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The role of the criminal justice system
About the criminal justice system
About the criminal justice system
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Every country has a form of criminal justice system. This system consists in a different series of organizations that work together to defend, sentence and punish those that did not follow the law or have been involved in any type of crime. In most of the countries, the system is similar be-cause is based on law enforcement agencies, attorney generals, judges, courts of law and prisons. All of these organizations work together to contribute towards the better enhancement of the working cooperation within the criminal justice system. However, these procedures won’t al-ways be fully applicable in certain countries. The criminal justice system is the system of law enforcement that is directly involved in Pros-ecuting, defending, and punishing …show more content…
The central purpose of the criminal justice system is to deliver an efficient, effective and fair jus-tice process for the country. With their appeal to an efficiently and an instrumental logic (protecting the innocent and punish-ing the guilty) these statements offer a picture of criminal justice as being in the business of crime control. The challenge is one of effeteness. “We are blessed in the united kingdom by a judiciary whose integrity, dependence, professional-ism and skill that is not in question. But we take such a condition for granted at our peril. Justice is a delicate plant. It has to be ruptured, protected, cared for” Straw, Jack (July, 2007). The criminal justice system, in every country applies justice to everyone, but when it comes to minors is something completely different, if they commit a crime where the life of someone is involved the things change in a drastic …show more content…
In contrast, the federal principles authorize a government attorney to contemplate noncriminal dispositions even in response to a serious activity. In light of this difference, an English policeman would doubtlessly disagree that the deterrent effect of prosecution, or the suspect’s culpability in connection with the offense are subjects he should consider in deciding whether to prosecute. He would pass that responsibility to the judge for consideration on disposition. In deciding whether to institute criminal proceedings, a prosecutor must balance two competing responsibilities. He must vigorously prosecute individuals reasonably suspected of significant criminal activity, but must avoid harassing or disturbing innocent citizens. In weighing these fac-tors, he is obligated to look beyond the immediate problem of winning a case and consider in-stead the fair and efficient administration of criminal justice. There’s too much pressure on the criminal justice system because it is supposed to solve socie-ty’s ills. One of the greatest challenges facing the criminal justice system is the need to balance the rights of the accused criminals against society interest in imposing punishments on those convicted of
Criminal justice is defined as the system of constitutional practices and federally funded institutions dedicated at upholding social control, deterring and mitigating crime, and sanctioning those who violate laws with cr...
So, in a time of social, political and economic change it makes sense that how we enforce the law and systems of punishment would begin to shift into the public eye. Gunther claims that we have a criminal processing system, rather than a criminal justice system; But what makes a criminal justice system an impartial justice oriented system rather than the harsh, biased and unfair processing mechanism that Gunther saw? For this, we look to Packer’s four assumptions of a justice system.
Today our world is filled with crime. The people committing these crimes must have a consequence for their illegal actions. The system in place to keeping everything fair and safe is called the criminal justice system. This was put in place to ensure there is fairness and justice served to people who break the laws set up by the government.
In order for one to understand the criminal justice system, it is important to study both the criminal law of one’s own country as well as surrounding countries. By engaging in comparative criminal justice studies, one can expand this knowledge through the discovery of similarities and differences in the structure of criminal justice agencies of various nations or states. There are a multitude of factors which could contribute to the differences in each nation’s criminal justice system. By studying the ways in which other countries operate their criminal justice system, it may be possible to learn ways in which we could better our own system. In order to do this, we can study the ways in which various court systems operate around the world. In doing so, we will examine countries with both a different and similar judicial system to ours and discover the differences in how each operates. In furtherance of understanding the criminal justice system, we will
The basis of criminal justice in the United States is one founded on both the rights of the individual and the democratic order of the people. Evinced through the myriad forms whereby liberty and equity marry into the mores of society to form the ethos of a people. However, these two systems of justice are rife with conflicts too. With the challenges of determining prevailing worth in public order and individual rights coming down to the best service of justice for society. Bearing a perpetual eye to their manifestations by the truth of how "the trade-off between freedom and security, so often proposed so seductively, very often leads to the loss of both" (Hitchens, 2003, para. 5).
This chapter discusses two different models of the criminal justice system: Consensus model and Conflict model. The consensus model suggests that all parts of the criminal justice system strive towards a common goal and that there is a huge amount of cooperation between the parts which allows smooth processing. The Conflict model is the opposite. The Conflict model suggests that each part of the criminal justice system is self-serving because each department focuses on success, promotion, pay increase, and accountability. The main difference between the two models is that the Consensus model suggests a smooth flowing criminal justice system while the Conflict model suggests that the departments of the Criminal Justice system is uncooperative
Crime control, consisting of many elements of prevention and punishment, is a widely debated and often contentious topic. Myriad agendas occur in government and society, depending upon the kind of organizational or philosophical objective trying to be met. Political differences are present within the criminal justice system that draw upon certain models, techniques, and methods associated with crime prevention. Society functions as another element in crime control, as often an underlying fear creates a pressure to enact programs and laws. The media enters in as a forum to present conservative and liberal opinions to enact and enforce criminal laws and punishment. A debate over crime often strives to define prevention and punishment, in models that make these terms mutually exclusive, versus a view that crime prevention is a result, and punishment only one possible tool for achieving that result. Different forms of punishment will be discussed in relationship to the criminal justice system as well as the purpose the punishment serves, problems relating to the punishment, and an opinion on improvements and solutions.
Therefore, under these ethical standards, prosecutors cannot file charges if there is not enough evidence to support a conviction, they also do not file if it is not in the public interest to do so. This is what makes the possibilities limitless; however, three key factors also play a part in determining which cases to prosecute. If prosecutors follow these three factors in determining cases then the contradiction of limitless discretion and high ethical standards should be remedied for others. These are factors that should be followed are as followed: the seriousness and nature of the offense, the offender’s culpability, and the likelihood of being able to obtain a conviction at a trial. “Ethical conduct, then, must be the core of the prosecutor’s role in the criminal justice system” (Hemmens, Brody, & Spohn, 2013). Therefore, even though prosecutors have almost limitless discretion in their decisions, they still must
One of the main objectives for the Criminal Justice System is to reduce the crime and the fire of crime. In order to achieve this it is using different agencies and the major of them are the Police, Prosecution, Courts, Prisons and Probation. They all are operating in synchrony for achieving their legal responsibilities and particularly for reducing the level of crime. The aim of this essay specifically is to discuss the functions of the police and how they actually fit with the objectives of the Criminal Justice System as a whole. The Criminal Justice System is focusing on the formal response to crime and is used with special regulations in different countries. In England and Wales ‘it is used to describe the institutions and agencies which respond officially to the commission of offences (Hucklesby and Wahidin, 2009, pp3). All of its agencies are running together, systematically and coordinated, but their objectives are not usually the same. Meanwhile, the main aim which is coordinating their functions is to ‘protecting the public by preventing and deterring crime, by rehabilitating offenders and incapacitating others who constitute a persistent treat to the community’ (Davies, Croall and Tyrer, 1998, pp6). In order to discuss the functions of the police it is necessary to state what the ‘police’ actually mean. For the England and Wales in particular ‘the police are the largest and most visible agency involved in the criminal justice process, defined by Innes (2003:64) as a ‘specific, modern organisation, endowed with the state’s legal authority to use physical coercion or the treat of it, to enforce the law in pursuance of the maintenance of the social order’’ (Hucklesby et al, 2009, pp.38). The police are responsible for a ran...
In many western democratic countries, maintaining public confidence in judicial administration is regarded as a critical issue across the whole of government, especially in the criminal justice system. The judiciary consists of many organizations, such as police, the courts, prison service and correlations, that is centrally concerned with controlling crime and protecting community by the exercise of power (Snowball & Jones, 2012). However, a system fails to command public trust may also fail to establish its legitimacy and function effectively (Hough & Roberts, 2004 cited in Jones et al., 2008). For witnesses or victims, they might not report crimes to polices if they feel that their report will not be acted upon or solved quickly. Accordingly,
... as meaningless. Instead, this model sees crime simply as an occasion for social intervention. The offenders are not regarded as responsible for their acts, but rather as products and in some instances the victims of events beyond their control (King, 1981). According to this perspective, free will and moral responsibility are sheer illusions. Therefore, instead of punishing people for engaging in criminal activities, society should discover ways of meeting their needs by ‘providing them with the requisite human social qualities for them to control their future behaviour and so convert them into law-abiding citizens’ (King 1981:19). This model goes back to the notion of a criminal law without criminal sanctions. It argues against the utilization of criminal sanctions, and considers it not useful in curbing crime, as well as a threatener to those subjected to it.
The debate over the proper course for effective crime control can be traced back to the famous treatise “On Crimes and Punishments” written by Cesare Beccaria in 1764. Beccaria’s work implies (rightly so) that potential law violators would be deterred if government agencies could swiftly detect, try and punish anyone who violates the criminal law. This exercise in disciplinary power is noted by Jokiranta; “In order to get hold of the hearts and minds of the members, the community has to get hold of their bodies” (Jokiranta, pg 10), and has been adopted by systems of criminal justice since their beginning with the London Metropolitan Police in 1829. Along with this approach came the stigma that criminals were predominantly born of poverty and misfortune.
The Classical School of Criminology generally refers to the work of social contract and utilitarian philosophers Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham during the enlightenment in the 18th century. The contributions of these philosophers regarding punishment still influence modern corrections today. The Classical School of Criminology advocated for better methods of punishment and the reform of criminal behaviour. The belief was that for a criminal justice system to be effective, punishment must be certain, swift and in proportion to the crime committed. The focus was on the crime itself and not the individual criminal (Cullen & Wilcox, 2010). This essay will look at the key principles of the Classical School of Criminology, in particular
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 since by doing so; it discourages him from committing crime again while making him or her pay for their crimes. Retribution does not mean inflicting physical punishment by incarceration only, but it also may include things like rehabilitation and financial retribution among other things. The last purpose of criminal law is to protect the community from criminals. Criminal law acts as the means through which the society protects itself from those who are harmful or dangerous to it. This is achieved through sentences meant to act as a way of deterring the offender from repeating the same crime in the future.
After completing the criminal legal system of three random governments, it is interesting to see how each handles the ever- present demon called crime. When will there be a system that can effectively prevent crime and correct offenders without severe, barbaric tactics and without corruption and anarchy? When researching the topic on criminal legal systems, I've found that different countries have very different beliefs in which they value the life of a human. One country, the United States, will go the extra mile to find the best possible defense for its accused. Another, Singapore, will torture and beat confessions from its suspects while the other, Puerto Rico, casts its criminals into a hell practically operated by those society has thrown away. The common ground all three nations share is their never-ending struggle to provide its citizens with the means to live a life that is safe, meaningful and without fear of danger. Back in America, our government will continue to brainstorm ideas to eliminate crime in our streets and neighborhoods. Perhaps in time, we will be able to look to other governments' crime-fighting tactics when attempting to improve our own.