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Herbert Packer Criminal Justice Analysis

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Herbert Packer is widely considered a legal scholar. Mr. Packer wrote a book entitled The Limits of the Criminal Sanction. Mr. Packer describes the criminal justice program as a competition between two value systems. Those value systems are the due process model and the crime control model. The crime control model reflects traditional conservative views. The due process model reflects traditional liberal values (Packer, 1968). The crime control model focuses on controlling criminal behavior. Efficiency in the criminal justice system is paramount with regard to the crime control model. The goal is to move criminal cases through the process as quickly as possible. The end result is to quickly close the case. The approach is sometimes referred to as an assembly line. One of the main pillars in the crime control model is the plea bargain process. The plea bargain process can be utilized to dispose of a case. Crime control …show more content…

The media tends to focus on the mistakes of the criminal justice system. Many reports have highlighted the cases of wrongfully imprisoned people. While these cases are indeed wrong, many of the people imprisoned have committed a crime. For example, DNA evidence is now a useful determinant of guilt or innocence with regard to rape cases. Gwendolyn Carrol wrote an article for the Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology. The article focused on post-conviction DNA examination in the state of Missouri. Post-conviction DNA testing, more often than not, confirms the guilt of the prisoner seeking testing (Carroll, 2007). The criminal justice system is not perfect. Human beings commit crimes against society is all countries. The writer contends that the criminal justice system does indeed to a good job of reducing crime in the United States. The system can always be improved; however you can imagine where we would be without

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