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CHAPTER 1
THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
Learning Objectives
2. Identify the different responsibilities of federal and state criminal justice operations.
4. Identify the authority and relationships of the main criminal justice agencies, and list the
steps in the decision-making process for criminal cases.
6. Name the possible causes of racial disparities in criminal justice.
Lesson Plan
Correlated to PowerPoints
I. The goals of criminal justice
Learning Objective 1: Name the goals of the criminal justice system.
What goals does the criminal justice system serve?
Many have attempted to define such goals
Putting these straightforward ideas into practice is difficult
A. Doing justice
Basis for rules, procedures, and institutions of the criminal justice system
Fairness is essential
Differentiates the criminal justice system in the United States from authoritarian
countries
Goal of doing justice embodies three principles
1. Offenders will be held fully accountable for their actions
3. Like offenses will be treated alike while considering relevant
differences among offenders
B. Controlling crime
Crime is controlled by arresting, prosecuting, convicting, and punishing who
disobey the law
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C. Preventing crime
Crime is most often prevented by the deterrent effect of police, courts, and
D. Advancing goals: evidence-based practices
Advancing the goals of criminal justice requires the development of specific
policies
Class Discussion/Activity
What are the advantages and disadvantages of evidence-based practices?
What are the rationales behind this approach? Are there substitute
approaches that might work better? If using an evidence-based approach,
what then must be given up to accommodate it?
II. Criminal justice in a federal system
Learning Objective 2: Identify the different responsibilities of federal and state criminal justice
operations.
The criminal justice system is based on the concept of federalism
Federalism is a system of government that divides powers between a federal, or
national government, and regional state governments
A. Two justice systems
Most criminal laws are written and enforced at the state level
Congress has enacted some federal criminal statutes and has created federal law
See Assignments 5-6
What If Scenario
What if you were president on 9/11? What actions would you have taken relative
to our criminal justice system to address the tragedy?
PPT 7
PPT 6
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Class Discussion/Activity
Individually or in assigned groups, have students use the internet or other
appropriate media sources to search for and locate a variety of criminal cases.
which level you feel best fits each case.
B. Since the 1960s, the federal government has expanded significantly its role in dealing
with crime
Federal role has been expanded into fighting street crimes and juvenile
delinquency
Federal law enforcement agencies often worked jointly with state and local
agencies
Class Discussion/Activity
In recent years, federal law enforcement agencies have taken a much more
active role at the local level. Have students debate whether they believe
this increased role of federal agencies is good or bad for the criminal
justice system.
Career opportunities in federal law enforcement agencies are varied and often
unique
Example
Example: Agency cooperation since 9/11
Media Tool
III. Criminal justice as a social system
Learning Objective 3: Analyze criminal justice from a systems perspective.
A system is defined as a complex whole made up of interdependent parts
What are the parts of the criminal justice system? Police, courts, corrections, etc,
Subsystems are the interdependent parts within the larger system
See Assignment 1
See Assignment 1
See Assignment 1
PPT 8
PPT 9
PPT 10
PPT
12
–
14
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Each subsystem has its own goals but is interdependent on the other subsystems
Exchange a mutual transfer of resources between subsystems
Example: Plea bargain
IV. Characteristics of the criminal justice system
Learning Objective 3: Analyze criminal justice from a systems perspective.
The workings of the criminal justice system has four major characteristics:
discretion, resource dependence, sequential tasks, and filtering
A. Discretion
Discretion is used at all levels police officers, prosecutors, judges, parole
boards, etc.
Class Discussion/Activity
Have students discuss the concept of discretion in the criminal justice
B. Criminal justice agencies do not create their own resources but must rely on other
agencies for funding
C. Decisions in the criminal justice system are made in specific sequence
Example: Prosecutors cannot bypass police by making arrests and police arrests
D. At each stage of the criminal justice system some defendants are filtered out of the
Media Tool
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bargaining. Can this be avoided?
See Assignments 2-4
See Assignme
nts 2
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4
PPT 15-16
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V. Operations of criminal justice agencies
Learning Objective 4: Identify the authority and relationships of the main criminal justice
agencies, and list the steps in the decision-making process for criminal cases.
Learning Objective 5:
process and crime control models.
Criminal justice agencies are operated in order to deal with violators of the law
Subsystems consist of over 60,000 agencies with 2.3 million employees
Three main parts make up the criminal justice system: police, courts, and
corrections
Police are complex 17,876 local/state agencies but only 50 federal agencies
Police have four major duties:
1. keeping the peace
Example: Local police handle a broad range of situations from disagreements
between neighbors to domestic terrorism.
B. Courts in the United States operate within the constitutional arrangement of
federalism, thereby creating a dual court system
Adjudication is the process of determining guilt of a defendant and is the
responsibility of the courts
Media Tool
discuss what points they support and what points they refute.
See Assignments 2-4
What If Scenario
What if you were a police officer? How would you react to the four major duties a
police officer has?
See Assignments 1, 5
PPT 18
PPT 19
PPT 17
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Example: The federal and state levels of government have separate court systems
with unique and varied jurisdictions
C. Corrections is very broad and encompasses a variety of federal and state programs
Seven million people are under correctional supervision each day in the United
States
Prison includes only 30 percent of convicted offenders under supervision
D. The flow of decision-making in criminal justice involves a series of decisions by
actors and agencies at various points along the justice continuum
E. The criminal justice system consists of 13 steps that cover the stages of law
enforcement, adjudication, and corrections
Investigation
Arrest
Booking
Charging
Initial appearance
What If Scenario
What if you were on the jury for the Casey Anthony murder trial? What aspects of
the crime control and due process models would you have seen evident throughout
the trial?
Class Discussion/Activity
What is meant by assembly line justice? Break students into groups and give them five
See Assignments 1, 5
PPT 20
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F.
which cases are differently based on notoriety, political factors, public attention, etc.
Layer One
public scrutiny and involve the ideal example of the adversarial system
G. Herbert Packer (1968) described two competing models of the administration of
justice
Crime control model emphasizes speed, efficiency, and finality
Class Discussion/Activity
Take a survey of the stu
dents in your class and determine which of Herbert
VI. Crime and justice in a multicultural society
Learning Objective 6: Name the possible causes of racial disparities in criminal justice.
The Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees equal protection
A. Disparity and discrimination are controversial but important topics in criminal justice
African-Americans make up 15 percent of the American population but account
for 40 percent of felony defendants
B. There are many possibilities for explaining disparities in the criminal justice system
Do people of color commit more crimes?
Is the criminal justice system racist?
See Assignments 1, 5
PPT 22-23
PPT 24-25
PPT 28-
29
PPT 30
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Is racial profiling a reality in American criminal justice?
Lecture Notes
When teaching an Introduction to Criminal Justice course, it is important to stress the
goals of the criminal justice system to emphasize that there is no single definition for these goals.
Elaborate on historical attempts to define goals, especially the major influential effort of the
Presiden
and stress the differences in each.
It should be rather simple to find real life crime scenarios and cases that may be used as
examples in each of the four layers. The wedding cake model is an excellent point at which to
discuss in detail the realities of political and social influences on the administration of justice.
The four major characteristics of the criminal justice system are an excellent basis from
which to move from theory to application. For example, discretion can be explained and
justified theoretically, but in practical and actual application, discretion is both necessary and
Media Tool
What If Scenario
What if someone told you that race and ethnicity did not matter in terms of our
criminal justice system? What evidence would you use to indicate otherwise and
what possible reasons would you use to support this evidence?
See Assignment 6
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Key Terms
adjudication – The process of determining whether the defendant is guilty. (p. 20)
arrest – The physical taking of a person into custody on the grounds that there is reason to
believe that he or she has committed a criminal offense. Police are limited to using only
reasonable physical force in making an arrest. The purpose of the arrest is to hold the accused for
a court proceeding. (p. 22)
crime control model A model of the criminal justice system that assumes freedom is so
important that every effort must be made to repress crime; it emphasizes efficiency, speed,
finality, and the capacity to apprehend, try, convict, and dispose of a high proportion of
offenders. (p. 27)
crimes – Actions that violate laws defining which socially harmful behaviors will be subject to
power to impose punishments. (p. 05)
disparity – A difference between groups that may be explained either by legitimate factors or by
discrimination. (p. 31)
dual court system – A system consisting of a separate judicial system for each state in addition
to a national system. Each case is tried in a court of the same jurisdiction as that of the law or
laws broken. (p. 18)
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federalism – A system of government in which power is divided between a central(national)
government and regional (state) governments (p. 08)
felonies –Serious crimes usually carrying a penalty of death or of incarceration for more than one
year. (p. 26)
filtering process – A screening operation; a process by which criminal justice officials screen out
some cases while advancing others to the next level of decision making. (p. 17)
mala prohibita Offenses prohibited by law but not necessarily wrong in themselves. (p. 05)
misdemeanors Offenses less serious than felonies and usually punishable by incarceration of
no more than one year in jail, probation, or intermediate sanctions. (p. 26)
Assignments
2. -Out?
following questions. What would happen in the criminal justice system if we sought to prevent
decision makers from relying on exchange relations to process cases? For example, what would
happen if we banned plea bargaining and required each case to go through a complete trial? Would
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3. Plea bargaining is often referred to as a necessary evil by criminal justice professionals. How does
4. Explain how a law enforcement officer, attorney, judge, correctional officer, and/or a probations
5. What is meant by assembly line justice? Break students into groups and give them five minutes to
6. Racial disparity within the criminal justice system oftentimes results in racial profiling. After the