Table Of ContentCrime and Justice in America
Crime and Justice
in America
An Introduction to
Criminal Justice
Joycelyn M. Pollock
Second Edition
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To Greg and Eric, as always . . .
Preface and Acknowledgments
Is there a need for yet another Introduction to Criminal Justice book? I think
there is and I hope this book meets that need. This textbook has been developed
in response to a perceived need for a shorter, less expensive, introductory text
for instructors who desire an alternative to the comprehensive textbooks that
are currently available. I have attempted to provide the “bare bones” of theory,
law, and organizational descriptions without going into too much detail in any
area. This second edition retains the same chapters and basic organization of
the first edition.
The most unique characteristic of this text, I believe, is the “In the State of…”
exercises that help the instructor adapt the text to a particular state. Too often,
it seems, students become confused when textbook descriptions do not match
their own state's criminal justice system. These exercises allow instructors to
have students keep a notebook of these completed exercises so they can have a
reference to understand the system in their own state.
Another characteristic of the book that sets it apart from some other textbooks
is the inclusion of women and minorities in each chapter, rather than relegating
relevant information to a single chapter. I believe this provides a more cohesive
treatment of the subject of minorities and women in the criminal justice
system and offers it in a way that is better utilized and understood than the
single-chapter method.
I have also attempted to provide a unifying theme of due process throughout
the book, and as it relates to each subsystem of the criminal justice system.
Since law is the bedrock of the system, it has been given a more prominent
emphasis here than perhaps in other textbooks. The concept of due process
is especially relevant to current discussions concerning the war on terrorism;
thus, I include a discussion of current issues in the final chapter. I have also
discussed the goals and responsibilities of local law enforcement in the war on
terrorism.
xiii
xiv Preface and Acknowledgments
In this second edition, I have updated all statistics and provided two new
heuristic elements: “Focus on Crime” boxes provide a “snapshot” of certain
types of crimes to help students understand these specific crimes. Another
addition is the “Breaking News” boxes, which have been provided to highlight
current news events that are especially relevant to discussions of crime and
justice.
I must thank Mickey Braswell for the idea and opportunity to create this book
and appreciate the opportunity to improve it in a second edition. He provided
the impetus and guidance for the development of the text and allowed me the
opportunity to create it. He read and offered guidance on early drafts of the
chapters and the book has benefited from his advice. I most sincerely thank him
for his vision, insights, and guidance along the way. It has been a real honor
to work and become friends with Mickey and Susan Braswell and everyone at
Anderson over the years, and I am extremely grateful for the friendship and
support that has come my way.
I want to thank the folks at Anderson/Elsevier for their assistance in the
production of this book. Elisabeth Ebben has, as always, improved the book
considerably with her ideas and skills. Sarah Binns at Elsevier has also been
instrumental in shepherding the text to completion.
I want to also thank those individuals who have communicated with me regard-
ing this text. Thanks to all of you who have emailed and/or spoken with me
at conferences about the content. I encourage any instructor using this book
to contact me with criticisms or suggestions for improvement. I welcome your
contribution: [email protected].
cHAPteR 1
Criminal Justice as Social Control
WHAt You need to KnoW contentS
n Television presents a highly artificial perspective of crime, criminals, and The Function
the criminal justice system. of Social
n Common law is the compilation of early decisions by magistrates in Control .................6
England. Common law is the basis of the legal system in the United States.
The American
n Felonies are usually serious crimes punishable by more than a year in Legal System .......8
prison and misdemeanors are less serious crimes punishable by up to a
Flowchart of
year in jail (in most states).
the System .........12
n Police power is the power to make laws. The federal government's ability
to create law is limited to the enumerated powers as stated in Article I of Costs of the
System ...............14
the Constitution. All other police power resides in the states.
n The “flowchart” of the criminal justice system starts with arrest and ends Mission and
with release. Certain basic steps are common to all states. Goals of the
System ...............14
n Expenditures for the criminal justice system have been increasing even
though crime has been on the decline since the mid-1990s. Ideologies in
n An ideology is a body of doctrines or beliefs that guide an individual or Crime and
Justice ................16
group. Two ideologies relevant to criminal justice issues are the crime
control and due process ideologies. Careers in
Criminal
Justice ................19
Conclusion .........20
Blood, bloated corpses, high-speed chases, true-blue detectives, and evil crimi-
nals who revel in their wickedness are the images of crime on television. They
are not reality. Criminal justice became one of the fastest-growing majors on
college campuses in the 1980s and 1990s. When the CSI shows first appeared
on television in 2000, a profession that had been arcane and “geeky” became
a hot new occupational interest. Forensic investigation majors have now been
created in many universities to tap the huge market of interested students,
Crime and Justice in America, Second Edition
3
© 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
4 cHAPteR 1 criminal Justice as Social control
many of whom may not realize that crime scene analysts typically have sci-
ence degrees and if you didn't enjoy your high school biology or chemistry
class, it may not be the profession for you. The definition of forensic science
is “science that serves the court”; in other words, forensic is an adjective that is
used to describe something as being related to the legal system. Some of the
applications of the term are shown in Box 1.1.
Box 1.1 WHAt ARe FoRenSicS?
Forensic is an adjective used to describe something as have used the word forensics, which has a second meaning
related to the legal system. A forensic pathologist is some- of “the art or study of debate.” This is because the root of the
one who conducts autopsies to determine cause of death; a word comes from the Latin word forensis, meaning “forum.”
forensic scientist uses scientific methods to answer ques- Legal cases were tried in front of a forum of citizens who
tions about crime; a forensic handwriting analyst is called decided guilt or innocence based on the skill of the orator
upon to testify in forgery or fraud cases, and so on. You might who defended the guilty, and thus the connection between
remember that your high school debate class also might the two uses of the word.
Before the CSI shows, the television series Law and Order introduced count-
less viewers to the criminal justice system via the perspective of the police and
the prosecutors. Many viewers today know most of what they know about
the criminal justice system through these and other television series. This is
not necessarily a new trend. In earlier decades, Adam 12, a series about two
LAPD officers, depicted them reciting the Miranda warning to arrestees almost
every week. Before long, we all knew that: “You have the right to remain silent.
If you give up that right, anything you say can and will be used against you
in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney, and if you cannot afford
one, one will be appointed for you.” Viewers may not have known where the
Miranda warnings came from, or when police needed to recite them, but they
remembered the warning in the same way they did advertising jingles for chew-
ing gum or coffee. Some officers ruefully admit that, in some ways, the most
realistic police show was Barney Miller, a comedy/drama about New York City
police detectives who dealt with a steady stream of strange and humorous vic-
tims and offenders, interspersed with mundane stories about the detectives'
personal lives.
Reality television offers viewers a supposedly realistic glimpse of the crimi-
nal justice system. From the first show Cops to today's 48 Hours Mystery,
American Justice, Dateline NBC, and the Forensic Files, these programs present an
edited version of reality. There is even a cable network called truTV (formerly
Courtroom Television Network) devoted to crime and justice programs. What
spurs our fascination for crime? Every decade of television has had its share
of crime drama shows. Some of these are displayed in Box 1.2. In fact, crime
dramas with either police officers or attorneys seem to be perennial favorites
Criminal Justice as Social Control 5
Box 1.2 televiSion cRime dRAmAS
1960s: Perry Mason, N.Y.P.D., Dragnet, Mannix, Felony One, NY Undercover, The Practice, Against the Law, Broken
Squad, Scales of Justice, Burke's Law, For the People Badges, Equal Justice, Scene of the Crime, Street Justice,
1970s: Adam 12, CHIPs, Barney Miller, Baretta, Columbo, Undercover, Bodies of Evidence, Third Watch, Cold Case
Hawaii Five-0, Mod Squad, Quincy, M.E., Starsky & Hutch, Squad, The Detectives, Walker, Texas Ranger, JAG, The
Streets of San Francisco, Police Woman, Serpico, The D.A., Wright Verdicts, The Thin Blue Line, The Sentinel, Public
The Guardians, Sword of Justice, The Blue Knight, McMillan Morals, American Justice, Real Stories of the Highway
and Wife, Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law, The Rookies, Patrol, Swift Justice
Police Story, McCloud, S.W.A.T. 2000s: Texas Justice, The Division, The District, CSI,
1980s: Cagney & Lacey, Hill Street Blues, Miami Vice, Night Crossing Jordan, The Guardian, Law & Order/Criminal Intent,
Court, In the Heat of the Night, L.A. Law, Matlock, McClain's UC: Undercover, Anatomy of a Scene, Just Cause, NCIS,
Law, Police Squad, Crime Story, Houston Knights, Mancuso, Without a Trace, CSI/Miami, The Shield, The Wire, Bones,
FBI, True Blue Criminal Minds, Cold Case, Boston Legal, Prison Break, CSI/
1990s: Law and Order, N.Y.P.D. Blue, Homicide: Life in New York, The Closer, Numbers, Shark, Vanished, Justice,
the Streets, The Commish, Profiler, High Incident, Murder Conviction, In Justice, Saving Grace, The Mentalist
among scriptwriters, along with medical dramas.
Perhaps these professions are chosen because
they are more likely to provide gripping tales of
life and death. It is difficult to squeeze nail-biting
drama out of a television show about accountants
or teachers, for instance.
It is important to remember, however, that these
television shows, even the so-called reality shows,
may color our perception of reality. For instance,
when you ask someone what they think of when
you say crime, they are probably going to say mur-
der or rape or some violent crime; not a relatively
Christopher Meloni portrays
low-dollar property crime, which, in reality, is the most common crime. If
Detective Elliot Stabler and
you ask who they think of when you say criminal, they may think of the mur- Mariska Hargitay portrays
derer or “gangbanger” portrayed on a popular television show, rather than the Detective Olivia Benson
legions of petty offenders who pass through our courts every day. These percep- in Law & Order: Special
tions have the power to influence our decision making and opinions about real Victims Unit. Photo: NBC/
issues. For instance, when habitual felon or “three strikes” laws are debated, NBCU Photo Bank via AP
most people believe that they apply only to seriously violent offenders, the Images
type that they see on television generally. In reality, such laws often apply to
property offenders, drug offenders, and others of whom voters are not neces-
sarily thinking when they support such laws.
Lawyers and journalists have coined the term “CSI effect” to describe the
effect this television show has had on criminal court trials and jury delib-
eration. What seems to be happening is that viewers confuse reality with
6 cHAPteR 1 criminal Justice as Social control
television and expect that every criminal case should have the type of scien-
tific evidence portrayed in the show. According to anecdotal reports, when
prosecutors are unable to present DNA evidence, fingerprints from any type
of material, findings from scent identifiers, and so on, jurors may acquit
defendants, believing that if the evidence doesn't exist, the case must be
weak. Defense attorneys also complain about the show's effect, arguing that
jurors believe that scientific evidence is infallible and don't consider human
error or bias or even technological weaknesses when such evidence is uti-
lized by the prosecutor. Evidently, the show has even influenced criminals
and some police say that criminals are more likely today to pour bleach
around crime scenes in an attempt to destroy DNA and trace evidence [1].
In one study to determine if the CSI effect really exists, researchers sur-
veyed 1,000 jurors about their viewing habits and expectations regarding
evidence. About half of the respondents (46%) expected to see scientific
evidence in every type of criminal case, 71% wanted to see fingerprint evi-
dence in breaking and entering cases, and 73% wanted to see DNA evidence
in rape cases. About 45% of the juror-respondents watched Law and Order
and 42% watched CSI. Those who did so were also more likely to watch
other justice-related television shows. Those who watched crime shows were
more likely than those who did not to expect to see scientific evidence; how-
ever, if there was victim or witness testimony, the viewers were not less likely
than nonviewers to convict. The researchers concluded that there was little
evidence, at least from their research, to prove a pervasive CSI effect [2].
Other studies have found that lawyers believe there has been an effect on
jurors and they have adjusted their trial tactics accordingly, placing more
focus on scientific evidence. Interestingly, as the public has become aware
of forensic science, the professional criminal justice community has become
more skeptical. Forensic evidence has been implicated in more than a dozen
wrongful convictions, and a growing number of crime labs have come under
scrutiny for shoddy practices or clear bias. In 2010, the National Research
Council issued a report titled Strengthening Forensic Science that was very
critical of some crime labs and certain areas of forensic investigation, such
as bite mark analysis [3].
tHe Function oF SociAl contRol
What is the function of the criminal justice system? You probably said “to pun-
ish wrongdoers,” and that is partially correct. The underlying function of the
system, however, is social control. There are other institutions of society that
socialize us and control our behavior. Schools, churches, and neighborhood
associations are examples of other institutions of social control. However,
sometimes those institutions are unsuccessful in controlling a person's behav-
ior and, when that happens, the criminal justice system steps in.
