The Criminal Justice System

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The Criminal Justice System

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The Criminal Justice System Justin Kruse CRJ100 Prof. Pionke Strayer University

The Criminal Justice System The Criminal Justice System Today¶s criminal justice system is composed of three branches that work together to ensure the safety of law abiding citizens. The three parts work together much like a track team during a relay race. The race is started with the police passing the baton to the courts who then make the hand off to the corrections system. The three components, along with the jobs they each provide the criminal justice system with; will be discussed in the following paper.

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The first phase in the criminal justice system is the police. Police officers work in partnership with the public and are in the front line in the fight against crime and the fear of crime (Holdsworth, 2008). It is important for the police officers to have a strong sense of situational awareness, not only to stay on top of investigations, but also for their own safety and well being. Police officers have a very heavy load upon their shoulders mainly due to the fact that a great majority of the citizens¶ safety rests within their hands. Some of the jobs tasked to officers are as follows: enforce the law, investigate crimes, apprehend offenders, reduce and prevent crime, maintain public order, ensure community safety, provide emergency and related community services, and protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of individuals (Schmalleger, 2009). All these jobs listed aide in the police officers fight against crime and allows them the first leg of the criminal justice system.

The Criminal Justice System The courts system is the next step in the criminal justice system. The courts system has the difficult mission of ruling whether or not the arrestee has actually committed the crime for which they are charged. There is quite a list of jobs for the court system to uphold in order for those in court to gain a fair trial. These jobs are: conduct fair and impartial trials, decide

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criminal cases, ensure due process, determine guilt or innocence, impose sentences on the guilty, uphold the law, require fairness throughout the justice process, protect the rights and freedoms of anyone facing processing by the justice system, and provide a check on the exercise of power by other justice system agencies (Schmalleger, 2009). It is within this process that criminals find out the price they must pay for the crimes committed. Sentencing, however, is not the only outcome the court system is seeking, rehabilitation is the primary goal sought by out by judge and jury. If we only looked for retribution or revenge against the criminals, no matter how appealing it may sound, our society would end up in complete lawlessness. As a sentence is handed down to the criminal at trial, the baton is passed from the courts system to the corrections system. The corrections system is the final leg of the race, the true showing of whether or not the criminal can be or has been rehabilitated. The jobs for corrections are as follows: carry out sentences imposed by the courts, provide safe and humane custody and supervision of offenders, protect the community, rehabilitate, reform, reintegrate convicted offenders back into the community, and respect the legal and human rights of the convicted. The convicted are sent to a corrections facility to serve out their sentence. Here they are given every opportunity to better themselves, libraries, gyms, even classrooms so offenders may attend school. Some penitentiaries house more violent criminals than others and some are for the criminally insane. Prison may look like ominous structures, but they need to so that prisoners are kept in until they

The Criminal Justice System are paroled. Once a convicted offender has reached the end of their prison term they become eligible for parole, which in turn releases them back into the community a rehabilitated citizen. The release of prisoners is the finish line for the criminal justice system.

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In closing, we have discussed the three steps of the criminal justice system. We have also learned about some of the specific jobs each step completes before moving on to the next. The criminal justice system may seem like a maze, but once we look at the big picture, it is clearly a direct path from bad back to good.

The Criminal Justice System References Holdsworth, L. (2008, March). Police officer: job description and activities. Retrieved from http://www.prospects.ac.uk/p/types_of_job/police_officer_job_description.jsp

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Schmalleger, Ph. D., F. (2009). Criminal jusice today. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc..

The Criminal Justice System The Criminal Justice System Justin Kruse CRJ100 Prof. Pionke Strayer University

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