Social And Individual Needs Of The Criminal Justice System

The criminal justice system has been around for years with history dating back to the 14th century. Working in this field there are many roles and responsibilities that are the duties of the professional. There are both social and individual needs of this profession. Some social needs include preventing and understanding child abuse, homelessness, and prison overcrowding. Some individual needs include suicide prevention, mental health help, and justice for victims.
Preventing and understanding child abuse is one social need of the criminal justice profession. Child abuse is when a parent or caregiver causes harm to a child. Harm is pertaining to any injury, death, emotional or maltreatment. Maltreatment is any neglect, physical, sexual, exploitation
Overcrowding of prisons. This is where parole and probation play a role in the social need of criminal justice professionals. Probation is given as punishment instead of incarceration and parole is given to an offender who has not completed the full incarceration sentence given due to good behavior. Both are meant to help offenders strive in society. Most arrest result in jail or prison time. A police officer might see someone commit a small crime and let them off with a warning or fine. If the offender keeps committing the same crime eventually law enforcement will get tired of giving breaks and make an arrest. This sends an individual to jail for even the smallest crime like petty theft. In some states no matter how big or small a crime is there is a three-strike law which send habitual offenders to prison for a mandatory life sentence. This causes prisons to overfill as well. Probation and parole officers can help offender’s live crime free in society causing some to avoid incarceration and others to be released from overcrowded jails and prisons. This helps society control the crimes committed as well decrease the amount of money tax payers pay to fund jails and
When someone is arrested it is normally by a police officer. Police are the first to get a feel of the arrestee and procedure with caution. Then the arrestee goes to court and the judge then makes the decision of what is needed next. If an offender suffers from a mental illness, criminal justice professionals are trained to know how to deal with them and get them the proper care that is needed. For example, an ongoing current issue of people attempting suicide by cop. Cops are trained to take precautions and handle situations carefully. If someone is threatening a cop with a weapon and the cop can disarm this person with maybe a gunshot to the arm. The offender is then taken to the hospital for treatment. There they can find out what happened and why then perform a mental evaluation. Once the offender is well enough to go before a judge the judge can then take the mental evaluation in consideration if proven mental health has contributed to the crime and sentence accordingly like sending one to a mental institute or in less than serious cases make an offender seek professional help from a