The Criminal Justice Process - Law Paper Example

The criminal justice process requires independence of all the parties involved in the process. Discretion gives the stakeholders in the legal proceedings the right to make decisions according to their judgment. On the other hand, the "letter-of-the-law" requires that the parties involved in the judicial process to obey the law literally (Stenning, 2015). The parties have no right or power to make independent decisions in any circumstance because they are guided by the law and must act according to the literal interpretation of the law word by word. Discretion is an essential feature of the criminal justice process because it empowers the courts, attorneys, police officers, probation officers and correction officers act according to their judgment (Stenning, 2015).

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The independent review means that the officers involved in the judicial process make quick decisions and this creates room for quick actions in each situation. For instance, through discretion police officers have the right to arrest people engaging in immoral behaviors and nuisance behaviors that are not addressed in the state laws (Stenning, 2015). The police officers are mandated to follow laws has stipulated in the constitutions when making the decisions to arrest lawbreakers but have the right to make the judgment when they deem it is necessary to make an arrest.

All the officers involved in the judicial process must respect the discretion of each other. For instance, the probation officers must comply with the decisions made by the court attorneys. This helps to reduce conflict of decisions and ensure that justice is served in the right way and at the right time. In a nutshell, discretion enhances the decision-making process in the judicial system by ensuring collaborations between all parties involved in the court proceedings (Stenning, 2015). Decisions made by each section of the legal system are respected by the other parts of the system. For instance, the correctional and parole officers have the mandate to implement the recommendations proposed by the court attorneys. However, unlimited discretion can cause problems within the judicial system and thus there is the need to ensure that the discretion is controlled. The rule of law must guide the court system and to make sure that all the decisions made by the judicial system are legal (Stenning, 2015). Uncontrolled discretion within the legal system can result in making decisions that are illegal or do not abide by the rule of law (Stenning, 2015). Unlimited discretion can also lead to contradicting decisions between the various sections in the judicial system. Contradicting judgments in the legal system can set back the delivery of justice and thus the lower credibility of the justice system.

DQ 1_02

The location and the penalty structure in the country play a role in determining the people arrested and imprisoned for drug crimes. Individuals who engage in the use and sale of illicit drugs are mainly from poor backgrounds and neighborhoods. Most of the African Americans and Hispanics are poor due to some reasons related to their cultural background (Quigley, 2016). Statistics show that despite the fact that Caucasians are more likely to use illicit drugs than African Americans and Hispanics, the minority groups are more apt to be arrested and imprisoned for drug crimes. The trend can be associated with the neighborhoods that the minority groups live. The area that one lives in the country is determined by the socio-economic status and the social class (Quigley, 2016). The social status in the society is primarily determined by the level of education and employment opportunities. African Americans and the Hispanics have limited possibilities in the job market as compared to the Caucasians, and this predisposes them to the illicit selling of drugs as a way of earning a living. The neighborhoods of the minority groups are viewed as homes for drug addicts and thus are kept under close surveillance by the police and this result in more arrests of the minority groups than the Caucasians. The majority of the police officers in the country are Caucasians, and thus they racially discriminate the minority groups. The minority groups are mainly arrested by the Caucasian police officers who view them as natural criminals (Quigley, 2016).

The penalty structure in the country favors the Caucasians while indirectly victimizing the African Americans and the Hispanics. The police target the minority groups, and this increases their chances of being arrested and imprisoned (Quigley, 2016). African Americans are often stopped and frisked for no reason more than the Caucasians for no explainable cause. The war against drugs in the country is viewed as a war against the minority groups in the country. This means that the war against drugs is viewed as a way of fighting illicit drugs being sold and used by the minority groups. The minority groups are considered as having the higher likelihood of using drugs than the Caucasians (Quigley, 2016). The bail system for people arrested in regards to drug use or trafficking favors the wealthy in the society who are mainly the Caucasians. As pointed earlier, the minority groups are poorer than the Whites due to lack of equal opportunities (Quigley, 2016). The majority of the African Americans and the Hispanics feel the burden of the bails imposed because they cannot afford them and they end up imprisoned.

ACT 1_03

In the first chapter of his book "the limits of the criminal sanction," Harbet Packer constructed and explained two different models in the criminal justice. These two models are the crime control model and the due process model. The two models represent competing systems of values in a criminal justice system (Packer, 1968). The crime control model represents the criminal activity while the due process model protects an individual's rights. The primary purpose or focus of crime control is to safeguard the community as a whole from crime threat while the main objective of the due process is to protect an individual from mistreatment in the processes of criminal justice.

Packers concepts are still viable and applicable in the contemporary criminal cases. The crime control model says that the criminal justice systems most essential function should be to repress crime to bring order into the society. This model reasons that a free society can be achieved if the criminal justice system took active measures to eliminate crime. According to this model, criminal justice should concentrate on highlighting and protecting victim's rights rather than defendants' rights. The model also goes ahead to say that legal technicalities and bureaucratic police procedures should be eliminated to give the police more powers to conduct investigations easily as well as search, arrest, and convict criminals. The crime control model asserts that the criminal justice process should mainly focus on establishing the truth and facts about the guilt of the accused. This is so because if the police conducted investigations before the arrest and the prosecutor conducted the investigation before prosecution the accused must be guilty. The model points out that the fact-finding process of the police and prosecutor should be highly reliable (Packer, 1968). The model, therefore, concludes that the criminal justice system should operate in a forward-moving process whereby cases move smoothly from one office to the next towards disposition.

The due process model, on the other hand, presents arguments that are a complete opposite of what the crime control model does. The due process model asserts that an essential function of the criminal just should be to protect the rights of all individuals by providing due process and fairness during the trial (Packer, 1968). As such, the criminal justice should concentrate on the protection of defendants right rather than victims rights. The concept also argues that the police should have limited and controlled powers to ensure that they do not oppress individuals especially the defendants during criminal justice processes. According to the due process model, the constitution should be clear on the rights of persons. These will act as control mechanisms which the criminal justice authorities will have to respect at all times and through which their accountability will be measured and questioned. The criminal proceedings should bot be smooth flowing but rather resemble an obstacle course made up of series of procedures and impediments. The aim of such barriers and systems is to protect the rights of all individuals and ensure that the innocent have their rights respected while the guilty are convicted. The model concludes by pointing out that a person's sense of guilt should not be based only on the facts but rather on fair and due-process legal procedural fact-finding.

The political values and climate of a nation determine the model that the criminal justice adheres to. For instance, in the application of crime control model when the police suspect or get a report that a person is suspect to be dealing with illegal drugs they will immediately arrest that person. According to crime control, the police will have the power to search the person's property even without proper documentation, arrest him and convict him. According to this model, the police will do so because the primary focus of the justice system should be to repress crime, protect the society. The rights of the defendant will not be treated as significant but rather the police will be concerned with the rights of the victims who may be affected by the sale of drugs. According to crime control model, the criminal justice should only focus on finding facts about the guilt of the accused rather than his innocence or protecting his rights.

Following the due process, if the police suspect that a person might be dealing with drugs, they will protect those individual rights even during the investigation and other criminal justice procedures. For instance, the person has the right to fair treatment and thus the police cannot search his house without a search warrant. Also, the defendant will not be arrested on mere suspicion but only when the police have full evidence. The criminal justice system will adhere to the constitutional and fundamental rights of the defendant's as provided in the bill of duties. The police power is also limited because any violation of individual rights and due process will lead to them being held accountable. Also, the government will follow the legal procedure to find facts on the factual innocence of factual guilt of the accused/defendant before issuing a punishment.

DQ 2_04

#a

To maintain order in a neighborhood, a broken window must be fixed quickly- the broken window model has been in use since 1982. This model focuses on the maintenance of law and order within a neighborhood. Though the model uses a simple name, the ideas and concepts that it presents in the criminal justice system are paramount. A sight of broken window in the neighborhood is a show of decrease in safety and increase in small crime. The police should use the opportunity presented by small crimes like broken windows to generate facts and sustain more serious crimes before they occur and as a result maintain order in the neighborhood (Kelling and James Wilson, 1982). For example, small crimes like increased number of broken windows reflect disorder and even if they are not directly linked to serious offenses, they create fear and anxiety among residents in a neighborhood. This fear leads to withdrawal from the region which leads to decrease levels of informal social control and eventually onset of more severe crime and complete ruin of the neighborhood.

#b

The charges of "suspicious person," "vagrancy," and "public drunkenness" do not have much legal merit; however, they exist, so that...