Four Steps In The Criminal Justice System

The criminal justice system works in a series of ways and involves many different jobs. They work to ensure just consequences for everyone. They don’t just focus on the criminals but the victims and witnesses. There are also many roles that make up the criminal justice system through each phase of it.

The criminals justice system is designed in steps. The first being Investigation of a crime. This involves a lot of what we learned about in week two, a probable cause. This can be a very hard, According to Blackford and Florhr, All arrests must start with a probable cause, which can lead to a search of property. This is a very hard process and makes it difficult to enforce the law when you do not have a permit. This is the process in which police are involved the police’s roles are according to a police study by Eastern Kentucky University, “ Not only do the activities of law enforcement officers affect the operations of the entire criminal justice system, but police are said to be the “gate keepers” of the system: “They are usually the first to make contact with
accused offenders and are in a position to make some very important decisions about what will happen to those individuals.” This shows that the police and investigations are very important when it comes to maintaining the criminal justice system.

The next step in the criminal justice system is trial.
This is the part with the prosecution and defense team. This is the most important and detailed process. According to The Process of Criminal Justice,this includes the right to a speedy and public trial, trial by jury. This process is one of the most important. This is where they involve jury, ask questions to many different people to figure out the verdict. The largest jobs involved in trial are the lawyers. The lawyers bring the truth to every situation. Because of them we have the best understandings and outcomes. In the article The Importance of Public Defenders it shows how, “In addition to representing people individually, also provides a system of checks and balances on the criminal justice system as a whole. It guarantees that no agency.” This is a very important part and is what allows the criminal justice system to work so smoothly and
equally.

The last step in the criminal justice system is punishment and rehabilitation. This is where the correct consequences are given depending on the crime. This also ensures that witnesses, victims and even criminals are given the help needed to ensure their safety mentally and physically. This is an important stage and helps ensure that criminals will not end up in prison again and that they can never harm the society. This is also important because of rehabilitation because we have these programs the prisoners who take part in them are almost 3x less likely to return to prison. This is important because it helps keep criminals from making harmful mistakes again. One job associated with this is the judge. The judge ensure and decides an appropriate punishment for the criminals. Without the judge criminals sentencing could be too long or too little or a guilty person could be let go and an innocent imprisoned.

Overall I think there are many important steps within the criminal justice system that help ensure that society is created just and fairly. It is the reason our society is safe and functioning smoothly.