Crime rate was much higher 100 years ago

Western America was high crime, robbers and murders

• Jesse James

• Billy the Kid

• John Wesley Hardin

Lawmen persisted

• Wyatt Earp

In cities business crime flourished

1900-1935 increase in criminal activity

Violent and property crime increases from 2010 to 2012 but on average they have declined

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• 1829- first police agency London Metropolitan Police

  • created to keep the peace and to identify and apprehend criminal suspects

  • founded by Sir Robert Heel

• Penitentiary offered an alternative to physical punishments

• While the agencies existed, they did not work together in a systemic function

• 1919- Chicago Crime Commission was created

  • criminal justice system began to be recognized

  • kept track of the activities of local justice agencies

  • funded by private contributions

• Police agencies began to appear in the U.S in the 19th century

• 1931- President Hoover appointed the National Commission of Law Observance and Enforcement (Wickersham Commission)

  • made a detailed analysis of the U.S. justice system

• Modern area of criminal justice from research projects in the 50s

  • the term criminal justice system was used

  • justices could be connected in a system

• The Crime Control Act of 1968 helped launch a massive campaign to restructure the justice system the Challenge of Crime in a Free Society

• In 1967, the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice (the Crime Commission), which had been created by President Lyndon B. Johnson, published its final report, called

• Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA)

  • Federal agency that provided technical assistance and $$$ in aid to state and local justice agencies 69-82

  • supported many criminal justice departments

  • was to supply grants to local and state law enforcement agencies

• Criminal justice agencies began to rely on data rather than political goals

• Evidence-based justice

  • Determining through the use of the scientific method whether criminal justice programs actually reduce crime rates and offender recidivism.

• Target audience

  • it is important that programs work for high risk offenders

• Randomized experiments

  • Tests new developments in criminal justice, without bias

  • is difficult to select randomly

• Intervening factors

  • depending on the crime will change how effective evidence-based programming is

• Measurement of success

  • must develop realistic measures of success, long-term v short-term results

• Cost-effectiveness

  • is the price justify the results

• D.A.R.E- track record has proven to be spotty

• The American Bar Foundation Project- 1950s sponsored research that showed the CJ system is composed of an intricate network of agencies

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• The contemporary criminal justice system is society’s instrument of social control

  • A society’s ability to control individual behavior in order to serve the best interests and welfare of the society as a whole.

• The agencies of justice seek to prevent or reduce outlawed behavior by apprehending, adjudicating, and sanctioning lawbreakers

• Only criminal justice system has the power to control crime and punish outlawed behavior through criminal law

• The contemporary criminal justice system can be divided into three main components:

• Law enforcement agencies

  1. investigate crimes and apprehend suspects

• The court system

  1. charges, indicts, tries, and sentences offenders

• The correctional system

  1. incapacitates convicted offenders and attempts to aid in their treatment and rehabilitation

• Police

  • created to maintain order, enforce the criminal law, provide emergency services, keep traffic on streets and highways moving freely, and develop a sense of community safety

• Courts

  • the criminal responsibility of defendants accused of violating the law is determined

• Corrections

  • include community supervision or probation and parole programs

• Legislative

  • defines laws and penalties for breaking laws. acts as a forum for the public expression

• Judicial

  • interprets existing laws and determines whether they meet constitutional requirements

  • oversees criminal justice practices

  • has right to ban policies

• Executive

  • responsible for the day-to-day operation of justice agencies

• Police

  • largest budget in the criminal justice system

  • the majority of employees have general arrest powers

  • State police agencies employ the least amount of officers nationwide

  • Most work for local agencies

  • Less than 1/2 of the population will interact with the criminal justice system

• Courts

  • interprets existing laws

  • determines if connotational

  • day-to-day operation of justice agencies

  • oversees criminal justice practices

• Corrections

  • crime has declined for the past decade but correctional population continues to grow

  • approx.. 1.5 million juveniles’ are handled in the juvenile court each year

  • 7 million people are under some form of correctional supervision

• Local governments collectively spend more on criminal justice than do state and federal agencies combined

• The criminal justice system costs approximately 100 billion per year

• Justice system costs over $260 billion per year

  • it employs more than 2 million people

• The system is massive because it must process, treat, and care for millions of people

• Criminal justice agencies are political entities whose structure and function are lodged within the legislative, judicial, and executive branches of the government.

• Legislature- not a main component

  • define the law by determining what conduct is prohibited and establishes criminal penalties for those who violate the law

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• Every defendant charged with a serious crime is entitled to a full range of legal rights and constitutional protections

• Investigation

  • the purpose is to gather enough evidence to identify a suspect a support a legal arrest

  • tries to understand method and motive

• Initial Contact

  • In most instances, an offender’s initial contact with the criminal justice system takes place as a result of a police action

• Arrest

  • to be legal it has to be: probable cause, deprives freedom, suspects believes that they are now in custody

  • criminal compliant: official complaint for misdemeanors

• in-presence requirement

  • A police officer cannot arrest someone for a misdemeanor unless the officer sees the crime occur. To make an arrest for a crime the officer did not witness, an arrest warrant must be obtained.

• Custody

  • Miranda warning

    • established that suspects under arrest must be advised that they have no obligation to answer questions and that they are entitled to have a lawyer present during questioning, if necessary, at no expense to themselves.

• Charging

  • If the arresting officers or their superiors believe that sufficient evidence exists to charge a person with a crime, the case will be turned over to the prosecutor’s office

  • nolle prosequi

    • The decision by a prosecutor to drop a case after a complaint has been made because of, for example, insufficient evidence, witness reluctance to testify, police error, or office policy.

  • filing of charging

• Preliminary Hearing/ Grand Jury

  • grand jury

    • A group of citizens chosen to hear charges against persons accused of crime and to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to bring those persons to trial.

    • functions to streamline the process of justice through the extensive use of plea bargaining and other trial alternatives

      • 12th century England

      • composed of 12-23 persons

      • protect citizens from false prosecution

      • formal hearing of evidence

      • issues a true bill of indictment

  • true bill of indictment

    • The action taken by a grand jury when it votes to indict an accused suspect.

• In most states the grand jury system has either been replaced or supplemented by the preliminary hearing

• Arraignment

  • brought before the court that will hear the case

  • enter plea

  • notified of charges

• Bail/Detention

  • Money bond levied to ensure the return of a criminal defendant for trial

• Plea Bargaining

  • guilty plea in exchange for reducing or dropping some of the charges or agreeing to a request for a more lenient sentence or some other consideration

• Trial adjudication

  • if no agreement is made a criminal trial will be held and left to the jury’s decision

• Sentencing/disposition

  • if found guilty will return for sentencing

  • if not guilty case is over

• Appeal/ Postconviction remedies

  • can file an appeal if there is a belief that constitutional rights were violated or miss use of evidence

• Correctional treatment

  • carries out sentence

• Release

  • offender returns to society

• Postrelease

  • may be asked to spend time in community correctional center

• Criminal justice is seen as a screening process in which each successive stage (prearrest investigation, arrest, postarrest investigation, preparation for trial or entry of plea, conviction, disposition) involves a series of routinized operations whose success is gauged primarily by their ability to pass the case along to a successful conclusion

  • each stage is a decision point

• Theoretically, the term criminal justice assembly  line suggests that nearly every part of the criminal justice process requires that individual cases be disposed of as quickly as possible.

• The criminal justice process is slowed by congestion and limited resources

• most cases that go to trial result in a conviction

• cases are moved down in the conveyor belt

• can be compares to a funnel

• Prosecutor decides to drop a case

  • nolle prosequi

• Defendant sometimes disappears… not always system’s fault

• Herbert Packer’s Assembly line

  • screening process at each point

  • CJ system suffers from congestion

  • each decision has a critical impact on defendant, system and society

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• Courtroom work group

  • A term used to imply that all parties in the justice process work together in a cooperative effort to settle cases efficiently rather than to engage in a true adversarial procedure.

    • made up of the prosecutor, defense attorney, judge, and other court personnel

    • Their goal is to remove “unnecessary” delays and avoid formal trials at all costs. Because most defendants who have gotten this far in the system are assumed to be guilty, the goal is to process cases efficiently rather than to seek justice.

  • The wedding cake model

    • made by Samuel Walker

      

    • Level one: famous people and those charged with committing particularly heinous crimes that capture national headlines

      • usually receive the full array of criminal justice procedures, including competent defense attorneys, expert witnesses, jury trials, and elaborate appeals

      • ex: OJ simpson celebrity

    • Level two: serious felonies—rapes, robberies, and burglaries

      • These are serious crimes committed by experienced offenders.

      • Police, prosecutors, and judges all agree that these cases demand the full attention of the justice system. Offenders in such Level II cases receive a full jury trial and, if convicted, can look forward to a prison sentence.

    • Level three: less serious offenses committed by young or first-time offenders or involving people who knew each other or were otherwise related

      • may be dealt with by an outright dismissal, a plea bargain, reduction in charges, or (most typically) a probationary sentence or intermediate sanction, such as victim restitution.

    • Level four: misdemeanors, such as disorderly conduct, shoplifting, public drunkenness, and minor assault

      • handle these cases in assembly-line fashion\

      • Few defendants insist on exercising their constitutional rights

  • crime control perspective

    • A model of criminal justice that emphasizes the control of dangerous offenders and the protection of society through harsh punishment as a deterrent to crime.

  • Because the public is outraged by crime, it demands an efficient justice system that hands out tough sanctions to those who violate the law.

  • According to the crime control perspective, the true goal of the justice system, protecting society, can be achieved through more effective police protection, tough criminal punishments, and the incapacitation of hardened criminals.

  • Several hundred thousand criminals go free every year in cases dropped because courts find that police have violated the suspects’ Miranda rights.

  • rehabilitation perspective

    • A perspective on criminal justice that sees crime as an expression of frustration and anger created by social inequality that can be controlled by giving people the means to improve their lifestyles through conventional endeavors.

  • Society has a choice: pay now, by funding treatment and educational programs, or pay later, when troubled youths enter costly correctional facilities over and over again

  • due process perspective

    • A perspective on criminal justice that emphasizes individual rights and constitutional safeguards against arbitrary or unfair judicial or administrative proceedings.

  • nonintervention perspective

    • A perspective on criminal justice that favors the least intrusive treatment possible: decarceration, diversion, and decriminalization.

• decriminalization

  • Reducing the penalty for a criminal act without legalizing it.

• deinstitutionalization

  • The policy of removing from secure confinement as many first offenders of minor, nonviolent crimes as possible and treating them in the community.

• equal justice perspective

  • A perspective on criminal justice based on the idea that all people should receive the same treatment under the law and should be evaluated on the basis of their current behavior, not on what they have done in the past.

  • truth in sentencing laws

  • making system fair and equal

• racial animus model

  • The view that white America has developed a mental image of the typical offender as a young, inner-city black male who offends with little remorse.

• restorative justice perspective

  • A perspective on criminal justice that sees the main goal of the criminal justice system as making a systematic response to wrongdoing that emphasizes healing victims, offenders, and communities wounded by crime. It stresses peacemaking, not punishment.

  • promotes a peaceful and just society

  • views crime as a community level problem

  • began 1980s, more used in school settings

• The wedding cake model of informal justice is an intriguing alternative to the traditional criminal justice flowchart. Within this model, criminal justice officials handle individual cases differently

• A model of criminal justice that emphasizes the control of dangerous offenders and the protection of society through harsh punishment as a deterrent to crime is referred to as crime control perspective.

  • ethical behavior is particularly important in law enforcement because police officers have the authority to deprive people of their liberty

  • important in law enforcement because police officers can deprive people from their liberty

  • considerable discretion

  • various national organizations have produced model codes of conduct for law enforcement that can serve as a behavioral guides

  • a primary ethic concern of prosecutors is balancing the dual role as representative of the people and officer of the court

  • the defense attorney experiences the ethical concern of having obligations to their client and the profession

  • defense attorney’s are supposed to protect their clients rights

  • discretion is okay if basis is not used

  • Vicky White

  • Correctional officers have significant power over inmates

  • Institutional Sexual Assault