Branches of the Criminal Justice
The system of courts, corrections and law enforcement in the criminal justice is directly involved in the supervision, incarceration, sentencing, defense, prosecution, and apprehension of those charged with or suspected of criminal offenses. Law enforcement agencies, in one hand, are governmental agencies or subunits thereof having legal authority to arrest and to carry out crime reduction and control (National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, 2004). For the majority of the time, however, their work is composed of three principal functions which include law enforcement, service and order maintenance.
On the contrary, justice is one of the primary aspects of law enforcement; hence the courts are as well of major significance in criminal justice since it encourages freedom and justice, in addition to law and order. Basically, the courts function as the location where justice is governed and disputes are resolved (Answers. com, 2009). From the court system and following the findings of guilt, individuals are then turned over to the correctional authorities.
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The corrections will then administer the sanctions conferred by the court against convicted criminals (Osceola County Clerk of Circuit Court’s Office, 2000). Taken as a whole, the criminal justice system is a fundamental component in the maintenance of social control and order. Efficiency, Conflict and Abuse of Power The criminal justice in general is used by local and national governments, in order to uphold social authority, control, crime deterrence, and to appropriately penalize those who violated the laws.
However, there are large numbers of existing specific agencies that carry out the tasks of the criminal justice; each of which has its own extensive functions to act upon. The courts, for instance, despite of their various levels, divisions and specializations, are still experiencing difficulty from the incessant clogging of their court dockets due to the large number of cases that are brought to them everyday. Clearly, the efficiency of services will not be delivered if the branches of criminal justice system are merged, without suffering fairness, impartiality, and social control and administration.
Likewise, criminal justice system has several components, and in their functioning, each of which has several stages of process. As such, performance of functions will likely cause conflict if all the branches are merged into one agency. For instance, due to the law enforcement officers’ field experiences and orientations, their perspective of what is culpable may be different from that of the judges’, which possesses more subtle legal qualities than any other individuals in any of the other two branches.
Consequently, divergences of standpoints will then arise resulting to constant conflicts. Lastly, the possibility of abuse of power would be more evident if the three branches of the criminal justice system are merged into one single agency that execute the functions of all three. This is because the respective attributes of each branch are different. The law enforcement officers’ task is to basically bring lawbreakers to the criminal justice system (EduDecisions. com, 2009). As such, their duties and responsibilities primarily involve executive function.
For a fair trial, law enforcement officers bring the lawbreakers to the courts, and obviously, judicial functions are then performed. However, there would be no fair trial if one agency performs both executive and judicial functions. All the more if the same agency will hand out and administer the offenders’ rehabilitation. These circumstances are clearly vulnerable to abuse in view of the fact that it concentrates broad and significant powers into one agency. Conclusion A criminal justice system that is independent, fair, honest and effective is one of the most indispensable institutions of America.
Accordingly, despite the modernization of times, the continued division between the law enforcement, courts and corrections is still very necessary. Although the three branches must still cooperate with each other in order to provide justice for victims, criminals and the society; nevertheless, the system still needs to be structurally based in order to maintain effective social control, efficiency, impartiality, goal organization and accountability. References Answers. com. (2009). Criminal Justice. Retrieved March 9, 2009, from http://www. answers. com/topic/criminal-justice#Courts
EduDecisions. com. (2009, March 2). The United States Criminal Justice System. Retrieved March 9, 2009, from http://www. edudecisions. com/articles/criminal-justice-careers/criminal-justice-system. php National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. (2004, March 17). Adding a Name to the Memorial. Retrieved March 9, 2009, from http://www. nleomf. com/TheMemorial/addname. htm Osceola County Clerk of Circuit Court’s Office. (2000). A Criminal Justice System Overview. Retrieved March 10, 2009, from http://www. osceolaclerk. com/criminal_justice_system_overview. htm
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