Criminal Justice Paper

The criminal justice system has been proven to play a very important role in society. The criminal justice system is used to keep the citizens in check and to make sure that the laws that are made are being followed. It also is there to penalize anyone who disobeys the laws. In the criminal justice system, there are 3 main parts, law enforcement, adjudication, and corrections. Law enforcement is self-explainable. It consists of the law enforcers such as police officers and sheriffs. Adjudication is made up of people in the court house such as judges and lawyers. Corrections is made up of jailhouse matters such as prison officials. In these many components of the criminal justice system, there are all put in place to help correct people to do the right thing. There are punitive efforts and rehabilitative efforts. At time, the system may lean towards one category or more, which can be dangerous in terms of disciplinary action. The criminal justice system is more punitive than rehabilitative which makes the system ineffective.

The SAGE dictionary of criminology- “Crime is not a self-evident and unitary concept. Its constitution is diverse, historically relative and continually contested. As a result an answer to the question ‘what is crime?’ depends upon which of its multiple constitutive elements is emphasized. This in turn depends upon the theoretical position taken by those defining crime”.

Our Justice system is made up of these three main components; Law Enforcement, Courts, and Corrections. These components are what helps our Justice system run smoothly and fairly. Our law enforcement officers help keep the peace and citizens safe. The Courts are ran by judges who help to sentence offenders and oversee trials. Finally, Corrections is a component in

The Public Policy of Crime and Criminal Justice, by Nancy E. Marion and Willard M. Oliver. Published by Prentice Hall. Copyright © 2006 by Pearso

Fred is drunk and driving his dad’s car. Fred is a 21 year old student at Columbia College. Fred rams into a parked car at 10th and Rogers. Thinking no one saw him; Fred moves his car and parks it on an adjacent lot. He sprints to his dorm room in Miller Hall. A neighbor saw the wreck and Fred running to the dorm. Police are called and they arrive ten minutes after the wreck. The officers see several empty beer cans and a bottle of tequila (half full) in the front seat. The tags are traced to Fred’s dad, who is called by police. Dad says that Fred is a student at Columbia College. Police run Fred's record and determine that he has two prior DWIs within the past five years. The third DWI in 10 years is a felony. Police contact

Ethics in the criminal justice system is of great importance. Unlike other professions the individuals working within the criminal justice field have to work with individuals who violate laws and social values. This paper will focus on normative ethics, which basically means what individuals ought to do in a given situation. Out of all of the professions within the criminal justice system ethical behavior within the police force is arguably the most important.

Throughout the years, the association between a criminal offense and a criminal have become more relevant. Although there are many theories that try to illustrate the concept of why crimes happen, no theory has a profound influence of understanding an individual’s nature, relationship, development, and a society itself (Coleman & Ganong, 2014). To further explain, “theories of crime are defined in relation to modernity, spanning their development from the enlightenment to the present, with the advent of postmodernism” (Miller, 2012, p. 1798). In other words, theories of crime are an approach to understanding an individuals behaviour and actions in their environment, society, and themselves that may lead to crime. Nevertheless, within this paper, it will be comparing the case of

17. Discuss the major differences in how the three theoretical approaches of Sociology view crime and deviance. Give examples of specific theories.

There are three components that work side by side in the criminal justice system: courts, law enforcement, and corrections. All three work together to prevent crimes, and proper sentencing of criminals.

Two theories which I found to be interesting are Social Control Theory and Labeling Theory. Social Control Theory is a theory that claims individuals commit crimes based on their social interactions with others. In other words, an individual's social group such as friends and family aid in determining if they will commit a crime based on the moral values their loved ones express. Thus, this theory ultimately comes to claim that the relationships a person has with other people take on a great role in crime as a lack of obtaining these emotional connections with others causes individuals to commit crimes because they lack these ties to others to encourage

As stated previously, crime is a social construct. Societies inevitably change over time and across cultures. One limitation reflects this concept in that definitions of what is “criminal” changes and what was labeled criminal in the past may no longer be so across time or place. That is, though the theory is a mesoanalysis in that it goes beyond individual explanations, there is no ubiquitous definition of crime. In addition, labels decline in importance and influence.

Crime prevalently commits around the globe either refer back to past experiences or even within present or ongoing society. Crime is indeed not commendable to commit in any society. However, we cannot rule out the possibility that it is there as a complex issue and well explained as a part of any particular society. Therefore, what crime actually is? Crime delineates as an illegal act either against law, collective wellbeing, or even political wellbeing (Bradley & Walters, 2011). It then overall deems as a kind of harmful behavior towards certain values or norms of the society it committed in.

Discuss the role of rehabilitation in the justice system (using three theories of crime to back up)

Crime has always been socially defined, determined by morals ethics and perceptions, and leads to varying and competing views and comprehensive debate. It can be universally agreed that the definition of crime in terms of legal parameters and also defining crimes in terms of sociological definitions, can be argued to be the main to focuses when attempting to answer this question. It relies on existing social and cultural norms.

A normative definition views crime as deviant behavior that violates prevailing norms  – cultural standards prescribing how humans ought to behave normally. This approach considers the complex realities surrounding the concept of crime and seeks to understand how changing social, political, psychological, and economic conditions may affect changing definitions of crime and the form of the legal, law-enforcement, and penal responses made by society.