The Criminal Justice System Essay -- Criminal Justice

The criminal justice system is composed of three parts – Police, Courts and Corrections – and all three work together to protect an individual’s rights and the rights of society to live without fear of being a victim of crime. According to merriam-webster.com, crime is defined as â€Å"an act that is forbidden or omission of a duty that is commanded by public law and that makes the offender liable to punishment by that law.† When all the three parts work together, it makes the criminal justice system function like a well tuned machine. In this paper, I propose to talk about how all the three parts of the criminal justice system works and also delve a little bit on the issue of racism in context of the criminal justice system as a lot of people believe that the system most of the times acts keeping the individual’s race in mind. When an individual enters the criminal justice system, it always begins with the police. So in order for police to be involved in any situation, there has to be a crime committed or violation of any law which has been put in place by the government. As the police act as the enforcement agents of these laws, they are the first ones to be involved. There are four steps that police follows when there is a crime – the crime itself, the report of the crime, the investigation of the crime, and the arrest to finish this process – these are the very basic avenues which police follows. We have already established that for the police to be involved, the crime has to be committed. Once the crime is committed, someone has to report about the crime being committed and when the report has been made, the police begin its job and starts investigating that report to determine if a crime have been committed. O... ... Simpson Trial is a real life example of how once the crime is determined, courts follow a fair trial system and then corrections follow. Again, I will take up this example and will try to explain how I think the justice prevailed in this case. Works Cited Schmalleger, F. (2009), Prentice Hall, Publication. Criminal Justice Today: An introductory Text for the 21st century Heather Mac Donald (2008), City Journal, Publication. Article on â€Å"Is criminal justice system racist† Alvarado, A (2008). American Sociological Association. The Industrial Organization of Police Work. Wilson, J.A & Davis, R.C. (2006). Criminology and Public Policy. Good Intentions meet Hard Realities: An Evaluation of Project Green light Reentry Program. Fairchild, H. & Cowan, G (1997). Journal of Social Issues. The O.J. Simpson Trial: Challenges to Science and Society.