The Criminal Justice Process Is Broken Down Into Nine Distinct Phases

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

The criminal justice system consists of models and theories that often contradict one another. Of these models are the crime control model, the due process, model, the consensus model and the conflict model. In this paper these models are evaluated and defined, as well as each entity in the criminal justice systems role within each model. Policing, corrections and the court system all subscribe to each model in some way and in a hurried manner in cases that dictate such a response. As described by Erik Luna in the Models of Criminal Procedure, the following statement summarizes the aforementioned most appropriately.

The criminal justice system in the United States has traditionally operated under two fundamentally different theories. One theory is the Crime Control Model. This theory is characterized by the idea that criminals should be aggressively pursued and crimes aggressively punished. The other theory is the Due Process Model. This theory is characterized by the idea that the rights of the accused need to be carefully protected in any criminal justice investigation. (Levy, 1999)

Over policing in African American communities started during the drug wars and continue to result in over drug arrests of African Americans. Over policing may also occur when police concentrate their efforts not on illegal activity, but on citizens behavior with the hope that in the process of the investigation some evidence of crime may be uncovered. Some police activities such as undercover drug buys are more common in African American communities than other communities and consequently disproportionate numbers of African Americans are arrested for drug dealing (Nunn, 2002). When it comes to violent or non drug crimes there is a clear victim and suspect, and the police can go to the crime scene and investigate. On the other hand when it comes to drug related offences, there isn’t a clear victim and the police can choose when and where to investigate. Police choose to target African American communities because they are easier to target, which results in over drug arrests (Mauer, 199, p.143). The police focus on substances that blacks buy, sell, and places where they would sell them, which results in high drug arrests rates. For example in 2008, the drug arrests of blacks was 3.5 times higher than whites (Tonry, 2011 p. 54). One would wonder if the government and law

Addressing Racial Disparities in Incarceration by Marc Mauer describes the current trends and impact of mass incarceration on colored communities. He precisely focuses on how the criminal justice system contributes to racial disparity within these communities and what changes need to be made to terminate the problem. Mauer explains that communities have very skewed ideas of how their criminal justice system works and that continues to divide the country based on race (2011, p. 88S). Mauer provides examples of racial bias in the three main pit stops of the criminal justice system starting with the officer who makes the arrest, followed by prosecution and finally the sentencing. Law enforcement officers frequently include implicit bias in regards to arrests and public policy decision, especially drug arrests, systematically

The United States has a unique criminal justice system that stems from the unique rights granted to its citizens by the Constitution. The United States Constitution grants the most basic rights of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” and no citizen can be denied these rights without due process of law. Due process is the way in which the criminal justice system ensures that the right person is punished for the right crime. This process includes certain rights of the accused and specific procedures that must be followed to the letter or the accused could be released without having punished for a crime he or she could have

Law enforcement officials often confront situations where it’s an almost certainty that illegal activities are taking place despite not having sufficient resources to investigate every possible perpetrator. Research on race and vehicle stops by police show that African American drivers are disproportionately stopped in traffic by police for driving violations (Kowalski & Lundman, 2007). The reason is because law enforcement officials use characterizations or

Although African Americans may make up 13% of the U.S. population and 14% of monthly drug users, they are 37% of the people arrested for drug offenses. The chances of a policeman stopping blacks are higher than the chances of them stopping whites. It is proven that the police force will ignore the situation of a white person committing a major crime. Compare any case of a black person involved with drugs to the case of Dylann Roof, a white twenty-one year old that opened fire and killed nine black people, and nothing makes sense. Witnesses say he proclaimed his hate for black people right before he began shooting. When he was arrested, the police were very polite to him and never treated him

The criminal trial process has many aspects which aim to balance the rights of victims, offenders and society, including plea bargains and charge negotiations, the ability of defendants to hire legal representation and complete and partial defences. However, these processes do not always succeed in completely achieving justice for victims, offenders and society.

According to Alexander (2011), “the authority to stop, interrogate and search anyone, anywhere, provided they get ‘consent’ from the targeted individual” basically promise biased consequences. It is a fact that more than one in ten Americans will violate a drug law in a given year; drug buying/selling indeed are a popular and consensual activity. With that, law enforcement needs to have a more proactive approach as compared to violent or property crimes. Once the public consensus was built by media portrayals of these groups, “racial bias in the drug war was inevitable.” (Alexander, 2011) Prosecutors have the most power in the criminal justice system but the police hold the most discretionary power. In the Supreme Court case, Armstrong v. United

In our government today we have due process of law. Due process of law simply means that we have protection against a chance deprivation of life, liberty or property. Within the due process law, if you are to be accused of something it has to be under fair and reasonable circumstances. If we are ever to be arrested of something, under due process it commands that we are taken to court and showed a cause. It is very important that we have due process in the law for the people of the United States. Law enforcement always requires the balancing of two competing social concerns: on one hand, is the government's interest in protecting its citizens and prosecuting criminal conduct; on the other hand, is the right of

Most people don’t know about the three major components of the criminal justice system, but, in this paper the reader will know what they are. The reader will also read about how the three components interrelate to one another, and also how the conflict one another. The

American Criminal Justice System The criminal judicial system in America has two main models, the crime control model and the due process model. There has been several debates on which model is the most effective in combating crime in America. Crime control model emphasizes on crime reduction by increasing prosecution powers (Hung-En, 2006). On the other hand, the due process model of crime control aims at increasing the people’s rights and liberty and limiting governmental powers. Unlike the due process model, the crime control model believes in with an increase in governmental powers and reduction of individual freedom in order to mitigate crime in the society.

The United States criminal procedures are its strengths due to the way we handle things. Our criminal procedure starts with our law enforcement. They conduct investigations, look at cases and if they need more evidence to convict the offender they get a warrant to get a hold of the offenders belongings so they can go through all the evidence thoroughly and effectively. Then the investigation leads into the courts were the offender pleads guilty or not guilty. The judge determines the sentencing with the help of the jurors. This process may take a while, especially in murder cases. All evidence is crucial to determine the sentence. The evidence is what helps the jurors and the judge decide if the offender is guilty.

The function of the criminal courts in society is to control social order and protect the community. The criminal justice system is always changing because of updated laws. The criminal court has five components; the judge, the prosecutor, defendant lawyer, the defendant and the juror. Each component works together to provide the best result for both defendant and society. There are a few models inside the criminal court system that help depict the usefulness of how the courts work. Two of these models are the adversarial model and the second is the consensual model. The adversarial model is when the prosecutor and the defendant 's lawyer both speak before the judge and jury to show evidence pertaining to the defendant trying to prove innocence or guilt. In a consensual model, is where the prosecutor and defendant 's lawyer hash out the charges against the defendant and agree on an appropriate punishment. (Barken),pg 268 There are two more models inside the criminal court system that help portray the court 's efficiency this would be Due Process Model and the Crime Control Model, these solves the predicament confronted by the criminal courts to guarantee a person freedom and the need to protect the people. These two models comprise of analyzing crime and permitting the right justice to be conveyed. Due process method was intended to verify defendants had their rights ensured and that they had a reasonable opportunity to protect themselves in court. This model assumes that