The US criminal justice system consists of the police, the courts, and correctional facilities. The police are the law enforcement agencies in the United States, and they comprise sheriff’s departments, local and state police, and federal law enforcement agencies. These are the main responsibilities of the various police agencies:
Maintaining order
Fighting crime by arresting and detaining suspects
Resolving conflicts in the community
Courts are judicial institutions with the mandate to judge disputes between parties. They are also responsible for deciding punishments for convicted criminals. The United States has two legal systems: criminal courts and civil courts. Criminals that break local, country, or state laws will have their cases heard in county or state courts. The US Court of Appeals and district courts are federal courts; appeals courts hear appeals of rulings from lower courts, and district courts hear cases regarding violations of federal law. All courts are under the ultimate control of the US Supreme Court. In all cases, the defense attorney and the prosecuting attorney present cases before a judge or jury to obtain a verdict.
The corrections system is the system of probation, parole, jails, and prisons that supervise and deliver punishment to convicted persons. Prison facilities in the United States consist of detention and correctional facilities. Detention halls are temporary facilities for detaining criminals who are awaiting trial or transfer. Correctional facilities include jails and prisons for housing convicts. Parole and probation services oversee criminals outside of prison facilities.
The criminal justice system swings into action once someone reports a crime. The police take a report and investigate the crime. Once the police find and arrest the suspect, they charge the person with the crime. At this stage, the state’s attorney (prosecuting attorney) reviews the evidence collected by the police. The prosecuting attorney then has the accused brought to court and formally charged with the crime. Depending on the amount and strength of the evidence, the judge will decide if the accused should remain in a detention facility or obtain a form of release. The judge may ask the accused to deposit money with the court as a guarantee that the person will appear in court when required. The court refers to this as bail. After this, there is an arraignment where the accused may plead guilty or not guilty to the charges. If the person pleads not guilty, the case goes to trial. During the trial, a group of citizens called the jury will generally determine the guilt of the accused. If the jury finds the accused guilty of the charges, the accused will receive sentencing in the next step in the process. A judge determines an appropriate sentence based on existing laws and procedures.
The criminal justice system does not always succeed in preventing deviance and crime as expected. Many crimes go unreported, and some are underreported; sometimes even reported crimes do not see any action from the police due to a prejudiced or biased outlook. Policing in the United States suffers from the problems of abuses of power, brutality, racial profiling, and so on. Several studies have proven the existence of racial bias in arrests, convictions, and sentencing. The studies found that African Americans and Hispanic people are more likely to receive convictions for a crime. Their chances of conviction increase if the victim of the crime is white. Compared to Caucasians, people belonging to minority groups tend to receive longer jail terms for similar crimes. Most prisoners on death row have received convictions for crimes related to the deaths of Caucasians. The reasons for this trend are manifold. One reason is that these minorities may not have the economic background to defend themselves from stigma. Another reason could be victim discounting. The less valuable the victim in society’s eyes, the less serious the crime—and the penalty is less severe as well.
The criminal justice system is not entirely effective in correcting criminal and deviant behavior. The United States has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world. Despite this, the number of repeat offenders is quite high. Few states have been able to reduce this rate; in fact, most states have seen an increase since 1999. Some of the problems facing the US judiciary include inadequate and relatively unskilled legal representatives for defendants and minorities lacking adequate representation on juries. Numerous deviants and criminals receive the chance to plead guilty to lesser offenses, resulting in less severe penalties. Although these methods help to speed up criminal prosecution and save time and money, they weaken society’s moral fabric and fail to deter the accused from repeating deviant and criminal behavior.
