The Criminal Justice System Is A System - 1307 Words

Susan Mellen: Wronfully Convicted The criminal justice system is a system that prides itself on being able to help control crime and implement penalties to those that commit crimes. There is a specific way into which a person enters the justice system. First, a crime is committed. The crime is reported and that leads to an investigation. Once the investigation is completed and there is enough evidence, an arrest can be made (The Criminial Justice System, 2008). But what happens if something goes wrong within the investigation? What happens if there is a lot of pressure to make an arrest in the case? The answer is that people get wrongfully convicted. When an investigation is not done correctly, it can cause innocent people, such as Susan Marie Mellen, to be wrongfully convicted and spend many unnecessary years in prison. Susan Mellen, a mother of three children, was wrongfully convicted of murder in 1997. Susan was tried and convicted in the murder of Ricky Daly, her one time boyfriend. Ricky’s body was found gagged, bound, and set on fire after being violently attacked with a hammer (CBS, 2014). The night of the attack Susan was with both of her daughters and her current boyfriend’s father, Jim. Susan and her boyfriend Tom were moving into a new house. That is when Ricky was attacked in an abandoned house. There were many reports to police that Ricky was killed by members of a gang. Those gang members names were â€Å"Wicked†, â€Å"Ghost†, and â€Å"Payaso† (Innocence Matters, 2014).Show MoreRelatedJustice Systems And The Criminal Justice System Essay1248 Words   |  5 PagesThe criminal justice system is a complex and often uncoordinated system that operates by enforcing the law and seeking justice across countless jurisdictions. It is comprised of many separat e agencies including agencies at the federal, state, and local level. Each agency has its own function and goals while operating at different levels of government. The agencies also represent different concerns and values of the public, creating a fragmented system rather than a monolithic, unified system. A monolithicRead MoreCriminal Justice System1524 Words   |  7 Pagesfor the Criminal Justice System is to reduce the crime and the fire of crime. In order to achieve this it is using different agencies and the major of them are the Police, Prosecution, Courts, Prisons and Probation. They all are operating in synchrony for achieving their legal responsibilities and particularly for reducing the level of crime. The aim of this essay specifically is to discuss the functions of the police and how they actually fit with the objectives of the Criminal Justice System as aRead MoreThe Criminal Justice System1308 Words   |  5 Pagesï » ¿Criminal Justice System The criminal justice system refers to the way in which a society chooses to handle all aspects of crime and punishment. In the Western world, particularly the United States, the criminal justice system is an official governmental system that focuses on crime and punishment, though some societies still incorporate a significant amount of informal social controls into their criminal justice systems. The criminal justice system covers everything from crime-prevention andRead MoreCriminal Justice System1308 Words   |  6 PagesNorways criminal justice system is doing something right. The few citizens that go to prison usually only go once. How does Norway achieve this? 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Treatment simply did not work either by therapy or broader social programs and became is a monumental failure that our states and nation can no longer afford† (p.61) Garland (2001) stated â€Å"that the collapse of faith in our correction system began a wave of demoralization that underminedRead MoreThe Criminal Justice System720 Words   |  3 Pages Victims usually adopt a subsidiary role in the courts, compared to the accused or offender (Booth, 2016). Victim-focused law reforms are open to many jurisdictions throughout Australia, and majority of systems which follow the adversarial nature of proceedings (Garkawe, 2007). The justice system aims to enforce a therapeutic structure, however, in some instances this fails to be upheld for the victim. In a sentencing hearing, an offender’s mitigating factors may reduce their sentence, thereforeRead MoreThe Criminal Justice System1667 Words   |  7 PagesThe criminal justice system has for long been faced by a lot of caseloads, an issue which has been heaping a lot of pressure on the stakeholders.  Ã‚  The cause of increased workload is lack of adequate resources to deal with the caseload. Some people have argued that the only way to deal with the overloads is to provide more money to the criminal justice systems so that everyone involved will be able to do the required tas ks and in so doing reduce the number of cases while scholars think that the onlyRead MoreThe Criminal Justice System1305 Words   |  6 PagesThroughout this course, I have learned about the many segments of the criminal justice system. The criminal justice system is made up of three main elements which process a case from initiation, through trial, to punishment. First a case starts with law enforcement officials, who investigate crime and gather evidence to identify and use against the assumed suspect. The case then proceeds to the court system, which evaluates the evidence to decide if the defendant is guilty or innocent. If the defendantRead MoreThe Criminal Justice System1597 Words   |  7 PagesThe purpose of the criminal justice system is explained by three definitions: Control crime, Prevent crime, and provide and maintain justice. This sense of criminal justice has been the same since pre-civilized communities, where the elders of a tribe enforced the laws of the village . The criminal justice system has changed drastically from the times of kinship systems to today’s system of laws. As time has passed criminal justice has change in many ways, for example: the way they dress, arrest,Read MoreThe And The Criminal Justice System923 Words   |  4 Pagesthe attention of many scholars. They argue that while the practice has its advantages, it also has crippling drawbacks such as overpopulation in prisons and the undermining the presumption of innocence; the main principle which defines the criminal justice system. Individuals charged with an alleged offense are â€Å"remanded into custody through the issuance of a warrant of committal by a JP or judge† (Griffiths, 2015, pp. 179) and are continued to be held in prison for an indefinite time until they are