Why Do We Need a Criminal Justice System

CCJ11

Assessment 1 ‘Why do we need a criminal justice system?’

Bettina Gear

Griffith University ID: S2815047

Convenor/ Tutor: Simon Little 

Why do we need a criminal justice system?

Bettina Gear

Griffith University

Introduction

From as early as the 1800s, there has been a criminal justice system present in Australia. It was known as the “Charter of justice, and it established colonial courts with civil and criminal jurisdiction” (Shaw, 2005).

As the world evolved technologically, so too did the crime. This required the criminal justice system to evolve in order to deal with the more sophisticated crimes. There are three main components to the present day criminal justice system. Firstly there are the police. It is the duties of the police to ensure public safety and maintain order, among others. Secondly are the courts, which sentences criminals based on evidence gathered by the police and law-yers. And thirdly are correctional institutions, which detain or rehabilitate criminals (Bryett, Craswell, Harrison, Shaw, 1993a). Although each component operates as a separate entity, they are linked together by their ultimate goal; a reduction in crime (Bryett et al., 1993b). It is important to understand how these components work, in order to understand why they are so necessary. They will now be explained.

Discussion

Firstly, some of the many duties of the police include the “detection and prevention of crime, maintainence of public order and provision of emergency assistance” (Prenzler & Sarre, 2009a). In order to deal with their numerous tasks, the police are also broken up into three main components. First are the patrol officers who respond to calls for emergencies and general assistance, preserve crime scenes and make arrests when there is evidence of a crime. Second are the detectives who investigate crimes and gather evidence for the prosecutors, and lastly are the specialist squads which provide a different range of services such as bomb squads, traffic control, dog squads and drug squads (Prenzler & Sarre, 2009a).

The police also have tasks that are not directly related to crime, such as maintaining order and resolving conflict to ensure that no offence is committed in the first place, for example, monitoring groups at large events such as parades, sporting matches and protests. The objective in these situations is to “control and circumscribe public behaviour” (White & Perrone, 2010).

The police are sometimes referred to as the “gatekeepers of the criminal justice system” (Prenzler