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Over the past fifty years America has seen both declines and spikes in crime rates. During periods of social upheaval and economic downturns crime rates have tended to increase. The civil right movement for example, which lasted until 1968, was a period of social unrest. People of color were seeking change in the way they were being treated in society. Naturally with this movement there were peaceful protest, but still there was civil disobedience that propagated more violence, which in turn led to more people being arrested causing a spike in people who entered the criminal justice system. The central theme of the text criminal justice today: an introductory for the 21st century, is to explain law and the process of the legal system, which includes balancing the concern for individual right with the need for public order through the administration of criminal justice. The theme of this book is individual rights versus public order and the way they differ. The Differences between the individual rights perspective versus public order perspective is that the constitution and the bill of rights guarantee individuals certain rights such as freedom of speech. With individual right citizens are guaranteed freedom of speech. But there are limitations on what can be said or done by citizens. The public order perspective limits some of the thing citizens can say in certain situations. The public order perspective serves as a safeguard for maintaining social order, an example of how the public order prospective would limits what the bill of right declares a right; for example although we are guaranteed free speech you cannot not yelling bomb on a plane or shout fire crowded places, without there being some legal repercussion for the action if its not true.

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Justice as define in the text is the principle of fairness; and the ideal of moral equity; the ability to judge an individual(s) in the court of law with fairness and without prejudice. The aspects of justice discussed in this chapter include social justice, which is the concept that embraces all aspects of civilized life. Civil justice, a component of social justice, that concerns itself with fairness and in relationships between citizens, government agencies and business in private matters such as contracts and business dealings, hiring and equality of treatment. Criminal justice, which refers to the aspects of social justice that deal with violations of criminal law. Criminal law relates to social justice in the aspect that criminal justice cannot be implemented with social justice because the courts across the nation operate on the basic premise of social justice which is the belief that Americans have a basic understanding of what is right or wrong. The notions of criminal justice extend to the protection of the innocent and fair treatment of offenders and include the court system and correctional facilities. There are three main components of the criminal justice system and they include; the police, the court and corrections. All three components are interrelated because as a whole they make up the process of criminal justice system and how the system works. Problems can arise within components of the criminal justice system when specific agencies have agendas or goals that may lead to potential corruption and cause a conflict of interest. The stages of case processing include investigation and arrest, pretrial procedure, adjudication, sentencing and corrections. Investigations is when in the aftermath of a crime evidence is gathered and reconstruction of the crime takes place. During the investigation process and warrant may be issued for the apprehension of the suspect if they are not already in

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custody. Immediately after the arrest of an individual booking occurs where among other thing photographs and fingerprints are taken. Pretrial procedure includes the first appearance where the individual make an appearance before a magistrate or a judicial official within hours of being arrested and bail may be set. Nest during the pretrial process there is a pretrial hearing where it is determined whether there is enough evidence to continue with the justice process. It is at this point a judicial official will determine if there is enough probable cause to continue or if the case should be disposed of. Information and indictment usually come next and the prosecutor of the case file information with the court, a written formal accusation of crime(s) committed or a grand jury may be convened in some states. Arraignment is the last phase of the pretrial process and in this phase the accused individual stands before the court and hears the charges against them and either enters a plea of guilty or not guilty or no contest The last phase of pretrial procedure is adjudication. Under the U.S Constitution, the sixth amendment specifically, all criminals are guaranteed the right to a trial by jury. Even though most cases never go to trial because they are pleaded out by defendant, The U.S Supreme has ruled that the severity of crime can determine if a case goes to trial or not. After trial there is sentencing and corrections. Sentencing is the part of adjudication where a judge imposes some form of punishment, which can include, but is not limited to prison, fine, or a combination of both. Once a sentence has been imposed corrections begin. In the corrections stage a convicted person begins there sentence and serves time in a prison or a local correctional facility. Not all person convicted of crimes are sentenced to incarceration; some individuals may be sentenced to

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probation or community service. During probation or community service an offender sentence is suspended and they are monitored for compliance. If an offender fails to comply with the terms of their probation the original sentence can be reinstated and they can be sentence to a correctional facility to serve out the remainder of their sentence. The concept of due process was derived from the fifth amendment of the bill of rights. Due process was incorporated into the legal system to make sure that the government treated all the citizens fairly. Due process is the legal principles set in place to protect the right of citizens. Due process protects individuals from injustice specifically from the legal system. The role of research in criminal justice provides explorations into all aspects of the legal system. Research in criminal justice is a major element in the increasing professionalism of criminal justice, both as a career field and as a field of study. Evidence-based practice refers to crime-fighting strategies that have been scientifically tested and are based on social science research. Research in criminal justice provides support to local communities and aides in the prevention of crimes. Multiculturalism is defined as the existence within one society of diverse groups that maintain unique cultural identities while still frequently accepting and participating in the larger societys legal and political system. Social diversity includes specific characteristics such as race, religion, age disability that factors into society. Multiculturalism can present special challenges to the everyday criminal justice system; various groups can have diverse values, perspectives, and behavior characteristics and this can have a significant impact the criminal justice system.

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