The Criminal Justice System 1

The Criminal Justice System

Justin Kruse

CRJ100 Prof. Pionke

Strayer University
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The Criminal Justice System

Today’s criminal justice system is composed of three branches that work together to

ensure the safety of law abiding citizens. The three parts work together much like a track team

during a relay race. The race is started with the police passing the baton to the courts who then

make the hand off to the corrections system. The three components, along with the jobs they

each provide the criminal justice system with; will be discussed in the following paper.

The first phase in the criminal justice system is the police. Police officers work in

partnership with the public and are in the front line in the fight against crime and the fear of

crime (Holdsworth, 2008). It is important for the police officers to have a strong sense of

situational awareness, not only to stay on top of investigations, but also for their own safety and

well being. Police officers have a very heavy load upon their shoulders mainly due to the fact

that a great majority of the citizens’ safety rests within their hands. Some of the jobs tasked to

officers are as follows: enforce the law, investigate crimes, apprehend offenders, reduce and

prevent crime, maintain public order, ensure community safety, provide emergency and related

community services, and protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of individuals

(Schmalleger, 2009). All these jobs listed aide in the police officers fight against crime and

allows them the first leg of the criminal justice system.

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The courts system is the next step in the criminal justice system. The courts system has

the difficult mission of ruling whether or not the arrestee has actually committed the crime for

which they are charged. There is quite a list of jobs for the court system to uphold in order for

those in court to gain a fair trial. These jobs are: conduct fair and impartial trials, decide

criminal cases, ensure due process, determine guilt or innocence, impose sentences on the guilty,

uphold the law, require fairness throughout the justice process, protect the rights and freedoms of

anyone facing processing by the justice system, and provide a check on the exercise of power by

other justice system agencies (Schmalleger, 2009). It is within this process that criminals find

out the price they must pay for the crimes committed. Sentencing, however, is not the only

outcome the court system is seeking, rehabilitation is the primary goal sought by out by judge

and jury. If we only looked for retribution or revenge against the criminals, no matter how

appealing it may sound, our society would end up in complete lawlessness. As a sentence is

handed down to the criminal at trial, the baton is passed from the courts system to the corrections

system.

The corrections system is the final leg of the race, the true showing of whether or not the

criminal can be or has been rehabilitated. The jobs for corrections are as follows: carry out

sentences imposed by the courts, provide safe and humane custody and supervision of offenders,

protect the community, rehabilitate, reform, reintegrate convicted offenders back into the

community, and respect the legal and human rights of the convicted. The convicted are sent to a

corrections facility to serve out their sentence. Here they are given every opportunity to better

themselves, libraries, gyms, even classrooms so offenders may attend school. Some

penitentiaries house more violent criminals than others and some are for the criminally insane.

Prison may look like ominous structures, but they need to so that prisoners are kept in until they
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are paroled. Once a convicted offender has reached the end of their prison term they become

eligible for parole, which in turn releases them back into the community a rehabilitated citizen.

The release of prisoners is the finish line for the criminal justice system.

In closing, we have discussed the three steps of the criminal justice system. We have also

learned about some of the specific jobs each step completes before moving on to the next. The

criminal justice system may seem like a maze, but once we look at the big picture, it is clearly a

direct path from bad back to good.

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References

Holdsworth, L. (2008, March). Police officer: job description and activities. Retrieved from

http://www.prospects.ac.uk/p/types_of_job/police_officer_job_description.jsp

Schmalleger, Ph. D., F. (2009). Criminal jusice today. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson

Education Inc..
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The Criminal Justice System

Justin Kruse

CRJ100 Prof. Pionke

Strayer University