Criminal Justice System Essay

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Introduction The criminal justice system in the United States consists of several functioning branches that work in sync with each other. To keep the system working as a whole, all three of the branches must be present. Ultimately, the criminal justice system works to prevent criminal behavior by giving punishment to those who break the law. Several varieties of laws are created in order to target different types of crimes. Determining what constitutes those crimes, however, is challenging. Morales are the driving factor behind defining the law; they are the sense of right and wrong that provides a baseline for clarifying criminal acts. The criminal justice process uses law enforcement, court systems, and corrections to enforce and interpret the law, and then punish the offender accordingly.
Law Enforcement The first branch of the criminal justice system is the police force. Police units are the first responders to a crime whether it is a homicide, robbery, or any other event in violation of the law. Their primary duty is …show more content…

The main job of corrections is to carry out the sentencing of criminals given by the ruling after it has been processed through the courts. It additionally promotes the rehabilitation of the individuals who committed crimes. Similar to the organization of the court system, there are independent state and federal correctional systems to accommodate the severity of sentencing. Typical punishments and rehabilitation processes utilized by the corrections branch are incarceration, parole, community service, and probation. Prisons are the most utilized punishment by the correctional systems, which can be seen by the largely disproportionate statistics of United States incarceration. Both probation and parole sentences involve supervision or living regulations outside of jail or a correctional facility, however parole is usually granted after time is already spent inside