Criminal Justice System Assessment
Introduction
The criminal justice system is a crucial feature of American culture and the foundation of the Bill of Rights within the United States Constitution. The sole intentions of the laws are to safeguard the people from harm, ensure the publics safety, and uniformly treated. The criminal justice system labors to safeguard the guiltless and discipline the responsible without infringing the right of the suspected offender, refraining from any corruption. As society progresses the criminal justice system must advance so it is vital to establish new laws remain current on the advancement and new trends. As contemporary issues and new trends evolve in society, they can endure a precise affect on the various roles of the criminal justice system, for example, sentencing policy, procedures, technologies, and capital punishment, which harbor immense impacts on the criminal justice system. Furthermore, corrections, courts, and the police additionally take part in establishing retribution. Contemporary and future trends are going to and have direct impacts on the duties of the criminal justice system. Recently technology has been influencing the criminal justice system and will remain. In the forever-changing world of technology, the criminal justice system must keep up with recently developed technologies. This essay will explain recent and future trends and contemporary issues affecting the criminal justice system and the value of the criminal justice system in a changing society.
Past, Present, and Future Trends
Crime and law enforcement is in a unique period that has been going on for over 30 years. During the 1960s crimes presented to police skyrocketed and more criminals being apprehended. Lawmakers started enacting strict laws that expanded punishments for criminals, the amount of legal cases prosecuted by the court of law soared, the amount of individuals in jails, prisons, and undergoing probation or prison release observation escalated dramatically, and spending by branches of government surrounding criminal justice organizations increased. It was also during this time that the Federal Governments position in the Nations attempts to combat crime was additionally restructured.
“This period has also seen the emergence of a more active Federal role in crime control. In a watershed event, Congress, in the Safe Streets Act of 1968, began to define the Federal Government’s responsibility for carrying out a coordinated national fight against crime. Prior to this point, law enforcement, and justice system activities were almost entirely within the province of state and local governments. Widespread urban rioting, anti-war activities, and increasing lawlessness heightened concern about public safety, and Congress responded by passing the Safe Streets Act of 1968, which established the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration. Through this instrument, Federal aid passed in unprecedented amounts to States and localities. A decade later, in the mid-1970s, Federal funding began to wane and nearly ended in the early 1980s. Soon afterwards, however, the emerging epidemic of crack and powdered cocaine abuse and its associated violence ignited public concerns. Congress responded again, passing the Crime Control Act in 1984 and the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988, which renewed Federal involvement and support for crime control” (McDonald & Finn, 2000, p. 1).
Today, the United States judicial systems are overloaded with more than 2 million felony cases per year, most of which are drug crimes. Although the War on drugs initial purpose was to eradicate drug use and drug crime by implementing harsher punishments, it did not solve the problem. The criminal justice system focused on locking up drug offenders rather than focusing on programs to help drug offenders fight off their addiction to avoid drug crime recidivism. So currently the United States hold the world’s largest incarceration rate in the world and spends more money on building prison than on higher education systems. “On the basis of this evidence, the nation’s drug war cannot be considered a valid means of either doing justice or reducing crime” (Robinson, 2009, p. 449).
The 21st century from the very beginning sustained a sequence of the most extreme and violent occurrences to ever take place in the United States. On September 11, 2001, terrorists used commercial airliners as bombs to attack the World Trade Center Towers in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington D.C. More than 3,000 people lost their lives in a few moments of terror that day. The Federal government and its officials were confronted with the exceptional circumstances of enduring the immediate response to the American people after these tragic events of both war and crime. The 9/11 terrorist attacks changed the face of the previous ideology surrounding natural defense and law enforcement, and the United States government enacted the War on Terror strategy. “The war on terror has taken on a new resonance. While we deal with terrorism, we deal with the rights of our citizens. With the issue of profiling members of certain ethnic and religious groups are being typecast as possible terrorists” (Muraskin & Roberts, 2009, p. 9). We must as a society, be worried with the possibilities of another terrorist attack but do so without violating human rights. “The war on terror, even in its early stages, is strikingly similar to another major criminal justice movement, namely the war on drugs. Both strategies are intricately linked to race/ethnicity and produce an array of civil liberties, violations compounded by unnecessary incarceration” (Muraskin & Roberts, 2009, p. 9). The criminal justice system is locking up astronomical volumes of minorities who have committed very minor crimes. The criminal justice system must continue but do so without looking into the basis of minorities. Technologies are also creating challenges for the criminal justice system in the twenty-first century. “One of the most technological legal issues that causes controversy to our criminal justice system is the use of technology while attempting to reaffirm the rights of privacy”b(Muraskin & Roberts, 2009, p. 2). President George W. Bush on October 26th, 2011 signed the USA Patriot Act, which in the fine print in fact allows law enforcement agencies to use technologies to conduct searches of all electronic communications such as cell phones, telephones, e-mails, mail without an official court order, this has worried many Americans and is a direct violation of our civil liberties.
Contemporary issues
The American public believes the criminal justice system has gone downhill. However there are areas of success in task force and retribution, the hindering of crime continues to be a matter of concern. Citizens do not believe that the criminal justice system is sufficiently safeguarding their legal rights together with due process. “Minority groups hold the belief that discrimination exists within the criminal justice system” (Robinson, 2009). “ Injustice in American criminal justice most greatly affects poor people and people of color” (Robinson, 2009, p. 445). The media is a large- scaled contemporary issue affecting the criminal justice system. The media advertise stereotypes about criminal justice and crime by centering on the most brutal, strange, and arbitrary genres of crime in the United States, which fundamentally escalates terror of crime and promote crime control principles rather than due process principles. “The media also misrepresent crime trends and promote moral panics, mostly for ratings. Most troublesome, the media give relatively little attention to acts of elite deviance, even though these acts are much more damaging to society as a whole than common street crimes” (Robinson, 2009, p. 446).
Criminal Justice in a Changing Society
Society is fore-ever changing and the criminal justice system ought to as well. The procedures of the past appear barbaric in contrast to the way inmates are handled. In the past, mankind believed that an inmate be forced to suffer as their retribution. Many believed that embarrassment and humiliation was successful and would change people from committing future crimes. The criminal justice system needs to implement better programs for reducing recidivism such as counseling, drug rehabilitation, and parole programs to help paroles find assistance for entering back into society. Many criminals turn to crime again because they are not accepted and not given the tools needed to live on the outside prison walls crime free.
Conclusion
The criminal justice system has come a long way, but it is far from perfect. With trends and technologies changing, the criminal justice system must advance to control crime without violating the rights of Americans. New elements of crime are reaching beyond the borders of the United States and are a threat globally. With new technologies such as computers and the Internet, cybercrimes are on an all time rise as people become more dependent on computer technologies. The current methods of the criminal justice system are not effective in dealing with criminals and preventing future crimes. Federal and local governments must figure out solutions to past, current, and future issues and make changed in order to defeat the challenges in the future successfully, but it is up to everyone including the American government to realize the problems surrounding the criminal justice system and implement changes. Change is possible; it is the duty of all Americans to insist change and provide solutions. We must remember that big changes are very gradual and to never give up hope and remember “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the Blessing of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America” (http://www.archives.gov/contact/). References
McDonald, D., & Finn, P. (2000, January 31, 2000). Crime and Justice Trends in the United States During the Past Three Decades. , 1-61. Retrieved from http://www.abtassociates.com/reports/cjtrendsthreedecades.pdf
Muraskin, R., & Roberts, A. R. (2009). Visions for Change: Crime in the Twenty-First Century (5th ed.). : Prentice Hall .
Robinson, M. B. (2009). Justice Blind? Ideas and Realities of American Criminal Justice (3rd ed.). : Prentice Hall.