Please post a 200-300-word response to the following discussion question by clicking on Reply.
What is crime? What are the components of the criminal justice system? How does crime relate to the law? What changes would you recommend to better improve the criminal justice process?
Crime is any act or omission (i.e. something intentionally or unintentionally left out), which violates established laws of the local, state, or federal governments (Schmalleger, 2011, p. 7). What does this mean? It means that if there is a law governing a particular act and an individual commits the act in violation of the established law, they are committing a crime. For example, if there is a local ordinance (law) banning smoking of any kind of tobacco or tobacco product within 25 feet of a business or government building and you find yourself smoking a cigarette within 10 feet of one of these specified locations (act), you are in violation of the law and in effect committing a crime.
The components of the criminal justice system consist of law enforcement, courts and corrections (Schmalleger, 2011, p. 14). In all of the components of the criminal justice system, you will find various agencies, titles, and roles specific to ensuring the administration of justice. These systems of processes are designed to protect the innocent and ensure fairness (due process) of the law is adhered to before, during, and after arrest (Schmalleger, 2011, p. 14).
Crime in a sense is an act or omission, which society, via legislation, has deemed to be unjust. Therefore, if there were no acts or omissions that constitute a violation of society’s ideals, laws would not be implemented and as such, crime would be non-existent (Schmalleger, 2011, p. 15).
Having worked within the local court systems, I would recommend that juries be implemented in preliminary hearings. This would eliminate many costly