History of U.S. Criminal Justice and Policing Systems
This paper traces the historical development of criminal justice and policing in the United States, beginning with Anglo-Saxon and Norman institutions in England and following the progression through American colonial history, the establishment of early federal agencies, and the professionalization of law enforcement in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Drawing on a range of scholarly sources, the paper examines how foundational English concepts — such as the tithing system, the frankpledge, the sheriff, and the King's Peace — were imported and adapted into American practice. It also surveys the emergence of key federal agencies, the contributions of reformers such as August Vollmer, and the ongoing tension between centralized and decentralized models of policing in a constitutional democracy.
- Introduction to Policing in Democratic Societies: Core purposes of policing and paper's scope
- English Roots of American Policing: Tithing system, frankpledge, and sheriff origins
- Colonial America and Early Legal Foundations: Magna Carta, colonial codes, and due process
- Development of American Police Forces, 1776–1900: Key milestones from U.S. Marshals to NYPD uniforms
- Professionalization and Reform in the Twentieth Century: August Vollmer, education reform, and labor unrest
- Federal Law Enforcement Agencies: FBI, Secret Service, Marshals, and postal investigators
- Conclusion: Evolution of American Criminal Justice: Ongoing evolution between centralized and local policing
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper grounds its argument in a clear chronological framework, moving from Anglo-Saxon England through to twentieth-century American federal agencies without losing the reader's sense of progression.
- It uses direct quotations from primary and secondary sources — including colonial codes, court decisions, and timeline entries — to substantiate historical claims rather than relying solely on paraphrase.
- The paper maintains a consistent analytical thread: that American policing is both a product of English inheritance and a distinctly decentralized adaptation shaped by constitutional values and regional needs.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates effective use of documentary evidence and secondary historiography in tandem. By weaving together legislative texts (the Leges Henrici Primi, the Magna Carta, colonial codes) with scholarly commentary (Hirschel and Wakefield, Vila and Morris, Ward), it models how historians build arguments from layered sources rather than from a single authority.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a statement of purpose and a definition of policing's core functions, then moves chronologically through English origins, colonial American legal foundations, the timeline of early American police forces, the professionalization era, and federal agency development. It closes with a brief evaluative conclusion. This linear-historical structure is appropriate for a survey paper at the undergraduate level and allows readers to follow institutional change across time without confusion.
Introduction to Policing in Democratic Societies
It is undeniable that criminal justice and police activities are integral parts of every relatively peaceful nation in the world. Without the actions and standards set forth by the agencies that "protect and serve," many wrongs would go not only unpunished but possibly unnoticed as well.
The basic purposes of policing in democratic societies are: (1) to prevent and investigate crimes; (2) to apprehend offenders; (3) to help ensure domestic peace and tranquility; and (4) to enforce and support the laws — especially the criminal laws — of the society of which the police are a part (Schmalleger, Chapter 5 Summary).
Throughout the developmental history of modern policing and criminal justice there have been many changes: changes in focus and standard, changes in the nature of crime, and changes in the concept of justice itself. The very term professionalism has completely evolved across the board, more so in the policing industry than almost anywhere else. A historical perspective on the field of criminal justice and policing in America will assist any scholar interested in the state of police work today.
English Roots of American Policing
The American policing system is largely associated, historically, with our British forebears. Much of its policy and standards are historically grounded in the old traditions of English law enforcement. Although not as decentralized as in the United States, the English system gave impetus for the emergence of policing systems in the United States, and a detailed examination of its organization, structure, and functions is required for a true understanding of how modern policing has developed in both England and the United States (Hirschel and Wakefield 68).
The historical timelines of the two systems run parallel in their development, particularly after the legitimation of American institutions began in the late nineteenth century. Understanding the standards and history of the English system helps illuminate the importation of practices associated with the close relationship between the two countries' policing institutions as they evolved into what they are today.
With the old English institution of the "tithing man" comes the first demonstration of organized police work. The origins of these arrangements are to be found in the tribal customs and laws of the early Danish and Saxon invaders (Reith, 1952a; Lee, 1971; Critchley, 1967; Smith, 1985). The earliest references to some form of policing official are to a "tithingman" who was responsible for collecting fines levied on the people in his tithing (Hirschel and Wakefield 69). The dependence of officials and government agents upon the common man to police himself through the representation of collectives can be seen clearly in this institution.
All males by the age of twelve had to be brought into a tithing — a group of ten men. These groups were then organized into a collection of ten tithings, called a "hundred." The individual assigned responsibility for the hundred was called a "hundred man." Since the Anglo-Saxons had divided the realm into shires, the hundred man was obliged to report to the shire reeve, who was the overseer for the ruler (Hirschel and Wakefield 69).
It is from this collective institution that we receive the name for one of the earliest forms of overseer of a policing collective — the sheriff. While in charge of order for the shire, the sheriff (as he came to be known) had responsibility not only for punishment for failure to pay fines, but also for other "breaches of the peace." The men in a tithing were mutually responsible for each other's behavior; if any one man committed a wrong, the rest were held liable. This laid one of the foundations of a kinship-style policing system. After the Norman Conquest of 1066, the tithings evolved into the frankpledge system, which Critchley (1967:3) called "the most important police institution in the Middle Ages" (Hirschel and Wakefield 69).
It is from these institutions that we receive the standards for militia police, as well as the idea of keeping the "King's Peace" — a term in which "King" represents not only the ruler or top liege lord, but the king as an embodiment of the state itself.
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