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What are the main components of the criminal justice system? How do they interrelate? How might they conflict? The criminal justice system is made up of three main parts: law enforcement, the court system, and corrections. These three components are interconnected. You can’t have one without the other. The term “consensus model” describes this relationship. The consensus model supports the idea that all three groups should work together to achieve justice. Law enforcement is the first piece of the criminal justice system, and in my opinion the most important. Law enforcement includes uniformed officers, investigators, and support personnel. They are responsible for finding then capturing individuals who break the laws set by local, state, and federal government. Law enforcement is at the forefront of the entire criminal justice system. They enforce the law, investigate crimes, prevent crime, and ensure public safety. Uniformed officers and detectives must appear in the court system to testify then prove the individual guilty of the crime he was arrested for. The second component of the criminal justice system is the court system. They court system is composed of lawyers, judges, and juries. Their job is to insure that everyone receives a fair trial, determine guilt or innocence, and apply sentences on guilty parties. The court system will contain one judge, and a jury of twelve citizens. The jury of the court will determine the guilt or innocence of the individual. The jury will also recommend a sentence for the crime the individual committed. Even though the jury makes the recommendation for the sentencing of the crime, the judge will follow pre-determined sentencing guidelines to make a final decision. The third and final pa... ... middle of paper ... ...ported to law enforcement, and also summarize the reasons victims give for not reporting a crime. The NCVS includes data of national incidents of rape, sexual assaults, robbery, assault, burglary, personal and household larceny, and motor vehicle thefts. The NCVS will not include data from crimes such as murders, kidnapping, and victimless crimes. In 1977 the NCVS dropped data that contained information from commercial robberies, and burglaries of businesses. Through this survey it will show the crimes that were completed or attempted but the survey only includes data for household members who are twelve years or older. The National Crime Victimization Survey tells us that crime rate in the United States is higher than expected through the UCR/NIBRS (Uniform Crime Reporting/National Incident-Based Reporting System) because of crimes that are not being reported.

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