Running head: CRIME'S RELATIONSHIP TO THE LAW 1

Crime's Relationship to the Law

Kimberly Washburn
CJA/204
May 24,2012
Nancy Bennett
CRIME'S RELATIONSHIP TO THE LAW 2


Crime's Relationship to the Law
Crime is when someone breaks the law, what is defined as laws, as robbery,
murder, drunk driving, speeding, rape, just to name a few, but the list goes on and on.
The law is the rules that are upheld by the courts, police and law agencies. The law is
used to help protect the innocent, the public; it is used to determine probable cause and
work in the best interest. If a crime has been truly committed or if not, the law has to
collect evidence, and reconstruct the things that may have lead up to it.
Two of the most common models of how our society determines which of the acts
are criminal, specific deterrence and general deterrence. Specific deterrence is when a
offender is caught, punished and from this decides not to per sue or engage in it from then
on, It is more a way that the criminal is scared straight. General deterrence is when
offenders are caught and punished and the punishment is observed by others. By these
others observing this they decided not to go down the road of committing crimes. It is a
way of learning by others mistakes.
The government structure that applies to the criminal justice system starts with
police, who enforce the law, they investigate the crimes, and they arreste the offenders
and everything up to protecting the fundamental rights and freedom of individuals. Next
is the courts, which conduct fair and impartial trials, they decide criminal cases, they
ensure due process, determine guilt or innocence, uphold the law and on up to providing
a check on the exercise of power by others justice systems agencies. Then is corrections
who carries out the sentence that is imposed by the court, they provide safe and humane
custody and submission of offenders, up to the point that they respect the legal and
human rights of the convicted.
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Components of criminal justice are where all the agencies work together in order
to process and resolve criminal cases. It consist of five major stages to be carried out
term. The first being investigation and arrest, which is where evidence is gathered at the
crime scene, and attempts to reconstruct the events that led up to it. Then have a warrant,
which is a criminal proceeding you have to have the warrant, issued in order for the
officers to arrest the person or persons that are suspected of the crime. Then booking,
where the law enforcement process the officially recording the entry to detention after
their arrest to identify the person, time and reason they were arrested.

Then comes the pretrial activity such as first appearance in front of court to see if
they are eligible to be bonded out or not. Next comes preliminary hearing where it is
established weather enough evidence exist against the accused person or not to be
proceed to the next level. Next is the info or indictment which is where the prosecution
could seek to have the case against the accused by filing an information document with
the court. Then is the arraignment which is where the accused first goes in front of the
judge.






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Bibliography
Schmalleger,F (2011). Criminal justice today: An introductory text for the 21
st
century
(11
th
ed.).Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall.