Two Models of the Criminal Process The two models of the criminal process; due process and crime control serve as the foundation of order and liberty as it relates to the practice of criminal justice and criminal law. These models struggle against each other to represent their own value system as it applies to ideologies in criminal justice procedures. Although there seems to be a difference between these two principles of criminal law, each one has positive qualities. The due process and crime control models contain prepared subject matter of values primary to the constitutional order of how criminal law is practiced (Packer, 1968). “The machinery of criminal justice—police, prosecution, courts, and corrections—is the formal means by which order is maintained in our society” (Zalman, 2008, p. 4).
Law should be interpreted through the contextual analyses of what people do in law versus focusing on finding the essence of Law as it criticizes Legal Positivists for doing. It is also critical of how it disregards other social factors such as race, class and gender. From Legal Realism, Artifactualism adopts the belief that there should be a focus on what people in positions of law actually do instead of what they are supposed to do. Law is a platform for social interactions to occur and how civil servants carry out their duty is based on many influential powers and relations within society. It is also a means to find equality among the different members of society.
The movie “Death Wish” portrays a constant struggle between the due process and crime control models. The due process model of criminal justice expects a lawful fairness to all citizens. Also, this model attempts to protect a defendant’s rights more than the victim. It relies on authorities powers to be controlled by rules and procedures in order to prevent excessive use of their power. Also, it is important in this process to prove a person guilty by legally-found facts and evidence.
2003. p. 114). The prosecutor’s main roles are to establishing that those guilty are prosecuted, and to determine which cases are weak and weed them out. Meyer & Grant (2003) state that, “ the tasks that prosecutors perform fall into three broad categories: planning and supervising the investigation phase of criminal and civil cases, case preparations, and responding to the issues related to appeals. The defense attorney’s role is to protect an individuals right when he or she has been accused of committing a crime, and to ensure that the individual is not prosecuted unjustly or falsely tried. A prosecutor presents evidence to prove that the defendant is guilty of the crime and the defense attorney tries to prove that the defendant is not guilty.
After that, if need be, the case is brought to prosecution. If the prosecution takes that case, then the case is put on trial. This is important because it shows just what the judicial part of government and the court part of the criminal justice system does, and why it is important. So the court systems job is to interpret the law and bring justice. The dual court system is a system in that there are state courts and federal courts.
The Bill of Rights Introduction to Criminal Justice March 3, 2013 There are many legal rights that we have during a trial. This Bill of Rights provides certain rights to criminal defendants during trial. There are two aspects of the U.S. criminal justice system and they are the defendant is innocent until the prosecution can prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt (NOLO: Law for All, 2013). Defendants have many other rights and here they will be discussed. The right to confront witnesses is stated that in the sixth amendment “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to be confronted with the witness against him.” They are allowed to participate in the accused’s trial process.
Prosecutorial Discretion Prosecutors play very important roles in the courtroom. Prosecutors are granted the right by the courts to have discretion upon a case. Although, prosecutors are obligated to execute the law at both federal and state levels, they still hold the discretion of what charges to try and convict the defendant on. Prosecutors have a wide range of authority in the courts; therefore, the active prosecutor(s) must efficiently analyze any evidence being presented in a case in order to determine if the case will be strong enough to withhold a trial or even if the accused defendant is chargeable. In the case of Bordenkircher v. Hayes (1978), the court stated, “so long as the prosecutor has probable cause to believe that the accused committed an offense defined by statute, the decision whether or not to prosecute, and what charge to file or bring before a grand jury, generally rests entirely in his discretion.” Although there are many factors that come into play when a prosecutor is considering dismissing a case, the most prominent issues are state and federal resources, time, and investigative teams.
Relevant, Reliable, and Competent Evidence Evidence is the backbone to any civil or criminal case; it proves innocence or guilt of the accused. Evidence comes in two forms, direct or indirect (circumstantial). Direct evidence proves or disproves
Therefore, by having sufficient evidence this would be enough to convict a criminal in the court of law. Crime control is based on handling crimes that occur with a quick and effective outcome. For example if the prosecutor does not have strong evidence to receive a conviction there is a slight chance the offender’s case will get dismissed. Therefore, emphasizing the capacity to arrest, and convict a high proportion of offenders in other words put the criminal in jail first and question later. However, with the “due process an individual is allowed their day in court if suspected of a crime because of United States constitution.
The elements of crime are a series of components that must be present in order for it to be demonstrated that someone is guilty of a crime. The prosecution must provide supporting evidence that all parts of the crime are present in a given case and the defense can challenge the validity of a case on one or more elements, while different legal systems have different standards, there have been some truly bizarre cases that have tested the legal definition of the elements of crime