Class 2

1
Class 2

• Introduction to Class
• and
• The Study and Scope of Justice Administration

2
Introduction to Criminal Justice 483 Enforcement
Systems

• Introduction
• Student Introductions
• Course Outline

3
The Study and Scope of Justice Administration

• Understanding the Police

4
Understanding the Police

• First responders
• The impossible mandate
• Police must serve many masters
• Public
• Prosecutors
• Politicians
• Criminals
• Victims
• Judges
• Etc.

5
Understanding the Police

• The police dilemma
• Balancing publics fear of crime with a fair
  application of the law.
• Suppose the downtown section of Long Beach is
  considered a high crime area and more police
  officers were assigned to patrol there.
• What are your concerns if you live there vs. if
  you dont live there?

6
Understanding the Police

• Image vs. reality
• Goals of the police
• Law enforcement
• Peacekeeping and order maintenance
• Crime prevention
• Protecting civil rights
• Delivery of services

7
A True System of Justice?

• Criticism of the system is it is fragmented, role
  conflicts, and overcrowding
• Three viewpoints
• Criminal justice as a process
• The criminal justice network
• Criminal justice non-system

8
Figure 1.1
9
A Criminal Justice Process?

• Decisions and actions of participants (i.e.
  offender, victim, society, an institution) that
  influence offenders movement into, through, out
  of system
• Components operate on their own, but decision in
  one section affects the other(s)

10
A Criminal Justice Network?

• Network based on erroneous assumptions
• Components cooperate and share similar goals
• Network operates to a set of formal procedural
  rules to ensure justice is served
• The accused receives due process and presumed
  innocent
• Offenders receive speedy, public trial

11
A Criminal Justice Network?

• Assumptions are erroneous because
• Components have incompatible goals
• Different classes of people receive differential
  treatment
• Not all people are prosecuted, convicted, sent to
  prison, etc people not presumed innocent
• Backlog of cases impedes speedy trial

12
A Criminal Justice Nonsystem?

• System is not efficient
• Not a coordinated structure
• Numerous problems
• Discretion breeds inconsistency

13
Or a True Criminal Justice System?

• A system does exist, it just functions very poorly