Criminal Justice Trends

Criminal Justice Trends

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Criminal Justice Trends

Introduction

There are various disciplines that make up a criminal justice system. They include courts, correction facilities and law enforcement agencies. The court process in criminal justice go through several procedures like arrest, initial appearance before a court, bail, grand jury, preliminary hearing, trail, sentencing, and finally appealing if they are not satisfied with the ruling. There are roughly 17,000 courthouses that are operating in the United States. There are also different types of courts like federal courts, district courts, circuit courts, magistrate court, , trial courts, the appellate court and intermediate courts. Every case is unique in its own way since there could be cases like theft that involves children and such cases will be treated differently. Just like in any judicial system, the courts are given certain degree of freedom and constantly kept under check by a higher court. The past, present and future trends about courts will be discussed, as well as the impact on the budget of our court system on government and managerial issues in the future with regard to court systems (Schmalleger, F. 2012)

Past court trends of

The two court system which separates the state court and the federal court systems. In Roscoe Pound in 1906 started a discussion concerning court reform to the American Bar Association. From then to date, there has been a substantial change in the system but both the citizens and law enforcers still have a lot they need done since they are dissatisfied with the system. Many reforms have taken place in the 20th century. In the past, courts spent a lot of time trying to resolve a case but nowadays it is a little faster. Evidence of change (Maguire & Radosh, 2004).

Present court trends

There are a lot of changing and newer technologies being used in courts in modern days.. Law enforcement personnel have better communication equipment’s in cars, citizens can easily call 911 with their cell phones to report the crime, and much more. These technologies are much better now than they were years ago. With modern technologies, there are surveillance cameras on street corners, computers in the cars, stores, and many other places that were hard to monitor for security purposes. Surveillance equipment help in easily identifying suspects. In the modern world, law enforcers do not take a lot of time to get know the people in communities or people themselves in different communities do not have a chance to know law enforcers. The only way that law enforces gets to know someone is if a person gets into trouble in many times. That unfortunately isn’t the best way of fostering a good relationship between law enforcers and the people (Cole & Smith, 2008).

Courts in the modern world serve many functions in the society. Each case in a court nowadays is able to be determined by using a combination of many experts to help the judge in accurately determining the case. In the modern world, the mental health issues of criminals has become an issues for the courts. Young adults are committing crime from lack of spirituality and psychological illnesses. The persons who are considered severely mentally ill now have specific recommendations from a health expert that they must follow as by a judge in a court of law. This helps these kid of people to recover and not be punished for mistakes they never did with intent. (Schmalleger, F. 2012).

Future court trends

Courts will in future be required to respond a wider diversity of cultures. People have different languages and have different cultures and beliefs. This diversity will influence the court in several ways. United States is currently experiencing a burgeoning elderly population and all indications depict that there is a surging trend in this category as life constantly gets better. A grown population will place demands for their protection against disabilities brought about by age. The moving away from the traditional structure of the family is having a huge effect on society, and this will definitely influence the working of the courts. The range of family situations being accepted in our society has significantly changed in recent decades. The constantly changing of women’s role will ultimately influence courts in their decisions. It is expected that courts will adopt the policy of doing more with less in the future. There will be advanced integration and implementation of information and communication technologies in courts and justice system at large. Courts in the 21st century will place greater emphasis on finding alternative case handling methods (Maguire & Radosh, 2004).

As criminal justice system continue to come up with different ways of improving the policing to make communities feel safe, new and better technologies will play important roles in accomplishing this. From the 1900’s, Policing has come a long way and continuing planning for the future seems to be the only way for keeping the momentum leading towards the 2000s and beyond. Policing has see its highs and lows while serving the communities. Most of the time it appears that when a new technology presents itself it comes with its pros and cons. Fortunately the pros outweigh the cons. Starting when police officers leave their post in the streets and begin riding patrol cars to police the neighborhood. Surveillance cameras were installed to help in policing and gathering evidence (Maguire & Radosh, 2004).

Future Budgetary Impact

Just like any other government organization, the criminal justice system face severe problems and limitations in fulfilling their functions at a time when the government budget is tight and doesn’t get the much needed money to fully implement what they need to. Technological advancement has made the courts invest in training of employees to use the latest technology to catch up with criminals especially with cyber criminals that have emerged in the 21st century. Outside the court, people used to views the court differently than they do now. People have somehow changed their perspective and have more trust now to their justice system. People go there to seek justice and not mere compensation when they feel wronged or offended. The ever increasing population has placed a strain on the number of courts since time is needed to correctly evaluate each and every case to its fair conclusion. Courts time is of high value and precious so unnecessarily spending of court’s time will increase the financial burden on stakeholders. However, with the latest in the communication and technology sectors, courts are in a position to close their cases earlier than before thus saving the much needed precious time. Government is also spending a lot of funds in the criminal justice system as a whole. It is worth nothing that after the police and other security agencies, the courts system consume a lot of resources and thus should be in a position to deliver the best (Cole & Smith, 2008).

Managerial Impact in Future

Court system have integrated with many other essential law enforcement agencies and correction facilities to deliver on their duties. A judge is the most respectable and honorable person in any court system. The communication gap that used to occur in the past between the security agencies and personnel has slowly been reduced and future managerial will techniques and cooperation will need to be stronger between all the criminal justice systems so that judgements are delivered on time and in the most fair manner as possible . The power conflict that might occur in future will need to be dealt with by the judge in a court as he is the head and ‘belongs to him’. Other agencies will need to cooperate to swiftly manage the justice process in the future.. Managerial issues in the future will heavily depend on computers and computer systems to swiftly manage the processes and procedures so that justice can be delivered on time without wastage of time and delays (Neubauer & Fradella, 2011).

Conclusion

Court system in past years are unsatisfactory when looked at from many dimensions. Court systems in the present are much better though they need to be constantly updated with the changing world. This is why there are constant reforms. Diversity in the United States is constantly improving and present courts need to also change in line with the dynamics out there. The demographics and profiles of people are constantly changing and thus needs the court system to be in line with them. The changing needs of the society needs to in line with the courts too. Modern court system are facing a challenge of limited resources to effectively bring the necessary reforms but with the little available resources, they have managed to deliver the best. This also applies to the criminal justice system at large. As the population increases, the justice system needs to be allocated to the justice system as the amount of crime and criminal activities are expected to naturally increase with the increasing population. The judicial management in the future should be centralized so that it can easily be inferenced and court judgements delivered on time. The overall judicial system has improved when compared to the past. There is an even brighter future for justice for all (Schmalleger, F. 2012).

References

Cole, G. F., & Smith, C. E. (2008). Criminal Justice in America (5 ed.). CA: Thomson Wadsworth Publishing.

Maguire, B., & Radosh, P. F. (2004). The Past, Present and Future of American Criminal Justice. CA: Alta Mira Press.

Neubauer, D. W., & Fradella, H. F. (2011). America’s Courts and the Criminal Justice Systems (10 ed.). Belmont-CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Schmalleger, F. (2012). Criminology today: An integrative introduction. (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall..