What is Criminal Justice and are you ready for it?
Criminal justice is the system of legislation, practices, and organizations, used by government or the state, which are all directed to maintain social control, deter and control crime, and sanctioning those who violate laws. The primary agencies charged with these responsibilities are police (law enforcement), courts, and corrections which administers punishment for those found guilty. When processing the accused through the criminal justice system, government must keep within the framework of laws that protect individual rights. The pursuit of criminal justice is, like all forms of “justice”, “fairness” or “process”, essentially the pursuit of an ideal. Throughout history, criminal justice has taken on many different forms which often reflect the cultural mores of society.
Criminal justice system
The criminal justice system consists of law enforcement (police), courts, and corrections. Criminal justice agencies operate within rule of law.
Policing and Law Enforcement
The first contact an offender has with the criminal justice system is with the police (or law enforcement) who make the arrest. Police or law enforcement agencies and officers are empowered to use force and other forms of legal coercion and legal means to effect public and social order. The term is most commonly associated with police departments of a state that are authorized to exercise the police power of that state within a defined legal or territorial area of responsibility. The first police force comparable to the present-day police was established in 1667 under King Louis XIV in France, although modern police usually trace their origins to the 1800 establishment of the Marine Police in London, the Glasgow Police, and the Napoleonic police of Paris.
The notion that police are primarily concerned with enforcing criminal law was popularized in the 1930s with the rise of the Federal Bureau of Investigation as the pre-eminent “law enforcement agency” in the United States; this however has only ever constituted a small portion of policing activity. Policing has included an array of activities in different contexts, but the predominant ones are concerned with order maintenance and the provision of services.
Courts
The courts serve as the venue wherein disputes are then settled and justice is administered. With regard to criminal justice, there are a number of critical players in any court setting. These include the judge, prosecutor, and the defense attorney. The judge, or magistrate, is a person knowledgeable in the law whose function is to objectively administrate the legal proceedings and offer a final decision on how a case is disposed.
In America and most other nations, guilt or innocence is decided through the adversarial system. In this system, two parties will both offer their version of events and argue their case before the court. Truth is decided by which party offers the argument which is more sound and compelling.
The prosecutor is the lawyer who brings charges against a criminal. It is the prosecutor’s duty to explain to the court what crime was committed and to detail what evidence has been found which incriminates the accused. The prosecutor should not be confused with a plaintiff or plaintiff’s council. Although both serve the function of bringing a complaint before the court, the prosecutor is a servant of the state who accuses criminals while the plaintiff is the complaining party in civil disputes.
A defense attorney counsels the accused on the legal process and, at trial, will attempt to offer a rebuttal to the prosecutor’s accusations. It is the defense attorney’s duty to present exculpatory evidence and argue on behalf of their client. In modern America, all accused criminals are offered the assistance of a defense attorney. Those who cannot afford a private attorney may be provided one by the state. Historically, however, the right to a defense attorney has not always been universal. For example, in Tudor England criminals accused of treason were not permitted to offer arguments in their defense.
The final determination of guilt or innocence is typically made by a third party. This party may come in the form of a judge, a panel of judges, or a jury panel composed of disinterested citizens. This process varies depending on the laws of the specific jurisdiction. In some places the panel (be it judges or a jury) is required to issue a unanimous decision while in others only a majority vote is required. In America, this process depends on the state, level of court, and even agreements between the prosecuting and defending parties. Other nations do not use juries at all, or rely on theological or military authorities to issue verdicts.
Some cases can be disposed of without the need for a trial decision at all. If the accused confesses their guilt, the entire process may be circumvented and the verdict will quickly be rendered. Some nations, such as America, allow plea bargaining in which the accused pleads neither guilty or not guilty, but accepts a reduced punishment in exchange for their cooperation. This reduced sentence is a reward for sparing the state the expense of a formal trial. Many nations do not permit the use of plea bargaining, believing coerces innocent people to plead out in an attempt to avoid a harsh punishment.
The entire trial process, whatever the country, is fraught with problems and criticisms. Bias and discrimination form an ever-present threat to an objective decision. Any prejudice on the part of the lawyers, the judge, or jury members threatens to destroy the court’s credibility. Some people argue that the often byzantine rules governing courtroom conduct and processes restrict a layman’s ability to participate, essentially reducing the argument process to a battle between the lawyers. In this case, the criticism is that the decision is based less on sound justice and more on the lawyer’s eloquence and charisma. The jury process is another area of frequent criticism, as there are few mechanisms to guard against poor judgment or incompetence on the part of the layman jurors.
Corrections
Offenders are then turned over to the correctional authorities, from the court system after the accused has been found guilty. Like all other aspects of criminal justice, the administration of punishment has taken many different forms throughout history. Early on, when civilizations lacked the resources necessary to construct and maintain prisons, exile and execution were the primary forms of punishment. Historically shame punishments and dismemberment have also been used as forms of censure.
The most publicly visible form of punishment in the modern era is the prison. Prisons may serve as detention centers for prisoners both before, during, and after trial. Early prisons were used primarily to sequester criminals and little thought was given to living conditions within their walls. In America, the Quaker movement is commonly credited with establishing the idea that prisons should be used to reform criminals. This can also been seen as a critical moment in the debate regarding the purpose of punishment.
Punishment (in the form of prison time) may serve a variety of purposes. First, and most obviously, the incarceration of criminals removes them from the general population and inhibits their ability to perpetrate further crimes. Many societies also view prison terms as a form of revenge or retribution, and any harm or discomfort the prisoner suffers is “payback” for the harm they caused their victims. A new goal of prison punishments is to offer criminals a chance to be rehabilitated. Many modern prisons offer schooling or job training to prisoners as a chance to learn a vocation and thereby earn a legitimate living when they are returned to society. Religious institutions also have a presence in many prisons, with the goal of teaching ethics and instilling a sense of morality in the prisoners.
There are numerous other forms of punishment which are commonly used in conjunction or in place of prison terms. Monetary fines are one of the oldest forms of punishment still used today. These fines may be paid to the state or to the victims as a form of reparation. Probation and house arrest are also sanctions which seek to limit a person’s mobility and their opportunities to commit crimes without actually placing them in a prison setting. Many jurisdictions may require some form of public service as a form of reparations for lesser offenses.
Execution or capital punishment is still used around the world. Its use is one of the most heavily debated aspects of the criminal justice system. Some societies are willing to use executions as a form of political control, or for relatively minor misdeeds. Other societies reserve execution for only the most sinister and brutal offenses. Others still have outlawed the practice entirely, believing the use of execution to be excessively cruel or hypocritical.
Academic discipline
Criminal justice is distinct from the field of criminology, which involves the study of crime as a social phenomena, causes of crime, criminal behavior, and other aspects of crime. Criminal justice emerged as an academic discipline in the 1920s, beginning with Berkeley police chief August Vollmer who established a criminal justice program at the University of California, Berkeley in 1916. Vollmer’s work was carried on by his student, O.W. Wilson, who led efforts to professionalize policing and reduce corruption. Other programs were established in the United States at Indiana University, Michigan State University, San Jose State University, and the University of Washington. As of 1950, criminal justice students were estimated to number less than 1,000.Until the 1960s, the primary focus of criminal justice in the United States was on policing and police science.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, crime rates soared and social issues took center stage in the public eye. A number of new laws and studies focused federal resources on researching new approaches to crime control. The Supreme Court, under the leadership of Earl Warren, issued a series of rulings which redefined citizen’s rights and substantially altered the powers and responsibilities of police and the courts. The Civil Rights Era offered significant legal and ethical challenges to the status quo.
In the late 1960s, with the establishment of the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA) and associated policy changes that resulted with the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968. The LEAA provided grants for criminology research, focusing on social aspects of crime. By the 1970s, there were 729 academic programs in criminology and criminal justice in the United States. Largely thanks to the Law Enforcement Education Program, criminal justice students numbered over 100,000 by 1975. Over time, scholars of criminal justice began to include criminology, sociology, and psychology, among others, to provide a more comprehensive view of the criminal justice system and the root causes of crime. Criminal justice studies now combine the practical and technical policing skills with a study of social deviance as a whole.