Criminal Justice System
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51 Terms
Goals of the Criminal Justice System
Doing justice, controlling crime, and preventing crime.
Doing Justice
Forms the basis for the rules, procedures, and institutions of the criminal justice system.
Controlling Crime
Involves arresting, prosecuting, and punishing those who commit offenses.
Preventing Crime
Requires the efforts of citizens as well as justice system officials.
Evidence-Based Policies
Justice system officials increasingly rely on social science research to develop policies that may increase their effectiveness.
Federal Criminal Justice Operations
Federal officials enforce laws defined by Congress and have shifted greater attention to antiterrorist efforts since 9/11.
State Criminal Justice Operations
Most criminal laws and criminal cases are under the authority of state criminal justice systems.
Criminal Justice as a System
Composed of many organizations that are interdependent and interact to achieve their goals.
Primary Subsystems of Criminal Justice
Police, courts, and corrections.
Key Characteristics of Criminal Justice System
Discretion, resource dependence, sequential tasks, and filtering.
Decision-Making Process in Criminal Justice
Involves a series of decisions by police officers, prosecutors, judges, probation officers, wardens, and parole board members.
adjudication
The legal process of resolving a dispute or deciding a case.
arrest
The act of detaining a person suspected of a crime.
exchange
The process of giving and receiving something in return, often seen in plea bargaining.
crime control model
A model that emphasizes efficient processing of cases to repress crime.
crimes
Acts that are prohibited by law and punishable by the state.
discretion
The power or right to decide or act according to one's own judgment.
discrimination
Unjust treatment of different categories of people, often based on race or ethnicity.
disparity
Inequality or difference in treatment or outcomes among different groups.
dual court system
A system of courts that includes both federal and state courts.
due process model
A model that focuses on careful, reliable decisions and the protection of rights.
evidence-based practices
Strategies and methods that are based on empirical evidence and research.
federalism
A system of government in which power is divided between a central authority and constituent political units.
felonies
Serious crimes typically punishable by imprisonment for more than one year.
filtering process
The method by which cases are screened and processed through the criminal justice system.
implicit bias
Unconscious attitudes or stereotypes that affect understanding, actions, and decisions.
indictment
A formal charge or accusation of a serious crime.
information
A formal accusation made by a prosecutor without a grand jury indictment.
mala in se
Crimes that are considered inherently evil or wrong.
mala prohibita
Crimes that are not inherently evil but are prohibited by law.
misdemeanors
Less serious crimes typically punishable by less than one year of imprisonment.
plea bargain
An agreement in which a defendant pleads guilty to a lesser charge in exchange for a lighter sentence.
system
A set of connected things or parts forming a complex whole, in this case, the criminal justice process.
warrant
A legal document authorizing police to perform a search or make an arrest.
The Criminal Justice Wedding Cake
Top 1: The celebrated cases- highly unusual, receive much public attention, result in a jury trial, and often drag on through many appeals.
The Criminal Justice Wedding Cake
2: The serious felonies- serious felonies such as violent crimes committed by persons with long criminal records.
The Criminal Justice Wedding Cake
3: The lesser felonies- crimes and the accused individuals are seen by prosecutors as less serious and threatening than those in Layer 2.The offenses may be the same as those in some Layer 2 cases, but the offender may have no prior record.
The Criminal Justice Wedding Cake
4: The misdemeanors- About 90 percent of all cases fall into this category. They concern such offenses as public drunkenness, shoplifting, prostitution, disturbing the peace, and traffic violations.
The Flow of Decision Making in the Criminal Justice System
1. Investigation. The process begins when the police believe that a crime has been committed.
The Flow of Decision Making in the Criminal Justice System
2. Arrest. If the police find enough evidence showing that a specific person has committed a crime, an arrest may be made.
The Flow of Decision Making in the Criminal Justice System
3. Booking. After an arrest, the suspect is usually transported to a police station for booking, in which a record is made of the arrest.
The Flow of Decision Making in the Criminal Justice System
4- Charging. Prosecuting attorneys are the key link between the police and the courts.
The Flow of Decision Making in the Criminal Justice System
5. Initial appearance. Within a reasonable time after arrest, the suspect must be brought before a judge.
The Flow of Decision Making in the Criminal Justice System
6. Preliminary hearing/grand jury. After suspects have been arrested, booked, and brought to court to be informed of the charges against them and advised of their rights, a decision must be made as to whether there is enough evidence to proceed.
The Flow of Decision Making in the Criminal Justice System
7. Indictment/information. If the preliminary hearing leads to an information or the grand jury vote leads to an indictment, the prosecutor prepares the formal charging document and presents it to the court.
The Flow of Decision Making in the Criminal Justice System
8. Arraignment. The accused person appears in court to hear the indictment or information read by a judge and to enter a plea.
The Flow of Decision Making in the Criminal Justice System
9. Trial. For the small percentage of defendants who plead not guilty, the right to a trial by an impartial jury is guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment if any of the charges are serious enough to warrant incarceration for more than six months.
The Flow of Decision Making in the Criminal Justice System
10. Sentencing. Judges are responsible for imposing sentences.
The Flow of Decision Making in the Criminal Justice System
11. Appeal. Defendants who are found guilty may appeal convictions to a higher court.
The Flow of Decision Making in the Criminal Justice System
12. Corrections. The court’s sentence is carried out by the correctional subsystem.
The Flow of Decision Making in the Criminal Justice System
13. Release. Release may not occur until the convicted person has served the full sentence imposed by the court, but most people are returned to the community earlier under the supervision of a parole officer