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Subsystems of The Criminal Justice System
Subsystems of The Criminal Justice System
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Introduction
Every country or state is governed by some laws that form the backbone of that country's justice
system or state. The subsystems of the criminal justice systems tend to interrelate in one way or
another since a change in one may influence an impact in another. The countries under
consideration in this article are the United States of America, England, and Italy.
The police in the United States justice systems are tasked with enforcement of laws and
maintaining order at the community, state, or federal level. The enforcement of laws includes the
arrest of individuals to be charged for committing certain crimes, which go to different courts
depending on who commits the crime or the type of crime committed by the individual. A rise in
federal crimes will lead to more arrests by the federal police departments, causing a rise in the
number of people taken to federal courts. This effect will is not felt in the state courts since they
do not deal with cases involving federal criminals. If found guilty, the individuals get convicted
and sent to prison. Therefore when more citizens involve themselves in federal crimes, the
prisons end up with more individuals than any other correction system. The United States has
United States courts receive cases to decide on based on the legal system. The courts are
also divided into two; the federal courts, which deal with matters from the federal agencies and
the state courts. The federal courts deal with cases like military cases, government lawsuits, and
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disputes arising in trades. The courts determine whether one has to go to prison, jail, or put under
The correction system of the states is run on public funds that may require regulations
(Cliff Notes, 2020). One way to regulate the funds is through the downsizing of the correction
facilities in terms of population. In the US, the policymakers developed a minimum sentencing
period for drug-related crimes, which effectively reduced (Mauer, 2015). However,
2. England
The criminal justice system in England is highly dependent on the law enforcement
police considering the rise in criminal cases that rose due to the reduction of funding and staffing
of the police forces ( Institute for Government, 2020). The hiring of more workforce in the police
force is likely to replicate other indirect impacts in the proceeding levels of the criminal justice
system. However, the police's overall effect on other criminal justice subsystems may be
dependent on other factors that influence the handling of criminal cases by the police. These
factors also affect the number of cases charged by the police every day. Therefore, an increase in
funding means an increase in the number of people employed in the police force hence more
cases charged.
An increase in the number of police over the coming years may lead to a rise in demand
on the courts ( Institute for Government, 2020). To maintain the current performance levels, the
courts require more funding, especially the crown courts. The criminal justice system also puts
the quality of justice at risk due to a shortage of magistrates. The magistrates also need to be
recruited despite getting underpaid. The number of magistrates has reduced by half since 2010,
leading to an increase in the number of cases heard by two-magistrate panels instead of three
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(Bowcott & Duncan, 2019). If the government fails to recruit more magistrates, the processing of
credible cases continues to be threatened, thus leading to people getting convicted wrongfully or
Coupled with the poor police and court justice systems that may be caused by low
funding, the government may reduce the funds from the correction systems to cover the
reductions in the preceding systems. The low funding of the correction systems may cause
ineffectiveness leading to criminal activity even after the release of convicts. Therefore, the
ripple effect of the low funding affects all the systems, considering that one problem in one
3. South Korea
The initial subsystems of criminal justice in South Korea work as one and interrelate with
each other to achieve their sole objective of issuing justice. Criminal investigation organizations
have two major categories; judicial police officers and prosecutors. The public prosecutor is
entrusted with the investigation of crimes and initiation of criminal procedures. On the other
hand, the judicial police officer is authorized to carry out investigations with the public
prosecutor's supervision. The judicial police officer initiates the criminal investigations then
moved to the office of the public prosecutor, who continues with the process by examining
pieces of evidence, documents and asking questions to the suspect and any other related parries.
The investigative process gives the court an easy task of identifying the culprits early enough
releasing anyone who is considered to be within the law. Due to this reason, the rate of
However, the public prosecutor can start an investigation even without the judicial police
officer in play in some cases. This case applies to white-collar crimes and the more complicated
felonies that include corruption among high-rank public officials, politicians, drug trafficking,
police misconduct, organized crime, economic crimes, and tax evasions. In the Korean criminal
justice system, the judicial police receive the official orders of operation from the public
prosecutor and obey them. The criminal justice system in Korea tries to maintain human rights.
Unlike in most countries, the judicial police act under the public prosecutor's watch and
supervision and does not conduct any investigation unless ordered to do so by the public
prosecutor. In case an officer is noncompliant with the order issued by the prosecutor or gets
involved in misconduct, the officer can be lifted off from the investigation or replaced by the
chief prosecutor. Due to the strict investigative measures in the South Korean criminal justice
system, the courts experience very minimal misjudgments, reducing wrongful convictions.
Conclusion
The three countries under consideration have different criminal justice systems, but the
subsystems in all of them interrelate to each other either directly or indirectly. The relevant
authority can make changes in either one of them to impact change in the other subsystems.
However, the effects caused by a change in one subsystem may reflect a minor change in other
subsystems.
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References
Institute for Government. (2020). The criminal justice system: How government reforms and
Bowcott, O., & Duncan, P. (2019, January 27). UK Politics: Half of magistrates courts in
England and Wales closed since 2010. Retrieved from The Guardian Web Site:
https://www.theguardian.com/law/2019/jan/27/half-of-magistrates-courts-in-england-
and-wales-closed-since-tories-elected
Brooks, A. (2019, June 17). Justice Studies Blog: Breaking Down the Different Types of Prisons
https://www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/justice-studies/blog/different-types-of-prisons/
Cliff Notes. (2020). Criminal Justice: The Structure of Criminal Justice. Retrieved from Cliff
justice-system/the-structure-of-criminal-justice
Kim, Y. C. (2003). Effective System of Criminal Investigation and Prosecution in Korea (From
UNAFEI Annual Report for 2001 and Resource Material Series No. 60, P 77-93, 2003,
Mauer, M. (2015). Fewer Prisoners, Less Crime: A Tale of Three States. NW Wasington: The
Sentencing Project.