...organizations are vital in keeping pace with societal change and combating crime. Some recent trends are the privatization and militarization of criminal justice organizations. In this writing, I will discuss and attempt to compare these trends with current criminal justice organizations. The privatization of criminal justice organizations stems from the idea that awarding contracts to private companies that could run such services efficiently and effectively would potentially save and even earn the government money. (Nichols, 2010) To understand privatized policing we must first differentiate between police and private security force. Although both function as public safety officials and the duties performed are similar, they are two separate entities. “The term police typically refers to sworn officers working as members of the executive branch of government rather than to private security agents or agencies.” (Forst, p. 22, 2000) A private security agency while serving in the same capacity as a police officer is defined differently. The private security term refers to “non governmentally provided services and products used to protect the lives and property of commercial and residential patrons against crime.” (Forst, p. 22, 2000) The most notable differences between police officers and private security agents would be that the police are sworn-in officers working as members of the...
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...Politics has influenced the US criminal justice system with the biased and prejudice minds of the politicians that seek to make their pockets grow larger. The consequences of prejudice minds in the US criminal justice system are seen through the privatization of prisons, militarization of the police, and the criminalization of poverty. I believe the state’s view not only influences how crime and criminals are treated, but also the people’s view on crime and criminal treatment. Racism is the one of the most predominant issue the US criminal justice encounters. When politicians rally the people based on their racist views, some people unfortunately agree, which leads to their election. Once they’re in office they continue to communicated the...
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...Militarized Police: A Growing Epidemic Eric Reed Liberty University Abstract The purpose of this research is to document the chronic spread of militarization of police agencies across the United States at the federal, state, and local levels. Police militarization is one of the most controversial issues facing our police forces and encompasses a wide range of problems, from cases of excessive force, to civil rights violations, to budgetary problems. This research will include events that led to the creation of the first SWAT units, the aftereffects of the September 11 attacks, as well as the problems that both the contemporary public and police agencies face today. Finally, this project will highlight several proposed solutions to curb the increasing prevalence of police militarization, specifically as it pertains to agency administration. Militarized Police: A Growing Epidemic Eric Reed Liberty University Every day across the United States, tens of thousands of police officers and federal agents put their lives on the line to serve their communities and their country. They face a myriad of threats that could reveal themselves at any given moment, and it's impossible to predict what the next day of work holds for these men and women. The key to survival is to be well-prepared for any situation; as such, it is of utmost importance that our officers and agents have access to the protection and tools they need to deal with and adapt to the ever-changing force of...
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...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 utilizing military tactics in everyday operations. To illustrate this militarization, consider the number of state and local law enforcement agencies that have acquired and maintained police paramilitary units (PPUs) or special weapons and tactics (SWAT) units. In 1982, 59 percent of police departments employed a PPU. By 1990, 78 percent of departments had a PPU, and by 1995, the portion had...
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...people after the Pearl Harbor attacks in 1941 is a past example of an ethnic minority group target by the U.S. government and public as an enemy race. People of Asian descent were placed in concentration camps fearing of them being spies for the Japanese Empire. Minorites are enemy races from media portrayal. As with the Latinos, the media portrays them with illegal immigration and drug smuggling. Media coverage depicts an alarming rate of illegal immigrants coming from the southern border. Mexican immigrants are...
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...Melissa Pineda Perm#4962940 Study Guide Documentary He crossed three times, but hasn’t been able to cross, doesn't have money to call his family. They were waiting to for the next train when they got caught. The cop hit him in the sides. They would get them and they would rob and take everything good that they had. They can report el maltrato del los policias. They would mostly see rob between the Immigrants. They would cross during the night because there would be less reten. Group of families feed the immigrants. They do it because one day it could be one of their family members and the reason why some people cry.They will continue their work for as long as god permits it.Trina the sister of that one lady interviewed.She doesn’t have the courage to call her children.What they leave behind. 56% She was raped (Maria) Transnationalism Social cultural changes Economy Gender roles and identities Family structure Culture dances chuzas USA Foreign policy of economic development Alliances for progress becomes a strategy to create stability in Latin American undocumented children vs. documented - children are not able to return to see their family - age and gender - economic support, better lives - kinship Danzas Chuscas- parodic dances performed in indigenous and mestizos villages during religious celebration. - promesas -fiestas of San Antonio de Padua - Las Minifaldas - pandillas Nation-state economic develop model, remittances, violence ...
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...Officers or Infantry Officers? Many small-town police departments now boast the same weaponry once wielded by U.S. military units in Afghanistan — including tanks with 360-degree rotating turrets, battering rams, and automatic weapons. Those weapons are today deployed against Americans suspected of crimes in their own homes. Every day, Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams connected to local police conduct 124 paramilitary-style raids in the U.S., according to a new report by the American Civil Liberties Union. One of them recently drew national attention when a SWAT team in Atlanta burst into a private home and threw a live flash grenade into a 2-year-old's crib, severely injuring the toddler. Most raids by SWAT teams are conducted against suspected drug dealers, but they've also been deployed against a private poker game; a gay bar in Atlanta; a New Haven, Connecticut, bar suspected of serving minors; and even people suspected of credit card fraud. "Neighborhoods are not war zones," says the ACLU in its report, "and our police officers should not be treating us like wartime enemies." The first SWAT team was created by the Los Angeles Police Department in 1967 and reserved for the most extreme circumstances: riots, hostage scenarios, and active-shooter or sniper situations. But the "war on drugs," coupled with the sense of danger promoted by tragedies like the Columbine massacre in 1999 and the 9/11 terror attacks, encouraged police departments even in small towns and rural...
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...class people because it continues to fail at helping them. The ideas of trickledown economics are just so contrary to the reality, that a small group of elites has been able to concentrate huge amounts of wealth, that people have had enough. Movements like Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter are a response to this. As the state moves further away from the social welfare, people are pushed to take radical stances. Hedges predicts that if corporate power continues to dominate political institutions, and continues to exploit people it will have to eventually collapse. He points to the ways that corporations operate outside of the west as an example of how predatory they can be. Eventually there will be confrontations like those in Baltimore and Ferguson, confrontations that the State is preparing for through the militarization of the police. While I agree with Hedges analysis of the current state of corporate power, and global capitalism, I do not agree with his prediction that unless the state regulates corporate power better there will be ever more violent confrontations. As Hedges mentions, the New Deal saved capitalism. Following the Great Depression, there were real questions about the ability for laissez faire capitalism to improve the wellbeing of people’s lives. The New Deal, however, put an end to those questions. While Hedges says that, “Liberal institutions are designed to ameliorate and address the suffering of the underclass,” (p. 5) I think he is forgetting that the...
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...The final chapter in this book discusses the war on terror. The war on terror is focused on because, according to author Joycelyn Pollock, it is the largest issue facing our country today. The chapter begins by discussing 9/11 and the counter-terrorism measures the United States took as a result of the terrorist attack. With almost 3,000 people dying, the government began taking action and stepping up homeland security through detaining people, using private prisons in foreign countries, torturing suspects and known terrorists, wiretapping, and more. There lies an issue here with whether or not these actions taken by U.S. officials were, and are, ethical by our nation’s standards, even when attempting to secure the safety of our people. Examples...
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...3:With various forms of thing technology (CCTV, cameras that detect speeders, wired courts, electronic monitoring, supermax prisons, etc.). FOR EXAMPLE why do we need police officers patrolling the streets (and highways) when we have the technological resources (via cameras to detect speeders and red light violations, and CCTV to monitor public places) to remotely monitor activities and deploy a smaller number of police to address crime problems that are detected? The downsizing of police force manpower may be an inevitable consequence of this type of technological innovation, which is one reason that technological change may be viewed suspiciously by line personnel and the unions that represent their interests. Similar scenarios can be...
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...over it today. The battles we face today are different that in the past. Today the United States are fighting to keep the U.S. of America free and not overrun. But is that victory we envision in our future worth the cost it will entail. The only thing that is separating the United States border and Mexico’s border is simply an imaginary line. It is nothing we can see just what we are told is there. Then there are the official structures, the fences and wall and the use of border patrol agents to enforce the laws and boundaries. Yet you still have illegal immigrants crossing into United States territory without permission. What can we do to solve this issue at hand? We can invest in the use of heavy force. We can militarize our borders. Militarization is the organization or aggregation of military force in a territory. (Wickham, n.d.) The United States can send thousands of men and women to the borders to stop this from occurring. They can increase the size of the fences and walls. Invest in drones and spy planes. The only problem is how many will it take, or how will this affect the economy of the United States. This could lead to higher costs for equipment and supplies. The United States could end up pulling citizens from their current jobs and taking them away from their families to watch the borders. How long will this take? Could this be done any other way? First and foremost with the inherit threat of terrorism should be reason enough to feel the need to secure our boards...
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...of individuals seemingly prone to criminal behavior has mushroomed with the interconnection of the Internet to include the largest age range of criminal activity, with the most erratic demographics, on a worldwide basis. In this report, we will look at how practical jokes in the digital age are squandering tax dollars, and introducing a new kind of risk for traditional police forces and forcing the call for awareness and action against cyber criminals. Trending in today’s cyber world is a hoax mentality that is finding victims from frightened high-school students to high profile celebrities, and politicians, to video gamers who play live on the Internet, into an instantaneous public spectacle. Swatting is a type of prank calling or messaging where the person calls the police or a school reporting an alarming crime, such as a shooting or a bomb threat, which triggers massive police responses that are frequently described as highly trained Paramilitary swat operations. “The sick joke, known as swatting, takes advantage of the 911 system by painting the scene of an unfolding crime so heinous that local police forces often unleash the full might of their paramilitary units upon an unsuspecting household. It has occurred hundreds of times over the past decade, costing taxpayers up to $10,000 each time the cavalry rolls in” (Coburn, 2013). History of Prank’ers With a traceable history that spans, at the very...
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...world average and some US states imprison up to six times as many people as nations of comparable size. Furthermore, the US either leads the world, or is among the leaders, in fatal police shootings, executions, use of solitary confinement, and police militarization (Loevy 2015). Psychological Impact The American criminal justice system has a significant impact on the psychology of those imprisoned. This topic was explored in Craig Haney’s paper “From Prison to Home: The Effect of Incarceration and Reentry on Children, Families, and Communities”. In it, Haney discusses various aspects of psychological impact including dependence on the institution, hypervigilance, distrust and suspicion, emotional over-control, alienation, and more (Haney 2001). Some of those released carry the traumatic effects with them into society thereby affecting the broader community. For instance, Mika’il DeVeaux, previously incarcerated in New York State’s maximum-security prisons describes, “I remain haunted by the memories and images of violence … I can still see the murders I witnessed” (DeVeaux 2013). It is important to note that some policies result in long-term effects on some prisoners and that changes to those policies can have a positive impact on both the prisoner and the broader population. An example of the policy-to-prisoner-to-community impact chain starts with the hypervigilance and distrust prisoners develop. Prison is an environment where the strong exploit the weak and each...
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...led to a jump in both the size and presence of federal drug control agencies. It would evolve into several new legislations such as mandatory sentencing, no-knock warrants, and random frisks. There was even a point in the early days of this drug prohibition that marijuana was placed in the Schedule One category, which is the most restrictive of all drug categories. Although the United States only accounts for about five percent of the global population it currently holds about a quarter of the worlds incarcerated population, mostly due to non-violent drug offenses (Winterbourne). Between 1980 and 1997 the number of incarcerated people increased from 50,000 to 400,000 respectively. During George W. Bush’s term he increased the militarization of law enforcement against the “war on drugs” resulting in some 40,000 paramilitary-style SWAT raids which often resulted in misdemeanor drug possessions (A Brief History of the Drug...
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...at crime. Police have always responded to crime, that is the belief and that has always been their job. What happens, though, when provided with an idea that expresses that crime can be more preventative just by looking at and involving the community to participate? Policing traditionally has always been a response unit, providing its’ service after the fact (after a crime has happened). The broken windows theory counters that traditional style by looking outside of the traditional criminal justice system to see how crime is generated and solutions to fix and prevent it (Trojanowics, 1994). The broken windows theory has views closely related to community policing: The quality of life, as the ultimate goal of policing (Carter & Sapp 1994; Joseph 1994; Kelling and Coles 1996; Skogan 1990; Trojanowics 1994). This type of policing has broadened the goal to assist communities to maintain a safe environment where basic institutions (families, schools, churches, commerce) can effectively operate and thrive within the community (Kelling and Coles 1996). Apprehending criminals is no longer the only focus among law enforcement. Police and their agencies must now adapt to look at what needs to be done to maintain the quality of life in communities as well as alleviate citizen fear of crime. To prevent community decline and crime police agencies must us the strategic measure of disorder control. Legitimacy refers to the judgments that the citizens make about police authority...
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