For centuries, the criminal justice system has continually evolved and adapted to society where its sole purpose has been to punish those that break the laws deemed to be uncivilized. By punishing criminals, it attempts to maintain peace and order in society so that chaos and anarchy does not run amok. The criminal justice system we have today is divided into three sections, each with different responsibilities to uphold. The police are in charge of investigating and capturing criminals, the courts are in charge with the decision of whether or not a crime has been committed and if the person should be charged, and the corrections system is responsible for making sure the punishment given by the court is carried out (Mallicoat 2017:4). By examining the two contrasting ideologies of the criminal justice system, crime control and due process, we can see that our criminal justice system is flawed in maintaining public order and protecting our rights.
The crime control model is the belief that “the most important function of the criminal justice system is to suppress and control
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The crime control model aims to punish criminals harshly, often ignoring the individual’s rights so that future would-be criminals would think about the potential consequences of their actions if they would proceed through with their criminal intent. In contrast, the due process model strives to protect everyone’s basic rights as an individual of this country so that they may not be unjustly and wrongfully convicted of crimes they never committed in order to punish the real criminals of society. Our criminal justice system has tried to find a compromise of the two yet both ideologies have major flaws in them that allows harm done to innocent individuals regardless, whether it being wrongly accused of a crime or criminals not receiving punishment, thus leaving their victims with no