The Structure Of Criminal Justice System - Essay Example

Criminal Justice system Overview Legal and social s meant for enforcing the criminal law, according to the set rules, regulations and procedures constitute the criminal justice system. United States of America has separate criminal justice system for adults and juveniles, while the country has separate federal, state and military systems for criminal justice. (Criminal Justice System) Components Criminal justice system has four major components, which are briefly described below: Jurisdictional While there are separate systems at federal, state and local levels, components like state prisons, parole boards, police crime labs and courts of appeal are organized at state level.

Trial courts and police departments are organized at city as well as country levels. The state-wide system has many variations, which are determined by factors like overcrowding of local jails, court congestions, problems of justice administration and differing types of crime. US Congress, FBI, Secret Service are major parts of federal system along with defense and public attorneys, the Federal Sentencing System and US Bureau of prisons. Dealing with crimes that involve laws of immigration and income tax also come under this domain.

(Criminal Justice System) Normative This relates to the goals, values and specific procedures of applicable criminal laws. While state legislative bodies have powers to enact statues to deal with various offenses, local legislative bodies have power to enact ordinances creating minor offenses. However, many criminal statutes are general in nature and can be interpreted by courts at various levels. In addition, certain defenses like defense of property, self defense, duress and insanity do not have any statutory basis.

(Criminal Justice System) Functional The criminal justice investigation starts with behavioral definition of criminal act, while criminal case processing has many stages with involvement of different agencies at each stage. Many offenses come to the knowledge of police only after the crime has been reported, minor crimes, like traffic violations and disorderly conduct are directly dealt by local law enforcement officers. Institutional Legislatures, sentencing commissions, body of attorneys, police and law enforcement agencies and courts, among others, are parts of the institutional components of criminal justice system.

In addition, sentencing and correctional agencies as well as detention facilities also come under the purview of this system.(Criminal justice system) In-text citation reference “Criminal Justice System- Structural and Theoretical Components”, Retrieved on 8th Dec 2010 from: http://law.jrank.org/pages/853/Criminal-Justice-System-Structural-theoretical-components-criminal-justice-systems.html