Our Criminal Justice System

The speaker argues that the criminal justice system in America treats you better if you're rich and guilty than if you're poor and innocent. Do you agree? Why or why not?

“The court finds you guilty on all accounts. You are sentenced to 35 years in federal prison. Court dismissed.” If only justice in America was the same as a hollywood movie, where, in the end, each and every person put on trial receives a true and just verdict. It would be nice if America’s justice system was designed so that “you couldn’t be the next victim of corruption - innocent and sent to prison, or strapped to a table and put to death; or robbed of your life savings by American lawyers” (Sachs, America’s Corrupt Legal). Welcome to the new America, where all it takes is pockets as deep as the Pacific Ocean to be innocent and poverty to be found guilty, thrown in jail, and not given a second thought. Although America often prides itself on its just ways of governing and dealing with potential criminals, the justice system is often corrupted because of social issues, ethical issues, corrupt officials, and control of the press.

Since the policy was enacted in the early 1990s, three strikes laws have been one of the most controversial issues facing the American criminal justice system. In general, advocates believe that locking up criminals will protect society. Critics believe that three-strike policy can only be effective with offenders that are on their last strikes (Worrall, 2008). However, other critics explain how three-strike laws don’t significantly reduce crime because most criminals mature out of the criminal lifestyle (Worrall, 2004).

The criminal justice system is a gratifying, yet often unfair ruling process. Having said that, a first-rate example of a disapproving situation is when a person(s) of African American decent receives severe punishment for a particular offense, as opposed to what a person of Caucasian decent might acquire for the same offense. My topic of choice is from the ACLU's web page via an article entitled "Race and Criminal Justice", certainly peaked my curiosity. Being a young man with a group of friends consisting predominantly of minorities, this article stuck to my brain by bringing back tons of déjà vu. An acquaintance of mine left for court, accused stealing headphones at a local Walmart with a friend. One of the court hearings was for stolen

In the criminal justice system there is very rarely a single linchpin that can be pointed to and held responsible for the failure to convict a seemingly guilty person. This reigns true for the very public prosecutions of both Casey Anthony and George Zimmerman. In the eyes of a vast majority of the public, fueled by media spectacle and opinion, Anthony and Zimmerman were guilty even before they ever saw the inside of a courtroom. There simply could be no other answer. The public was subsequently outraged when, after what seemed to be trials of certainty, juries acquitted each. The public sought to find someone, or something to blame. The verdict could not be accepted and many turned their focus to condemn the workings of the criminal

The American Criminal Justice system is arguably one of the most fair systems in the world. However, like anything it has its flaws. There are many flaws but the largest three, in my opinion, would be the fact that we have the highest incarceration rate of any other country, the high penalties for drug users, as well as the jury system. The high incarceration rates and the penalties for drug users affect each other but they are still issues on their own. In fact, many of issues within our system coincide within each other.

Across the world there are many different types of criminal justice systems to keep and maintain order and peace or the social code of conduct, otherwise known as the law of the land. The criminal justice system tries to deter individuals from disrupting the peace and order of society by educating their citizens on the consequences and punishments for failing to abide by the law. The criminal justice system can be categorized in three main parts; policing where the investigation is held, the courts where judgment is made, and corrections where the type of punishment is served.

Correctional Agencies. Correctional agencies are all those in correction and they include prison, probation, jail, parole, community-based sanction such as house arrest and electronic monitoring. Their primary purposes are to punish, rehabilitate, and to ensure public safety [ (Shilton, 1992) ]. Responsibilities as stated by Professor Daly (2012) are to hold people on remand, hold people who are sentence to a term of imprisonment, maintain appropriate conditions for those in custody, provide activities that encourage learning and life skills, prepare inmate for release.

The American Criminal Justice System is one of the best in the world, as it works relentlessly to find a balance between Herbert Packer’s suggested crime control model and due process model. Throughout the course, we have analyzed the different levels of the criminal justice system and have broken down where the criminal justice excels, such as the different courts for juveniles that work to meet the needs of children, and other areas that need improvement. Though the Criminal Justice System is a fundamental part of our nation and was created to protect society, while ensuring that certain rights are given to prisoners, defendants, and other actors, there are flaws within the system that need to be fixed. If appointed Czar of the Criminal Justice

There are many aspects of the criminal justice system that must be considered when determining the most important. Each area of the criminal justice system has its place and plays an important role in the process. For example, an arrest cannot be made without the police, the case cannot be reviewed or adjudicated without the courts, and the convicted individual cannot be placed into supervised confinement without corrections. However, the courts are the most important aspect of the criminal justice system because the decisions made in and outside the court system can serve as a guide for the other areas of the criminal justice system to follow. More specifically, judges and prosecutors hold tremendous power and can shape how laws are enforced,

Officers in a Texas McDonald’s parking lot saw a black man and a white man in the process of exchanging seats on a road trip from Florida to California, while leaving the parking lot; the officer implied that the man driving did not use his right turn signal. The men alleged that their privacy was invaded when the vehicle was searched without a warrant or permission from the driver. When one of the men attempted to video tape the incident on a cell phone he was told to stop. The term “driving while black has been used to describe the practice of law enforcement officers to stop African American drivers without probable cause” (Weatherspoon, 2004). The United States Justice System is based upon a flawed designed through miseducation of students in the school system, maintaining of a slave mentally in the prison system, and the perceptions of African Americans in America.

Outline the key problem of ethnicity in contemporary America you chose. How and why did you select it?

A number of people do not know how the criminal justice system functions. Their assumptions of how it may, how it may work is shaped by the way that the media along with reality-based television shows portray the justice system and the crimes involved in the episodes. These programs show real events that have or had happened during the arrests of crimes or the first step that an individual takes when entering the criminal justice system. A number of different programs focus on one type of crime while others show quite a variety of different ones, but they are all tied into an individual being inducted into the justice system.

The criminal justice system is a set of agencies and process that have been established to control crime and impose punishment on those who violate them. They aide in apprehending, prosecuting, defending, sentencing, and punishing individuals who have been convicted of a crim. There is no one criminal justice system in the United States but many individual systems. The way they work depends on the jurisdiction in which they exist. The laws are different in different types of jurisdiction. The different types of jurisdictions are state, county, state, federal and tribal government, and military installations. The main systems are state and federal. State systems handle offenses that occur within state boundaries and federal systems handle offense that occur in more than one state or on federal property (land owned by the federal government). Most criminal justice systems consist of 5 components. These components include law enforcement, prosecution, defense attorneys, courts, and corrections. Each play a major role in the criminal justice system. Understanding the criminal justice system is essential in ensuring that you know and understand your rights. This paper will discuss the history, each of the components, problems within the system (corruption), and its overall function.

In order for the Criminal Justice System to effectively deter crime, it is imperative to understand what causes crime, understand why crime exists and why offenders engage in criminal behaviour. In the 18th century criminologists such as Jeremy Bentham, Cesare Bonesana-Beccaria and Cesare Lombroso all established criminological theories, in an attempt to achieve this goal. The most influential theories are known as the Classical and Positivist perspectives.