Crime Law
The Law on Crime design tends to provide justice to everyone, prosecute and penalize the culprit, and help prevent offenses and protect citizens. The structure of criminal justice varies between jurisdictions, and there are also its policies and regulations within the federal justice system. Many criminal justice systems, however, consist of the same essential elements in all jurisdictions.
Significant procedural steps in the American criminal justice
The following are the main steps in dealing with a criminal case:
Investigation; a criminal inquiry aims to obtain evidence for an accused and to facilitate an arrest. There are departments within the federal government that employ individual investigators to gather and provide United States attorneys in their respective districts with details (Simonson, 2019).
Arrest, the legal justification for an arrest, is likely to be the reason. It indicates that a balanced relationship exists between a particular person and a given crime. An arrest involves placing an individual under detention to detain the defendant until the trial (Simonson, 2019).
Prosecution; when determining whether the system can charge an individual with a crime, prosecutors consider several factors, such as the nature of the crime and the intensity of proofs.
Accusation; the execution of a criminal crime needs a trial according to the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. For cases involving crimes that are punishable by conviction, a prosecutor has the choice of charging or details.
Arraignment; the defendant appeared before the jury and entered a plea. Culpability and not guilt are the two common pleas.
Pretrial detention or Bail; Pretrial custody applies to the time of the arrest. Bail is issued to guarantee that a defendant turns up for a trial. Bail is a sum of money paid to the defendant. Judges often consider the history of the defendant, the ties with the community, and community safety when deciding whether to release the offender (Simonson, 2019).
Plea bargaining; the accused typically agrees to admit guilt for a reduction of charges or a reduction of sentences of plea deals.
Trial; after plea bargaining, a prosecution gets brought before a jury with participants being the defense attorney and the prosecutor. Unless there is a reasonable doubt, the perpetrator gets discharged.
Sentencing; where the defendant is convicted, a judge pronounces a sentence. Conceivable convictions include a penalty, a term of probation, parole, or mandatory detention in a detention center (Simonson, 2019).
Appeals; when a court of appeal reverses a verdict, the court must retry the decision. A Prosecutor determines, upon reversal, whether the charges will be refilled or dropped.
Punishment; most inmates will not complete the full term and are released before the maximum sentence has elapsed. The release is achievable by completing a maximum sentence imposed by a judge or an early release option like parole or pardon.
Three primary issues in America in the next five years criminal justice system
Over the next five years, other factors are likely to affect America’s judicial system. These forces include; coevolution of crime and justice, global trends, among other effects. Therefore, over the next five years, the three most critical issues for criminal justice over America are;
- The anonymity of the Internet
- Jurisdiction issue
- Lack of skilled Manpower
All who work or aspire to work in the area of criminal justice should also be the most concerned about the above challenges. For example, the anonymity of the Internet, the Internet is dominated by anonymity, and this promotes criminal conduct. Besides, internet anonymity also makes it hard for the investigative team to trace, locate, and identify the criminal offender (Crespo, 2018). Anonymity on the Internet serves as a significant obstacle to those who work or aspire to work in the world of law enforcement. Therefore, in the next five years, the Internet is likely to become a platform for illegal activities given its anonymity nature, which should worry about those who work or are attempting to do criminal justice job.
Similarly, the jurisdiction issue is likely one of the most critical challenges of significant concern because Cyber Crime is a crime without boundaries given technological advancement. There are no physical limitations in the virtual world. The main feature of cybercrime is that anyone from anywhere can commit a crime (Gass, 2016). As a result of this, identifying the correct jurisdiction for prosecution becomes challenging because crime tends to occur in different states.
As a consequence, lack of skilled workers will probably challenge those who work or want to work in the area of criminal law because the criminal justice system uses a traditional approach and, consequently, lack the skilled human resources to counter cyber economic crimes because they are the new factor in the system. (Crespo, 2018). There are still pending cases before the cybercrime cases; hence traditional crimes are a considerable workload, and officers find it hard to deal with cyber-economic crimes as skilled human resources are lacking.
How social media, body cameras, and dash cameras are altering criminal justice professionals’ safety and professionalism.
Social media has become a common platform to communicate about current affairs or issues. Therefore, at times the criminal justice professionals tend to rely on social media, but the information provided is not real. As a result, they fail to research the issues being discussed on social medial, hence interfering with the professionalism and welfare of professionals in criminal justice (Trost, 2017). The question lies in the reality of communication and how the knowledge provided includes prejudice. Because also, both the dash cameras and body cameras are editable to fit a particular message the owner wants to pass across hence altering the safety.
Juries are just an indication of the risks posed by social media use. Juries get used to ascertain an accused’s guilt or innocence. The juries do not have advanced knowledge of the matter and must obtain facts through the hearings to offer an impartial judgment. Social media can become an issue when a typical case is seen and shared by the different social media sites, and jurors can gain insight into the situation that promotes prejudice; hence the social media tend to interfere (Trost, 2017). Some details gathered by the jury through social media can influence the fate of the defendant, yet it contains bias, thus alter the operation by the criminal justice professionals.
Moreover, the dash cameras and body cameras do pose some significant privacy concerns because, at times, criminal justice professionals face off sensitive or potentially dangerous situations. There can be considerable problems; the immediate hazard to officers and their families is the most serious. Due to social media, criminal justice professionals became more than ever public figures (Trost, 2017). Limitations have reduced between their professional and personal life. The police cannot expect their homes and families to get protected against the dangers in the workplace because of the impact of social media, body cameras, and dash cameras.
References
Crespo, A. M. (2018). THE HIDDEN LAW OF PLEA BARGAINING. Columbia Law Review, 118(5), 1303-1424. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/2083619109?accountid=4504
Gass, H. (2016, May 20). America’s newest export: Criminal justice reform. The Christian Science Monitor Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/1790104125?accountid=45049
Simonson, J. (2019). THE PLACE OF “THE PEOPLE” IN CRIMINAL PROCEDURE. Columbia Law Review, 119(1), 249-307. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/2178510019?accountid=45049
Trost, M. (2017). Domestic embedded reporter program: Saving lives and security tactical operations. Homeland Security Affairs, Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/2206254841?accountid=45049