The Justice System Essay

There are three significant issues concerning law enforcement, namely enacting the law, police discretion, and assessment of criminal behavior. Different entities create and enact laws that are specific for the societies those laws represent.

Most criminal justice systems have five key aspects-law enforcement, prosecution, defense attorneys, courts, and corrections, each playing a key role in the criminal justice process. Law enforcement officers file reports for crimes that happen in their areas. Officers investigate crimes that have been committed or are about to happen and gather and protect evidence. Law enforcement officers arrest offenders, give testimony throughout the court process, and conduct follow-up investigations if necessary. I

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.

Before proposing a reform to the American criminal justice system, we must first examine the problems that plague the process of justice on all levels. American society plays an important role in shaping the criminal justice system. Their beliefs and values determine the type of deviants and the consequences of the crimes. Often their beliefs contradict each other.

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 first segment of the U.S. criminal justice system that is important to the overall flow are our law enforcement personnel. Law enforcement personnel such as police officers have the task of keeping our streets safe by arresting individuals who commit crimes. Police officers are the ones who not only arrest offenders but the do the initial investigation of the crime and when needed provide their testimony within the courts.

In order to keep a safe society, it is important to establish a nation with

The United States criminal justice system has three main components: law enforcement, courts (both civil and criminal) and corrections. The law enforcement component is made up of agencies whose task it is to prevent, detect and investigate crimes. The job of the courts is to hear cases and decide whether the defendant is guilty or innocent and to give out proper punishments. The corrections system (or penal system) refers to agencies such as prisons and probation that enforce the courts punishments.

Since the beginning of time, the United States’ Criminal Justice System (CJS) has been scrutinized and will continue to be. If significant changes were to occur within the CJS it could potentially take decades. Different persons, institutions, governments, and even departments within governments have different views; it is a natural occurrence. Thus, as with any subject matter, there are always controversies that cause disruption within society. Often, the controversies stem from the lack of understanding and the historical patterns of unsupported data.

The criminal justice system is a branch of law enforcement that is directly involved in apprehending, prosecuting, defending, sentencing, and punishing those who are suspected or convicted of criminal offenses. Yes, this system may seem unjust and flawed, but society could not

As the above pie chart (Composition of government expenditure on criminal justice 2006-2007) shows us the police services are at the head position of the overall expenditure of the three arms of the criminal justice system. The government is aware of the vast need for more funds into the policing sector, for the fact this arm is the division that provides the law and order and is out there addressing the issues that are affecting society and apprehending the criminals in, to ensure the criminal justice system continues to function in a fair and equally sufficing way.

Each branch has a distinct function to play in the administration of justice and consists of many agencies which allows for discretion in the performance of their duties. But with this discretion, there comes the chance for abuse. Initially, the first point of contact with the criminal justice system

It is through the Criminal Justice System’s close collaborations with like-minded agencies such as the Police, Prison and Courts Services, that the public’s concerns and worries are resolved, in order to bring about justice in our communities (Cavadino and Dignan, 2007 as cited in Fox, 2014). With that in mind and out of the way, this essay will aim to explore some of the strengths and weaknesses, which are prominent within the Criminal Justice System. To do this successfully, the Police and the Courts Service will be the key agencies that will be explored in relation to the key Models that shape the whole Criminal Justice System. These Models were founded by Herbert L. Packer (1968) and Michael King (1981).

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

However, despite their independence, these agencies of criminal justice system are interrelated because what one agency does affects all others. That is why they are called a ‘system’.