answer
Abstract
This article describes the development of the criminal justice system in the United States. Specifically, you will learn how each of the three areas of the criminal justice system (police, courts, and corrections) developed into the institutions they are today. a society without any formalized rules or laws to guide behavior and protect us from criminal activity, that is exactly what it was like for early Americans during the colonial period. It was a time where Americans were figuring out how to coexist in this new land. Over the years, Americans have developed mechanisms that institute and enforce the rules of society as well as assign responsibility and punish offenders. Today, those functions are carried out by the police, the courts and corrections. The early beginnings of the criminal justice system in the United States lacked this structure. . Some of the methods used are fingerprint analysis, DNA databases, ballistics testing, tire tread analysis, tracking of illegal pornographic images.
Introduction
Technologies in Criminal Justice
Working in criminal justice today means having the opportunity to utilize robots, GPS systems, advanced cameras and high-powered computer systems. These important technologies have improved investigation, surveillance and analysis procedures – so long as they are backed by the skill set and intelligence to properly use them (Murphy, 2007).Every aspect of law enforcement has a computer program associated with the job, from DNA testing to robotic cameras to automatic license plate recognition systems – just to name a few. The number of electronics now available to make criminal justice jobs more effective is rapidly growing. Of course, criminals also utilize these technologies, so professionals in the industry have to remain one step ahead in technology to combat illicit usage.
Policing
The first contact a defendant has with the criminal justice system is usually with the police (or law enforcement) who investigate the suspected wrongdoing and make an arrest, but if the suspect is dangerous to the whole nation, a national level law enforcement agency is addressed (Ismaili, 2010). When warranted, law enforcement agencies or police officers are empowered to use force and other forms of legal coercion and means to effect public and social order. The term is most commonly associated with police departments of a state that are authorized to exercise the police power of that state within a defined legal or territorial area of responsibility.
In order to assess the impact of criminal identification databases on criminal justice systems, it is first necessary to have some understanding of why biometric criminal identification databases were built in the first place. Contrary to the popular image of fingerprinting as tool for forensic investigation, fingerprint identification was developed for purposes of criminal record keeping, rather than forensics. Specifically, fingerprinting was developed in order to facilitate the storage and retrieval of criminal histories by the state.
Information Technology and the Criminal Justice System suggests that information technology in criminal justice will continue to challenge us to think about how we turn information into knowledge, who can use that knowledge, and for what purposes. Investigators examine what has been learned from past experiences, what the current state of IT is in various components of the criminal justice system and what challenges lie ahead. According to Garside, the purpose of the Criminal Justice System is to deliver justice for all, by convicting and punishing the guilty and helping them to stop offending, while protecting the innocent.
Different models have been devised that attempt to conceptualize the particular features of the justice system that identify principles and characteristics. CrimeControl and Due Process models has been Identified as two of the most enduring models which offer explanations as to how agencies and policies may be shaped and they can usefully be viewed as opposite ends of a continuum since they present contrasting rationale and characteristics.
Due Process
This model incorporates ideas inherent in the rule of law and emphasizes the rights of the defendant through the principles of the presumption of innocence, the defendant’s right to a fair trial, equality before the law and that justice should be seen to be done. Due process can be perceived as an ‘obstacle course’ in that the rights of defendants are emphasized and impediments placed in the way that criminal justice agencies are allowed to operate. The protection given to defendants is to ensure that the innocent are acquitted and only the guilty are convicted and punished.
Crime Control
As the name suggests, this model emphasizes the role of the criminal justice system in reducing and preventing crime by way of prosecuting and punishing those who are guilty of criminal offences. It also accentuates the importance for the justice system of protecting and serving the public through crime reduction. Crime control ‘values’ include the notion that that those thought to be guilty may be pursued regardless of the rules that may be in place for protecting the rights of suspects. In this sense it can be viewed as a ‘conveyer belt’, with the conviction of the innocent tolerated because the ultimate goal of convicting the guilty overrides civil liberties. Fear of crime and demand for swift justice can lead to an increase in ‘crime control’ measures. Recent examples can be seen in the introduction of ‘bad character’ and previous convictions information for the Courts, the removal of the ‘double jeopardy’ rule and the right to hold suspects without charge in the anti-terrorism legislation.
Police are primarily concerned with keeping the peace and enforcing criminal law based on their particular mission and jurisdiction. Formed in 1908, the Federal Bureau of Investigation began as an entity which could investigate and enforce specific federal laws as an investigative and law enforcement agency in the United States; this, however, has constituted only a small portion of overall policing activity.[11] Policing has included an array of activities in different contexts, but the predominant ones are concerned with order maintenance and the provision of services.[12] During modern times, such endeavors contribute toward fulfilling a shared mission among law enforcement organizations with respect to the traditional policing mission of deterring crime and maintaining societal order.
DNA databases
DNA database ordatabank is a database of DNA profiles. A DNA database can be used in the analysis of genetic diseases, genetic fingerprinting for criminology, or genetic genealogy. DNA databases may be public or private, but the largest ones are national DNA databases. When a match is made from a national DNA database to link a crime scene to an offender who has provided a DNA sample to a database that link is often referred to as a cold hit (Ismaili, 2010). A cold hit is of value in referring the police agency to a specific suspect but is of less evidential value than a DNA match made from outside the DNA database.
Ballistics testing
Refers to a set of forensic techniques that rely on marks that firearms leave on bullets to match a bullet to the gun it was fired with. It is a subset of forensic ballistics (the application of ballistics to legal questions) and internal ballistics (Burns, 2006). Ballistic fingerprinting techniques are based on the principle that all firearms have inevitable variations due to marks left by the machining process, leaving shallow impressions in the metal which are rarely completely polished out (Neubauer & Fradella, 2013).
Conclusion
Lie detectors are referred to as deception detection, uses questioning techniques along with technology that record physiological functions to ascertain truth and falsehood in response. It is commonly used by law enforcement and has historically been an inexact science. There is a wide variety of technologies available for this purpose. A gun control law is defined by a number of federal statutes in the United States of America. These laws regulate the manufacture, trade, possession, transfer, record keeping, transport, and destruction of firearms, ammunition, and firearms accessories (Bean, 2002). They are enforced by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Over the years, Americans have developed mechanisms that institute and enforce the rules of society as well as assign responsibility and punish offenders. Today, those functions are carried out by the police, the courts and corrections. The early beginnings of the criminal justice system in the United States lacked this structure. . Some of the methods used are fingerprint analysis, DNA databases, ballistics testing, tire tread analysis, tracking of illegal pornographic images. The main purpose of the Criminal Justice System is to deliver justice for all, by convicting and punishing the guilty and helping them to stop offending, while protecting the innocent.
References
Bean, P. (2002). Technology and criminal justice. International Review of Law, Computers & Technology, 13(3), 365-371.
Burns, R, G. (2006).The Criminal Justice system. Florida: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Ismaili, K. (2010)U.S.Criminal Justice Policy: A Contemporary Reader. United States. US. Jones & Bartlett Learning
Murphy, E. (2007). The new forensics: Criminal justice, false certainty, and the second generation of scientific evidence. California Law Review, 721-797.
Neubauer, D and Fradella, H. (2013). America’s Courts and the Criminal Justice System. United States. US. Cengage learning.
