criminal justice system is an essential aspect of American society as well as the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The purpose of laws is to protect society from harm, ensure everyone’s safety, and equally treated. The criminal justice system works to protect the innocent and punish the guilty without violating the rights the criminal suspect to avoid any injustices. As society evolves the criminal justice system needs to evolve so it is important to create new laws to keep up with the evolution and new trends. As new trends and contemporary issues develop in society, they can have a direct impact on the different functions of the criminal justice
Small town Holdrege, Nebraska is where I decided to look a little further into law enforcement on the State level. There are quite a few State Troopers in this area, or it seems to be that way anyways. I contacted Sargent John Wagner for an interview. I have to say these men/women in uniform are slightly intimidating. I’m not sure if it is the uniform, or the fact I grew up thinking these officers of the law are just that scary. I guess we shall see once we begin the interview.
The criminal justice field is an ever evolving field. As today’s technology changes so does the way the criminal justice field interacts with that technology. As our society changes the technology that we use will also be altered to fit the situation. The barriers that come along can affect how the criminal justice field interprets what to do next. The basis of the criminal justice system is to protect and serve the community as a whole. Keeping up with the changes in society is a vital part of our
The criminal justice system is a group of institutions that work together to protect a society, prevent and control crime, and maintain justice; enforcing the laws regulated by society. As the years have gone by and society has evolved; so have the criminal justice system and its methods to accomplish its role in society. This short analysis will evaluate the main facts that have been affecting the criminal justice system for decades and have influenced the evolution the justice system is enduring in a changing society (Muraski, 2009). Amongst the changes in the system, we will discuss the effect the changes have had on the citizens and how their perceptions have evolved as well.
Although there is much conflict between the models, both share slight comparisons. The existence of common ground allows minor resolutions between the two models to occur. One universal idea both share is that police and prosecutors cannot ignore violations of the law; each official must enforce the
Laws serve several purposes in the criminal justice system. The main purpose of criminal law is to protect, serve, and limit human actions and to help guide human conduct. Also, laws provide penalties and punishment against those who are guilty of committing crimes against property or persons. In the modern world, there are three choices in dealing with criminals’ namely criminal punishment, private action and executive control. Although both private action and executive control are advantageous in terms of costs and speed, they present big dangers that discourage their use unless in exceptional situations. The second purpose of criminal law is to punish the offender. Punishing the offender is the most important purpose of criminal law