Process Essay: The Criminal Justice Process

The Criminal Justice Process involves numerous steps including but not limited to investigations, charging, discovery, plea bargaining and sentencing. Out of all the procedures I find investigations to be most important because without investigations there would be no evidence to clarify if a crime has been committed therefore there would be no need for a person to be charged. The investigation process is a very crucial step in the criminal justice process, the evidence gathered and how it is gathered can make a difference on whether a person is charged with a crime and whether they will go to trial. Each state in the United States has their own procedures when it comes to the criminal justice process but basically there are set guidelines in place to describe the process. When we look at the Federal Criminal Process we can see that the first step in the process is Investigation, an investigators duty is to investigate crime, obtain evidence and help prosecutors understand the details of a case. These investigators can be from several different agencies which include the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigations, DHS/HIS (Homeland Security Investigation, USSS (United States Secret Service,

(Criminal Law 101) The gathering of evidence and finding the truth is the first step before and arrest can be made, without evidence of criminal activity there would be no one to pursue. During the investigation process, there are many crucial steps beginning from the preliminary investigation. A preliminary investigation is where an inquiry is made on an alleged crime, through this phase of the investigation law enforcement can determine if a crime has been committed and whether they should conduct a full