...Organizational Trends CJA/444 Keith Wilson July 28, 2014 Patrick Kelly Privatization Privatization of criminal justice has a long history in this country, driven in part by distrust of government's power and its perceived incompetence and corruptibility, and in part by efficiency and accomplishments of the private sector. While recognizing the advantages of privatization, the contributors find that the criminal justice system may not be as amenable to privatization as other government functions (Shicor & Gilbert, 2002). Moreover, deficiencies in the contracts through which private firms take over criminal justice functions may be uncorrectable, and resumption of performance by the government in the event of market failure may be difficult. Differences between the goals of public governmental and private commercial organizations, as well as difficulties in monitoring performance, create the risk that the management of privatized criminal justice may be subordinate to public policy. Several guidelines are offered to minimize the risks while obtaining the advantages of criminal justice privatization (Shicor & Gilbert, 2002). Militarization Despite historical efforts to make laws that enforce this distinction, during the past four decades domestic policing in the United States has become increasingly militarized. Domestic law enforcement has taken on the characteristics of the armed forces by engaging in military-style training, acquiring military weapons, and...
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...Describe the American experience with crime during the last half century. What noteworthy criminal incidents or activities occurred during that time, and what social and economic conditions might have produced them? a. The American experience with crime during the last half century has been the main reason for the way our courts, law enforcement, and the criminal justice system operates the way that it does today. There have been many crime waves and other events that have played a key role in shaping the system as it is today. Some of these things include: the huge spike in organized crime activity during the prohibition years and its evolution into gangs and the laws concerning them today, the increase in reported crimes and enforced laws through the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s as well as the change/increase in the types and availability of illegal drugs today. For example: prohibition effectively created a black market for alcohol, a sub cultural of illegal gambling, and other organized crime like protection rackets, to name a few. That paved the way for gangs and the way we handle them today. 2. What is the theme of this book? According to that theme, what are the differences between the individual-rights perspective and the public-order perspective? a. The theme of this book is individual-rights verses public-order, specifically; the rights guaranteed by the constitution to criminal suspects and law abiding citizens need to be upheld and defended. On the public-order side...
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...Evidence-Based Policing Evidence-based policing is the “use of the best available research on the outcomes of police work to implement guidelines and evaluate agencies, units, and officers” (Criminal Justice Today). With evidence-based policing it is harder to be proven innocent for a crime that you committed due to the extent of evidence found at the crime scene that will match you to it because of all the latest technology. Evidence-based policing uses research in everyday police procedures to evaluate current practices and to guide officers and police executives in future decision making. In a discussion of evidence-based policing it is important to understand that the word evidence refers to scientific evidence rather than to criminal evidence. In the today’s policing, the evidence-based policing are gaining traction and has been called the single most powerful force for change. Leading the movement towards evidence-based policing are organizations like the FBI. “The basic premise of evidence-based practice is that we are entitled to our own opinions, but not to our own facts. Our own facts or our own beliefs about the way things should be done often turnout wrong” (Sherman p.158 Criminal Justice Today). There are some advantages and disadvantages of evidence-based policing today. Some advantages of evidence-based policing are that it is structured to help reduce the crime rate; it is also to help the structure of the law enforcers...
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...The theme of this book is individual-rights verses public-order, specifically; the rights guaranteed by the constitution to criminal suspects and law abiding citizens need to be upheld and defended. On the public-order side of things, the needs of communities to be protected from unlawful and/or harmful behavior must be recognized as well. These two sides have opposing groups: individual-rights advocates and public-order advocates. Individual-rights advocates focus on just that. They make sure the rights of citizens and suspects are both upheld (like the right to a speedy trial and bail). Public-order advocates are there to make sure that the public (communities) are also protected from unacceptable behavior... Describe the American experience with crime during the last half century. What noteworthy criminal incidents or activities can you identify during that time, and what social and economic conditions might have produced them? The American experience with crime during the last half century has been especially influential in shaping the criminal justice system of today. Although crime waves have come and gone, some events during the past century stand out as especially significant, including a spurt of widespread organized criminal activity associated with the Prohibition years of the early twentieth century; the substantial increase in “traditional” crimes during the 1960s and 1970s; the threat to the American way of life represented by illicit drugs around the same time;...
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...Jury Nullification Jury selection plays a significant role in the criminal justice system. Their primary role of the jury lies within the courtroom setting during criminal proceedings. These individuals are charged with the responsibility of hearing testimony from the prosecution and defense and also evaluating any evidence brought before the court. Their understanding and interpretation of all testimony and evidence greatly determine the final result of the trial, the verdict. In many circumstances a jury may dismiss the testimony and evidence and inject their own personal opinions regarding the law. This is known as jury nullification. Jury nullification permits juries to acquit even when the facts of the case suggest they convict, and thus enables citizens to play a more active role in determining justice and what or whom should be punished (McNamara & Burns, 2009, p. 265). Influence of Ethnicity within the Courtroom An individual’s race or ethnicity can have a substantial influence on courtroom proceedings and judicial practices. Many people, regardless of their own race, have preconceived notions of individuals that are charged with a criminal offense. Much of these preconceptions are fueled by the media, especially when these cases involve a white victim and minority perpetrator or vice versa. The media tends to glamorize and indulge these types of crimes because they equate to good ratings. Often times this media coverage finds its way into the courtroom and can...
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...Assignment #6 Leadership Skills for the Criminal Justice Professional Write a 2-3 page essay describing the leadership skills that criminal justice professionals should develop and maintain in their professional and personal lives. Discuss the importance of ethics and virtue criminal justice leadership. In addition to material covered in the textbook and classroom lectures, utilize at least 3 web-based documentary resources to support your essay. This paper should adhere to APA style standards including the following: Double space, 1” margins, title page, in text citation of references, and a reference page. CJS is one of the major public services in the country. Across the CJS, agencies such as the Police, the Courts, the Prison Service, the Crown Prosecution Service and the National Probation Service work together to deliver the criminal justice process The criminal justice system consists of a number of separate agencies that in theory gel together to produce a just outcome when a crime has been committed. In the criminal justice system, there are specific codes of ethics that apply to any lawyer or legal assistant. Sometimes the code of ethics may require something that is contrary to your personal ethics. You will need to balance your personal ethics against the ethical code of your profession. Model Code of Ethics Each state has a professional code or rules of ethics that set out what an attorney can and cannot, or should and should not, do in situations...
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...By applying the knowledge gained throughout the syllabus and proper research, I have met the requirements of the paper. Based on contemporary justice in crime, the paper has been prepared. First, the brief description of the crime is outlined by summarizing the whole issue centered in the case study. Secondly, I have focused on description of the processes in the adult American criminal justice system the offender would go through, starting with arrest. Further, I have highlighted the weakest and strongest links in the criminal justice process. 2. A brief description of the crime Based on reading of the Case study 1, it is revealed that there are two murders happened....
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...and Damaging Practices in the Courtroom: Ethnicity Based Jury Nullification Josi Barth CJA/344 November 18, 2014 Bernice Baver Unfair Practices in the Courtroom: Ethnicity Based Jury Nullification On the television today, many of the most dramatic parts of the programming revolve around courtroom proceedings. An overzealous prosecutor asking tough and often damning questions to a pitiful guilty looking defendant is the main focus for the audience. The part that is often unseen and overlooked is ethnicity and the role it plays in the criminal justice system when it comes to courtroom proceedings and judicial practices. When it comes to these situations, there appears to be a certain amount of bias or indifference to minority citizens (The Criminology and Criminal Justice Collective of Northern Arizona University, 2009). Because of these biases, many minorities have little to no confidence in the court systems and subsequently are less likely to bring his or her case to court. For a further look into how ethnicity influences courtroom proceedings and judicial practices, one can analyze arguments for and against ethnicity based jury nullification and contemporary examples of jury nullification. Jury nullification is defined as the process that allows juries to acquit when the facts of the case suggest a conviction. This allows citizens to play a larger role in deciding guilt and who is punished (Mcnamara & Burns, 2009, Chapter 11). Ethnicity based jury nullification...
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...Actuarial principles and methods are centred upon an approach to crime control and prevention utilizing a risk prevention paradigm which uses evidence based intervention to control and prevent future risks of offending. Actuarialism was defined by Feeley and Simon (1994) as being a defined approach to crime control and management which dispenses with concerns about the meaning or motives behind offending and replaces these with an emphasis on ‘technologies’ of ‘risk minimization’ and the elimination of potential threats to social order. The Risk Factor Prevention Paradigm (RFPP) uses risk assessment and survey to identify factors in the key domains of a young person’s life that statistically increase the likelihood of offending or decrease its likelihood (Case, 2007. p. 92). Youth justice today is increasingly dominated by risk management however it has been heavily criticized. In this essay an explanation will be given of what the risk factors are, what the RFPP is and how actuarial practices are based on this methodological approach. It concludes that a focus on actuarial principles in the current youth justice system works against the fundamental principles of individualization in the criminal justice system . Society has become increasingly concerned with risk and the management of it. It is defined as being an uncertain prediction of future behaviour with the possibility that the behaviour will be harmful or negative. The National Crime Council’s Document Tackling the...
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...nullification is a constitutional doctrine that allows juries to acquit guilty defendants but who do not deserve punishment. Many believe that when this sort of action takes place the jury racially identify with the criminal defendant. There have been several cases for an example: the O.J Simpson case or the police officers in the Rodney King beating. The evidence was visible, but the verdict was not guilty. This paper includes how and if ethnicity influences courtroom proceedings and judicial practices, arguments against ethnicity-based jury nullification, contemporary examples of ethnicity based-jury nullification, and by choosing a position for or against ethnicity-based jury nullification. Ethnicity Influences and Judicial Practices There have been plenty of attempts to advance equal justice in the United States (Ward, Farrell, & Rousseau, 2009). In the criminal justice administration disparity still remains a concern. Criminal justice research on sentencing has found disparity based on defendant characteristics as gender, race, and class. There have been two changes by many individuals to secure equal justice in the court system. Implementations of sentencing guidelines, reduce bias, and increased racial and ethnic group representation among arbiters of justice (Ward, Farrell, & Rousseau, 2009). This may diversify the pool of explicit and implicit bias that will reduce White advantages. Racial and ethnic composition of law enforcement and legal authorities has...
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...Evidence To what extent has the use of technology in evidence altered our understanding of adversarialism? What is adversarialism? The adversarial system is the two-sided structure under which criminal trial courts in the UK operate. There are four prominent structural features of the English adversarial system. Firstly, the parties dominate the conduct of proceedings with the judge playing a relatively passive role. Secondly, the parties are free to choose the terrain on which to fight out their legal battles and to select their forensic weapons. Thirdly, Trials are continuous, oral and public events. Fourthly, the imbalance of power between the state and the accused is ameliorated by rules and principles reducing inequality of arms. High level definitions or at least descriptions of the adversarial system abound such as that of Lord Denning in Jones v The National Coal Board.They are all to the effect that the judge is a passive and neutral umpire who cannot descend into the arena for fear of having his or her judgement clouded. The adversarial system is said to be the most efficient means of arriving at approximate truth because it harnesses the power of self-interest on each side to unearth the best evidence. Similarly the best legal arguments are thought to emerge from the clash of advocate’s submission on the law. A classic quotation is that of Lord Eldon in Ex Parte Lloyd that ‘truth is best discovered by powerful statements on both sides of the question.’ This...
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...Criminology & Criminal Justice © 2006 SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks & New Delhi) and the British Society of Criminology. www.sagepublications.com ISSN 1748–8958; Vol: 6(1): 39–62 DOI: 10.1177/1748895806060666 A desistance paradigm for offender management FERGUS McNEILL Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde, UK Abstract In an influential article published in the British Journal of Social Work in 1979, Anthony Bottoms and Bill McWilliams proposed the adoption of a ‘non-treatment paradigm’ for probation practice. Their argument rested on a careful and considered analysis not only of empirical evidence about the ineffectiveness of rehabilitative treatment but also of theoretical, moral and philosophical questions about such interventions. By 1994, emerging evidence about the potential effectiveness of some intervention programmes was sufficient to lead Peter Raynor and Maurice Vanstone to suggest significant revisions to the ‘non-treatment paradigm’. In this article, it is argued that a different but equally relevant form of empirical evidence—that derived from desistance studies—suggests a need to re-evaluate these earlier paradigms for probation practice. This reevaluation is also required by the way that such studies enable us to understand and theorize both desistance itself and the role that penal professionals might play in supporting it. Ultimately, these empirical and theoretical insights drive us back to the complex interfaces between technical and moral...
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...ONE OF THE NATION’S LEADING INNOVATORS IN DELIVERING EVIDENCE-BASED SOLUTIONS FOR CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND HUMAN SERVICES TURNING LIVES 1 Yolo County, CA: EBP brings measureable, positive outcomes 2 King County, WA builds new system for Mental Health RX: the PRIME 4 Assessments.com selected to direct $1.2M statewide juvenile project in CA 4 News in Brief 5 Spotlight on ADC staff: Brian Richart is new ADC President 6 EBP – Recent Research: Exploring the Black Box of Community Supervision 8 Upcoming Events Winter 2010 | QUArterLY neWSLetter CURRENT NEWS AND trenDS AROUND supervision, and accurately and objectively identified higher risk juveniles who most need and can most benefit from rehabilitative treatment. Monthly statistics tell the story. In April 2007, the department was managing a caseload of 400 juveniles with a staff of 10 supervising field officers and an outpatient treatment budget of $120,000. Today, the total caseload is down to about 280, as the department has done a better job keeping very low risk youth out of the system altogether. Of those youth who do enter the system, some 150 low risk youth are supervised by 1 1/2 officers with diversion programs and minimal supervision, while the remaining officers are managing the 130 moderate to high risk juveniles (a 38% reduction in individual case load size) and providing individualized treatment through programs such as FFT (Functional Family Therapy) and T4C (Thinking for a Change)– cognitive behavioral programs...
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...defense lawyers. This specialized team of individuals work together to successfully prosecute criminal court cases. The courtroom work group thrives to construct a safe and care free environment of justice. However, each party work diligently in order to achieve a quality of fairness to all criminal cases presented. The courtroom work group also consists of the bailiff of court, the clerk of court, and the reporter of the courts. Each courtroom work group has these officials, and is needed so the courts can properly run as structured. Each representative has their own specific job that is carried out on a daily basis. One of most important person in the courtroom work group is the Judge. The judge is elected or appointed by the state to review and facilitate disputes presented through arguments of prosecution and defense during a trial. Judges are presumed to be unbiased in their application of Criminal Law when reviewing the facts and arguments presented by all parties, such as the defendant, claimant, lawyers, and the people in the courts. The judge informs the jury on the laws that are applicable to the crime committed. It is also the judge’s job to let the jurors know that the decision will be based only on the amount of evidence presented in that given time. The jurors work together in seeking justice for the innocent victims and punishment for the guilty criminals. Jurors are selected citizens within the jurisdiction of the committed crime. These jurors are...
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...Evidence-Based Policing Introduction to Criminal Justice Evidence-Based Policing According to our text book criminal investigation is “the process of discovering, collecting, preparing, identifying, and presenting evidence to determine what happened and who responsible” when a crime occurs. ( Schmalleger 2010). Now in this process the case belongs to the detective in charge, but any officer can be involve in the preliminary investigation by securing the initial crime scene and evidence. Evidence- based policing is when police based their decision about a case by following the path of observation determined by the evidence; hence the name evidence based policing. This practice was derived from medicine when it resolves that the method use in medical practice can apply by the police force to achieve a scientific result. Police agency accreditation can come under great scrutiny from different angle for instance the public who feel a decision might be wrong, the prosecution office involving the case etc; this is why evidence is vital to case decision. Disadvantage of evidence base policing is that policies and procedures will only be as good as research itself. In some cases researchers may not be sufficient in their theory and data collecting which will alter the final result, and even many officers may not be sufficiently versed in research method to execute the proper strategies. In result only the strictest and comprehensive studies should be adopt by the processing police department...
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