CHAPTER 1



CHAPTER 1

CRIMINAL JUSTICE TODAY

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After reading this chapter, students should be able to:

LO1: Describe the two most common models of how society determines which acts are criminal.

LO2: Define crime and list the different types of crime.

LO3: Outline the three levels of law enforcement.

LO4: List the essential elements of the corrections system.

LO5: Explain the difference between the formal and informal criminal justice processes.

LO6: Describe the layers of the “wedding cake” model.

LO7: Contrast the crime control and due process models.

LO8: List the major issues in criminal justice today.

BRIEF LECTURE OUTLINE

What is Crime?

1 Consensus versus Conflict Model

2 An Integrated Definition of Crime

3 Types of Crime

The Criminal Justice System

1 The Purpose of the Criminal Justice System

2 The Structure of the Criminal Justice System

1 Law Enforcement

2 The Courts

3 Corrections

3 The Criminal Justice Process

1 Assembly Line Justice

2 Formal versus Informal Criminal Justice Process

Values of the Criminal Justice System

1 Crime Control and Due Process

2 Which Model prevails today?

Criminal Justice Today

1 Crime: A bottom Line

2 Law Enforcement in the United States: Traditions and Technology

1 Scourge of Street Gangs

2 DNA Profiling

3 Homeland Security and the Patriot Act

4 Crime and Punishment

1 The Growing Prison Population

2 The Economics of Incarceration

Criminal Justice in Action: Gun Control versus Gun Rights

FULL LECTURE OUTLINE

Correlated to PowerPoints

I. What Is Crime?

A. An act proclaimed by law as a wrong against society and, if committed under certain circumstances, punishable by society

B. Two common models for deciding what acts are criminal

1. Consensus model

a. Assumes that as people gather together to form a society, its members will naturally come to a basic agreement with regard to shared norms and values

b. Assumes, to a certain extent, that a diverse group of people can have similar morals

2. Conflict model

a. Assumes that different segments of society, separated by social class, income, age, and race, will inevitably have different value systems and shared norms, and are engaged in a constant struggle with one another for control of society

b. What is deemed criminal activity is determined by whichever group happens to be holding power at any given time

C. An integrated definition of crime

1. Takes into consideration both the consensus and conflict models

2. Constructs a definition of crime in that it is any action or activity that includes the following:

a. Is punishable under criminal law, as determined by the majority of society, or in some cases, a powerful minority

b. Is considered an offense against society as a whole and prosecuted by public officials

c. Is punishable by statutorily defined sanctions that bring about a loss of freedom

D. Differences between crime and deviance

1. Deviance is behavior that is considered to go against the norms established by society

2. Deviance is a subjective concept

3. Deviant acts become crimes only when a majority is willing to accept that those acts should be punished

4. Not all crimes are considered particularly deviant

5. Criminal law reflects acts that we all agree are so unacceptable that steps must be taken to prevent them from occurring

E. Types of crimes

1. Crimes are classified according to their seriousness

2. In general there are six categories of criminal behavior

a. Violent crime

i. Crimes against persons, which dominate our perspectives about crime

ii. Four general categories

• Murder

• Sexual assault

• Assault and battery

• Robbery

iii. These acts are further classified by degree, depending on the circumstances surrounding the criminal act

b. Property crime

i. Most common form of criminal activity during which the goal of the offender is some form of economic gain or damaging of the property

ii. Four general categories

• Larceny / Theft

• Burglary

• Motor vehicle theft

• Arson

c. Public order crime

i. Linked to the consensus model

ii. Outlaws activities that are considered contrary to public values and morals

iii. Most common include public drunkenness, prostitution, gambling, and illicit drug use

iv. Sometimes referred to as victimless crimes

d. White-collar crime

i. Business-related crimes

ii. Describes illegal acts or series of acts committed by an individual or business entity using some nonviolent means to obtain a personal or business advantage

e. Organized crime

i. Describes illegal acts by illegal organizations, usually geared toward satisfying the public’s demand for unlawful goods and services

ii. Implies a conspiratorial and illegal relationship among any number of persons engaged in unlawful acts

iii. Employs criminal tactics

• Violence

• Corruption

• Intimidation for economic gain

iv. Hierarchical structure of organized crime operations often mirrors that of legitimate businesses

f. High-tech crime

i. Newest typology of crime, directly related to increased use of computers in everyday life

ii. Internet has become the site of cyber crime

• Cyber crimes against persons and property

• Cyber crimes in the business world

• Cyber crimes against the community

II. The Criminal Justice System

A. The purpose of the criminal justice system

1. President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice, in 1967, stated that the system is obliged to enforce accepted standards of conduct to “protect individuals and the community”

2. Three goals of the modern criminal justice system

a. To control crime

b. To prevent crime

c. To provide and maintain justice

B. The structure of the criminal justice system

1. Federalism implies that government powers are shared by the national (federal) government and the states

2. Division of powers allows states to create their own police power enacting whatever laws are necessary

3. Majority of all employees in the criminal justice system work for local government

4. Law enforcement

a. Local law enforcement

i. Duties are split between counties and municipalities

ii. Chief law enforcement officer of the county is the sheriff

• Elected post

• Two or four-year term

iii. Bulk of local police officers are employed by municipalities

• Investigate crimes

• Attempt to deter crime

• Apprehend criminals

• Participate in trial proceedings

• Charged with “keeping the peace”

b. State law enforcement

i. Only state without a state law enforcement agency is Hawaii

ii. Two general types of state law enforcement agencies

• State police

• Highway patrols

iii. Other state law enforcers include fire marshals and fish, game, and watercraft wardens

c. Federal law enforcement

i. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) combines 24 federal agencies

ii. Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI)

iii. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)

iv. U. S. Secret Service

v. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF)

5. The courts

a. Dual court system with two independent judicial systems

i. Federal level

ii. State level

b. Fifty-two different court systems

i. One for each of the fifty different states

• Trial courts at local and state levels

• Intermediate courts of appeals

• State supreme courts

ii. One federal court system

iii. One court for the District of Columbia system

c. Criminal court workgroups: judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys negotiate cases

6. Corrections

a. Offenders may be placed on probation, incarcerated, or transferred to community-based corrections facilities once they have been delegated to the corrections system

i. Probation is the most common correctional treatment allowing the offender to return to the community under supervision

ii. Incarceration may include jails or prisons

• Jails house those convicted of minor crimes with relatively short sentences

• Prisons house those convicted of more serious crimes with longer sentences

iii. Community-based corrections include halfway houses, residential centers, and work-release centers

iv. The most frequent type of release from jail or prison is parole

C. The criminal justice process

1. Debate about whether or not system functions as a “continuum,” smoothly processing cases

2. The criminal justice process functions as a continuing balance between its formal and informal nature

a. The formal criminal justice process “involves a series of routinized operations whose success is gauged by their tendency to pass the case along to a successful conclusion”

b. In the informal criminal justice process each step is the result of decisions that must be made by those who work in the system

i. Discretion and discretionary basics

• Using authority to choose between and among alternative courses of action

• Criminal justice system uses discretion to alleviate pressures

• Discretion is closely related to questions of ethics

ii. The “wedding cake” model of criminal justice

• Discretion comes to bear depending on the relative importance of a particular case

o “Top” layer consists only of a handful of celebrity cases

o Second layer consists of “high profile” felonies

o Third layer consists of “ordinary” felonies

o Fourth layer consists of misdemeanors

III. Values of the Criminal Justice System

A. Crime control and due process: To punish or protect?

1. Crime control model

a. The most important function of the criminal justice system is to punish and repress criminal conduct

b. Law enforcement must be counted on to control criminal activity

c. The criminal justice system should function quickly and efficiently, as an assembly line

2. Due process model

a. Focuses on protecting the rights of the accused through legal constraints on police, courts, and corrections

b. Strives to make it more difficult to prove guilt

c. Fairness, not efficiency, is the goal of the due process model

B. Which model prevails today?

1. Both models have always been present to some degree

2. During different periods one takes precedence over the other

3. Homeland security concerns

IV. Criminal Justice Today

A. Crime: The Bottom Line

1. Reality Check

a. Two-thirds of Americans believe crime is on the rise – far from reality

b. Crime rate have steadily declined through the 2000s

2. Gun Sales and Gun Control

a. 30,000 people are killed by gunfire each year

b. Illegally obtained firearms pose a series concern for law enforcement

c. The debate over gun control continues as the Second Amendment is analyzed

3. Illegal Drugs

a. Crack cocaine blamed for explosion of violent crime in 1980s and 1990s

b. Intense wave of violent crime related to wars between Mexican drug cartels

c. U.S. government estimates that Mexican drug cartels supply drugs to more than 230 American cities

d. War on drugs refers primarily to psychoactive drugs, which a significant number of Americans regularly use

B. Law Enforcement: Challenging Success

1. The scourge of street gangs

2. Using DNA profiling to fight crime

C. Homeland Security and the Patriot Act

1. The Homeland Security movement in the United States

2. The war against terrorism

a. September 11th

b. Patriot Act

D. Crime and Punishment

1. The growing prison population

2. The economics of incarceration

V. Criminal Justice in Action – Gun control versus gun rights

LECTURE NOTES

In Chapter 1, students are introduced to the concept of crime. Crime is defined as any action punishable under criminal statutes. In modern times, crime is considered an offense against society, and alleged criminals are prosecuted by the state rather than by victims. Society determines how behaviors are criminalized in several different ways. The consensus model asserts that citizens share a perception of morality and will outlaw those behaviors that violate it. The conflict model argues that citizens do not share similar moral values, and that the dominant group in society will impose its morality through law. Encourage students to discuss the process of criminalizing behavior. What crimes have emerged in their lifetimes? Which model do they think best describes how those behaviors were criminalized? Have them consider a number of criminal offenses, ranging from stalking (criminalized in 1990) to the victimless crime of illegal downloading (criminalized in the last decade).

Six types of crime are introduced in this chapter: (a) violent crimes—murder, rape, assault, battery, robbery; (b) property crimes—pocket picking, shoplifting, larceny/

theft, burglary, and arson; (c) public order crimes—public drunkenness, prostitution, gambling, and illicit drug use; (d) white-collar crime—fraud and embezzlement;

(e) organized crime—crime undertaken by a number of persons who operate their activities much as legal businesses do; and (f) high-tech crime—sabotage, fraud, embezzlement, and theft of proprietary data from computer systems, as well as cyber crimes, such as selling child pornography over the Internet. Have students search the local news and categorize the crimes they find. Do we perceive some offenses to be more serious than others? Why or why not? Which types of offenses do students think the criminal justice system should focus its attention on?

In Chapter 1, students are introduced to the criminal justice system and its various components. Students learn about the three levels of law enforcement, the dual court system, and the correctional system. This is a good time to introduce students to the criminal justice system operating in your state. How are all three branches of the criminal justice system represented locally? Get to know your students by discussing what branch of the criminal justice system they are most fascinated by. If your class is primarily interested in law enforcement as a career field, you might use this information to shape your lesson plans for the semester, likewise if they are interested in the courts or corrections.

Finally, Chapter 1 familiarizes students with the values of the criminal justice system. Our system of justice is often described as having two processes: one formal and one informal. The formal criminal justice process involves prescribed procedures such as booking and setting bail. For every step in the formal process, though, someone has discretion, and such discretion leads to an informal process. For example, police have the discretion to decide whether they will make an arrest, prosecutors have the discretion not to prosecute, and judges have the discretion to set bail, or assign a criminal sentence. The use of discretion is guided by two conflicting models of the criminal justice system, the due process model and the crime control model. The due process model focuses on protecting individual rights of the criminal suspect as they move through the justice process. The crime control model disagrees, arguing that the primary function of the process is to protect society from offenders by punishing criminal behavior. Ask students which vision of the process seems most ideal to them. Should justice be individualized, or should discretion be largely limited to ensure that offenders are treated as uniformly as possible? Which objective is most important, in students’ opinion, protecting individual rights or controlling crime?

CLASS DISCUSSION TOPICS

1. Ask students to discuss the two most common models of how society determines which acts are criminal. Which model, consensus or conflict, do students feel is best represented in the United States? If students subscribe to the consensus model, ask them how it is possible that such a diverse national population can agree enough on a fundamental morality that it can be legislated. If students buy into the conflict model, ask them which groups in our society they view as being dominant enough to legislate their version of morality.

2. Have students work in small groups to debate the category of public order crimes. These crimes are also referred to as “victimless crimes” because they often harm only the offender. Should offenses like prostitution, gambling, and drunkenness be illegal, particularly if those participating in those activities are consenting adults? What is the value of outlawing activities that are contrary to public values and morality? Is the label “victimless crime” misleading?

3. Cyber crime is one of the fastest growing categories of crime and it includes a variety of offenses. Some forms of cyber crime are overtly criminal, such as cyberterrorism or online retail fraud. Other offenses seem more benign, such as online gambling or illegal downloading. Ask students to discuss the criminalization of online behavior. Which offenses do students think need the most attention? Are there online behaviors that should be criminalized and are not, and vice versa? Which agencies should be responsible for investigating online crime?

4. Ask students to work in groups to discuss the crime control model and the due process model. How are these two models different in their approach to the criminal justice process? Which model do students believe prevails today? Which model do students feel should prevail today?

ACTIVITIES

1. One of the three primary goals of the criminal justice system is to provide and maintain justice. Justice is an abstract term that is difficult to define. In fact, many times we do not agree upon a common definition for this term. Ask students to participate in a brief in-class writing assignment. Give them a sixty-second time limit to describe, on a piece of paper, their concept of justice. They do not need to worry about spelling or grammar, and are not required to write in complete sentences. If time allows, you can share examples of students’ responses in class. Does everyone have a similar concept of justice? If not, how are their visions different from one another?

2. Ask students to work in pairs to research the various law enforcement agencies currently operating in your state. Each pair should be assigned an agency at the local, state or federal level. Have the students create a handout describing the agency, the number of officers or agents currently employed, and the agency’s jurisdiction. Have students distribute the handout to the class and provide a brief oral report on what they learned. Afterwards, ask students to circulate around the room. Tell them to locate at least one agency whose jurisdiction overlaps with theirs, and one agency that their agency would likely collaborate with.

3. Provide paper or poster board to pairs of students. Ask them to draw their own version of the “wedding cake” model. Within this drawing, have students locate news articles which represent the types of cases that would be found within each layer, and affix them to their posters. Display the posters in the classroom.

4. Accompany students to the local courthouse to watch court in session. Ask students to silently observe the criminal court process and then have them write a reflection paper discussing the impact of their experience. Ask students to summarize what they witnessed in court and analyze their experience within the context of the chapter. Where would the cases heard that day fit on the wedding cake model? How do the cases heard that day compare or contrast to the student’s image of idealized justice? Which criminal justice model did the experience most resemble? Finally, ask students to consider what they have learned from this experience and how they can apply this experience to their future careers in the field of criminal justice.

MEDIA TOOLS

Go to to watch the video about how prisons make profit with the growing incarceration rate.

Go to to watch video by CNN about the purchasing guns without background checks. Read the article.

Go to to watch a video by CNN that discusses the proposal to let students carry guns on campus.

1. In the 2010 case of District of Columbia v. Heller () the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment guarantees the right to bear arms. Several lawmakers defend that ruling by arguing the gun control measures don’t stop violence. Go to to watch the following videos: “Protecting kids from guns, or felonies?”, “Breaking down kids-doctors-guns law”, “Doctor-gun bill is horrendous”, and “Lawmakers defends kids-guns bill.”

WHAT IF?

1. Corporations are running many prisons and make substantial profits. The new Arizona Immigration Law SB 1070 allows law enforcement to arrest and incarcerate illegal immigrants. The Arizona lawmakers stated that the bill was necessary because it will reduce crime committed by illegal immigrants. State Representative John Kavanagh, a co-sponsor of the bill, stated about illegal immigrants “They bring a lot of crime with them.” The supporters say that they are targeting smugglers and criminals, which are mostly illegal immigrants. Opponents of the law, such as the activist group Cuéntame state the law is simply a big money maker for the counties and states because local, county, and state receive between $50 and $200 per person incarcerated. They argue that cracking down on illegal immigrants has become a for-profit business by the corrections industry. Especially private prisons benefit from these inmates because they guarantee access to inmates, and as a result higher profits. Additionally, the law encourages racial profiling and violates civil rights of some American citizens. The detention of immigrants is a multi-billion dollar business in which inmates are on sale to the highest bidder. With which case do you agree more: The proponents or the opposition of Bill SB1070?

2. Susan B., a prostitute was raped and beaten by her pimp because she did not bring in enough money. Prostitution is listed as a victimless crime, but human rights proponents such as Melissa Farley from the Prostitution Research and Education Committee claim that prostitution is not a victimless crime because it is sexual harassment, rape, and a human rights violation. Many women are forced into prostitution by their family or husbands, trafficked across countries and sold to brothels. A substantial part of prostitutes are forced into prostitution already as children. They are victims who can’t escape. For instance, Farley’s research of 105 women in Minnesota showed that “extreme and frequent violence was committed against these women over the course of their lives. 79% had been sexually assaulted by an average of 4 perpetrators. 92% had been raped. 84% had been physically assaulted in prostitution. 72% had suffered traumatic brain injuries from violence in prostitution.” Opponents argue that women become prostitutes out of their free will and that they can find a different job if they don’t want to work as prostitutes. They state that prostitution is a consensual transaction in which both parties agree to engage in sexual acts. Which side do you agree with more: The human rights organizations who argue that prostitution is not a victimless crime or the people who argue that prostitutes are not victims.

-----------------------

1-4

5-6

7

8

9-11

12-13

14-15

16

17-18

19

20

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download