More handpicked essays just for you.
Challenges in the criminal justice system
Challenges in the criminal justice system
Challenges in the criminal justice system
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Challenges in the criminal justice system
Every day in the world many people wake up doing things to help others, but there’s at least 3 million people in the criminal law field (Careers in Criminal Justice,2014) that risk there life to help others and make the world a safer place. Whether you choose to purse a desk jobs or a front line job in the criminal law field there are many challenges people are faced with. Some of the challenges consist of being assaulted, exposed to life threatening things, and being alone in life. It takes a lot to choose a career when you know there are many challenges, but doing so because it benefits others. Working frontline in the criminal justice field you face the risk of being physically and verbally assaulted. In the year of 2012, there were at …show more content…
While studying at Anderson University I had many things brought to my attention dealing with corrections and working as a police officer. My previous professor Mr. Anderson worked as a corrections officer for over 7 years. Throughout the many years he witness many people to get assaulted and was even assaulted himself. People are confined in small areas making it a very hostile environment. Over the years he stated that he experienced many inmates that did not like to follow orders. They feared being seen as soft in front of peers. To be seen as soft can result in others loosing respect from you. In the Corrections system without respect you have nothing. In one instant Mr. Anderson stated he was assaulted due to talking to inmate in a certain way in front of his peers. The inmate needed to save face, so he assaulted him. This all boiled down to him being assaulted for him doing his job. He stated after this experience he learned to give the inmates time to react to his commands and not belittling them. With studying criminal justice I learned you may also be verbally assaulted every day when performing your job.
Furthermore, the “law and order” model was produced after a strong reaction between conservatives and liberal policies advocated by the national crime commissions. The conservative model originated in efforts to reexamine fundamental assumptions of the adult criminal justice system by a series of special study groups that began with the American Friends Service Committee publication “Struggle for Justice.” The committee’s desire to improve the predicament of prison inmates led to a report in 1971 that suggested that indeterminate sentencing and decisions about parole were conflicting and that they allowed biased judgment and improper criteria to control the timeframe served by inmates. Unfortunately, these motives for rejecting indeterminate
In the case study of whistle-blowing at Corcoran State Prison, two corrections officers were all but shunned for the actions they took to put an end to the mistreatment of prisoners. Officers Richard Caruso and Steve Rigg witnessed their fellow corrections officers abusing their power by placing rival gang members in a small recreation yard in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) to promote fighting. The officers would make bets on the inmates, treated the fighting like a sport and used unnecessary deadly force with a firearm at will (Dryburgh, 2009). Caruso and Rigg, both former marines, had superior comprehension of ethically handling a firearm; the actions of their co-workers became unacceptable so they took action (Dryburgh, 2009).
The correctional subculture is not described as extensively as the police subculture; however, many elements of misconduct and criminal activities are similar (Pollock, 2014). The parallelism of corruption between the police and correctional officer are as follows: (1) use of force; (2) acceptance of gratuities from inmates; (3) mistreatment/sexual coercion of inmates; and (4) abuse of authority for personal gains (Pollock, 2014). According to Pardue et al. (2011), there are two types of sexual coercion found within the prison subculture and they are as follows: (1) coercion between convicts; and (2) coercion between convicts and staff members (p. 289). The Department of Corrections is aware of staff sexual abuse and harassment of women prisoners, and they have been playing “catch up” to accommodate the challenges of this persisting problem (Clear et al., 2013, p.
For a majority of the 20th century, sentencing policies had a minimal effect on social inequality (Western and Pettit 2002). In the early 1970s, this began to change when stricter sentencing policies were enacted (Western and Pettit 2002). Sentencing laws such as determinate sentencing, truth-in-sentencing, mandatory minimum sentencing, and three-strikes laws were enacted with the purpose of achieving greater consistency, certainty, and severity in sentencing (National Research Council 2014). Numerous inequalities involving race, ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status have generated an unprecedented rate of incarceration in America, especially among minority populations (Western and Pettit 2010). With numerous social inequalities currently
at work I have learned that I have to treat them with respect in order to receive respect in return. When that respect isn’t there, expect to have a long and stressful day. I was told that that you will have some inmates who will talk to you in a disrespectful manner because they want to have the authority of everyone. When this takes place, you have to sternly put your foot down and make it known who the officer is and who the inmate is. Some inmates think just because you know them you will be easy on them that is never the case. If you feel uncomfortable with dealing with someone you know just get another officer to take your place with that. He explained a situation where a young man he was in karate class with had entered the facility with a drug charge, it was going around that he was going to give the young man special treatment so instead of that being a possible accusation he called for a replacement. He also had gone back to the respect aspect of the conversation saying that the main reason why that is enforced is because; these males and females are human. They have families living on the outside as well as they do have the possibility of getting out and who knows since he is at a county facility it is more common to see people that he went to school with, lived near etc. So for his safety and his family’s family he is mindful and is very professional when at work and
The Criminal Justice System can be very rewarding because it deters crime, protects and minimize recidivism all while treating all Americans equally under the law (Department of Justice, 2013). The Criminal Justice System’s Administration is composed of three system components which collectively functions the Criminal Justice System if effectively enforced and monitored (The Criminal Justice System, 2008). The Criminal Justice Administration is composed of Police Officers, Public Defenders and other Legal occupant whose main job is to protect, serve and rehabilitate (The Criminal Justice System, 2008). When the Administration’s occupants become involved in corruption they become a conflict of interest. Conflicting Rewards can negatively impact the Criminal Justice Administration and the people it was created to serve when the primary goal becomes undesirable (Kirby, 2016).
So, in a time of social, political and economic change it makes sense that how we enforce the law and systems of punishment would begin to shift into the public eye. Gunther claims that we have a criminal processing system, rather than a criminal justice system; But what makes a criminal justice system an impartial justice oriented system rather than the harsh, biased and unfair processing mechanism that Gunther saw? For this, we look to Packer’s four assumptions of a justice system.
Within the Criminal Justice System there is diverse career opportunities to choose from. The career I am interested in being is a Criminal Profiler with the FBI National Center for Analysis of Violent Crime. I am interested in this job because it seems to be an intense job to do. A criminal profiler's job is to create a psychological profile of a criminal suspect. Creating one of these profiles can be used to help catch the suspect. This is done by examining evidence from the crime, interviewing witnesses and victims, and analyzing crime scenes. Information obtained from these investigations can then be used to help the profiler determine a pattern of criminal behavior. Most of the time the information that was collected can be used to find out more about the suspect.
The career of a correctional officer has always captivated me in a way that is difficult to explain. Even as a child, I recall tuning into shows such as Lockup and Lockdown. In fact, my earliest, most vivid memories consist of me sitting in front of a TV screen with my eyes mesmerized by the hardened criminals visioned on the screen before me. It may seem peculiar, but I’ve always pictured myself inside the prison walls. What’s even more peculiar is that I’ve seldom visioned myself as a correctional officer; in fact, I’ve almost always visioned myself as a prisoner. Given what’s been said, one may ask me why it is that I aspire to be a correctional officer. And the answer to that question is rather simple. I want to be a correctional officer because I thrive for a rush of euphoria to course through my veins. And being a correctional officer will allow an endless supply of euphoria to course through my veins. And with that said, I don’t need to further explain why such a career is what I long for.
I don’t know what people thought of when they saw JH’s family before their involvement with the criminal justice (CJ) system. However, I am sure they did not suspect the horrors that went on behind closed doors. JH, now about fifteen years old, was being sexually abused by his older brother and father. They both even recorded the acts. Eventually law enforcement got involved, police arrested the father and brother, the DA pressed charges, lawyers got involved, the courts sentenced them, they were incarcerated, at some point they’ll most likely have a parole hearing, and eventually might be released from prison. That is what most people think of when they think of criminal justice. Criminal justice is often erroneously limited to a crime, the
The criminal justice system is made up of multiple different moving parts working together to catch, control and rehabilitate criminal offenders. In the prison system there are three different sections that make up the operations, the Security Personnel, Treatment and Program staff, and the Service Staff. (Seiter p.376) First I want to start with one of the most misjudged job which are those of the correctional officers. They are the personnel who are the “staff person in a prison or jail who accomplishes the institution’s mission by maintaining control and order within the prison”. (Seiter p.365) They are housed with hundreds of inmates a day without any weapons to defend themselves and are look to keep compliance of the same offenders that committed violent crimes within the community. The average career correctional officer will spend a minimum of approximately 6 years incarcerated with inmates. (Seiter p.358) Within this time frame correctional officers have to maintain a high level of communicational skills to effectively communicate with their assigned inmates and show they are unbiased to everyone. They need to be vigilant at all times to be ready for any attempts of assaults on their lives which can definitely be a
It is a myth to believe that an officers job is spend fighting dangerous crimes, in reality officers spend more time handing smaller cases. For example, police officers spend a lot of time doing daily tasks such as giving speeding tickets and being mediators in disputes (Kappeler & Potter, 2005). Handing out speeding tickers and handling minor disputes are far from fighting crime. Police officers spend more time doing preventive measures (Kappeler & Potter, 2005). Preventive measures involve officers intervening to prevent further altercations. Victor Kappeler and Gary Potter discussed the myth of crime fighting as invalid and misleading notions of an officer’s employment.
Police violence remains a dire human right violation, especially in the United States. Over the last decade, police have applied force and aggression in ways that leave people wondering if they are discharging their duties. Recently, law enforcement seems to have taken a different turn characterized by aggression and violence when dealing with the public. Cases of unjustified shootings, physical assault, fatal chokings and violent treatment have contributed to the ongoing problem of police brutality in the America. Worse still is the fact that a greater proportion of these cases go unreported and undetected. This has partially encouraged violent police officers to continue applying force when dealing with the public. This new law enforcement
Imagine pulling into your driveway and seeing your neighbor’s house surrounded by police, flashing lights, and caution tape with bodies covered in white sheet on the lawn. It was a drive by shooting. Next, a van pulls up and a Criminal Investigator steps out and starts assessing the crime scene. She begins taking photos, marking shell casings, packaging evidence, documenting tire treads on the pavement and inspecting and collecting DNA evidence from the bodies. Criminal Investigators are highly trained college graduates that are a vital part of bringing criminals to justice.
There are many different aspects of criminal justice policy. One in particular is the different theories of crime and how they affect the criminal justice system. The Classical School of criminology is a theory about evolving from a capital punishment type of view to more humane ways of punishing people. Positivist criminology is maintaining the control of human behavior and criminal behavior. They did this through three different categories of Biological studies, which are five methodologies of crime that were mainly focused on biological theories, Psychological theories, which contains four separate theories, and the Sociological theories, which also includes four different methods of explaining why crime exists. The last theory is about Critical criminology. Their goal was to transform society in a way that would liberate and empower subordinate groups of individuals.