Criminal Justice Reading
L01
Crime and violence have existed in the United States for more than 200 years, and the crime rate was much higher 100 years ago than it is today
Guerilla activity was frequent before, during, and after the Revolutionary War
1-1a Crime in the Old West
After the Civil War, many former Union and Confederate soldiers headed west; some resorted to murder, theft, and robber.
Violent and property crime victimizations increased from 2010 to 2012, then declined until 2015, at which point they started increasing. Crime remains significantly lower today relative to 20 years ago.
For example, the violent crime victimization rate was around 80 per 1,000 people in 1993; it is less than 30 today.
1-1b Crime in the Cities
Civil war produced widespread business crime. Great robber barons bribed government officials and plotted to corner markets and obtain concessions for railroads, favorable land deals, and mining and mineral rights on government land.
President Ulysses S. Grant was tainted by numerous corruption scandals
From 1900-1935 the nation experienced a sustained increase in criminal activity
Crime has provided a mechanism for the frustrated to vent their anger, for business leaders to maintain their positions of wealth and power, and for those outside the economic mainstream to take a shortcut to the American dream.
L02
1-2 Creating Criminal Justice
In 1829, the first police agency (the London Metropolitan Police) was created
After seeing the success in England, police agencies began to appear in the US around the mid-nineteenth century
The penitentiary (or prison) was also a 19th C. innovation that offered an alternative to physical punishment such as whipping, branding, or hanging
The criminal justice system was not fully recognized until 1919 when the Chicago Crime Commission was created
acted as a citizens advocate group and kept track of the activities of local justice agencies;commission still active today
In 1931 President Herbert Hoover appointed the National Commission of Law Observance and Enforcement → commonly known as the Wickersham Commission
Made a detailed analysis of the U.S. justice system, helped usher in era of treatment and rehabilitation, and found that the existing system of justice was flawed by too many rules and regulations
Modern era of criminal justice can be traced to a series of research projects begun in the 1950s
1-2a Federal Involvement
Safe Streets and Crime Control Act passed in 1968, providing for the expenditure of federal funds for state and local crime control efforts.
The Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA) ended in 1982, but supported many programs such as the development of criminal justice departments in colleges and the use of technology in the criminal justice system
1-2b Evidence-Based Justice: A Scientific Evolution
Programs must now undergo rigorous review to ensure that they achieve their stated goals and have a real and measurable effect on behavior
Evidence-based justice efforts have a few unifying principles
Target Audience
Randomized Experiments
Intervening Factors
Measurement of Success
Cost-effectiveness
1-3 The Contemporary Criminal Justice System
The contemporary criminal justice system can be divided into three main components: law enforcement agencies, the court system, and the correctional system
1-3a Scope of the System
It costs state and local governments more than $450 billion per year for civil and criminal justice → Estimates place the total indirect cost of crime in excess of $3 trillion per year
Every state has a police department except Hawaii
More than 10 million people are still being arrested each year, including 520,000 for violent crimes and almost 1.2 million for property crimes
Juvenile courts handle about 1.5 million juveniles
Today, state and federal courts process, convict, and sentence over 1 million adults each year
1-4 The Formal Criminal Justice Process
Few cases are actually processed through the entire formal justice system
Most are handled informally and with dispatch
1-4a Formal Procedures
The formal criminal process includes a complex series of steps:
Initial Contact
Investigation
Arrest
Custody
Charging
Preliminary Hearing/Grand Jury
Arraignment
Bail/Detention
Plea Bargaining
Trial/Adjudication
Sentencing/Disposition
Appeal/Postconviction Remedies
Correctional Treatment
Release
Postrelease
1-4b The Criminal Justice Assembly Line
Criminal justice is seen as a screening process in which each successive stage involves a series of routinized operations whose success is gauged primarily by their ability to pass the case along to a successful conclusion
Theoretically, nearly every part of the process requires individual cases be disposed of as quickly as possible; the system is slowed by congestion, inadequate facilities, limited resources, inefficiency, and the nature of governmental bureaucracy
About 70% of people convicted on felony charges are sentenced to a period of incarceration.
About 25% receive a probation sentence with no jail or prison time
Rest receive fines, restitution, treatment, community service, or some other penalty
Average prison sentence is about 5 years
1-5 The Informal Criminal Justice System
Many cases are settled in an informal pattern of cooperation between the major actors in the justice process
The recognition of the informal justice process has spurred development of two concepts → the courtroom work group and the wedding cake model
1-5a The Courtroom Work Group
Made up of the prosecutor, defense attorney, judge, and other court personnel
More than 90% of all cases are settled without trial
Evidence shows that the defendants who benefit the most from informal court procedures commit the least serious crimes
1-5b The Wedding Cake Model of Justice
Name from Samuel Walker
Level 1 → made up of celebrated cases involving famous people and those charged with particularly heinous crimes; media typically focuses on Level 1 cases; TV-watching public gets the impression that most criminals are sober, intelligent people while most victims are member of the upper class — a patently false impression
Level 2 → second layer consists of serious felonies — rape, robberies, and burglaries; burglaries included if the amount stolen is high and techniques used indicate suspect is a pro; offenders receive a full jury trial and, if convicted, can look forward to a prison sentence
Level 3 → less serious offenses committed by young or first-time offenders or involving people who knew each other or were otherwise related; dealt with outright dismissal, plea bargain, reduction in charges, or a probationary sentence or intermediate sanction
Level 4 → made up of misdemeanors such as disorderly conduct, shoplifting, public drunkenness, and minor assault.
1-5c Perspectives on Justice
Conservatives believe the solution to the crime problem is to increase number of police, apprehend more criminals, and give them long sentences in maximum-security prisons
LIberals call for increased spending on social services and community organization
1-5d The Crime Control Perspective
According to the crime control perspective, the proper role is to prevent crime through the judicious use of criminal sanctions
Effective law enforcement, strict mandatory punishment, and expanding the use of prison are the keys to reducing crime rates
Crime control may be expensive, but reducing the appeal of criminal activity is well worth the price
Crime control advocates do not want legal technicalities to help the guilty go free and tie the hands of justice → they lobby for abolition of legal restrictions on law enforces
Civil libertarians are wary of racial profiling, but crime control advocates argue we are in the midst of a national emergency and that the ends justify the means
Several hundred thousand criminals go free every year in cases dropped because courts find the police have violated the suspects’ Miranda rights
About 2/3 approve the availability of the death penalty
1-5e The Rehabilitation Perspective
Sees the justice system as a means of caring for and treating people who cannot manage themselves
Advocates view crime as an expression of anger created by social inequality
Believe criminals themselves are the victims of racism, poverty, strain, blocked opportunities, alienation, family disruption, and other social problems
Live in socially disorganized neighborhoods that are incapable of providing proper education, health care, or civil services
Believe rehabilitation can help reduce crime on both a societal and an individual level
Increasing economic opportunities through job training, family counseling, educational services, and crisis intervention more effective crime reducer than prisons and jails
1-5f The Due Process Perspective
Argue that the greatest concern of the justice system should be treating fairly all those accused of crimes
Providing impartial hearings, competent legal counsel, equitable treatment, and reasonable sanctions
Point out that the justice system remains an adversarial process that pits the forces of an all-powerful state against those of a solitary individual accused of committing a crime
Miscarriages of justice are common; evidence shows many innocent people have been executed for crimes they did not commit
Claim that the legal privileges that are afforded to criminal suspects have gone too far and that effort to protect individual rights interferes with public safety
1-5g The Nonintervention Perspective
Believe that justice agencies should limit involvement with criminal defendants
Official intervention promotes the tendency to engage in antisocial activities
Once labeled, people may find it difficult to be accepted back into society
Tried to place limitations on the government’s ability to control people’s lives
Overcriminalization → So many laws that people only care about the ones that states enforce, therefore creating a thought of the law itself does not matter'; severely reduces citizens respect for the law
Demand the removal of nonviolent offenders from the nation’s correctional system → deinstitutionalization
1-5h The Equal Justice Perspective
Asserts that all people should receive the same treatment under the law
White America has developed a mental image of the typical offender as a young, inner-city black male who offends with little remorse
1-5i The Restorative Justice Perspective
Belief that the true purpose of the criminal justice system is to promote a peaceful and just society; justice system should aim for peacemaking, not punishment
View the efforts of the state to punish and control and ‘crime encouraging’ rather than ‘crime discouraging’
According to restorative justice, resolution of the conflict between criminal and victim should take place in the community
The victim should be given a chance to voice his story
Goal to enable the offender to appreciate the damage caused, make amends, and to be reintegrated into society
Financial and community service restitution programs as an alternative to imprisonment have been in operation for more than two decades
1-5j Perspectives in Perspective
Laws have been toughened, prison populations grown, death penalty has been employed against convicted murderers → crime rate has been dropping, so policies seem to be effective
Criminal defendants have been awarded the right to competent legal counsel at trial
Each predominant view of criminal justice offers a vantage point for understanding and interpreting complex issues
No single view is right or correct one
1-6 Ethics in Criminal Justice
Without ethical decision making, individual civil rights may suffer, and personal liberties guaranteed by the U.S. constitution may be trampled upon
Ethical issues transcend all elements of the justice system. Yet specific issues shape the ethical standards in each branch
1-6a Ethics and Law Enforcement
Police serve as the interface between the power of the state and the citizens it governs
1-6b Ethics and the Court Process
Prosecutorial ethics may be tested when the dual role of a prosecutor causes her to experience role conflict
Must oversee the investigation of crime and make sure that all aspects of the investigation meet constitutional standards
1-6c Ethics and Corrections
One national survey uncovered evidence that a breach of ethics is significant
of the thousands of incidents of sexual violence in prison each year, more than 40% involved staff-on-inmate sexual misconduct
More than 10% involved staff sexual harassment of inmates