Portugal Criminal Justice System Essay

The criminal justice system ensures the safety and protection of society from criminal offenders. The process of the criminal justice system begins when a criminal offense is reported to law enforcement officials. If required, an investigation begins, leading to a warrant and arrest. Following the arrest, bail is set and a preliminary hearing is scheduled. If the defendant is indicted, a trial date is set. Providing the defendant does not waive the right to a jury trial, a

This week we are asked to compare and contrast the justice system of a foreign country with that of the United States. That being said I have chosen a country I believe to be similar without doing any research prior. I am looking forward to see if my initial thoughts are true or if my research shows there to be a difference. We are asked to compare the two countries using 3 of the following five topics:

The criminal justice system has been proven to play a very important role in society. The criminal justice system is used to keep the citizens in check and to make sure that the laws that are made are being followed. It also is there to penalize anyone who disobeys the laws. In the criminal justice system, there are 3 main parts, law enforcement, adjudication, and corrections. Law enforcement is self-explainable. It consists of the law enforcers such as police officers and sheriffs. Adjudication is made up of people in the court house such as judges and lawyers. Corrections is made up of jailhouse matters such as prison officials. In these many components of the criminal justice system, there are all put in place to help correct people to do the right thing. There are punitive efforts and rehabilitative efforts. At time, the system may lean towards one category or more, which can be dangerous in terms of disciplinary action. The criminal justice system is more punitive than rehabilitative which makes the system ineffective.

The court is the second component of the justice system – once the suspect is arrested, s/he is referred to as a defendant. It is now up to the court to decide if the police had enough evidence for probable cause for arrest – if the determination is positive, then the defendant gets an opportunity to plead innocent or guilty. Once the court establishes that the defendant is innocent, s/he is released; on the other hand if the defendant is found guilty the court decides the type of punishment and then the defendant is turned over to the Corrections for the follow up of the punishment.

Why not focus on just one nation instead of studying the problem of wrongful convictions across different nations? Research has been justified by comparative studies, satisfying the curiosity of the other nation’s justice system. The benefits of obtaining research from other nation’s studies is the most important. Often, we learn more about our own justice system by looking at it in the perspective of another nation 's system. The compare and contrast that we look at will decide whether our system should be improved so that what is served is justified. The improvement of justice through the reduction errors has made us undergo research. Therefore, the ones who take part to the cross national analysis and learning from each other about the ways the other nation’s systems work to avoid wrongful convictions.

The Criminal Justice process involves the gathering of evidence by the proper authorities, witness testimonies, expert testimonies, psychological examinations, forensics reports,

In order to keep a safe society, it is important to establish a nation with

Many individuals believe that the criminal system and its institutions are flawed. These critiques have been brought on by the ineffectiveness of prisons to reform individuals, the ineptness of the system to reduce crime rates, the lack of focus on victims of crimes, as well as the racist, classist and sexist practices existing in these institutions. Therefore, we can ask ourselves if the elimination of the current penal system and the implementation of alternatives would better allow

The criminal procedure policy is initiated with a crime committed by a perpetrator. This process for the criminal can end at any of the various steps of the criminal process. As a criminal is process the individual has rights that are provided by the United States Constitution to ensure fairness and justice. The two major procedural models that shape the criminal justice systems today are due process and crime control models. The justice system has used these models for over two decades. The United States Constitution with due process and crime control models has forged the criminal justice processes that

Entry into the system is the first thing is the report from the victim, then there is an investigation and finally if there is enough evidence then they can make an arrest (“The Criminal Justice System”). Prosecution and Pretrial has to do with the prosecutor seeing if there are going to be any charges made, the first court appearance, if charged they can be release on bail or on bond, grand jury hearing, and arraignment. Adjudication is when most cases are resolved by plea agreements and not a lot of people go on a trial. If they do have a trial and are convicted of the charges, then the judge will set a date for their sentencing (“The Criminal Justice System”). If found innocent, then they are released. Post-trial is when the defendant gets to see what their sentence is. Depending on the crime the judge gets to choose their sentence. They either get fines, probation, jail or prison, or the death penalty.

The criminal justice system is a set of agencies and processes established by governments to control crime and impose penalties on those who violate laws. Different jurisdictions have diverse laws, agencies, and ways of managing criminal justice processes. In recent years, it has been debated that the criminal justice system has two primary and possibility conflicting perspectives known as the retributive justice approach and the restorative justice approach. Retributive justice and restorative justice have contrasting approaches when imposing punishment, that will be explored within this research paper, in regards to the disadvantages and potential advantages resulting from the implementation of it’s polices within the criminal justice system. These two perspectives have been implemented amongst many different criminal justice systems internationally, however the questions still remain, what is justice? And how should justice be served? This debate has created a divide between countries, due to the differing interpretations of justice and it’s response to criminal activity. The statistical information has been extracted from various online sources listed within the references as well as primary and secondary sources, “Prisons” by Haley, James and “Alternatives to Prisons” by Jennifer Skancke.

Since 1976, all capital trials in the US are divided into two phases. The first phase is when they question is whether the defendant is innocent or not. If the defendant is found guilty then he or she is eligible for the death penalty. In the second phase of the trial the jury will decide whether to recommend a life sentence or a death sentence for the defendant. These phases include interrogation, mitigation,

There many different criminal justice systems in the world today. Some that consists of many of the same policies and some that are considerably different. In the case of France and the U.S. there are a lot of similarities, but I will be focusing on the differences between each of their systems. The aspects that I will be comparing are police, courts, the legal profession, legal education, criminal procedural law, corrections, and juvenile justice and the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Crime in America is something that has been around for many decades. While a large number of crimes are considered minor, many more result in the serious injury or death of another human being. “When we think about crimes, we … normally focus on inherently wrongful acts that harm or threaten to harm persons or property” (Bibas 22). The death penalty, also called capital punishment, has been used as a means of punishing the most violent of criminals in an attempt to prevent others from committing similar crimes. Over the centuries, the methods used to conduct these executions have evolved and changed due to effectiveness and public opinion.

Criminal Justice in general terms refers to the agencies of government charged with enforcing law, adjudicating crime, and correcting criminal conduct in the society. The criminal justice system is essentially an instrument of social control used by the government. Society considers some behaviors so dangerous and destructive that it either tries to strictly control their occurrence or outlaws them outright. It is therefore, the job of the agencies of justice to prevent these behaviors by apprehending and punishing transgressors or deterring their future occurrence.