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Chapter 1
Crime and Justice
in the US
Crime in the United States
• Crime is a top concern of the American
public.
• Crimes presented by the media are usually
more sensational than the crimes routinely
committed.
Crime in the United States
Most police calls involve responding to
complaints of disturbances:
• Domestic quarrels
• Neighbor squabbles
• Gang altercations
• Loud music
Criminal Justice:
An Institution of Social Control
There are a variety of responses to crime in
the United States, from punishment to
prevention.
Criminal Justice:
An Institution of Social Control
Criminal justice is an institution of social
control, as are:
–
–
–
–
–
The family
Schools
Organized religion
The media
The law
institution of social control
An organization that persuades people, through subtle
and not-so-subtle means, to abide by the dominant
values of society.
Criminal Justice:
An Institution of Social Control
Criminal justice differs because:
– It is concerned only with behavior that
is actually criminal.
– It is society’s “last line of defense.”
Values in Criminal Justice
Crime control model
Most important function of criminal justice system is
to punish and repress criminal conduct
Law enforcement must control criminal activity
Controlling crime is at least difficult, and probably
impossible
Assumes absolute efficiency in crime control is
achieved only if power of state is absolute
Examples of this approach: airport searches, hidden
video cameras, officers searching your valuables or
back pack in subway.
Values in Criminal Justice Cont.
Due Process Model
Protect rights of accused through legal
constraints on police, courts and
corrections
It should be difficult to prove guilt
Criminal Justice:
The System
Criminal justice in the United States is
administered by a loose confederation of more
than 50,000 agencies of federal, state, and
local governments.
• The police
• The courts =
• Corrections
The criminal
justice system
Criminal Justice:
The System
The criminal justice system operates
differently in some jurisdictions, but there
are also similarities.
jurisdictions
A politically defined geographical area.
Police
The criminal justice response to crime begins
when a crime is reported to the police, or
when the police discover a crime has been
committed.
Arrest Warrant
On rare occasions, police may obtain an
arrest warrant from a lower-court judge
before making an arrest.
arrest warrant
A written order directing law enforcement officers to
arrest a person.
Courts
• After a suspect has been arrested and
booked, a prosecutor reviews the facts of
the case and decides whether to charge the
suspect with a crime.
• If no charges are filed, the suspect must be
released.
Pretrial Stages
About 90 percent of criminal defendants plead
guilty to the charges against them, in an
arrangement called plea bargaining.
plea bargaining
The practice whereby a specific sentence is imposed
if the accused pleads guilty to an agreed-upon charge
or charges instead of going to trial.
Trial
10 percent of criminal cases go to trial.
5 percent of criminal cases are decided in a bench
trial.
bench trial
A trial before a judge, without a jury.
Trial
• If the defendant is
found guilty as
charged
• The judge (and
sometimes the jury)
begins to consider a
sentence.
If the defendant is found
not guilty
The defendant is released.
Corrections
Currently, five types of punishment are used
in the United States:
–Fines
–Probation
–Intermediate punishments
–Imprisonment
–Death
Judges must impose sentences according to statutory
guidelines.
Corrections
Defendants can appeal their convictions either on
legal or constitutional grounds.
Legal Grounds
Constitutional Grounds
• Defects in jury selection
• Improper admission of
evidence at trial
• Mistaken interpretations
of law
• Illegal search and seizure
• Improper questioning by
police
• Incompetent assistance
from counsel
Next! Some Facts about the
United States Criminal Justice
System…
The Facts
The United States has the highest reported incarceration rate in the
world. While the United States currently incarcerates 750 inmates per
100,000 persons, the world average rate is 166 per 100,000 persons. Russia,
the country with the second highest incarceration rate, imprisons 628 per
100,000 persons. Compared to its democratic, advanced market economy
counterparts, the United States has more people in prison by several orders of
magnitude. Although crime rates have decreased since 1990, the rate of
imprisonment has continued to increase.
The U.S. prison system has enormous economic costs associated with
prison construction and operation, productivity losses, and wage
effects. In 2006, states spent an estimated $2 billion on prison construction,
three times the amount they were spending fifteen years earlier. The
combined expenditures of local governments, state governments, and the
federal government for law enforcement and corrections total over $200
billion annually. In addition to these costs, the incarceration rate has
significant costs associated with the productivity of both prisoners and exoffenders. The economic output of prisoners is mostly lost to society while they
are imprisoned. Negative productivity effects continue after release. This
wage penalty grows with time, as previous imprisonment can reduce the wage
growth of young men by some 30 percent.
More facts…
The Prison Population has grown by more
than 370% since 1970.
Between 1990-1999 245 Jails and prisons
were built in rural and small town
communities, with a new one opening
somewhere every 15 days.
There are more prisons in America than WalMart's. There are more prisoners in America
today than farmers.
Some more even…
The prison system has a disproportionate impact on
minority communities. African Americans, who are 12.4
percent of the population, are more than half of all prison
inmates, compared to one-third twenty years ago. Although
African-Americans constitute 14 percent of regular drug users,
they are 37 percent of those arrested for drug offenses, and 56
percent of persons in state prisons for drug crimes.
 Black males have a 32% chance of serving time in prison
at some point in their lives; Hispanic males have a 17%
chance; white males have a 6% chance.
 One in eight (12%) black males aged 25-29 was in prison
or jail in 2005 as were 1 in 26 (3.9%) Hispanic males and
1 in 59 (1.7%) white males in the same age group.
2004
Policy….
Much of the growth in the prison population is
due to changing policy, not increased crime.
Many criminal justice experts have found that the
increase in the incarceration rate is the product of
changes in penal policy and practice, not changes in
crime rates.
Changes in sentencing, both in terms of time served
and the range of offenses meriting incarceration,
underlie the growth in the prison population.
And some more…
The composition of prison admissions has increasingly
shifted toward less serious offenses, characterized by parole
violations and drug offenses. According to one study, in 2005,
four out of five drug arrests were for possession while one out of five
were for drug sales. The crime history for three-quarters of drug
offenders in state prisons involved non-violent or drug offenses.
Prisons are housing many of the nation’s mentally ill. The
number of mentally ill in prison is nearly five times the number in
inpatient mental hospitals. Large numbers of mentally ill inmates, as
well as inmates with HIV, tuberculosis, and hepatitis also raise
serious questions regarding the costs and distribution of health care
resources.
America faces an epic problem of re-entry. The number of exoffenders reentering their communities from state and federal prisons
increased fourfold in the past two decades. On average, however,
two out of every three released prisoners will be rearrested and one
in two will return to prison within three years of release.
Source: http://webb.senate.gov/pdf/prisonstwopager.html