Crj 422 - Criminal Justice System

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Criminal Justice System

Marqus L. Harris

CRJ 422

Curtis Turney

August 12, 2012

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Practices and outcomes are not just encouraged by our criminal justice system. Our criminal justice system is full of different components which include courtrooms, police, and prison facilities that fail at promoting social justice in our society. With our current criminal justice system main focus is on controlling crime instead of the process of due rights. The justice system encourages punishment of people instead of rehabilitation. Procedures and policies that are being put in place in the criminal justice system have brought forth discrimination and inequality in society.

Personal beliefs are used when decisions are made in the criminal justice system. With this comes racial profiling and discrimination issues within law enforcement. Discrimination of minorities within the system has brought many issues with police associating certain crimes with minorities. Black men are often attached to violent crimes and the court process have been a problem and has made it difficult for the courts to encourage administer justice and equality to the victims and the offender also. The criminal justice system does not emphasize to rights of humans that are given in the U.S. constitution and it has affected justice and therefore social justice.

Social justice involves balancing the actions of the offender and the victim. It also wants the treatment of all people in society equally as well as the offender. My paper will examine law enforcement and their problems in the system and how cultural diversity and socioeconomic diversity is applied to the justice system.

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The United States constitution will be analyzed with the use of theories of social and criminal justice as well as how the justice system operates. The paper will also address how the investigations of crime scenes go, incarnation, correctional facilities, and release problems. Centralization of the criminal justice agencies in the United States will be examined as well as the U.S. homeland security act, criminal justice, and social justice at an international level. The paper will go over the association between social justice and the criminal justice system. Examination of the topics and info from different fields of study such as law, sociology, psychology, and ethics will be applied.

Law Enforcement Issues

There are a number of different principles of law enforcement and one main goal of the police officers is to prevent crimes from tearing up our society. When preventing crime the police should be respectful to the citizens and the citizens should respect them also as well as the law. The police are advised to not use excessive force when trying to restore law and order and excessive force will decrease cooperation between the public and the police. Physical force is the last resort when enforcing the law and the police are trained to offer impartial enforcement of the law.

To measure the efficiency of the police all one must do is look at the absence of crime and order in our society. With the issues that face law enforcement today it has come because of law officials not following the proper steps and principles of law enforcement. Prejudice and discrimination is a big issue in the criminal justice system and prejudice and discrimination is clearly seen in courtrooms and policing.

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Police officers have made biased and discriminatory decisions when laws were enforced. The police tend not to offer impartial enforcement as recommended, but some are given special treatment. Law enforcement officials have been said to discriminate against minorities when enforcing laws in society.

Law officials have been known to associate certain types of crimes with minority groups like African-Americans. The police have attributed violent types of crimes with African-Americans in our society and it has lead to the arrests of more blacks than any other. Citizens from minority groups like blacks are more likely to be aerated than any others from groups. That is why we see an extremely high number of minorities in the prison system. Also, racial profiling has affected law enforcement as a whole negatively.

Racial profiling has been used by the police to fight crime by identifying criminals and punishing them in society. This has lead to discrimination of certain minorities like place of origin, race, and color. Law enforcement officials are known to pull over and arrest minorities on the road more than any other group. Minorities are more likely to be search along borders and any other type of entry point. This has lead to the rights of minorities being affected like unreasonable arrests, search, and seizure. There rights to free speech, freedom, and privacy have been affected also.

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Minorities have also been linked to crimes such as terrorism and we see many people in this country lose faith with the justice system and law officials because their rights along with them as people are not being respected. Fairness and equality have not been encouraged at all and law officials should encourage fairness, equality, and community policing when enforcing the law. They should get minorities more involved in enforcing the law and any other process of the criminal justice system. "This will improve the perception people have towards the criminal justice system and law enforcement officers" (More, 2008).

Socioeconomic and cultural diversity in criminal justice

A very important role is cultural diversity as it relates to the criminal justice system as it brings equity in the courts, system, and enforcement of the law. A major issue in the criminal justice system is multiculturalism as law officials do not encourage diversity when the laws are enforced. A negative and positive effect on the system comes with cultural diversity. The prisoners, employees, and the public of the criminal justice system continue to see the effect of a society that is culturally diverse. This diversity allows development of procedures, new ideas, laws, and modification