...PROJECT 2 Concept Paper: Discretion Background: Discretion is the exercising of choice. Usually discretion involves a conscious, purposeful decision to disregard a directive, protocol, or normative behavior in favor of some alternative recourse deemed to be more appropriate to the current circumstance or condition. The exercise of discretion is fraught with risk, however. Deviation from direction may be construed as disrespect, disobedience, or worse. But a failure to identify the appropriate application of discretion may brand the leader as insensitive, unrealistic, or a martinet. The various elements and characters in the criminal justice system are replete with the opportunity (and the necessity) for the exercise of discretion, none more so than the law enforcement function. The role of the police administrator is doubly challenging, as he or she must determine how best to use discretion as well as encourage or dissuade discretion by subordinate members of the agency. Project Assignment: You will submit a concept paper describing two discretionary situations for a police chief. The situations may focus on either operational issues (e.g., uniform patrol deployment, criminal investigation/arrest, traffic control, crime prevention, etc.) or administrative issues (e.g., disciplinary action, hiring, training, budget/procurement, public information, etc.). The exercise of discretion in one situation may be appropriate while being inappropriate in another. For each situation...
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...Organizational Effectiveness Rita Goforth March 10, 2014 CJA/474 Professor Mathew Workman Introduction Organizational effectiveness can mean many things for different organizations, from making sales to managing employees and even time and data management. Within the criminal justice organization it is much more important than just making sure the criminal justice agency is merely operating properly. Achieving and maintaining efficient productivity, performance values, and efficiency are crucial in order for any organization to be successful (Mihalicz, 2012). Applying the theories of organizational effectiveness to the management aspect of criminal justice organizations and personnel will help supervisors and administrators to be truly effective in operating and managing a criminal justice entity. Prioritizing, obtaining constructive feedback, and keeping your focus on specific tasks at hand are all important tools to successfully and effectively manage a criminal justice entity. Define Organizational Effectiveness Organizational effectiveness is the concept of how effective an organization is in completing and achieving the greatest outcomes within the organization that will produce the best results, according to Dwight Milhalicz 2012. He believes that the short term areas of organizational effectiveness are just as important as the sustainability, concerns for others, and the corporate culture of the organization (Milhalicz 2012). Strong management and...
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... be considered a sufficient basis for dening particular conduct as criminal? I think by itself morality should not be used as a basis because the definition of morality varies greatly by person and location. What is moral behavior to one person, could also be non-moral behavior for another. 2. What are the chief distinctions between the civil law and the criminal law? Why Do criminal and civil law sometimes overlap? Whether a tort or a crime was committed. One could punch another in the face and commit the crime of battery, thus being criminally prosecuted and or fined or jailed. At the same time the victim can sue for medical bills, and pain and suffering as compensation. 3. To what extent is the English common law significant in contemporary American criminal law? English common law is the basis for American criminal law, it was built off of it. It’s a statutory system. 4. What is the essential difference between substantive criminal law and procedural criminal law? Give examples of each. Substantive laws define crimes and outline their penalties. An example would be possession of heroin. Procedural laws deal with enforcement of substantive law, determination of guilt, and punishment of the guilty. An example is search and seizure to obtain that evidence. 5. What means of punishment for criminal offenses exist in your state? Is capital punishment available for persons convicted of first-degree murder? Which punishments, if any, do you think are most effective in controlling crime? Punishments in Michigan...
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...PROJECT 2 Concept Paper: Discretion Background: Discretion is the exercising of choice. Usually discretion involves a conscious, purposeful decision to disregard a directive, protocol, or normative behavior in favor of some alternative recourse deemed to be more appropriate to the current circumstance or condition. The exercise of discretion is fraught with risk, however. Deviation from direction may be construed as disrespect, disobedience, or worse. But a failure to identify the appropriate application of discretion may brand the leader as insensitive, unrealistic, or a martinet. The various elements and characters in the criminal justice system are replete with the opportunity (and the necessity) for the exercise of discretion, none more so than the law enforcement function. The role of the police administrator is doubly challenging, as he or she must determine how best to use discretion as well as encourage or dissuade discretion by subordinate members of the agency. Project Assignment: You will submit a concept paper describing two discretionary situations for a police chief. The situations may focus on either operational issues (e.g., uniform patrol deployment, criminal investigation/arrest, traffic control, crime prevention, etc.) or administrative issues (e.g., disciplinary action, hiring, training, budget/procurement, public information, etc.). The exercise of discretion in one situation may be appropriate while being inappropriate in another. For each situation...
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... According to Lynch, (2008), racial discrimination in the criminal justice is said to exist when a part of ethnic or racial group within the control system is greater than the proportion of such groups in the general population. Unlawful racial disparity results from dissimilar handling of similar people by virtue of race. This may be attributed to overt trial basis or effect of factors that are indirectly linked to race. In some instances discrimination results from un-guarded, individual or institutional level decisions that are made based on race (Lynch2008). Context of the Problem According to statistics, the population of United States is made up of 13% Black population. Despite this as of 2009 blacks made up 28.3 percent of all those sentenced to life imprisonment 56.4 percent of whom were serving life without parole. Despite similar rates of drug use, Blacks are incarcerated on drug charges at a rate ten times greater than whites. Only 12% of people who use the drug are blacks, but Blacks constitute 38 % of those arrested for drug crimes and 59 % of those in state prison for drug crimes. Although both consume equivalent proportions of marijuana, Blacks are 3.73 times more likely to be arrested for being in possession of marijuana. In some counties, Blacks are 10, 15, even 30 times more likely to be arrested (Stuntz, 2011). Sentencing imposed on black males in the federal system is nearly 20% more than that imposed on their white counterparts...
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...Author Bio Gemma Halliday is a teaching assistant in the School of Law Enforcement and Justice Administration at Western Illinois University, where she has commenced study on a Master of Science in Kinesiology and exercise science. She holds a Bachelor of Social Science (Criminology) from Bond University Australia, where she was awarded undergraduate outstanding academic achievement. She is a recent graduate of Western Illinois University with a Master of Arts in Law Enforcement and Justice Administration, and was made a member of both Phi Kappa Phi and Golden Key International Honor Societies. Ms. Halliday has worked with and studied criminal justice issues in Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Her current research interests include transnational sex and drug trafficking, and police fitness testing and standards. LEJA 518 - Issues paper: Police discretion. Gemma L. Halliday Western Illinois University “Enforcing the law without fear or favor” (Goldstein, 1963, p. 141). The very nature of police work is extremely complex in today’s society. Police officers play an important role comprising of many different tasks concerning; actually enforcing the criminal law, performing order maintenance and other miscellaneous services. It is through these duties and services that police are constantly intersecting and interacting with the community on a daily basis. Thus,...
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...Police Discretion Case Analysis Albeiro E. Florez Law Enforcement Administration CCJS 340 Due by 13 October 2013 Author Note Albeiro E. Florez, Department of Criminal Justice, University of Maryland University College. This report is a response to Professor Jeffrey B. Bumgarner’s project 2 directives. Correspondence concerning this report should be addressed to Albeiro E. Florez, Department of Criminal Justice, University of Maryland University College, Adelphi eCampus, Adelphi, MD 20783. Contact: florezalbeiro87@gmail.com Police Discretion Case Analysis People make decisions on a daily basis to decide what we should do in any given situation. Having the knowledge to differentiate between what is appropriate or inappropriate is what gives us the freedom to make this decision with the correct judgment. In law enforcement, sworn officers are taught to face any situation by employing good judgment and making the best decisions by themselves or with little to no supervision. This is what we know as police discretion (The Rynard Law Firm, 2007). The Merriam-Webster dictionary describes discretion as “the quality of being careful about what you do and say so that people will not be embarrassed or offended” (Merriam-Webster, 2013). Although systematic routines and protocols need to be followed by officers to ensure they abide by the law as well as to enforce it, often circumstances will show up and force officers to make a decision based on what they feel is right...
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...Eight Steps to Effectively Controlling Drug Abuse And the Drug Market The United States has been fighting a losing war against drugs for decades. Budgets have increased dramatically over the last two decades and drug-related incarcerations consistently reach new records yet drug problems worsen: adolescent drug abuse is increasing, overdose deaths are at record levels, heroin and cocaine are cheaper, more pure and more available than ever before, and health problems related to drugs, especially the spread of HIV/AIDS are mounting. Meanwhile an expensive and ineffective international counter narcotics policy entails growing human rights and environmental costs. Drug problems can be reduced at less cost if we change course and adopt strategies that work. At a time when the federal budget is limited programs need to be re-evaluated. Funding needs to go to programs that work. We need new ideas to save lives – we can't afford to continue to be wrong. Below are eight steps that are effective methods of controlling drugs and reducing drug-related harms. (To download a copy of this as a PDF, click here.) 1. Shift Resources Into Programs That Work 2. Make Treatment Available on Request Like Any Other Health Service 3. Prevent Drug Abuse By Investing in American Youth and Providing Them with Accurate Information 4. Focus Law Enforcement Resources on the Most Dangerous and Violent Criminals 5. International Drug Control Efforts Should Be Demilitarized and Focus on Economic Development...
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...into the Juvenile Justice System in any number of ways. Whether the youth is abandoned, abused, or neglected, or whether the youth is considered a delinquent or a status offender, authorities attempt to understand the youth’s situation. Authorities also attempt to avoid causing further harm, and determine the most appropriate placement possible. For all but most aggressive youth, the focus is typically on care, treatment, and safety issues rather than on punishment. There are four major processes in the Juvenile Justice Process system. The graphic below illustrates the processes and activities. Intake | Adjudication | Disposition | Post-Adjudication | * Detention Hearing | * Adjudication Hearing | * Disposition Hearing | * Appeal | * Transfer Procedures | * Speed and Privacy | * Predisposition Report | * Placement Review | * Waiver Hearings | * Detention Hearing | * Sentencing Alternatives | * Complaints | Before the modern era, children who committed crimes in the Western world received no preferential treatment because of their youth. They were adjudicated and punished alongside adults, and a number of recorded cases have come down through history of children as young as six being hung or burned at the stake. Children were also imprisoned alongside adults; no segregated juvenile facilities existed. The Juvenile Justice system is very different from the adult criminal justice system. The juvenile justice system is directed toward...
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...after an arrest, the officer may be permitted to use deadly force, even if the original offense for which the arrest was made was a misdemeanor. Until recently, most jurisdictions permitted officers to fire at a fleeing felon, but these policies have changed. Today federal and many local and state law enforcement agencies prohibit use of deadly force unless human life is threatened. Even when a statute permits police to fire a deadly weapon at a fleeing felon, the courts may rule that under some circumstances this action violates the felon’s constitutional rights. According to Weisburd, and Williams, Greenspan, and Hamilton, and Bryant (2001). “American society has long entrusted to its police the authority to use force in the pursuit of justice, law, and order. This authority is often glorified in books, television, and movies, where the police are seen as constantly responding to violent felons with equally violent reactions. But the reality of police use of force is much less dramatic and the boundaries of legitimate police use of force are much more constrained than defined in popular culture” (Weisburd, and Williams, Greenspan, & Hamilton, and Bryant, 2001). When we think of issues of police brutality and use of force society reflects on the beating of Rodney King, by the Los Angeles police department. This particular...
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...The punishment ensures that the offender is adequately punished for the offences they are being accused of. The implementation of punishment is to prevent the criminal behavior by deterring the offender from committing similar offences. Usually punishment applies to the offender per the crime that has been committed (Hamilton, 2014). If the accused is a repeat offender of federal crime then they go to a federal prison, for almost every other crime the offender goes to a state prison. A prison-- whether it be state or federal, main objectives is preventing and controlling criminal behavior and acts. There are seven usual punishments depending on the judge’s and/or the jury’s decision at trial (Hamilton, 2014). The minimum sentences like Intensive supervision such as: parole, house arrest, probation, etc., Rehabilitation such as: counseling, drug rehab, restitution, community service, fines, etc. On the contrary, more sever punishments include: capital punishment and incarceration. This type of sentencing is imposed as a criminal sanction by a judicial authority. Mandatory minimums, such as: the three strikes laws and sentencing guidelines require specific sentences. It is done with little consideration of personal factors as it pertains to offenders, their crimes, and victims, because the state and federal court systems have many similar and different objectives of how punishment is administered. There is a correlation between determinate and indeterminate sentencing in the...
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...juvenile justice system. In an age where the phrase juvenile super predator is often heard in the federal congress and state legislatures, the deep-end adolescent offender is a particular threat to public acceptance of the mission and objectives of juvenile justice. It is little wonder, then, that legislation concerning transfer is a near-universal feature of the politics of juvenile justice. The traditionally stated purpose of judicial wavier is to permit individualization of the decision whether a particular person is capable of being rehabilitated in the juvenile system-the amenability decision Fagan & Zimring (2000). In addition, the judicial wavier procedure provides a safety value for the juvenile system to exclude children who commit offenses that are believed to require the imposition of sanction that are beyond the capacity of the juvenile system to provide. Some form of judicial wavier or a substitute safety value is necessary in order to preserve the juvenile justice system politically within the context of modern penological expectations. It is difficult empirically to evaluate the contemporary role of judicial wavier in the overall context of procedures intended to sort out which cases should be filed and processed in the juvenile system and which in the criminal Fagan & Zimring (2000). While the general accounting office estimated that in most prosecutorial offices, judicial wavier accounted for a higher percentage of juveniles arriving in criminal court than...
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...of interest. Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Licensed to: CengageBrain User Criminal Justice in Action, 7th Edition Larry K. Gaines and Roger LeRoy Miller © 2013 Wadsworth, Cengage Learning ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work covered by the copyright herein may be reproduced, transmitted, stored or used in any form or by any means graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including but not limited to photocopying, recording, scanning, digitizing, taping, Web distribution, information networks, or information storage and retrieval systems, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For product information and technology assistance, contact us at Cengage Learning Customer & Sales...
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...RACISM IN THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM By Nichole Griffith Advised by Professor Chris Bickel SOC 461, 462 Senior Project Social Sciences Department College of Liberal Arts CALIFORNIA POLYTECHNIC STATE UNIVERSITY June, 2012 © 2012 Nichole Griffith Table of Contents Research Proposal ............................................................................................................................1 Annotated Bibliography ...................................................................................................................2 Outline..............................................................................................................................................6 Introduction ......................................................................................................................................7 Research ..........................................................................................................................................8 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................29 Bibliography .................................................................................................................................31 Research Proposal The goal of my research is to expose the racism in the criminal justice system that is so hidden. I want to show how racism contributes to the huge number...
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...The criminal justice system is constantly changing and will always have flaws because people will always have opinions and biases. There will always be disparity among sentences depending on the seriousness of the offense. The criminal justice system will never be perfect, but it will continue to evolve over time. Works Cited -ENGEN, RODNEY L., and RANDY R. GAINEY. "modeling the Effects of Legally Relevant and Extralegal Factors Under Sentencing Guidelines: The Rules Have Changed." Criminology, vol. 38, no. 4, 2000, pp. 1207-1230. -Gazal-Ayal, Oren, Hagit Turjeman, and Gideon Fishman. "do Sentencing Guidelines Increase Prosecutorial Power? an Empirical Study." Law and Contemporary Problems, vol. 76, no. 1, 2013, pp. 131. -Kempf-Leonard, Kimberly, and Lisa L. Sample. "Have Federal Sentencing Guidelines Reduced Severity? an Examination of One Circuit." Journal of Quantitative Criminology, vol. 17, no. 2, 2001, pp. 111-144. -Koons-Witt, Barbara A. "Equal Justice Versus Individualized Justice: Discretion and the Current State of Sentencing Guidelines." Criminology & Public Policy, vol. 8, no. 2, 2009, pp. 279-283. -Logue, Melissa A. "Downward Departures in US Federal Courts: Do Family Ties, Sex, and race/ethnicity Matter?" Ethnic and Racial Studies...
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