Why Do We as a Society Need a Criminal Justice System?

The criminal justice system plays an important role in this society, it is meant to protect and serve. This “system” is also meant to maintain the peace and enforce the laws set by the government. However, the criminal justice system is not even close to perfect. It has many flaws, some of which are: police brutality, death penalty, mass incarceration, gun violence, and especially wrongful convictions. A majority of the flaws that the system has can be easily fixed and can be set straight. For example, the issue of wrongful convictions has been relevant for quite some time and has the potential to decrease its probability of occurring by focusing on the importance of scientific evidence, rid of faulty witness testimonies, and make sure that the lack of evidence and/or government misconduct, if applicable, does not determine the outcome of the case.

The criminal justice system has been proven to play a very important role in society. The criminal justice system is used to keep the citizens in check and to make sure that the laws that are made are being followed. It also is there to penalize anyone who disobeys the laws. In the criminal justice system, there are 3 main parts, law enforcement, adjudication, and corrections. Law enforcement is self-explainable. It consists of the law enforcers such as police officers and sheriffs. Adjudication is made up of people in the court house such as judges and lawyers. Corrections is made up of jailhouse matters such as prison officials. In these many components of the criminal justice system, there are all put in place to help correct people to do the right thing. There are punitive efforts and rehabilitative efforts. At time, the system may lean towards one category or more, which can be dangerous in terms of disciplinary action. The criminal justice system is more punitive than rehabilitative which makes the system ineffective.

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.

The “get tough approach” to crime control has been prevalent since the 1960s. This approach takes the stance to a more firm and no tolerance policy against crime, hence the term “tough” in the actual title. “"Tough" crime control normally denotes more emphasis on police resources, faster apprehension of criminals, quick trials, and more severe sentences for guilty offenders” (Skoler 1971:29). The “get tough approach” emphasizes the need to arrest and punish criminals over rehabilitation and addressing the social factors that underlie criminal behavior (Barkan and Bryjak 2011). Deterrence of other criminals through severe punishments is the primary focus. The “get tough approach” of criminal justice institutions has been under scrutiny due to the outcomes that we will discuss further on. The purpose of this paper is to simply present the pros and cons that have resulted from the “get tough approach” on crime. The paper will try and remain completely unbiased to the “get tough approach” and solely focus on results that have come from said approach. We will begin by discussing the background and history of the “get tough approach” and what led to its development. We will then discuss things such as incarceration rates (US Department of Justice), crime rates (Dilulio 1995) juveniles in prison (Hinton 2015), policies that have been implemented (Shephard 2002), correctional costs, and destabilized urban neighborhoods (Barkan & Bryjak 2011; Black 2007; Mauer 2006) that result

According to Reiman, “A criminal justice system is a mirror in which a whole society can see the darker outlines of its face.” The criminal justice system should be there to protect us from crime, but it is there to project a credible image of the threat of crimes as a threat from the poor.

Many individuals believe that the criminal system and its institutions are flawed. These critiques have been brought on by the ineffectiveness of prisons to reform individuals, the ineptness of the system to reduce crime rates, the lack of focus on victims of crimes, as well as the racist, classist and sexist practices existing in these institutions. Therefore, we can ask ourselves if the elimination of the current penal system and the implementation of alternatives would better allow

News reports daily of all of the many different crimes that has taken place. In today’s society, we depend upon the justice system. Criminal Justice is a big deal. The Criminal Justice system was put in place by the agencies and established by the governments to help control the crimes and apply penalties to those that violate the law. Many people feel that the criminal justice system is there to protect and serve while others feel that the criminal justice system fails them daily.

A factor that the public don’t take into consideration when judging the justice system is budget and staffing levels. The different arms, although part of the criminal justice system, work independently to serve the community but can be affected by budgeting, staffing levels and space restrictions, in turn affecting public perception. In 2007-2008 approximately 70% (majority of this being salaries) of the justice system expenditure was spent on the police force showing that the majority of the budget is being spent on the investigative arm (Australian Institute of Criminology, 2009). The corrective services sector made up 24% and the criminal courts administration took up a tiny 6% of the budget. There has been a dramatic increase in prisoners which shows that police are apprehending criminals and Judges are providing suitable sentences but prisons are chronically overcrowded (Martin, 2010). The Government listened and announced that new prisons will be constructed, but this would take

The criminal justice administration today faces various issues and problems thus needing serious reforms. In most cases, many nonviolent offenders go to jail because many prosecutors and district attorneys succumb to political pressure hence become tough on crime. The prisons are always populated and there are minimal resources to ensure there are significant improvements in the system. Some of the key issues facing Criminal justice department today include; wrongful convictions, gangs, racial injustices in the administration, excessive criminalization, socio economic considerations, and problems with

The criminal justice system is comprised of three parts: police, courts, and corrections. Each component has its own duties, responsibilities, and distinct purposes, but would fail if not effectively working with each other component. Police enforce what is right or wrong, courts provide means of checking whether laws reflect majority of society, and corrections maintain social solidarity through control of an offender (Vago, 2012). Structural functionalists view law, or the criminal justice system, as effectively controlling individuals’ behavior (Browning, 2015).

The process of the Criminal Justice system works around flexibility and compassion to the individual attempting, far more than it used to, to refrain from formulating biased and impulsive judgment. All situations of the individual's case and background are taken into consideration and various programs exist to afford the individual the opportunity of reforming rather than being punished. Similarly, too, the more serious the crime, the greater the amount of facts are required in order to prove that the crime was actually committed. Preferring to exonerate rather than convict, justice and compassion are, nonetheless, combined with attention also placed on assuring the community maximum protection. Extreme punishment such as incarceration is also far less common than it was in eh past with various other programs and approaches used to supplement and replace the institutions of jail and prison

The three major components of the criminal justice system are policing, corrections, and the courts system. They all work together to prevent crime and to punish those who have committed crime, but they can also work as individual units to make self service gains. This paper will go into detail the components of the criminal justice system; define what crime is and its relationship to the law, and the government structure as it applies to the criminal justice system.

Could one imagine a world without order and control? Where the purge would come to life and never end? Where everyone can have “freedom” and do whatever comes on their mind? The world would be chaotic and everyone would die a lot quicker. People are not safe in that environment because people have to expect the unexpected. Thankfully, that will not happen while the world is under protected control. Criminal justice systems protect the balance of people and keep everyone safe. The Criminal justice system is the importance to law and the order of society. It protects the rights of citizens, investigates crimes, and prevents those who violate laws with criminal penalties. Every country has a different order of society; some are a lot stricter

For a free society to remain free, crime should be stopped and dealt with at all costs. This is the most important function of the criminal justice system. The main goal of the criminal justice system is to expose the truth and or establish the guilt of the accused. Victims rights should be first and foremost, and criminal’s rights should take a back door. In a free society, law enforcement should be able to freely investigate arrest, seize, search and convict those who are guilt. Red tape should be eliminated which will allow police to freely do their job. The criminal justice system should work like a well-oiled machine dealing with cases swiftly and to an end.

Laws serve several purposes in the criminal justice system. The main purpose of criminal law is to protect, serve, and limit human actions and to help guide human conduct. Also, laws provide penalties and punishment against those who are guilty of committing crimes against property or persons. In the modern world, there are three choices in dealing with criminals’ namely criminal punishment, private action and executive control. Although both private action and executive control are advantageous in terms of costs and speed, they present big dangers that discourage their use unless in exceptional situations. The second purpose of criminal law is to punish the offender. Punishing the offender is the most important purpose of criminal law