CJUS 211: CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Lecture 5: The Criminal Justice System

ROADMAP
THIS WEEK
▪ Measuring Crime ▪ The 13 Decision-making Steps
▪ The Goals of the Criminal
Justice System (CJS) Written Assignment 1 Due
▪ Federal
and State SUNDAY
Responsibilities
▪ CJS as a Social System
HOW DO WE MEASURE CRIME?
MEASURING CRIME
▪ We primarily measure crime in two ways:
1. The Uniform Crime Report (UCR) – this is data
provided by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and
includes all crimes reported to police agencies
2. The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)
– this is survey data also collected by the DOJ, it
uses nationally representative sampling
interview/survey data of reported instances of
victimization (not only crime reported)
 UCR NCVS
Offenses Homicide Rape/sexual assault
Rape Robbery (personal)
measured
Robbery (personal and commercial) Assault (aggravated and simple)
Assault (aggravated) Household burglary
Burglary (commercial and household) Larceny (personal and household)
Larceny (commercial and household) Motor vehicle theft
Motor vehicle theft
Arson

Scope Crimes reported to the police in most Crimes both reported and not reported to police; all data are for
jurisdictions; in 2012, the data submitted the nation as a whole; some data are available for a few large
represented 98.1% of the population. geographic areas.

Collection Police department reports to Federal Bureau Survey interviews: periodically measures the total number of
of Investigation. crimes committed by asking a national sample of households
method
about their experiences as victims of crime during a specific
period. In 2012, 92,390 households were interviewed,
representing 162,940 persons aged 12 or older.

Kinds of In addition to offense counts, provides Provides details about victims (such as age, race, sex,
information on crime clearances, persons education, income, and whether the victim and offender were
information
arrested, persons charged, law enforcement related) and about crimes (such as time and place of
officers killed and assaulted, and occurrence, whether reported to police, use of weapons,
characteristics of homicide victims. occurrence of injury, and economic consequences)

Sponsor Department of Justice’s Federal Bureau of Department of Justice’s Federal Bureau of Investigation
Investigation
THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM (CJS)
FEDERALISM & THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
▪ In the US, our system of government is federalist
▪ Power is divided between national/federal and
state governments
▪ This means we have two justice systems:
▪ The federal government prosecutes violations of
federal law
▪ State (and local) governments prosecute
violations of state law
STATE & FEDERAL LAWS
if you used mail or internet or telephone or radio
then also federal crimes i.e. interstate commerce

STATE LAWS FEDERAL LAWS

▪ Actions occurring within ▪ Crimes occurring across
the confines of one state state lines or outside of
▪ Determined by state
any state
legislature and state ▪ Determined by Congress
constitution and US Constitution
▪ Typical examples: ▪ Examples:
▪ Assault ▪ Drug trafficking
▪ Car theft ▪ Cybercrime
▪ Burglary ▪ Hate Crimes*
FEDERAL CRIMES
▪ Since the 1960s federal law enforcement has become
responsible for an increasing number of crimes committed
▪ Why? More crimes extend beyond state borders, for
example:
▪ Organized crime syndicates
▪ Terrorism
▪ Drug trafficking
▪ Internet children exploitation and other cybercrimes
THE CJS, A SYSTEMS PERSPECTIVE
THE CJS AS A SOCIAL SYSTEM
▪ The CJS is a complex system, whole made up of
interdependent agencies that each contribute to the
system’s function
▪ Each component has a key role to play, and each has an
independent function, but they are all affected by each
other’s decisions and policies
▪ The CJS is a human system, with flawed decisions,
imperfect communication, and uneven distribution of
resources democratic means
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CJS
▪ Discretion for eg: police has discretion on how to handle a case like ignoring, arresting, etc.
▪ Official’s authority to make decisions using their own judgment
▪ Resource dependence
▪ Agencies depend on other agencies for funding and
equipment
▪ Sequential tasks
▪ Decisions are made in a specific order
▪ Filtering
▪ Screening process that gradually exits people out of the system
CJS AGENCIES: POLICE
Police
▪ Tasks: uphold community standards of behaviour
▪ Keep the peace
▪ Apprehend violators
▪ Prevent crime
▪ Provide social services if heart attack they might come too + helping if emergency and car broke down

▪ Act as gatekeepers to larger CJS

▪ Most officers work for state and local agencies
CJS AGENCIES: COURTS
Courts
▪ Tasks: interpreting and applying laws as given
▪ Adjudication: determining innocence or guilt of a
defendant
▪ Imposing sentences
▪ Body tasked with applying justice
▪ Includes both state and federal courts, with
corresponding appellate courts
CJS AGENCIES: CORRECTIONS
Corrections
▪ Tasks:
▪ Punish convicted offenders
▪ Rehabilitate offenders
▪ Includes jails (short-term) and prisons (both state
and federal), also non-confinement punishments
including parole and probation
jails short term and prisons usually more than 2 years i.e. long term for felonies
THE 13 DECISION-MAKING STEPS IN THE
CJS
13 DECISION-MAKING STEPS
1. Investigation 8. Arraignment
2. Arrest 9. Trial
3. Booking 10. Sentencing
4. Charging 11. Appeal
5. Initial Appearance 12. Corrections
6. Preliminary Hearing/Grand 13. Release
Jury
7. Indictment/Information
1. INVESTIGATION
reactive policing where they come if and when you call

▪ The process begins when the police believe that a

crime has been committed. At this point, an
investigation starts
▪ The police typically depend on a member of the
community to report the offense
▪ Most crimes have already been committed and the
lawbreakers have left the scene before the police
arrive
2. ARREST
▪ If the police find enough evidence showing that a
specific person has committed a crime, an arrest
may be made
▪ Arrest: physically taking a person into custody on
the grounds that there is reason to believe that they
have committed a crime
2. ARREST
WITH

▪ Although arrests can be made on the basis of a

warrant, most arrests are made without one
▪ Warrant: court order authorizing police officers to
take certain actions—such as arresting suspects or
conducting searches and seizures
3. BOOKING
▪ After an arrest, the suspect is usually transported to
a police station for booking, in which a record is
made of the arrest you are also read your Miranda rights
▪ When booked, a person may be fingerprinted,
photographed, questioned, and placed in a lineup
to be identified by the victim or witnesses
▪ Suspects must be Mirandized before being
questioned
4. CHARGING
moved from police to court jurisdiction

▪ Prosecuting attorneys are the key link between the

police and the courts uses not police’s understanding of law but lawyers’
▪ They must consider the facts of the case and decide
whether there is reasonable cause to believe that an
offense was committed and that the suspect committed
the offense. They also decide the criminal offense a
suspect is charged with
▪ The decision to charge is crucial because it sets in
motion the adjudication of the case
5. INITIAL APPEARANCE
▪ Within a reasonable time after arrest (~48 hrs), the
suspect must be brought before a magistrate judge
▪ At this point, suspects are given formal notice of the
charge(s) for which they are being held, advised of
their rights, and, if approved by the judge, given a
chance to post bail
▪ At this stage, the magistrate judge decides whether
there is enough evidence to hold the suspect for
further criminal processing. If enough evidence has not
been produced, the judge will dismiss the case
6. PRELIMINARY HEARING/GRAND JURY
Different jurisdictions use either the preliminary
hearing or the grand jury system:
▪ The preliminary hearing allows a judge to decide
whether there is probable cause to believe that a
crime has been committed and that the accused
person committed it. If there is enough evidence,
the accused is bound over for arraignment on an
information.
6. PRELIMINARY HEARING/GRAND JURY
▪ In the federal system and other states, the
prosecutor appears before a grand jury, which
decides whether there is enough evidence to file
an indictment.
▪ Grand Jury: a jury of 5-7 citizens who determine
whether there is sufficient evidence to try a case.
Grand jury members are secret, proceedings are
not published, and the jury only hears the
prosecution's case
7. INFORMATION/INDICTMENT
▪ Information: a document charging a person with a
specific crime
▪ Indictment: a formal action charging the suspect
with a specific crime
▪ If the preliminary hearing leads to an information or
the grand jury vote leads to an indictment, the
prosecutor prepares the formal charging document
and presents it to the court.
8. ARRAIGNMENT
▪ The accused person appears in court to hear the
indictment or information read by a judge and to enter
a plea
▪ Accused persons may plead guilty or not guilty or, in
some states, stand mute
▪ Plea bargaining may take place at any time in the
criminal justice process, but it is likely to be completed
just before or soon after arraignment
▪ Very few criminal cases proceed to trial. Most move
from the entry of the guilty plea to the sentencing
phase
9. TRIAL
▪ For defendants who plead not guilty, the right to a
trial by an impartial jury is guaranteed by the Sixth
Amendment if any of the charges are serious
enough to warrant incarceration for more than six
months.
▪ In many jurisdictions, lesser charges do not entail the
right to a jury trial
▪ Most trials are bench trials, which are conducted by a
judge without a jury
▪ Fewer than 10% of cases go to trial, and only about
half of those are heard by juries
10. SENTENCING
▪ Judges are responsible for imposing sentences. The
intent is to make the sentence suitable to the offender
and to the offense within the limits set by the law
▪ The judge typically has authority to make judgments
about the appropriate punishment within the
guidelines set by the legislature for a particular crime
(excluding mandatory minimum laws)
▪ Among the judge’s options are a suspended sentence,
probation, imprisonment, or other sanctions such as
fines, drug rehab, and community service
11. APPEAL
▪ Defendants who are found guilty may appeal
convictions to a higher court (district/state
appellate court, then Supreme Court)
▪ An appeal may be based on the claim that the trial
court failed to follow the proper procedures or that
constitutional rights were violated by the actions of
police, prosecutors, defense attorneys, or judges
▪ Appeals are heard by a panel of judges, not a jury
judges because question of law taken up and not questions of fact
11. APPEAL
▪ The number of appeals is small compared with the
total number of convictions; in about 80% of
appeals, trial judges and other officials are ruled to
have acted properly
▪ Even defendants who win appeals do not
necessarily go free. Normally, the defendant is
given a second trial, which may result in an
acquittal, a second conviction, or a plea bargain to
lesser charges
12. CORRECTIONS
moving from legal system to correctional system

▪ The court’s sentence is carried out by the

correctional system
▪ Probation, intermediate sanctions (such as fines and
community service), and incarceration are the
corrections most often imposed alternative to going to prison/jail
▪ Probation: allows convicted people to serve their
sentences in the community under supervision
▪ Minors and first-time offenders are most likely to
get probation rather than incarceration
12. CORRECTIONS
▪ Prisons exist to separate people convicted of
crimes from the rest of society. Isolation from the
community is one of the most painful aspects of
incarceration
▪ Among those sentenced to incarceration, those
convicted of misdemeanors typically serve short
sentences in city or county jails, whereas people
convicted of felonies serve terms of one year or
longer in state or federal prisons
13. RELEASE
▪ Release may not occur until the convicted person
has served the full sentence imposed by the court,
but most people are returned to the community
earlier under the supervision of a parole officer
▪ Parole continues for the duration of the sentence
or for a period specified by law
LOOKING AHEAD
NEXT WEEK
▪ Policing