The Criminal Justice System

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.

In the criminal justice system, there is a controversy in the system regarding fairness or disagreement and changes need to be done. Many people believe it needs to change to improve and others believe it is unfair or dishonest in punishing people. The criminal justice system is in charge of punishing criminals and the correctional system helps inmates from committing crimes again. The goal of rehabilitation is to reduce crime in society. The criminal justice system affects all of society because it determines the punishment people will receive after being convicted of crimes.

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

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.

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.

The judicial processes that have been adopted by the current criminal justice system of the United States of America include mandatory minimums that diminish the importance of certain factors in a case such as the context of the situation and the power of judges to decide on an appropriate sentence; furthermore, they result in more serious, yet overlooked, implications of racial bias and unfair plea bargaining. Mandatory minimums are strict sentences that a judge must abide by when determining how much prison time the accused is to receive as punishment. Although the majority of offenses to which mandatory minimums apply to are drug offenses, there are a variety of offenses including immigration, firearms, and fraud that are linked to a minimum sentence. The concept of enacting mandatory minimum sentences to particular offenses has such a great influence on court verdicts that in the fiscal year of 2010 alone, “27.2% of cases involved a conviction of an offense carrying a mandatory minimum [and] 53.4%...remained subject to the mandatory minimum penalty at sentencing” (USSC, 121). When the government first instituted mandatory minimums for drug offenses with the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, it was meant to resolve the problems of drug distribution and abuse, but these sentences bring about more problems than resolutions. As the time approaches to impose a sentence for a case involving a mandatory minimum, the judge has no choice but to assign the accused at least that amount

The United States’ criminal justice system has been under scrutiny by countries of equal standing for good reason, what this country is doing, in an attempt to eliminate crime, is not working. Currently, in the United States, we are living in an era of “mass incarceration.” Almost 1% of men in this country and .1% of women are incarcerated (Phelps). With an incarceration rate of roughly 693/100,000 The U.S. stands far behind it’s NATO counterparts with the next highest rate of incarceration, in the United Kingdom, at roughly 145/100,000 (Wagner et al.). These high incarceration rates are reason for concern, and many researchers have begun to suggest solutions to this dilemma. In order to begin to solve this problem, we need to further

There are victims who never receive justice because of the expenses of it or they are wrongfully accused of a crime. Some people who commit non-violent crimes and are thrown into jail or prison endure abuse or rape. Non-violent and violent offenders need to be separated for their own safety. There must be a change in the United States Criminal Justice

The United States’s criminal justice system brings together laws and punishments that had been previously used in Europe for hundreds of years, as well as adding new ones that were appropriate for the new way of life experienced in the colonies and today. Certain practices and punishments, such as capital punishment, law enforcement, and interrogation practices, used today have evolved from the first time they were introduced to the criminal justice system of America. The criminal justice system of America is more organized now and so practices and punishments can be used more efficiently, but not necessarily effectively. This is seen with the origins and problems and solutions caused by using capital punishment, certain interrogation techniques, and having law enforcement.

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.

Criminal justice study, a subcategory of social science, gathers information traditionally from three sources: survey research, government statistics, and one-off studies of particular people, places, or events (King, 2013). However, the astonishing pace of technology advance has changed this pattern. In next 50 years, the exponentially increasing magnitude of information sources will extremely affect both our research and practice in criminal justice. On the one hand, criminal justice course needs to handle problems created by high technology, e.g. the application of new technology in law enforcement and relevant criminal procedure issues. On the other hand, the high technology also provides new tools for the expanding of the discipline, e.g. the application of big data methods in the discipline. Criminal

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

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