Crime Control Orientation versus Due Process Orientation
The main purpose of the crime control orientation is to secure peace by arresting as many law violators as possible, as fast as possible, and by using as few resources per arrest as possible (Kraska, 2004). Furthermore, because the defendants are presumed guilty (otherwise they would not have been arrested), releasing suspects due to procedural mistakes is wrong. In other words, suspects are guilty of their alleged crimes, otherwise law enforcement authorities would not spend the resources trying to prosecute the person (i.e., effective crime control does not focus on innocent people). It is believed that this quantitatively based tough-on-crime policy can be achieved by efficiently
…show more content…
Because the cost of being incarcerated is extremely high, the due process orientation requires that the state eliminate all doubt as to whether constitutional procedural safeguards were violated. In order to control law enforcers, there must be a cost for violating the rules. Thus, in order to ensure that police officers will comply with the law, it is argued that the cost of releasing all suspects whose rights have been violated will be a high enough cost to motivate law enforcers to obey the law when they perform their duties. According to the due process orientation, corrupt police officers will cause the crime control orientation to …show more content…
On the one hand, the right wing believes that a) the system is too lenient with offenders, b) the system favors the rights of offenders over the rights of victims, c) youths no longer respect authorities, d) hard working law-abiding Americans are paying the high cost for crime, and e) society is too permissive involving morality issues. The left wing, on the other hand, believes that a) the system inappropriately includes certain vices as crimes, which indicates a more serious crime problem than really exists, b) authorities label people as criminals, which may stigmatize them and create a self-fulfilling prophecy, c) correctional facilities are warehouses for criminals and they fail to rehabilitate inmates, which lead to recidivism, d) centralized power discourages the involvement of community members in solving local problems, and e) the criminal justice system discriminates against and segregates minorities in order to control