intro to criminal justice final exam
Here is a study guide based on the information provided in the sources:
Introduction to Criminal Justice Concepts
Crime is distinguished from deviance, which is behavior deemed bad or inappropriate.
Crime is classified into two main types:
Mala in se: Acts that are inherently evil (e.g., murder, robbery, rape). These are classified as serious crime.
Mala prohibita: Acts not viewed as inherently bad but are still criminalized (e.g., underage drinking, speeding, loitering).
Policy refers to actions needed to deal with a problem or matter of concern. The criminal justice system engages with policy when it adjudicates (settles).
Philosophies of Crime and Punishment
Cesare Beccaria (classical school) focused on crime as a result of free will. Individuals weigh the costs and benefits of an action (e.g., robbing a bank for money).
The Positivist school suggests behaviors are determined by outside forces, and individuals do not have complete free will. (Example: a child growing up poor may be influenced toward a similar life).
Punishment Philosophies include retribution, deterrence, rehabilitation, and incapacitation.
Retribution: Criminals should be punished because they violated the law. This is an "eye for an eye" philosophy where the purpose doesn't necessarily help the punished. Just deserts is crime without progress.
Deterrence: Punishment aims for progress and reinforcers.
Specific deterrence: Refers to deterring a particular offender.
General deterrence: Prevents crime by showing others the experience of those punished.
A deterrent system involves: policies requiring crime victims to report crimes, certainty (punished for crime), severity (punishment outweighs benefit), and celerity (punishment happens fast).
Rehabilitation: Views criminals as "broken" and seeks to "repair" them through reformation and treatment. It occurs with individuals who have already committed a crime. This philosophy assumes criminals can be reformed and will no longer engage in crime once reformed. Examples include drug treatment, mental health counseling, and job training. Parole officers receive reports from offenders on parole living in the community.
Incapacitation: Belief that the role of the criminal justice system is to separate/segregate criminals from the rest of society to protect society. If they are removed from society, there should be less crime. The intent is to protect society, not punishment. It doesn't advocate treating offenders.
Policy implications include secure facilities (e.g., prisons and jails). Pure incapacitation emphasizes physical segregation. It restrains offenders from engaging in further criminal acts.
The intent behind habitual offender and "three-strikes" laws is incapacitation. They can incarcerate individuals if they continue to commit offenses.
Structure and Models of the Criminal Justice System
The system operates with a system of checks & balances. This involves balancing the rights of individuals (individual liberty) with a civil and calm society (societal civility).
Crime control model: Advocates efficient processing of offenders to suppress crime.
Due process: Advocates individual rights to ensure the government does not adjudicate offenders unfairly and ensures individual rights are not violated.
Societies rely upon informal social control to influence people's behavior.
The system involves discretion, which is the freedom of judgment or choice. This involves decision making by people involved in criminal justice, referred to as "criminal justice actors".
The Four C's of the Criminal Justice System highlight the importance of decision making by individuals:
Citizens: Victims, complaints, and offenders. They provide input by reporting crime and complying with laws.
Cops: Police and other law enforcement agents. Responsible for investigating crimes, arresting offenders, and maintaining public safety.
Courts: Pre-trial intake workers, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and judges. Responsible for ensuring justice through fair trials and legal proceedings. The courtroom workgroup involves actors from different organizations discussing decisions.
Corrections: Prisons, parole officers, correctional officers, and social workers. Manage convicted offenders and focus on punishment, rehabilitation, and reintegration into society.
Measuring Crime
Accurate measures are important for insights into the nature and extent of crime.
Dark figure of crime: Total number of unreported crimes.
Crime is usually expressed in one of two ways:
Count: Total number of crimes reported over a given time span.
Crime rate: Number of events per 1,000 or 100,000 people or residents.
Official Statistics: Gathered from criminal justice agencies (police). They represent the total number of crimes reported to the police or the number of arrests made.
Self-Report Statistics: Gathered by asking people to report the number of times they committed a crime during a past period. Respondents are usually promised confidentiality.
Pros: Better at discovering unreported crimes, good for exploring victimless crimes (e.g., illegal drug use, underage drinking).
Cons: Respondents may exaggerate or underreport their criminal behaviors ("tough guy person" or "doesn't remember").
Victimization studies: People are asked if they have been victims of crimes during a past time period.
Recent Trends in Criminal Justice
Re-entry: The process of coming back into society after being incarcerated.
Recidivate: Committing a new crime after being processed by the criminal justice system (e.g., arrest, conviction, incarceration).
Technology: Influenced criminals, crime, victims, and criminal justice. Provides new avenues for criminals and victimization (e.g., identity theft, credit card fraud).
Issues of Law
History of Law in the United States:
Common law: Law that was common throughout the country (state laws). Local judges applied common law.
Precedent: A past decision or action serving as a rule or example for future similar situations.
Sources of Law in the United States:
Legislatures create Statutory Law. This consists of statutes or formal legal rules governing behavior and enforced by courts.
Constitutions are the highest sources of law. They designate government bodies that carry out power, indicating what the government can/cannot do. Constitutional law ensures all laws (state and federal) and state constitutions abide by it or they will not be allowed to stand.
Legislative bodies engage in law creation and some lawmaking responsibilities. Administrative law creates rules and policies that govern their responsibilities.
Judicial bodies engage in law creation. Case law is based on laws created by other law.
Types of Law:
Substantive law: Defines rights and duties.
Procedural Law: Concerns due process in court – procedures that must be followed in carrying out the law.
Civil law: Private matters between two individuals or parties. Concerns wrongful injury, contracts, property issues, and domestic relations. Allows individuals wronged by another to take cases to court for a remedy, often involving money as punishment.
Criminal law: Concerns crime and punishments. Concerns issues between the government and individuals accused of violating government-created laws. Punishment often involves incarceration or imprisonment.
Principle of legality: Specifies what individuals can/cannot do and the punishments for wrongdoing. The government cannot punish individuals unless a law defines the conduct as a crime and prescribes a punishment.
Two behaviors to deem a crime criminal: act and intent.
Actus Reus (The Act): The physical act of a crime, which must be voluntary. An omission can also be an act (e.g., not reporting child abuse).
Mens Rea (Intent): Intent, motive, and mental state of a crime.
Criminal liability: Legal responsibility of committing a crime.
Types of Crimes:
Crimes against a person: Considered the most serious (e.g., homicide, rape, assault, kidnapping, robbery). Robbery can also include personal items.
Crimes against property: Not treated as seriously as personal crimes but are still serious (e.g., larceny/theft, burglary, arson, embezzlement, trespass).
Crime against public order: Don't necessarily harm other persons or property. Largely victimless crimes(e.g., DUI, disorderly conduct, vagrancy, loitering). Many public morals offenses involve sexual behavior considered immoral and deviant by some (e.g., prostitution).
Drug Offenses: Categorized due to the government's reaction to illegal drug use. Examples include possession of illegal drugs (marijuana, cocaine) and paraphernalia (needles).
White-collar offenses: Committed during the course of one's job. Individuals from higher socioeconomic status are more likely to commit these (e.g., tax evasion, price fixing, insider trading).
Defenses to Criminal Liability:
Justification: Where force is used if an individual reasonably believes it was necessary for protection against an impending attack (e.g., self-defense). A crime is justified based on the belief that what was done was right. The amount of force used must be reasonable (e.g., deadly force for stealing a purse is not reasonable).
Mental Capacity: Where an individual is incapable of understanding the wrongness of their actions (insanity). The M'Naughten Rule is used to determine criminal responsibility due to insanity. A defendant can't be guilty if they did not understand the nature and quality of their actions or did not know their actions were wrong due to severe mental illness.
Recent Trends in Substantive Criminal Law:
The Internet and criminal behavior (e.g., illegal downloading, identity theft, child pornography, virus spreading, sponsoring terrorism, copyright law, cyberstalking, unauthorized access, theft of wireless devices).
Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Criminal Law. Laws were implemented after 9/11 to combat terrorism. The Homeland Security Act of 2002 created a department to prevent terrorist attacks, reduce vulnerability, minimize damage, and assist in recovery.
Procedural Law and Constitutional Rights
Ex post facto: Laws cannot change the past.
Bills of attainder: Declares a party guilty.
Habeas corpus: Protects from unlawful or indefinite punishments.
Trial by jury: Guarantee to be judged by a jury of peers.
The Bill of Rights and the 14th Amendment are fundamental. Key rights protected include:
1st: Speech
2nd: Bear arms
4th: Searches without warrant
5th: Right to remain silent. Includes the self-incrimination clause (cannot be compelled to confess) and protection against double jeopardy (cannot be tried twice for the same crime).
6th: Right to speedy and public trial. Right to counsel.
8th: Cruel and unusual punishment. Protection against excessive fines.
14th: Citizenship rights and equal protection.
The exclusionary rule: Illegally seized evidence will be excluded from the prosecution.
Right to an impartial trial. Judges and juries must be unbiased and neutral.
Right to counsel.
Law Enforcement (The Police)
Law compliance: Following and obeying rules, regulations, and laws.
The police may use force to ensure law is obeyed and public order preserved.
Police discretion: The police combine knowledge with verbal and nonverbal information ("situational exigencies") to make a judgment and decide on a response.
Three primary responsibilities of police work:
Law enforcement: Apprehending criminals after crimes occur. Includes crime prevention – ensuring safety by denying criminals opportunity before violence occurs (e.g., visual patrol, neighborhood watch, property marking, safe havens, citizen patrols, school resource officers).
Order maintenance: Handling conflicts that create alarm, concern, fear, or inconvenience. Those calling don't always expect arrests but want order restored (e.g., mediation, referral, mere threat of arrest).
Service: Providing directions, assistance to disabled motorists, funeral escorts, administering permits, emergency relays of blood, etc.. Due to this, police are trained to be generalists.
Role of Police in Society - Eras:
Political Era (19th Century): American cities run by "machine" politics; police often poorly trained and corrupt.
Professional Era (Half of 20th Century): Improving hiring and training standards, incorporating scientific methods into criminal investigation.
Community Policing Era (Late 20th and Early 21st Century): Focused on community and keeping order.
The 1960s: Crisis and Response: Social individualism expanded (e.g., free speech, rock and roll, hippies, LGBT+ movements). The exclusionary rule was extended to state courts. The Civil Rights movement gained attention. A 1967 report found police were poorly educated, trained, equipped, and led.
The Kansas City Preventive Patrol Experiment suggested routine patrol had little impact on crime, fear, awareness, or confidence.
The Flint (Michigan) Neighborhood Foot Patrol Program asserted the need for community-oriented policing with greater contact between police and citizens.
The Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment provided evidence that arrests had a greater deterrent effect on subsequent marital violence.
Community Policing Era - Recent Trends:
Today, the community policing model is resurgent and includes zero-tolerance policing and Compstat models.
These models draw legitimacy from the Broken Windows theory. A broken window signals that "no one cares," inviting further vandalism. This refers to overlooking "small things" like public drug sales, drunkenness, and prostitution.
Order-maintenance policing: A focus on these "small things" that were overlooked.
Problem-oriented policing: Emphasizes analysis of crimes and situations, looking for patterns and specific causes that give rise to multiple events. Fashions solutions to the causes and extends beyond police service, integrating other agencies.
Community-oriented policing: Emphasizes collaboration between law enforcement and communities to identify and address public safety concerns. Involves partnerships, a problem-solving approach, decentralization/flexibility, and proactive crime prevention.
Zero-tolerance: The idea that taking care of "little things" (disorder) will cause "big things" (crime) to take care of themselves.
Compstat: Use of weekly statistics as a basis for police operations.
Intelligence-led policing: The war on terror led to fusion centers to collect, assess, and coordinate information about possible terrorist activities. Also related to guns, drugs, gangs, human trafficking, child pornography, etc..
Structure of Police Agencies:
Local Police: Most common association with police. Authority can be extended via mutual aid pacts or being sworn in as special officers.
Sheriff: Oldest police office, authorized by state constitution in many states. Serves all three branches of criminal justice: policing, courts (provide security, serve writs), and corrections (run county jails). Primary law enforcement in rural/unincorporated areas.
County Police: Departments that have taken over sheriff's law enforcement duties. Responsible to county executive/council, jurisdiction overlaps with municipal police.
Constables: Abolished or restricted to minor court/service duties in many places. May still serve court writs and provide patrol in some areas.
Special Police: For limited purposes, may run through multiple jurisdictions ("reserves," "special officers," "auxiliary officers"). Work for municipal, county, sheriff's departments, often with regular jobs, paid hourly or are volunteers.
State Police/Patrol: State police have standard duties and general jurisdiction. State patrol primarily enforce traffic laws on state highways.
Federal (Justice, Homeland, Treasury): Specific powers and jurisdiction under federal law, do not enforce state or local laws. Examples: Border Patrol, Customs Service, Federal Protective Services, U.S. Mint Police. Federal and state jurisdictions may overlap (e.g., interstate crimes). Multi-jurisdictional Task Forcesinvolve federal and state agencies (e.g., human trafficking, internet fraud).
Tribal Police: Jurisdiction over its own members, using traditional methods.
Private Police: Augmented form of private security, rights derived from property rights. First responders for alarms, access control, handle disputes similar to patrol.
Organization:
Chain of command: Conveys information up (front line to administration) and orders/information down. (Patrol -> Sergeants -> Lieutenants -> Captains).
Sworn vs. Civilian: Employment of civilians (non-sworn/contract employees) for tasks not requiring extensive training (e.g., records, dispatch, fleet maintenance, personnel, budget, CSIs). Civilians are trained only for their special function.
Specialization: For sworn officers in specific areas (e.g., high-risk warrant service, HAZMAT).
Supervision: Officers observe and assist parole officers.
Geography: Beat is a specific part of town patrol is responsible for. Larger agencies use precinctscontaining several beats. Contract Cities hire for a specific number of hours. Beat integrity is the policy of keeping officers assigned to one beat consistently. Troops and regional task forces exist.
Shifts: Rotating shifts (e.g., four 10-hour days, three 12-hour days), steady shifts (seniority/bid lottery), power shifts (extra presence during active evening/weekend hours).
Police work and career paths:
Single-entry tracks: Begin careers in jails supervising prisoners.
Dual-entry tracks: (implied separate entry points for different roles).
Hiring Process: 1. Police Academy (preservice training). 2. Tests and background check (written, psychological, physical). Stress-based academies similar to military boot camps; campus-based academies on college campuses. 3. Field Training. 4. Promotion (e.g., detective, internal affairs).
Enduring elements and issues: Use of force, police corruption, harassment & racial profiling, force continuum, Blue wall of silence, consent decrees, civilian review.
The Court System
Dual court system: The federal government has its own court system, and states have their own.
Federal courts: Responsible for violations of federal laws.
State courts: Responsible for violations of state laws.
Jurisdiction: Authority of courts to hear certain types of cases. Limited in the types of cases they rule upon.
Adversarial system of Justice: Defendant vs. the state (prosecutor). Involves a neutral body (judge or jury) that decides the outcome. The state must prove its case against the defendant. Presumption of innocence ("innocent until proven guilty").
Types of Courts:
Appellate courts: Established for federal court circuits (e.g., southern, middle, eastern). Have appellate jurisdiction – cases do not originate here, only hear cases brought up on appeal.
Trial courts of limited jurisdiction.
Actors in the court system:
Judges: Federal judges and state/local judges. State judges can be selected by partisan election (candidates declare affiliation), nonpartisan election (affiliation not specified), or merit selection (group recommends nominees to governor).
Prosecutors: Federal prosecutors and state/local prosecutors.
Defense Attorneys (DA): Represent the defendant. Can be Private Attorneys (PA). For the poor, they can be Appointed Attorneys (AA) – assigned counsel (volunteer services, smaller caseload) or public defender(specializes in defending the poor). Legal aid provides payment for services. Pro bono means donating services out of professional obligation.
Pro se: Criminal defendants allowed to represent themselves.
Other court actors: Bailiffs are responsible for maintaining order in the courtroom.
Movement of cases through the court system:
Initial stages to formal charging:
Initial appearance: Defendant informed of charges, bail decision made, representation arranged (if applicable), date set for next stage. Misdemeanors can be sentenced immediately; felonies must wait.
Preliminary hearing: Lower-court judge views evidence to determine if probable cause exists to proceed to trial.
Arraignment: Requirement of a plea.
Plea agreement/Plea bargain: Defendant makes a deal with the court to reduce charge or sentence. A method of disposing of caseload while dispensing justice.
Assembly-line justice: Used to illustrate the movement of cases through the courts.
Case Attrition: Handles and filters out cases from the court system.
Trial: If defendant pleads not guilty, a trial date is set. Right to jury trial is limited to defendants charged with "serious" offenses (authorized punishment of six months or more incarceration).
Bench trial: Judge alone hears evidence and renders verdict.
Master jury list: Identifies potential jurors (e.g., registered voters, valid DL owners).
Venire: Jury pool.
Voir dire: Process of questioning venire.
Challenge for cause: Allows attorneys to dismiss unlimited jurors for legal reasons.
Peremptory challenge: Dismiss a limited number of jurors without needing a specific reason.
Burden of proof: Prosecution must prove the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Rebuttal: Both sides have a chance to refute the other side's evidence.
Hung jury: (Implied results in a mistrial or retrial, not defined in sources).
Sentencing:
Indeterminate sentencing: Goals of rehabilitation and incapacitation.
Determinate sentencing: (Implied fixed sentence length).
Sentencing guidelines: Helps curb inconsistent decision making by judges and parole boards.
Available sanctions:
Prison: For felony offenders, reserved for more serious offenders.
Death Penalty.
Jail: For those convicted of misdemeanors.
Intermediate sanctions: The middle line between prison and probation. Examples: intensive supervision probation, house arrest, boot camps.
Fines: Oldest type of sanction, usually for traffic offenses or failure to follow.
Appeals: Opportunity to have a case reviewed by an appellate court to fix problems.
Post conviction review/collateral attack: Claim of illegal detainment.
Trends in the court system:
Creation of specialized courts dealing with certain kinds of offenders.
Specialized courts include Drug Courts, Mental health courts, Domestic Assault courts, and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA Court).
Increased victim involvement.
Restorative Justice.
Alternative Dispute resolution.
Use of Court Technology.
Use of Jury Consultants.
Corrections
History of Punishment - Eras:
Era of the Penitentiary (1800s-1860s): Dominated by incapacitation and deterrence philosophies. Involved separate (solitary) and congregate (gather in mass) systems.
Era of Reform: Related to employment where inmates could earn their way out. Labor (vocational, educational) was purposeful rather than just punishment.
Era of Industry: Involved Convict labor, including convict leasing where prisoners were rented to private businesses (e.g., railroad companies, plantations, coal mines, factories).
Era of Rehabilitation: Focus on individual offender needs, less reliance on prisons. Rehabilitation replaced incapacitation and deterrence. Linked to the "Medical Model".
Era of Retribution: Justice systems focused on punishment as a primary response ("an eye for an eye").
Era of Re-entry: Focus on helping incarcerated individuals reintegrate after release. Includes rehabilitation, job training, education, and support systems.
Front-door options: Community-based sanctions (e.g., probation).
Back-door options: Early-release mechanisms (e.g., parole, halfway houses).
Institutional Corrections:
Jails & detention centers: Designed to hold offenders for a brief period, usually less than 12 months. New generation jails (NGJs) house fewer inmates in pods/modules, often 7-12 inmates per cell.
Modern Prisons: Designed for those unresponsive to community supervision, pose a threat, or committed serious offenses (felonies). Classification review determines the best placement.
Prison Types:
Supermax Prisons: Most restrictive and secure, for the most incorrigible and dangerous. Have sophisticated security and rigorous safety procedures.
Maximum-security prisons: Highest level of security, hold most violent and disruptive offenders.
Close security prisons: Lie between max and medium security. Hold convicts of violent crimes who don't need max security OR disruptive offenders not posing a threat to inmates/staff.
Medium-security prisons: Most open and least restrictive. Potentially hold nonviolent convicts with minimum security risk or those nearing release. Offer greatest freedom and movement.
Specialized Prisons: Hold inmates with specific characteristics (e.g., substance-abusing, sex offenders, mentally handicapped/psychiatric prisoners).
Private Prisons: Operated by a private corporation.
Custody and Security within Institutions: The goal is maintaining custody of inmates. Inmates outnumber correctional officers. Secure custody means being physically secure and preventing escape, limiting assaults on staff, and ensuring efficient functioning (e.g., head counts, feeding, work detail).
Prison Violence and Prison Discipline.
Prison life: Involves Prison subculture and coping.
Deprivation model: Explains the formation of prison subcultures and adaptation to the environment; the nature/impact of a prison culture varies. Pains of imprisonment include loss of liberty, deprivation of goods/services, barring of heterosexual relations, and limitations to prisoners.
Importation model: Suggests that skills, experiences, and individuals brought into prison affect the culture and ability to adjust (e.g., prison programs).
Institutional Corrections and Technology:
Facility design and surveillance: Modern jails use designs for better supervision and communication (e.g., video surveillance/CCTV).
Inmate tracking and Identification: RFID wristbands track movement; biometric tech (fingerprint scanning) provides accuracy.
Information Management Systems: Jail information management systems (JIMS) streamline records (booking, court data, medical histories).
Security Control Systems: Advanced touch-screen controls manage facility access.
Community Supervision Tech: GPS monitoring tracks offenders on parole/probation, ensures compliance, reduces recidivism risks.
Special Offender Populations: HIV/AIDS+ inmates, substance abusers, aging/elderly, mental illness. Deinstitutionalization is reducing the number held in prisons by shifting to alternatives (rehabilitation, probation, community support). Transinstitutionalization is a shift from prisons to other institutions (psych hospitals, shelters) rather than full community reintegration. Dual-disorder inmates have both substance abuse and mental health issues.
Problems, rights, and implications in modern Prisons: Include inmate rights, crowding, and violence.
Community corrections: Constitute various sanctions and forms of supervision outside traditional imprisonment. Includes probation, intermediate sanctions, and parole supervisions.
Community Supervision: Provides alternatives, allows rehabilitation/reintegration while maintaining oversight.
Contemporary Community corrections.
Types of correctional Sanctions: Fines, Community Service Work (CSW), Probation, Jail, Shock incarceration, Community correctional facilities, Day Reporting Center (DRC), Boot Camps, Intensive Supervision Probation (ISP), Prisons.
Probation and Intermediate Sanctions:
Probation: Alternative to imprisonment, offers opportunities for rehabilitation/reintegration, often used for less serious offenses, part of front-door options.
Intermediate Sanctions: Middle ground between prison and probation, alternative methods of punishment/rehabilitation, offer flexible sentencing options, allow for graduated levels of punishment/supervision.
Includes Intensive Supervision Probation (ISP) (frequent contact), House Arrest (offenders may not leave home except for approved places like work/treatment), Boot camps (identified with shock incarceration).
Day Reporting Center (DRC): Offenders report to a center, maintain limited movement, potentially continue work/treatment. Restrictions on leaving except for work, treatment, food shopping, other approved locations.
Residential Programs: Also known as halfway houses, for offenders halfway between prison and complete freedom.
Net widening: Expansion of social control and criminal justice system interventions. Introduces seemingly less restrictive sanctions but paradoxically increases overall system involvement. Expands the reach of criminal justice control.
Post-Release supervision and Reintegration:
Types of Release:
Split sentences: Inmate serves probation after release.
Max Sentences: Inmate serves whole prison sentence.
Supervised release: Period of supervision in jurisdictions with determinate sentencing.
Parole Supervision: Given by parole authority after serving minimum sentence (in systems with determinate prison terms).
Prison Reentry and Reintegration: Activities and programs to assist offenders returning to society. Examples: Job training, Drug treatment, Education, Mental Health counseling, Support Systems. Includes probation (front-door option) and parole (back-door option).
Rehabilitation Philosophy: Focuses on individual needs, assumes criminals can be reformed, aims to prevent further crime.
Offender Responsibilities: Also called conditions of supervision.
Standard conditions: Rules all offenders must follow (e.g., obey all laws, inform officer of work/address change, no leaving jurisdiction without approval).
Special conditions: Based on offender needs/risks (e.g., sex offender treatment, substance abuse counseling, GED completion, payment of restitution). Restitution is restoration of something lost/stolen.
Officer Responsibilities: Include completing the Presentence Investigation document. This document is completed after a guilty plea/finding and includes facts about the offender, the offense, and relevant information (criminal/substance history, employment, education, harm to victims) used by the court.
Diversion Programs: Offers offenders temporary halt to prosecution. If program requirements are completed, the prosecutor typically dismisses charges.
Supervision violations: Violations of probation, parole, or intermediate sanction conditions.
New-offense violations: Offenders commit new crimes while under supervision.
Technical violations: Violations of conditions that don't involve violations of criminal statutes.
Juvenile Justice
Grew out of concerns that large institutions were harmful, costly, and made youth worse.
Major goals: Protect kids from harsh prison-like environments, focus more on rehabilitation than punishment, keep kids closer to families/communities, address racial/economic disparities, save money by investing in prevention/community programs.
Probation: Greater emphasis on providing treatment and aid to youths and reduced interest in simply monitoring/enforcing rules.
Aftercare: Uses treatment ideas similar to probation (e.g., retail therapy, behavior modification). Emphasis on educational achievement and vocational training.
Special Topics
Gangs: Youths tend to commit offenses when with other youths.
Group Hazard Hypothesis: Society responds more to group transgressions than individual violations.
Detached Worker Programs: Place gang workers in the community, freeing them from paperwork.
Boston Gun Project: Pulling levers sought deterrence via zero-tolerance response to any transgression by a gang member. The entire gang was held responsible for acts of its members.
G.R.E.A.T. (Gang Resistance Education and Training): Police officers teach antigang/antiviolence lessons in middle schools.
Restorative Justice (reparative): Seeks interventions to return victims, offenders, and communities to their pre-offense states.
Family group conferencing: Young offender, family, victim, and others discuss the offense and create a plan to repair the harm.