The Criminal Justice System Essay

For many years, drugs have been the center of crime and the criminal justice system in the United States. Due to this widespread epidemic, President Richard Nixon declared the “War on Drugs” in 1971 with a campaign that promoted the prohibition of illicit substances and implemented policies to discourage the overall production, distribution, and consumption. The War on Drugs and the U.S. drug policy has experienced the most significant and complex challenges between criminal law and the values of today’s society. With implemented drug polices becoming much harsher over the years in order to reduce the overall misuse and abuse of drugs and a expanded federal budget, it has sparked a nation wide debate whether or not they have created more harm than good. When looking at the negative consequences of these policies not only has billions of dollars gone to waste, but the United States has also seen public health issues, mass incarceration, and violent drug related crime within the black market in which feeds our global demands and economy. With this failed approach for drug prohibition, there continues to be an increase in the overall production of illicit substances, high rate of violence, and an unfavorable impact to our nation.

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.

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.

No human being is born with an innate desire to commit crime; growing up in an impoverished community with subpar education and little opportunity

There are too many people in prison in our country and any people in prison today are non-violent drug offenders. The American war on drugs has targeted people in poverty and minorities, who are more likely to be involved in drug use. This has created a pattern of crime and incarceration and “...[a] connection between increased prison rates and lower crime is tenuous and small.” (Wyler). The prison system in our country today focuses on punishment for the inmates rather than rehabilitation for life after their release.

The War on Drugs not only has many acts that have been in place due to it, but there has been a domino effect with other topics. The War on Drugs has become a complicated, yet important aspect of the U.S. as well as other countries. It was to be believed that the War on Drugs has influenced incarceration. This effect was the ability to imprison those who are using drugs, and the amount of crime will begin to decrease (Lloyd, 2015). Margaret Lloyd (2015), also discussed how a community that has less crime could be a better living area for children, in hopes they will not act in deviant behaviors.

Drug abuse is shown to be connected to all different kinds of crime in the United States, and in many circumstances, crime is inspired by drug abuse and addiction. In fact, 80% of criminal offenders abuse drugs or alcohol (National Association of Drug Court Professionals). Also, 60% of those who are arrested test positive for illicit drugs when they are arrested, and 60-80% commit another crime, typically drug-related, after leaving prison (National Association of Drug Court Professionals). And, even after these individuals put in the time in prison that would allow them to go through the uncomfortable process of detoxing, 95% of them will chose to go back to drug abuse after prison (National Association of Drug Court Professionals). Given these overwhelming statistics, it is clear that drug abuse, and repeated or continued drug abuse, are a serious problem facing the criminal justice system.

It is also clear that there is a connection between drug taking and crime but the link is not as clear to get an arcuate reading from this. It could be considered that they are factors that incline that people to have different behaviors and drug misuse. Or is it that one could lead to another. We will consider at some length to what is being done to help police drug crime and conclude that it is being challenged every day by the police and other organizations because of the ever-increasing problem in society, such that

CRIMINOLOGYDoes drug use cause crime, does crime cause drug use or is the relationship entirely co-incidental?INTRODUCTIONIn this paper I will look at the amount and type of crime caused by drugs, the relationship between drugs and crime and the relationship between alcohol and crime.

Hypothesis I: Drug Use Can Cause Crime Different studies have shown that the relationship between criminal behavior and drug use. Most of the evidence does reveal that drug users are more prone to engage in illegal conduct. For example, pharmacological violence involves the effect of a drug having a direct physiological influence on a perpetrator engaging or committing an act of violence. The consequence is that a particular substance triggered violent conduct as a result of the material is accessible in their system. Furthermore, this evidence has also shown that psychoactive stimulants like methamphetamine, cocaine, or the hallucinogen PCP can trigger an on-edge state of mind as well as social paranoia that can potentially result in violent behavior for individuals using drugs (Levinthal, 2012).

Over the years, I think there has been misconception that drug use is the common cause for crime, as we are lead to believe that drug are bad and that they turned people into crazy criminals. While it might be true to some extents, I think the relationship between drug use and crime is rather complex and dynamic. As a community, we tend to blame drugs for every problem in our society, but the reality is that there are other important factors that we need to take into account, including unemployment, socio economic inequality and poor mental health before we could say that drug use really caused crime. As pointed out in The Sociology of American Drug Use, research provides ‘’no conclusive evidence about any single relationship between drug use

The research in the United States and other United Kingdom show that people who use illegal drugs generally commit more crime than those who do not. Half of the crime suspects arrested in the U.S. and UK had used illegal drugs in the prior three days, so even if there is not an immediate link between the variables there is still a relationship (Luk, et.al, 2010, pp. 355).

Drug abuse and predatory criminality go hand in hand in a few, select social groups, while in others, drug abuse most often occurs without criminal behavior (other than the fact they’re doing drugs.) Despite what most might think, drug abuse typically follows predatory criminality. As drug abusers keep trying harder drugs due to necessity, the intensity of their criminal behavior escalates dramatically. When using more than one type of drug at one time, studies show that the frequency of criminal activity increases. But, when these drug offenders decrease the amount of drugs they put in their system, their rate of criminal activity also decreases, which shows that drugs can cause a person to commit crime. This shows that drug usage can cause crime and stopping drug usage can slow or even halt criminal activity.

Given the complex and varied associations between crime and drugs across sites, intervention approaches need to be tailored to the nature of the problem in specific locales." The crimes most commonly associated with drug use are illegal drug trafficking, theft, and murder. Drug users frequently turn to theft in order to maintain their supply of drugs or they begin to sale drugs to supply their habit.

Drugs have affected the U.S for several decades now. In the United States on average, about 70 per cent of the arrested males had used an illicit drug in comparison to a rate of current drug use among the general male population. Illegal drug users are not only male, but also affect women too. Overall, there are several different ways that drugs are introduced into a person’s life, for instance, race, ethnicity, and age. Drugs affect all people, unfortunately with the use of drugs people endure a poor life. Crimes and imprisonment, becoming homeless, and even death can become the future of a fluent drug user. For the sake of a drug user harsh punishment is needed for them to realize what they are doing is wrong, lesson should be learned. If they commit any type of crime, or even go to the extreme to commit murder under the influence they should be charged with being under the influence not just the crime they committed alone. Drugs should not be decriminalized, if drugs do become legal more crimes, and carelessness’s will be committed.