The Criminal Justice System

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The Criminal Justice System
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The Goals of the Criminal Justice System

• Doing Justice
• Controlling Crime
• Preventing Crime

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- Doing Justice

• This aspect of our government separates us from
  authoritarian governments we try to be fair.
  
• There are 3 principals to doing justice
• Offenders will held fully accountable for their
  actions
  
• The rights of persons who have contact with the
  system will be protected
  
• Like offenses will be treated alike and officials
  will take into account relevant differences among
  offenders and offenses
  
• the system is built to protect the people- both
  the general public affected by crimes, and the
  people who commit the crimes.

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- Controlling Crime

• The Criminal Justice system is designed to
  control crime by arresting, prosecuting,
  convicting, and punishing those who disobey the
  law.
• The criminal law not only defines what is illegal
  but also outlines the rights of citizens and
  procedures officials must use to achieve the
  systems goals.
• So even in the laws, there are protections built
  in for the people.

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- Preventing Crime

• The police, courts, and corrections systems try
  to deter crimes before they happen- so they
  sometimes make the convicted criminals into
  examples.
• Prevention of crime depends on the citizens- they
  must actively try to prevent crime.
  
• A major influence on the criminal justice system
  is the public.

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Criminal Justice in a Federal System

• Our government is federalist- that means we have
  different levels of government national and
  state.
  
• Criminal Justice powers are divided between the
  nation and the state.
  
• The National government has the FBI, can try
  criminal cases in federal courts, and has federal
  prisons.
  
• Most criminal justice activity takes place in the
  state though.

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Criminal Justice in a Federal System

• Two Justice Systems-
• Though most criminal laws are enacted by the
  states, Congress has enacted a few federal
  criminal laws which are enforced by the FBI, DEA,
  and Secret Service.
• The vast majority of criminals break state laws
  and will end of in state penitentiaries.
  
• Sometimes the federal and state officials will
  struggle for jurisdiction because there is no
  clear cut division of who has control in certain
  circumstances.
• For Example, when JFK was killed, Lee Harvey
  Oswald was charged by the state of TX because
  Congress had not passed a law that stated killing
  a president was a federal offense.

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Lee Harvey Oswald being shot while under state
custody.
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Criminal Justice in a Federal System

• Expansion of Federal Involvement-
• Over the past 40 years, the role of the national
  government has expanded in law enforcement. The
  national government now focuses on street crimes,
  drugs, violent crimes, terrorism, and juvenile
  delinquency.
• The FBI often focuses on issues which local law
  enforcement agencies would have trouble
  handling.
  
• Since 9/11 more of the federal governments
  resources have focused on stopping terrorism and
  so some of the older crimes have went back to
  being handled by the states.

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Homeland Security

• The biggest change in the criminal justice system
  was the creation of the Department of Homeland
  Security in 2002.
  
• The Secretary of Homeland Security reports to the
  president and oversees the Coast Guard, the
  Immigration and Naturalization Service, the
  Border Patrol, the Secret Service, the Federal
  Emergency Management Agency, and other agencies
  concerned with food supply, nuclear power
  facilities, and other potential terrorism targets.

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Characteristics of the Criminal Justice System

• There are four major characteristics of how this
  system works, they are
  
• Discretion
• Resource Dependence
• Sequential Tasks
• Filtering

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Discretion

• This means that the law enforcement agent has the
  freedom to act according to their own judgment
  and conscience.
  
• There are two reasons we need discretion in our
  system- 1. it is needed b/c the system doesnt
  have the resources to pursue every case. 2. it
  permits officials to achieve greater justice than
  rigid rules would.
• so basically a police officer can decide whether
  or not to pursue a case.

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Police Using discretion to make arrest
http//badgerherald.com/
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Resource Dependence

• Police officers do not raise money, instead they
  rely on legislators, mayors, city councils, etc.
  So they must keep a good relationship with these
  people.
• Some departments raise money through fines, but
  it isnt enough to run the department. (In fact,
  that is what Big Cabin got in trouble for.)
  
• Presenting good information about your department
  to the public helps both the politicians who
  control the money and the police department
  itself.

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Sequential Tasks

• Everything in the criminal justice system goes in
  an order-
  
• arrestprosecutor reviews casethere is a court
  case etc.
  
• If the order is messed up then the city wont
  have the resources to pursue the case. They have
  to do the cases one at a time, unless they are a
  bigger department with more people to work on the
  cases.

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Filtering

• At each stage of the criminal justice system some
  of the defendants are sent on to the next stage,
  while other are either released or processed
  under changed conditions.
• Look at p. 80, then lets use math again to figure
  what an accused persons chances of being
  convicted are.
  
• incarcerated / accused at beginning____

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Parts of Criminal Justice System

• Police- they are considered the front line and
  are in charge of 1. keeping the peace, 2.
  apprehending violators and combating crime, 3.
  preventing crime, and 4. providing social
  services.
• Courts- responsible for adjudication-
  determining whether a defendant is guilty or not
  guilty. We have both a US court system and state
  court systems.
• Corrections- On any day almost 7 million American
  adults are in the US correctional system. Most
  corrections take place at city and county jails.
  People are most likely to think of prisons when
  they think of corrections, but prisons have less
  than 30 of convicts.

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Federal Court District
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Your Assignment

• Use the laptops to look up more information about
  one of the following
  
• Police
• Courts
• Corrections
• Which ever topic you choose, I want to know what
  city, county, or federal facilities we have
  within a 20 mile radius of Vinita.