Introduction to the American Criminal Justice System (Burke et al.)

Most criminologists define crime as the violation of the laws of a society by a person or a group of people who are subject to the laws of that society (citizens). Thus, crime as defined by the State or Federal government. Essentially, crime is what the law states and a violation of the law, stated in the statue, would make actions criminal.

For example, if someone murdered another individual in the process of stealing their automobile most people would see this as a criminal and a straight-forward example of crime. We often see murder and robbery as wrong and harms society, as well as social order. However, there are times crime is not as straight-forward though and people may hesitate to call it criminal. The community I live in, and many others throughout the area, post signs that it is illegal to give food and other items to homeless individuals in need. If one were to violate this law and give food to a homeless person it would not involve harm to individuals, but the social order.

Adele MacLean joined others in an Atlanta park to feed the hungry the Sunday before Thanksgiving and was given a citation and a summons to appear in court. Ultimately, MacLean’s case was dropped when she showed up in court, but she and her lawyers argued the citation for serving food without a permit was improper and demonstrates callousness toward the homeless.

The city and some advocates say feeding people on the streets can hinder long-term solutions and raises sanitation concerns. Approximately 40 cities across the nation have active laws to restrict food sharing, and a few dozen more had attempted such restrictions, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless. We will talk later about how we may create laws based on what can cause harm. Harm can be to the social order, physical, economic, social, emotional, environmental, and more. In order to ensure that people receive justice in today’s society, we use the criminal justice system to administer punishment or reward, and those crimes are often punished based on morals and norms.

The criminal justice system is a major social institution that is tasked with controlling crime in various ways. Police are often tasked with detecting crime and detaining individuals, courts often adjudicate and hand down punishments, and the correction system implements punishments and/or rehabilitative efforts for people who have been found guilty of breaking the law.

Criminal Justice Process

When the law is broken, the criminal justice system must respond in an attempt to make society whole again. The criminal justice system is made up of various agencies at different levels of government that can work independently and together, but each attempting to deal with crime. Challenges may arise when agencies do not work together or attempt to work together inefficiently. The notorious serial killer Ted Bundy was an example of U.S. law enforcement agencies not working together because of lack of technological advancement to freely exchange information and resources about killings in their area. Bundy exploited gaps in the traditional law enforcement, investigative processes throughout different jurisdictions, and ultimately was able to avoid arrest and detection. If various agencies at the Federal, State, and Local law enforcement level had worked together they could have potentially stopped Ted Bundy sooner. Following Ted Bundy, a Multi-agency Investigative Team manual, also known as the MAIT Taskforce, was created through the National Institute of Justice to develop information about the crime, it causes and how to control it https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/110826NCJRS.pdf. One of the values of the United States is that local agencies will control their local community, but at times this may create unexpected complications.