Criminal Law Foundations Evaluation If laws were not in place, individuals could not hold onto their individual properties. Social life would be impossible without laws to help control the way people behave, think and treat each other while in public and private locations. Criminal laws were designed to reflect the accepted behavior in a community, such as morals and the criminal act itself, or Mens Rea and Actus Reus. Thus when people break the law and are caught, the accused are provided certain constitutional rights. Criminal law consists of bodies of regulations and rules that will specify and define the punishments for the wrong committed against society or the state.
In this essay we will assess the usefulness of these functionalist theories, and look at how it helps us explain crime. One functionalist who tried to explain crime is Merton and his strain theory, the strain theory argues that people engage in the deviant behaviour when they are unable to achieve socially approved goals by legitimate means. Merton explanation combines 2 elements; structural factors- society’s unequal opportunity structure, cultural factors- strong emphasis to achieve goals and weak emphasis on using legit means. Merton uses the strain theory to explain some patterns of crime in society, he argues a person’s positioning in society affects the way they adapt or respond to the strain to anomie. Merton gives 5 different types of adaption; Conformity- the individual accepts socially acceptable goal and achieves it through legitimate means, Innovation- Individual accepts the role of success and wealth but uses illegitimate means to achieve them, Ritualism- Individual give up on legitimate goals but still follow strictly to the rules, Retreatism- Individuals reject legitimate goals and means of achieving them e.g drug addicts, the final type is Rebellion- Individuals reject existing goals and means but replace them with new one in desire to bring about revolutionary change.
Crime scene investigation is a dynamic and the nature of crime and the crime scene significantly determine the plan of approach. Crime scene processing is diverse in nature. It typically entails the procedures below. The first phase of crime scene processing is scene documentation. The main objective behind the documentation of a crime scene is to have a visual representation of the crime scene.
Once crime or a criminal problem is significant to be an issue, then action to alleviate the issue becomes important (Marion & Oliver, 2012). The criminal justice policy process also begins at that point. The steps in the criminal justice policy process include problem identification, agenda setting, policy formulation, policy implementation, and policy evaluation (Marion & Oliver, 2012). The criminal justice policy process depends on the participants such as the executive branch and legislative branch of the government, interest groups, voters, and the media (Marion & Oliver, 2012). The criminal justice policy process determines the shift of
It is their duties to ensure public safety and maintain order. Secondly, are the Courts, which sentences criminals based on evidence gathered by the Police and Lawyers. Thirdly, are Correctional Institutions, which detains or rehabilitates criminals. The graphic illustration below outlines the Criminal Justice System and its key components: Police The first component is the police, which serve as the gate keepers for the Criminal Justice System. The term police originated from the “Latin word politia” which means civil administrations’’.
173 Reflective Journal. Week 1: Aims of the criminal Justice system This week was essentially an introductory topic and provided me with a basic understanding of the aims and operations of the criminal justice system. I learned that there is a number of different steps within the criminal justice system and the involvement of all the parties involved such as police, judge and jury and the defence. According to John Champion the main purpose of the criminal justice system is to process and prosecute individuals who commit crimes against society and to deal out suitable punishments for these individuals. This is a pivotal part in terms of maintain the functioning of society and to ensure that people don’t go around breaking laws wherever and whenever they want.
Lastly, this paper will define what inchoate offense is and will compare it to elements of additional criminal offenses. In order to fully understand criminal law, one must also understand its purpose and its sources. Criminal law has many purposes, but to sum it all up, according to Schmalleger (2010), “criminal law protects the law-abiding citizens while maintaining social order through the conviction and sentencing of the criminals. Criminal law provides protection to all law abiding individuals and will sentenced the ones who committed the crimes. Criminal law has many sources, one is the Constitution.
Criminal Procedure Policy Paper CJA/ 364 Criminal Procedure May 29, 2012 Criminal Procedure Policy Paper The role the criminal justice system plays in society is expansive. Criminal justice is designed to keep the public safe, to stop wrongdoing, to punish wrongdoers, and to provide order to society. Given this broad role there will be times when criminal justice will not perform all roles well. This means, of course, that criminal justice will often fail to meet public expectations. Ultimately, the needs people have for criminal justice mean that they believe the criminal justice system should be designed to pursue goals that fulfill
DISCUSS THE PROBLEMS IN MEASURING AND DEFINING CRIME AND DEVIANCE. INTRODUCTION This paper will discuss the problems faced whilst trying to define and measure crime and deviance whilst also explaining the differences and relationship between crime and deviance. Criminologists have created means of measuring crime which this paper will explore and identify problems which will occur during the recording of crime and will explore influences on crime and crime statistics. DEFINING CRIME AND DEVIANCE Defining crime or deviance is diverse amongst the many different cultures, history and from one social context to another (new texts pg 138) which causes a big problem whilst defining and measuring crime or deviance as what is believed to be criminal or deviant behaviour in one society may be seen as legal or normal behaviour by another society. There are many theories relating to deviance and crime with each theory illustrating a different aspect of the procedure by which people break rules and are classed as deviants or criminals.
Consensus theory means any area dealing with a problem where several objects must be simplified to one. This paper will research thorough back ground of crime including the main themes associated with crime, why crime is committed, the four main perspectives of crime (legalist, political, psychological, sociological), and how society perceives crime. This paper will also research how consensus is formed among society and what factors play a role. Research as to how deviance, social norms and theories all have a vital role in how society form consensus. A clearer understanding of consensus theorists will be examined and the ideologies behind these individuals.