Criminal justice collaboration of agencies and processes which seek to achieve control of crime, minimization of crime and the enforcement of penalties for the commission of crime. Levels of the criminal justice system include a local level, a state level, and a federal level. For instance federal agencies such as the CIA or FBI operate on a different government level than your local sheriff or state police, but they have the same objective. With that being said, the media can both glorify and horrify the actual truth behind what occurs within different levels of the criminal justice system. For example, in the films The Longest Yard, American Gangster and Death Race, each movie displays a variety of frames and narratives that are discussed in Rafter’s and Surette’s text.
The Longest Yard is a movie about a pro quarterback (Paul Crewe), a former college champion (Nate Scarborough), and a coach (Caretaker) who happen to be placed at same prison together at the same time. Crewe was kicked out of the NFL for cheating and allegedly shaving points, afterwards he arrested for stealing his wife’s car and going on a drunken joy ride leading cops in a chase. For this reason, he was now in the criminal justice system, and the warden wanted to boost his reputation for an upcoming election by winning a “tune-up” football game. The warden falls under the narrative of the “corrupt prison worker” due to the fact that he threatened to extend Crewe’s prison sentence and complicate his time
To understand how communication can improve within a traditional bureaucratic criminal justice system, one must understand the structure and how communication is dispersed within the respective criminal justice agencies. It is also important to realize that each agency or criminal justice organization has policy and procedures governing how communication is transmitted. (Stojkovic, Stan, Kalinch, David, & Klofas, 2012) Within law enforcement agencies information is passed either up or down the chain of command. Meaning
In the United States, there are three levels of law enforcement; the lowest level is local law enforcement agencies that include local police as well as sheriff departments. The next echelon in the chain is the State agencies that include state or highway patrol, the top tier is the Federal Agencies that not only include the FBI, but also the Secret Service as well. Each one of these agencies consequently has a unique extensive past.
The U.S. criminal justice system is made up of different but equally important divisions to ensure proper criminal justice functions are performed. This system is broken up into three different segments: law enforcement, the courts, and corrections These segments work together to enforce justice to all when a crime has been committed (Schmalleger, 2013).
These three components dependent upon each other, the law enforcement enforces the laws interpreted by the courts. Courts hear cases brought to them by law enforcement, and the corrections system enforces punishment doled out by the courts, they are independent from each other as well. Once a certain component has completed its job (apprehended criminals, heard court cases etc.) they leave the next step of the process to the next component in
Emphasis on teamwork is a very important element in organizational behavior in the criminal justice or security agency. Many criminal organization are starting to work together to goal of making a huge profit in illegal activity, which is making it difficult for law enforcement to infiltrate and investigate a criminal organization because most of the criminal organization have knowledge of law enforcement personnel around their local area. Law enforcement agencies have teamed up and used other undercover officer from different local, state, and federal agencies to infiltrate and investigate illegal activity by criminal organizations. The United States may also team with agencies on an international level to help combat international criminal organization, in an effort to stop terrorism, drugs, human trafficking, and etc.
In criminal justice the federal government is the communicator in information sharing, technology, holding criminal records and history etc.
The principle role of police organizations is to uphold and enforce the law. Police organizations achieve this by safeguarding life and property, maintaining public order, and through detecting and preventing crime. Policing at the state level is composed of separate police organizations. At the state level we have the City or Local Police, County Sheriff and State Police, also known as Highway Patrol or State Troopers. The U.S. government gives each state the authority to self-govern so each state has its own Penal Codes and every state policing organization follows its own Penal Code. Policing at the Federal level is composed of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Secret Service, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF). Federal policing agencies oversee all federal laws.
Criminal justice administration mainly focuses on crime prevention and punishing any illegal activities. Criminal justice administration is wide and it entails law enforcement and the judicial administration. Some of the jobs that relate to criminal justice administration include; security coordination, juvenile delinquency administration, law enforcement and being a courtroom official. Additional crime is also part of criminal justice administration. This field entails terrorism prevention, immigration policies and social policies. Other duties that criminal justice entails include; police officer, community relations advocate and correctional officer. For an officer working with the criminal justice administration, his work involves law enforcement (Bharti, 2008).
Part 1: Nature, Extent, Impact of Crime Policy on Crime & the Administration of Justice in the U.S.
Components of the criminal justice system include the police, the court system and correctional agencies. The definition, the function and examples of each component of the American criminal justice system will be described. The criminal procedure and the processing of offenders will also be described in details.
Specific characteristics that interlink these three agencies are discretion, resource dependence, sequential tasks, and filtering (Cole, 2008). All phases of the justice system reflect the freedom to make a decision according to the own judgment of the agent that is working with a case at the moment. The abuse of discretion leads to the most notable issue that affects the accuracy and effectiveness of the system, discrimination. Even thought discretion is one of the most important characteristic of the system because the American criminal justice does not have the tools to treat each individual case the same way, on the other hand the system can’t afford to have every single case leading to an investigation. American criminal justice to be effective needs accuracy due to the resource dependence of each agency has on another. Every decision made between all these agencies is sequential. To have a case seen in court, an arrest has to be made by a police officer, then and prosecutors and judges have the responsibility of adjudication, then correction implement the punishment according to the prior decisions makers. When discussing the process of implementing the law, the filtering process is very important; this is process in which cases are screened by law enforcement officials and the decision to handle it at the current level is made or the case is passed on to the next level. As you can see, all agencies are linked together and in theory should work
“Though there are a few mechanisms that create some degree of commonality, such as the U.S. Constitution as well as federal laws and grants, there is no centralized authority responsible for coordinating the cornucopia of law enforcement agencies existing at every level of government” (Stewart, 2011, p. 409).
At the core, there are three main part of the United Sates criminal justice system: law enforcement, courts and corrections. Modern-day criminal justice continues to be a complex part of our society. The United States criminal justice system is broken down into three different parts to maintain the philosophy of dealing with criminals in a different stage of their criminal activity. The first component of the criminal justice and perhaps the most important within the system is law enforcement. This aspect of the criminal justice system includes the local police department form each state with their police officers and detective and personal. Law enforcement is a key aspect within the main components because they are the ones responsible for investigating /capturing individuals who break the laws set forth by the state and federal government.
Looking into criminal justice procedure, many administrations are at work. Starting with the police, to the courts and concluding in corrections. Though all these sectors have different tasks, their combined focus is processing the law. Regardless what the process is called criminal justice will continue to serve with discretion, conviction, and correction. When first presented with the question whether criminal justice is a system, non-system, and network I leaned toward a network. Throughout our discussions, lectures, and readings I felt the process presented itself as a network. Intertwined divisions working for a common goal. Further into my research and help from Webster, I decided that the criminal justice
The criminal justice system of the United States is based on a system fragmentation and operation. This system consists of overlapping powers between the state and federal laws that creates a conflict with regards to criminal justice. Consequently, this generates a dysfunctional and inefficient system that a times fails to produce credibility in criminal justice. The rationale behind this is that there is no clear interpretation concerning where federal law ends and where state law begins.