The Criminal Justice System

Primarily, the goals can be categorized into two very distinct missions: the need to enforce the law and maintain social order, and the need to protect people from injustice. (Peak 2001) I find the criminal justice system very beneficial to society. The Criminal Justice System has come along way. Theses practices were established in England prior to colonist settling here in America. The study by Herbert Parker recognized crime control and due process being two models of the criminal justice system. Crime control model resembles an assembly line justice, which a premium is placed on solving and closing cases with little concern for individual’s rights or attention to actual guilt or innocence. Due process model assumes the most important that the rights of innocent or falsely accused be protected. The Criminal Justice System is made up of 3 components: police, courts, and correction. All 3 play a major role in crime control today. I will discuss the history of each

The criminal justice system is the set of agencies and processes established by governments to control crime and impose penalties on those who violate laws. The system is not one single criminal justice system in the United States but nevertheless many similar, individual systems. How every particular system works in each area depends on who is in charge of the city, county, state, or federal. Different authorities have different laws, agencies, and ways of managing criminal justice processes. There are two primary systems which are, state, criminal justice systems handle crimes committed within their state boundaries and the federal, criminal justice system handles crimes committed on federal property or in more than one state. Most criminal

What is Criminal Justice? Criminal justice is the system of practices in which crimes and criminals are identified, detained, tried and punished. Criminal Justice is often confused with Criminology. Criminal justice is established systems which are directly associated with law enforcement. Whereas criminology is the study of a crime, more specifically its causes, consequences and costs. Even though both fields are different, they work together in the criminal justice system to prevent crime.

Courts are established social, political, and judicial institutions necessary for the manifestation of justice and the maintenance of law and order. The courts are part of the judicial branch of government, as outlined in Article III of the United States Constitution. Courts are the arenas in which the law is tried and applied. Judges are the presiding officers of the court. The United States Supreme Court is the most fundamental court because has "the authority to decide the constitutionality of federal laws and resolve other disputes over them," (United States Courts, 2012). This is true even though even though the court does not expressly enforce that law; enforcement is the province of the executive branch.

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 U.S. criminal justice system is responsible for those who violate the law and to be punished according to the crime committed. The controversial issue between the extreme cases and justice served is whether or not capital punishment violates the 8th amendment. For the extreme cases that result in the death penalty punishment is brought upon by a 3 drug protocol also known as, lethal injection. Until 2009, majority of the states used a 3 drug protocol, including sodium thiopental used for anesthetic, pancuronium bromide for a paralytic agent, and potassium chloride to stop the heart (DPIC, 2016). The combination of the lethal drugs varies state by state, however the doses administrated depend on the person and in which takes an expert

In the United States the criminal justice system does not always create policies that affect everyone equally. There are many policies that seem to target a specific group of people, whether this is intentional or not is beside the point. The important thing is to change the criminal justice system in order to stop race disparities. Marc Mauer in his lecture speaks of the reason for the disparity between races when it comes to the incarceration rate, as well as steps that can be taken in order to elevate, and or stop the disparity in the criminal justice system. Other topics that Mauer covers are the impact that policies can have on a specific group in the United States, and the overwhelming disproportion when it comes to drug arrest, and the people who get arrested.

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 United States criminal justice system has failed to rehabilitate criminals. Even after being penalized for their crimes, prisoners continue to commit crimes without learning that what they did was wrong from being incarcerated and are sent back to prison. Jails are set up to aid those imprisoned by helping them obtain skills that will hopefully reduce future incidences and allow them to act like the citizens they should be. However, punishing criminals is not as productive as many think it is. This is shown by the increased imprisonment rate from 250,000 in 1976 to almost 2 million by 2003 (Lynch 26, 49). Instead of learning how to work towards handling their problems, inmates are expected to learn from their mistakes by being isolated from society and even sometimes from human contact. Since the prisoners are unable to learn from their delinquencies after doing time in prison, many recommit offenses and find themselves back in jail. Prisons should become more education based, to achieve this goal the overall costs of prisons has to decrees. According to Shadd Maruna, director of the Institute of Criminology and Criminal Justice for Queen’s Law, “of the more than 100,000 released from prison each year, 70 percent will return to prison.” The re-incarceration is mainly due to the incapability of these convicts to re-adapt into society. After being detached from the real world, it is problematic to adjust to changes, depending on how long the prisoners were

There is not only one way to think about plea bargaining. From the law enforcement side, it is the way to go. But on the civil side, I do see where there could be a misunderstanding. What is good for the goose is not always good for the gander. A prosecutor told two researchers working under a National Institute of Mental Health grant "I've seen some people plead guilty to attempted possession of narcotics, and I think that is pretty hard to do" (Fine, 1987). Then she commented “What is the "spree" criminal to think when it is "bargain day" at the courthouse: four armed robberies for the price of one (Fine, 1987)? What is an impressionable young man to think when, after smashing up a stolen car, he is allowed to plead guilty to the reduced charge of "joy riding” (Fine, 1987). As one commentator has recently written, plea bargaining "often destroys the integrity of the criminal justice system by allowing defendants to appear to be convicted of crimes different from the ones they actually committed (Fine, 1987). I seem to still be somewhere right in the middle of all these discussions this

The goal of this paper is to analyze if the criminal justice system, as it is constructed today, is doing enough to punish and to deter crime. It will also look to see if there is deterrent in punishment at all. To do this there are a number of theories that should be examined. This includes the following Deterrence theory, rational choice theory, and lastly the positivist theory. The deterrence theory is a very basic, but overlapping theory to all of the others. We learn that at a very early age that reward vs cost is a critical thing to weigh when making decisions. This carries over to the decision to commit a crime and not to commit a criminal act. The rational choice theory states that human beings are decision making creatures. This theory would subscribe to the idea that the tougher the punishment, the higher the cost. The higher the cost, the likelihood of an individual committing a crime would drop. The positivist theory subscribes to the opposite of the rational choice theory. Under this school of thought individuals with lower intelligence or lacking social status do not have the same ability to make a rational choice when it comes to the ability to make a choice to, or not to, commit a crime.

Victims usually adopt a subsidiary role in the courts, compared to the accused or offender (Booth, 2016). Victim-focused law reforms are open to many jurisdictions throughout Australia, and majority of systems which follow the adversarial nature of proceedings (Garkawe, 2007). The justice system aims to enforce a therapeutic structure, however, in some instances this fails to be upheld for the victim. In a sentencing hearing, an offender’s mitigating factors may reduce their sentence, therefore providing the offender with more rehabilitative issuances. Whereas victims have little to no influence over the outcome of the sentencing hearing. Victim impact statements (VIS) act as a victim-focused law reform in the sentencing