The Criminal Justice System

Before we venture into an analysis of the Criminal Justice System it would be fair to provide a Sociological definition of Crime and kinds of crime.

Conventional (or street) Crime

All violent crime, certain property crimes and certain moral crimes

Occupational (or White-collar) Crime

Illegal activities committed by people in the course of their employment or financial affairs.

Corporate Crime

Illegal acts committed by corporate employees on behalf of the corporation or with its support.

Organized Crime

Business operations that supply illegal goods and services for profit.

Political Crime

Illegal or unethical acts involving the usurpation of power by government officials, or illegal/unethical acts perpetrated against the government by outsiders seeking to make a political statement, undermine the government, or overthrow it.

Statistics on Crime

The statistics on crime come mainly from the Uniform Crime Report, or UCR, (those crimes reported to the police) and from the National Crime Victimization Survey.

Crime statistics do not reflect much of the crime that occurs because the person is not caught or reporting simply does not happen.

The FBI maintains the UCR at http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.htm

The NCVS is explained at http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/NACJD/NCVS/ and can be retrieved at the website for the Bureau of Justice http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/cvict.htm

These websites contain a wealth of information about crime and the criminal justice system.

The Criminal Justice System

The Criminal Justice System is made up of many individuals and institutions, including the police, the courts, and prisons.

The Police have the responsibility for crime control and the maintenance of social order.

The Courts determine the guilt or innocence of those accused of committing a crime.

One thing to keep in mind when looking at this system it to acknowledge that it is a bureaucracy!!!!

Remember what we have already learned about bureaucracies…

The ideal type of organization may be one that has:

• Division of labor
• More efficient productivity and ability to make changes in the production line
• Hierarchy of authority
• Clear designation of power and communication
• Rules and regulations
• Clear guidelines for organizational and personnel behavior. This also relates to the impersonal nature of bureaucracies as it is the policies that dictate the operation of the business not the people
• Employment based on technical qualifications
• In an ideal world we would assume that the organization would reward and employ the individuals best suited for the job (anyone out there may be able to state many examples of how un-ideal some work places may be in this regard!)
• Impersonality
• Impersonality can be gained through the development of policies and procedures but also through the structure of an organization. If an organization is a corporation then the individuals who work there may not be as personally responsible for the failing (or success) of the business.

The Criminal Justice System has all of the benefits and failings of a business bureaucracy…in fact, it was a primary model for the first bureaucracies!

Anyone who has the opportunity to serve on a jury should do so simply to see the system in action. It is a system that despite it's failings, goes to great lengths to do it's job well.