The Modern Society s Criminal Justice System

Criminal Justice in Today’s Society

Abstract

The modern-day society has evolved, and so are the security and social issues that face it. To determine the specific challenges that face today’s society and thus, the criminal justice system, it requires a critical and analytical research study that will filter through the information available and determine the thematic areas that emerge as critical for modern-day criminal justice. Research for this study was done through a systematic literature review method. This research method was considered to be the most appropriate for the current research and the research question. Analysis of the information presented through the reviewed materials showed that several issues are characteristic of today’s society that the criminal justice system has to address or factor in its operations to realize its mandate. These issues emerged as common from the reviewed materials; i) rehabilitative and restoration, not just punitive criminal justice, ii) racial equality, iii) evidence-based practices, and iv) integration of technology. Centered on these results, it is concluded that the criminal justice system today is faced with a changing society, change like the crime, and the cropping up of new security threats and challenges. Also, today’s society has a whole new expectation of the criminal justice system. First, the criminal justice system today is faced with new security challenges and threats, e.g., terror – home-grown and international. To ensure that the system effectively realizes its mandate, criminal justice has adopted evidence-based practices that are proven scientifically to work. Secondly, technology plays a critical role not only in today’s society but also in how crime is committed. To effectively meet these challenges, criminal justice in today’s society has also integrated technology into its operation. Third, in their operations, criminal justice operatives have to factors in social concepts and other issues that affect their operational landscape. Today, criminal justice has to consider racial equity, especially in multicultural societies, e.g., the USA. The criminal justice system has to undertake a self-review of its operations and processes and determine how they might be biased towards certain ethnic and racial minorities, e.g., African Americans. Lastly, the criminal justice system has to evolve to be a rehabilitative and corrective system, and not just punitive in its operations, especially imprisoned individuals.

Introduction

The role of criminal justice is to ensure fairness, justice, and protection of law-abiding citizens. However, the specific issues that the criminal justice system has to tackles in ensuring its role are constantly changing as society changes. As a result, the criminal justice of any given jurisdiction has to change as per the social environment and the challenges that society is facing (Daly, 2012). The modern-day society has evolved, and so are the security and social issues that face it. To determine the specific challenges that face today’s society and thus, the criminal justice system, it requires a critical and analytical research study that will filter through the information available and determine the thematic areas that emerge as critical for modern-day criminal justice. To this extend, a capstone project is deemed necessary (Lee & Loton, 2019).

In today’s society, the criminal justice system has to deal with entirely new challenges and scenarios, including terror, multicultural societies, increased migration, a highly diverse demographic population, and the effects of technology. To remain effective and effectively address the new crime challenges resulting from the changing society, the criminal justice system has to evolve (Ritter, 2006). This is important because ordinarily, the typical criminal justice system, and in particular the laws that are in place, remain unchanged for long even after customs and the way of life for a society has changed. This presents the challenges of laws falling into irrelevancy and disuse.

As society changes, it brings changes into acceptable, new concepts, and new strategies and platforms. For example, in today’s society, the criminal justice system has to factor in the role of technology in advancing, propagating, and financing crime, the normalization of a same-sex relationship, the legalization of such previously considered illegal substance like marijuana, and the matters of racial bias in the criminal justice system.

Research Strategies

Research for this study was done through a systematic literature review method. This research method was considered to be the most appropriate for the current research and the research question. To better understand the research topic and determine the research question, it would involve a review of the materials that have been published by other authors. There have been numerous research studies, professional papers, and commentaries by authority writers on the emerging issues in the criminal justice system and how the criminal justice system would evolve to align with the merging societal issues. The systematic literature review method would allow for the retrieval and analysis of these materials.

The search for materials was done using the New Jersey State Library database. In addition to having access to this database, it was used because it is a rich resource with numerous professional and academic materials that are peer-reviewed. Also, the New Jersey State Library provided access to other equally resourceful databases, among them the Academic Search Complete database, Arts & Humanities database, and Ancestry Library Edition Database. Several keywords were used for the search on these databases. These keywords had been developed earlier through a review of the literature available on the topic.

The keywords that had been utilized to search for materials in these databases included; “Criminal justice in the 21st century,” “modern criminal justice system,” “adapting laws to today’s social challenges,” and “challenges facing criminal justice today.” These keywords were selected based on their relevancy to the current research question.

However, a search for relevant materials leads to eliminating the Ancestry Library Edition Database as it didn’t yield any relevant materials. The search results produced from these databases did not address the current research question, and thus, it was eliminated. Additionally, the keywords “modern criminal justice system” and “Adapting laws to today’s social challenges” were eliminated as they did not yield materials that were considered relevant to the current research question. To ensure that the materials that emerged from the search were specific to the current research question, and inclusion-exclusion criterion was used. This criterion was vital in sieving through the materials and ensuring that only quality materials were included in the study.

The materials that ended up being included in the research had to meet the inclusion criteria (Tompson & Belur, 2016). The inclusion criteria were; i) the materials address the criminal justice system in the 21st century. ii) The material refers to the American, UK, or Australian criminal justice system. iii) The material has been published within the last ten years. iii) The paper has been published in the English language. iv) The paper is original in the category of a research paper, a report, or a commentary.

The search results were analyzed to determine their suitability to the inclusion criteria. The first analysis was done on the topic. Topics that did not suit the research question were dropped. Next, selected materials were analyzed at the abstract level. The abstract is a snapshot of the entire paper, and thus, abstracts that were deemed irrelevant to the research questions were dropped. Lastly, the materials were analyzed at the full-text level. This involved reading through the entire paper at the content level and materials that were irrelevant or didn’t address the research question were dropped.

To ensure thoroughness in the selection phase of the research, the materials were analyzed by two persons. The first person was the Principal Investigator (PI) for this research, the first reviewer, after which the selected papers proceeded to GM for the confirmatory review.

A Review of the Literature assignment

Criminal justice, especially in the US, has been criticized as being simply warehouses where convicts are ‘stored’ to await release into the public to continue offending. However, research has shown that in the recent past, the criminal justice system has become increasingly more rehabilitative, it factors in racial disparities to ensure equal justice is served to all ethnic minorities in the US, and that there has been increased believe of evidence-based practices, and more integration of technology-based strategies. Several researchers have noted that there are “new crimes” in today’s society that are more advanced, and the relationship amid the offender and the victim has changed (Matthews, 2020). This is because most offenders are skilled persons who lack the opportunities, and the victims are spread across the spectrum of social stature.

One point of concurrence by researchers is that in the use of evidence-based practices in the justice system, the society must be involved, and convicts should also make a personal input. For example, persons who are convicted of drug crimes are also drug users. Consequently, the criminal justice system has rehabilitation programs, but for such an initiative to be successful, prisoners of drug-related crimes must also make an effort to stop (Manaliyo, 2016). Moreover, evidence-based crime prevention strategies have shown that it is not only the duty of the officers in the criminal justice system to stop crime, but the society must also be actively involved, e.g., through providing intelligence to law enforcers.

The common viewpoint from researchers is that the criminal justice system cannot be effective and efficient in combating crime in today’s society unless the motivations for and the instincts for crimes is not thoroughly understood. This notwithstanding, some of the key concepts emerging concerning the criminal justice system in today’s society are the inclusion of the community, the integration of technology, rational choice theory, and adoption of the routine activities theory (Argun & Daglar, 2016).

Discussions and Conclusions Assignment

Analysis of the information presented through the reviewed materials showed that several issues are characteristic of today’s society that the criminal justice system has to address or factor in its operations to realize its mandate. These issues emerged as being common from the reviewed materials.

i. Rehabilitative and restoration, not just punitive criminal justice

For the longest time, criminal justice, especially in the USA, has been a purely punitive system where incarcerated persons are kept in prison with the primary aim being to punish them for the crime committed with zero initiative to try and up their skills to help them become productive citizens upon release. However, in today’s society, there has been increased change in this system, with today’s criminal justice being more rehabilitative and correction of the offender’s behavior. This is obvious in the reality that today, prisons have adopted various programs and initiatives meant to help prisoners gain skills that will help them be productive members of the society after the lapse of their prison time.

Today, most crimes that lead to incarceration would be considered necessity crimes as individuals seek to survive due to lack of a resourceful engagement. For example, 50-80 percent of men arrested for drug-related crimes test positive for drug usage (Ransley & Mazerolle, 2009; Schmalleger et al., 2014). Drug usage can be managed, and such persons rehabilitated. More importantly, for the society and from a financial and economic point of view, the incarceration of these persons is an unnecessary cost to the society. If they continue with their operations, they further damage society. It, therefore, pays to have these persons rehabilitated and trained to up their skills and become more resourceful persons for society and contribute to building the society. This is a function of today’s criminal justice.

ii. Racial equality

In the American multiracial society, the criminal justice system has been biased, especially in the treatment of African Americans. African Americans have been disproportionately more imprisoned, and they are even more likely to face more force in an encounter with police. Policies, laws, and practices that are seemingly neutral have had significant negative effects on race when implemented (Bennett & Plaut, 2017). For example, research has shown a disparate treatment of crack and cocaine offenses, having prior criminal records, e.g., the three-strikes laws in California, which have a disproportionate effect on African Americans, and crimes that are committed in a school zone, which attract an enhanced penalty – noting that these zones cover a large proportion of space in the intercity where the population of African and Latin Americans is higher (Owusu-Bempah, 2017).

The result of this disproportional treatment of minority races under the criminal justice system is seen in the current wave of protests and sometimes riots across America. It is, therefore, apparent that the issue of racial inequality and equality is an issue that today’s criminal justice system must deal with. Even though there is a blind eye from the White House, it is the opinion of many that this is an idea whose time has come, and the American criminal justice system has to address this issue, lest it becomes irrelevant.

iii. Evidence-based practices

Historically, and not in the too distant past, the criminal justice system has been criticized for unfair and wrongful imprisonments due to induced confessions or paid witnesses whose work provides incriminating testimonies. These negatively affect the public’s opinion of the criminal justice system, and it is perceived being unfair and unjust. However, in the recent past, criminal justice systems have adopted evidence-based practices meant to ensure fairness and justice in delivering their services (Epperson & Pettus-Davis, 2017). In today’s society, criminal justice systems are based on scientifically proven or real-field practices and findings, e.g., the use of DNA to connect a suspect to a rape crime, use of science-based counseling practices in prison rehabilitation programs.

The use of evidence-based practices has served to improve the image and perception of the system by the public, and more importantly, it has helped the system efficiently realize its goals. It is also noted that evidence-based practices have been adopted through the entire criminal justice system, from relations with the community to the management of offenders in the prisons. Of critical importance is the realization of the role of society in general in the management of law and order (Epperson & Pettus-Davis, 2017). I today’s society, the community is playing an increased role in the criminal justice system through community policing initiatives, trial by jury, probation and parole programs, and diversification of incarceration models, e.g., the home-based jail programs.

iv. Integration of technology

One of the distinguishing features of today’s society in the role that technology plays. In every aspect of life, including how crimes are committed, technology plays an integral role. It is, therefore, only logical that unlike in the past, the criminal justice system should adopt and incorporate technology in its operations. Some of the crimes like terror are global, with coordinators mobilizing their cells through technology. For criminal justice to be able to unearth the entire terror network to avert future attacks, technology has to be employed by investigators.

Locally, technology is also used in the criminal justice system by police to the prison level. For example, technology is used through electronic forensics and DNA analysis technology to solve previously unsolvable crimes, e.g., rape (LeClerc & Savona, 2016), using electronic tracking devices to monitor convicts on parole or home confinement, and the use of drones and positioning technology. More importantly, it has also been noted that there is increased research and development on potential technological devices that can be utilized in the criminal justice system, especially in America.

Based on these findings, it is concluded that the criminal justice system today is faced with a changing society, change like the crime and the cropping up of new security threats and challenges. Also, today’s society has a whole new expectation of the criminal justice system. First, the criminal justice system today is faced with new security challenges and threats, e.g., terror - home has grown and international. To ensure that the system effectively realizes its mandate, criminal justice has adopted evidence-based practices that are proven scientifically to work. Secondly, technology plays a critical role not only in today’s society but also in how crime is committed. To effectively meet these challenges, criminal justice in today’s society has also integrated technology into its operation. Third, in their operations, criminal justice operatives have to factors in social concepts and other issues that affect their operational landscape. Today, criminal justice has to consider racial equity, especially in multicultural societies, e.g., the USA. The criminal justice system has to undertake a self-review of its operations and processes and determine how they might be biased towards certain ethnic and racial minorities, e.g., African Americans. Lastly, the criminal justice system has to evolve to be a rehabilitative and corrective system, and not just punitive in its operations, especially imprisoned individuals.

Annotated Bibliography

Daly, K. (2012). Aims of the criminal justice system. Crime and justice: A guide to criminology, 289-406.

In this article, the author argues that discretion by all officers, from the arresting officer to the community and institutional correctional staff, in the criminal justice system is a core issue. Equally important is the role that members of the citizenry play, including reporting crime, potential suspects, and collaborating with criminal justice officers. The central thesis in this article is that citizens ought to work in collaboration with works in the justice system as part of what the criminal justice system should achieve.

Lee, N., & Loton, D. (2019). Capstone purposes across disciplines. Studies in Higher Education, 44(1), 134-150.

In this article, the authors highlight the role of the capstone project in the research field. Capstone projects are used in the application and synthesis of prior learning and the development of skills. After reviewing various capstone development reports, the authors concluded that capstone projects are applicable in all fields of study, and the purpose and importance of capstone projects cut across all disciplines. The findings by the authors are the basis of using capstone projects in the implementation of the curriculum.

Manaliyo, J.C. (2016). Barriers to community participation in crime prevention in low-income communities in Cape Town. International Journal of Social Sciences and Humanity Studies, 8(1).

In this article, the author reviews the community participation’s role in the prevention of crime. The community’s role in the criminal justice system has been acknowledged that law enforcement alone cannot guarantee effective prevention of crime within society. However, community participation in today’s society is hampered by poverty among residents of society and the community in general, and poor and ineffective response by the police.

Matthews, R. (2020). New times, new crimes: Notes on the depillarization of the criminal justice system. Critical Criminology.

This article focuses more on the changing nature of crime in the last two decades. It presents a historical overview of how the central structures of the criminal justice system have become weakened with time. The author argues that there is an emergence of new relations between the offender and the victim, social justice and criminal justice, and the development of innovative modes of regulation. All these new development have significantly changed the criminological and social landscape and raise new issues of practice and theory that challenge the traditional understanding of crime and punishment.