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Criminal Justice Subsystems

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“The criminal justice process involves all the agencies and procedures set up to manage both crime and those accused of violating the criminal law” (Hendrix & Inciardi, 2013, p. 99). The criminal justice system includes three major sub-systems; law enforcement, the courts, and the correctional system. Each of these sub-systems plays its own special role in ensuring the efficiency of the criminal justice system. “The authorities that exist have been established by God” (Romans 13:1, NIV) in order to punish us for evil doing (Fischer, 2015). Law enforcement officials makes initial contact with the accused. These individuals make are there to investigate crimes that have taken place and maintain safety to the general public. The next group of individuals to come in contact with the accused are the courts. The role of the courts is to uphold the law and ensure justice is being served while protecting our natural rights. Once an individual is deemed “guilty” by the courts and are to serve their sentence they then come in contact with the correctional system. The correctional system is there to protect innocent citizens while ensuring that those who are guilty of crimes are properly punished. Members of my immediate family are a part of two of these sub-systems which is really what peaked my interest in criminal justice initially. My grandmother has been a corrections officer for a number of years in Lenoir County, NC and her husband has been a police officer in several counties in North Carolina as well. Growing up I would always ask them tons of questions about what they did at work therefore I have always had a general idea of exactly what went on in each sub-system except for the process through the courts. My assumption of went on during court proceedings has completely changed throughout the course. Initially, I had assumed that there were only two courts; civil

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