Criminal Justice In USA Essay Research Paper

Criminal Justice In USA Essay, Research Paper

There are many aspects of law enforcement that are not clear. One of the few certainties in policing is that there is about 17,000 police departments in the U.S.A .

The exact numbers are not important to most researchers. There most likely isn.t a survey on how many of these departments use 911 operators or use handcuffs, because our findings would usually be accurate. Other factors , may be more difficult to measure, one of these factors is community policing. If I where to ask how many departments practice community policing, how accurate would my results be. My research shows that around fifty to seventy percent of U.S. police departments are practicing community policing. I would say that these studies are saying that community policing is thriving. Community policing is defined by Trojanowicz as .a philosophy of full service personalized policing where the same officer patrols and works in the same area on a permanent basis, from a decentralized place, working in a proactive partnership with citizens to identify and solve problems. Besides the great efforts of our criminal justice system, American citizens remain concerned about crime . Others fear that the criminal justice system may fail under the large amount of violent crime. The growing community policing movement gives me a chance to explain why we need social control. In this paper first I will tell you some statistics why we need community policing, where it starts, why our society needs to trust our law enforcement, characteristics that need to change, and where the funds will come from to support community policing.

How can I create a concept for social control. First we must recognize that our traditional criminal justice system can be made more effective. By creating social control we must have social regulation. The police must act as gatekeepers of the justice process. As gatekeepers, police tactics, and techniques play an a important role in the effectiveness of the criminal justice system. American society is full of crime. For people living in the inner city dealing with crime is a way of life. Unfortunately even high crime rates represent only a portion of the problem. The fear is focused in the inner city and effects every social class. The people themselves in different social classes have different views towards the criminal justice system. There is to much social distance between the police and society. A big part of the population doesn.t feel comfortable discussing their problems with the police. They believe that the police are not interested in there problems. Citizens that look down upon our criminal justice system have some points to there criticism. The more the criminal justice deals with an offender, the more likely there will be future encounters. The probability of subsequent arrest after a persons first arrest is 53% after a 2nd arrest 62% and after three arrest 71%. These cost are hefty, and I think community policing is the key to put a pause on the criminal justice budget. Our budget for inmates in corrections a year alone is 50 billion a year. We have the highest incarceration rate among the developed western nation. .An estimated 1 in every230 men and 1 in every 2,321 women are siting in a united states jail on June of 1991. Police need to address a new tactic like community policing, and a main factor to start with would be simple complaints by citizens.

The police could better utilize there time and resources by placing more efforts on problem solving citizen complaints. A Minneapolis research has confirmed that 10% of addresses calling the police generated over 60% of the total calls for service during a given year.

.A study in Kansas city on domestic homicides showed that 8 out of 10 cases the police had been called to the incident at once least once before, and in half of the cases they had been called five or more times.. Social control can start the process by a citizen complaint, because this would be a good opportunity to practice community policing. Police ignoring complaints could be contributing to the circle of growing violence in our society. My present concept of the criminal justice system is ineffective for solving problems, if individual agencies remain uncommitted , unprepared, neither having skill nor resources to address small citizen complaints. We must start community policing by understanding what the problem is, and gain a better understanding of social control. Understanding social control is one factor but realizing that our society has changed is another factor. One of the changes is trust in our law enforcement. To get the community involved we must take the fear from our citizens.

The level of crime and seriousness of crime in our country has changed. Police strategies that worked in the past won.t be as effective in the future. In the United States society doesn.t feel the sense of safety , and well being that should be there. I think it has to do with family life also, family in the United States have changed a lot. There are single working parents not spending enough time with their children , or getting children into enough activities, like church, school ect. Communities need to make a commitment to stopping crime by getting involved. Not only neighborhoods but businesses , and everyone in the community. Community policing will take time to evolve to it.s full su