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The Criminal Justice System

Criminal Law (Brooklyn Law School)

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Chapter 3: The Criminal Justice System

I Characteristics of the Criminal Justice System

 The workings of the criminal justice system have four major characteristics: (1) discretion, (2)
resource dependence, (3) sequential tasks, and (4) filtering

1. Discretion

 All levels of the justice process reveal a high degree of discretion

 Discretion- the authority to make decisions without reference to specific rules or facts, using
instead one’s own judgment; allows for individualization and informality in the administration
of justice
 This term refers to officials’ freedom to act according to their own judgment and conscience.
 The extent of such discretion may seem odd, given that the United States is ruled by law and
has created procedures to ensure that decisions are made in accordance with law. However,
instead of being a mechanical system in which the law dominates decisions, criminal justice is
a system in which actors may take various factors into account and exercise many options as
they dispose of a case
 The role of discretion opens the door for individual police officers, prosecutors, defense
attorneys, and judges to make decisions based, at least in part, on their own self-interest. They
may want to save time, save resources, or move a case to completion
 Discretion is needed because the system lacks the resources to treat every case the same way. If
every violation of the law were pursued through trial, for example, the costs would be
immense. Second, many officials believe that discretion permits them to achieve greater justice
than rigid rules would produce

2. Resource Dependence

 Criminal justice agencies do not generate their own resources; rather, they depend on other
agencies for funding. Therefore, actors in the system must cultivate and maintain good
relations with those who allocate resources (political decision makers, such as legislators,
mayors, and city council members)
 Because budget decisions are made by elected officials who seek to please the public, criminal
justice officials must also maintain a positive image and good relations with voters

3. Sequential Tasks

 Decisions in the criminal justice system follow a specific sequence

 The police must make an arrest before a defendant is passed along to the prosecutor; the
prosecutor’s decisions determine the nature of the court’s workload; and so forth
 If officials act out of sequence, they cannot achieve their goals
 The sequential nature of the system is a key element in the exchange relationships among
decision makers who depend on one another to achieve their goals

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4. Filtering

 The criminal justice system also serves as a filtering process

 Filtering process- a process by which criminal justice officials screen out some cases while
advancing others to the next level of decision making
 At each level, some defendants are sent on to the next stage, while others are either released or
processed under changed conditions
 Few suspects who are arrested are then prosecuted, tried, and convicted. Some go free because
the police decide that a crime has not been committed or that the evidence is not sound. The
prosecutor may decide that justice would be better served by sending the suspect to a
substance abuse clinic. Although many defendants will plead guilty, the judge may dismiss
charges against others, and the jury may acquit a few defendants. Most of the offenders who
are actually tried, however, will be convicted

II Operations of Criminal Justice Agencies

 The criminal justice system has been formed to deal with people accused of violating the
criminal law. Its subsystems consist of more than 60,000 public and private agencies with an
annual budget of more than $250 billion and more than 2.5 million employees

1. Police

 When we use the term police we are referring not to a single agency or type of agency but to
many agencies at each level of government
 The complexity of the criminal justice system can be seen in the large number of organizations
engaged in law enforcement. There are only 50 federal government agencies in the United
States, whereas 17,985 state and local law enforcement agencies operate here
 Police agencies have four major duties: (1) keeping the peace (involves the protection of
people and rights), (2) apprehending violators and combating crime, (3) preventing crime (by
educating the public about the threat of crime and by reducing the number of situations in
which crimes are likely to be committed) (4) providing social services (recover stolen property,
direct traffic, give emergency medical aid, help people who have locked themselves out of their
homes, and provide other social services)

2. Courts

 Courts are responsible for adjudication- the process of determining whether the defendant is
guilty or not guilty
 The United States has a dual court system- a system based on a separate judicial system for
each state, in addition to a court system under the national government. Each case is tried in a
court of the same jurisdiction as that of the law or laws allegedly broken
 The U.S. Supreme Court can correct certain errors made in all other court systems. The U.S.
Supreme Court does not possess the authority to provide a final interpretation of all state laws.
Each state’s supreme court can define its own laws as long as those definitions are not in-
consistent with the U.S. Constitution. Although the Supreme Court can review cases from both
the state and federal courts, it will hear only criminal justice cases involving federal law or
constitutional rights

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 With a dual court system, the law may be interpreted differently in different states. Although
the wording of laws may be similar, state courts have the power to interpret and define their
own laws for application within their own states

3. Corrections

 On any given day, nearly seven million (1 of every 35) American adults fall under the
supervision of local, state, and federal correctional systems
 A variety of agencies and programs are provided by private and public organizations,
including federal, state, and local governments, and carried out in many different community
and closed settings
 While the average citizen may equate corrections with prisons, less than 23 percent of
convicted offenders are in prisons and jails; the rest are being supervised in the community.
Probation and parole have long been important aspects of corrections, as have community-
based halfway houses, work release programs, and supervised activities

III The Flow of Decision Making in the Criminal Justice System

 The processing of cases in the criminal justice system involves a series of decisions by police
officers, prosecutors, judges, probation officers, wardens, and parole board members. At each
stage in the process, they decide whether a case will move on to the next stage or be dropped
from the system
 Each agency is responsible for a part of the decision-making process. Thus police, prosecution,
courts, and corrections are bound together through a series of exchange relationships
 At each step, officials have the discretion to decide what happens next. Many cases are filtered
out of the system, others are sent to the next decision maker, and still others are dealt with by
informal means
 The criminal justice system consists of 13 steps that cover the stages of law enforcement,
adjudication, and corrections. The system looks like an assembly line where decisions are made
about defendants

1. Investigation. The process begins when the police believe that a crime has been committed.
At this point, an investigation is begun. The police normally depend on a member of the
community to report the offense. Except for traffic and public order offenses, the police rarely
observe illegal behavior themselves
2. Arrest. If the police find enough evidence showing that a particular person has committed a
crime, they can make an arrest. Arrest- the physical taking of a person into custody on the
grounds that probable cause exists to believe that he or she has committed a criminal offense.
Police may use only reasonable physical force in making an arrest. The purpose of the arrest is
to hold the accused for a court proceeding. Under some conditions, arrests may be made on the
basis of a warrant- a court order issued by a judge authorizing police officers to take certain
actions, such as arresting suspects or searching premises. In some states, police officers may
issue a summons or citation that orders a person to appear in court on a certain date. This
avoids the need to hold the suspect physically while waiting for decisions to be made about the
case
3. Booking. After an arrest, the suspect is usually transported to a police station for booking, in
which a record is made of the arrest. When booked, the suspect may be fingerprinted,
photographed, interrogated, and placed in a lineup to be identified by the victim or witnesses.

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All suspects must also be warned that they have the right to counsel, that they may remain
silent, and that any statement they make may be used against them later
4. Charging. Prosecuting attorneys are the key link between the police and the courts. The
decision to charge is crucial, because it sets in motion the adjudication of the case
5. Initial appearance. Within a reasonable time after arrest, the suspect must be brought
before a judge. At this point, suspects are given formal notice of the charge(s) for which they
are being held, advised of their rights, and, if approved by the judge, given a chance to post
bail. At this stage, the judge decides whether there is enough evidence to hold the suspect for
further criminal processing. If enough evidence has not been produced, the judge will dismiss
the case. Bail represents an effort to avoid depriving presumptively innocent people of liberty
before their guilt has been proven in court
6. Preliminary hearing/grand jury. After suspects have been arrested, booked, and brought to
court to be informed of the charge and advised of their rights, a decision must be made as to
whether there is enough evidence to proceed. If there is enough evidence, the accused is bound
over for arraignment on an information- a document charging an individual with a specific
crime. It is prepared by a prosecuting attorney and presented to a court. In the federal system
and in some states the prosecutor appears before a grand jury, which decides whether there is
enough evidence to file an indictment- a document returned by a grand jury as a true bill
charging an individual with a specific crime on the basis of a determination of probable cause
from evidence presented by a prosecuting attorney
7. Indictment/information. If the preliminary hearing leads to an information or the grand
jury vote leads to an indictment, the prosecutor prepares the formal charging document and
presents it to the court
8. Arraignment. The accused person appears in court to hear the indictment or information
read by a judge and to enter a plea. Accused persons may plead guilty or not guilty or, in some
states, stand mute. When a guilty plea is accepted as knowing and voluntary, there is no need
for a trial, and the judge imposes a sentence. Plea bargaining can take place at any time in the
criminal justice process, but it tends to be completed shortly before or soon after arraignment.
Very few criminal cases proceed to trial
9. Trial. For the small percentage of defendants who plead not guilty, the Sixth Amendment
guarantees the right to a trial by an impartial jury if the charges are serious enough to
warrant a prison sentence of more than six months. In many jurisdictions, lesser charges do
not entail a right to a jury trial
10. Sentencing. Judges are responsible for imposing sentences. The intent is to make the sentence
suitable to the offender and the offense within the limits set by the law
11. Appeal. Defendants who are found guilty may appeal convictions to a higher court. An appeal
can be based on the claim that the trial court failed to follow the proper procedures or that the
defendant’s constitutional rights were violated by the actions of police, prosecutors, defense
attorneys, or judges
12. Corrections. The court’s sentence is carried out by the correctional subsystem. Probation,
intermediate sanctions such as fines and community service, and incarceration are the
sanctions most often imposed. Probation allows offenders to serve their sentences in the
community under supervision. Youthful offenders, first offenders, and those convicted of minor
violations are most likely to be sentenced to probation rather than incarceration
13. Release. Release may occur when the offender has served the full sentence imposed by the
court, but most offenders are returned to the community under the supervision of a parole
officer. Parole continues for the duration of the sentence or for a period specified by law.
Parole may be revoked and the offender returned to prison if the conditions of parole are not
met or if the parolee commits another crime

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 Not all cases are treated equally. The process applied to a given case, as well as its outcome, is
shaped by the importance of the case to decision makers, the seriousness of the charge, and the
defendant’s resources
 Cases that are highly unusual, receive much public attention, result in a jury trial, and often
drag on through many appeals. Serious felonies: violent crimes committed by people with long
criminal records, against victims unknown to them. Police and the prosecutors speak of these
as “heavy” cases that should result in “tough” sentences. In such instances the defendant has
little reason to plead guilty and the defense attorney must prepare for trial. There are also
offenses in which the offender may have no record, and the victim may have had a prior
relationship with the accused. The main goal of criminal justice officials is to dispose of such
cases quickly. For this reason, many are filtered out of the system prior to trial, usually
through plea bargaining. Then we have misdemeanors. About 90 percent of all cases fall into
this category. They concern such offenses as public drunkenness, shoplifting, prostitution,
disturbing the peace, and traffic violations. These cases are handled by the lower courts, where
speed is essential. Prosecutors use their discretion to reduce charges or recommend probation
as a way to encourage defendants to plead guilty quickly. Trials are rare; processes are
informal; and fines, probation, or short jail sentences result

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