Chapter 1: Fundamentals of Criminal
Justice: Essential Themes and Practices
Introduction
● Contribution of TV series and movies to society’s general knowledge about the justice system
might be inaccurate or misleading.
● Studying the Criminal justice system is important for various reasons:
1. It is a critical part of our democratic society, it defines our culture and influences our
interaction with the rest of the world.
2. It affects us during our lifetime.
3. Understand how your tax dollars support criminal justice in federal, state, and local
governments.
● Chapter provides an overview of the foundations of the criminal justice system.
1. Legal and historical bases of the system.
2. Crime control and due process models of crime.
3. The stages of the criminal justice process.
4. A four-tier model used to categorize and describe different types of criminal cases.
5. How discretion and ethics permeate the system.
1
, Chapter 1: Fundamentals of Criminal
Justice: Essential Themes and Practices
Foundations of Criminal Justice: Legal and Historical Bases
● Foundation of our criminal justice stem: Criminal law.
■ Criminal law: Laws that define criminal acts and how such acts will be punished.
● Enactment of new criminal laws; changes triggered by social, political, and economic changes.
The Criminal Law: How it Changes and How It Changes the System.
● Lawmakers and criminal justice officials explore ways to divert offenders away from traditional
system responses: Attempts to find alternatives to arrest, prosecution, and incarceration have
included providing treatment to help offenders deal with underlying issues that cause criminal
behavior, as well as decriminalizing non-violent, low-level crimes.
● Californian lawmaker’s response to Klaas case: Three-strikes law.
■ Three-strikes law: A crime control strategy whereby an offender who commits three or more
violent offenses will be sentenced to a lengthy term in prison: Usually 25 years.
1. Finally enacted in California with vast difference from original intent.
2. Many negative and unanticipated repercussions:
a. According to the New York Times, the law was unfairly punitive and created a
cruel and unfair criminal justice system that lost all sense of proportion, doling
out life sentences disproportionately to black defendants.
b. Under the statute, the third offense that could result in a life sentence could be any
number of low-level felony convictions.
c. Other studies of the California law found that prisoners added to the prison
system in one decade’s time would cost taxpayers an additional $8.1 billion in
prison and jail expenditures.
d. Those sentenced for nonviolent offenses would serve 143,439 more years behind
bars than if they had been convicted prior to the law’s passage.
e. A nationwide study of three-strikes laws conducted about a decade after many
states had adopted the law found no credible evidence to suggest that the law
reduced crime.
3. November 2012: Californians voted to soften the sentencing law, to impose a life
sentence only when the third felony offense is serious or violent, as defined in state law.
● Adoption of laws and processing of cases heavily influenced by politics: Many lawmakers and
other politicians want to do what is right for society, but their decisions can also be influenced by
their deire to be re-elected, made with limited or inaccurate information, or prompted by a
“knee-jerk” response to a high-profile event.
2
Justice: Essential Themes and Practices
Introduction
● Contribution of TV series and movies to society’s general knowledge about the justice system
might be inaccurate or misleading.
● Studying the Criminal justice system is important for various reasons:
1. It is a critical part of our democratic society, it defines our culture and influences our
interaction with the rest of the world.
2. It affects us during our lifetime.
3. Understand how your tax dollars support criminal justice in federal, state, and local
governments.
● Chapter provides an overview of the foundations of the criminal justice system.
1. Legal and historical bases of the system.
2. Crime control and due process models of crime.
3. The stages of the criminal justice process.
4. A four-tier model used to categorize and describe different types of criminal cases.
5. How discretion and ethics permeate the system.
1
, Chapter 1: Fundamentals of Criminal
Justice: Essential Themes and Practices
Foundations of Criminal Justice: Legal and Historical Bases
● Foundation of our criminal justice stem: Criminal law.
■ Criminal law: Laws that define criminal acts and how such acts will be punished.
● Enactment of new criminal laws; changes triggered by social, political, and economic changes.
The Criminal Law: How it Changes and How It Changes the System.
● Lawmakers and criminal justice officials explore ways to divert offenders away from traditional
system responses: Attempts to find alternatives to arrest, prosecution, and incarceration have
included providing treatment to help offenders deal with underlying issues that cause criminal
behavior, as well as decriminalizing non-violent, low-level crimes.
● Californian lawmaker’s response to Klaas case: Three-strikes law.
■ Three-strikes law: A crime control strategy whereby an offender who commits three or more
violent offenses will be sentenced to a lengthy term in prison: Usually 25 years.
1. Finally enacted in California with vast difference from original intent.
2. Many negative and unanticipated repercussions:
a. According to the New York Times, the law was unfairly punitive and created a
cruel and unfair criminal justice system that lost all sense of proportion, doling
out life sentences disproportionately to black defendants.
b. Under the statute, the third offense that could result in a life sentence could be any
number of low-level felony convictions.
c. Other studies of the California law found that prisoners added to the prison
system in one decade’s time would cost taxpayers an additional $8.1 billion in
prison and jail expenditures.
d. Those sentenced for nonviolent offenses would serve 143,439 more years behind
bars than if they had been convicted prior to the law’s passage.
e. A nationwide study of three-strikes laws conducted about a decade after many
states had adopted the law found no credible evidence to suggest that the law
reduced crime.
3. November 2012: Californians voted to soften the sentencing law, to impose a life
sentence only when the third felony offense is serious or violent, as defined in state law.
● Adoption of laws and processing of cases heavily influenced by politics: Many lawmakers and
other politicians want to do what is right for society, but their decisions can also be influenced by
their deire to be re-elected, made with limited or inaccurate information, or prompted by a
“knee-jerk” response to a high-profile event.
2
