Welcome to Introduction to Criminal Justice.
This course is designed around four key themes.
1. The field of criminal justice is interdisciplinary and shares elements from criminology, sociology, law, history, psychology, and poitical science.
2. Criminal justice involves public policies that are developed within the framework of the democratic process.
3. The concept of a social system is an essential tool for analyzing the way criminal justice is practiced.
4. American values, the foundation on which criminal justice in a democracy is based.
In this course students are provided a strong foundation of information about the criminal justice system and it's primary components. It is my aim to provide both the essential content and the critical tools involved in understanding the criminal justice system. I maintain this course site and continually up-to-date the material and work to make the content appealing. I make a vast course resource available to you the students in the lecture bibliographies. You are directed to original sources and databases that augment information being presented. This course also includes a comparative perspective which describes a component of the criminal justice system in another country. I hope you will find this course a valuable learning experience.
Dr. Michael Thompson
Milica Djukic
EOC
An Emergency Operations Center (EOC) is a central location from which local governments can provide interagency coordination and executive decision making in support of incident response and recovery operations. It is responsible for strategic and operational decisions, while tactical decisions are left to lower commands. The Emergency Operations Center collects and evaluates incident information, analyze jurisdictional impacts, and managing requests and utilization of resources. It was originally created as a part of United States civil defense, but can be found at all government levels, as well as in larger corporations. In corporations and smaller jurisdictions the Emergency Operations Center is usually located in the same room as an Emergency Communications Center. Emergency Communications Centers is a room where operators receive calls from individuals that need help.
The first most important component of an Emergency Organizations Center are the people that staff it. They must be properly trained and educated to know how to respond to an emergency situation. The second important thing is the communication system of Emergency Organizations Center. This can mean anything from simple word of mouth to complex and sophisticated encrypted networks. Either way it must provide secure transfer of information with no interruptions.
Links:
- https://www.emergency-response-planning.com/blog/bid/56720/Functions-of-an-Emergency-Operations-Center
- https://www.chathamemergency.org/eoc/what-is-the-eoc.php
Milica Djukic
The Pink Panthers: Real Legends or Just a Good Jail Story?
Named after the famous crime comedy movies, The Pink Panthers are an international thief organization. It consists of 200-250 members from the Balkans (Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Croatia). This organization is famous for some of the most scandalous and audacious thefts in the history. Some criminologists even describe their crimes as artistry.
In 2003, the gang first came to attention and earned the nickname "Pink Panthers" following the theft of a $600,000 diamond from jewelers in the Mayfair area of central London in the United Kingdom. The thieves hid the diamond in a jar of face cream, mimicking an act seen in the movie “The Return of the Pink Panther”. Other known heists are in Dubai, when the gang drove in a mall with two Audis taking a total of $10 million worth of jewelry; Japan, which is their most successful and their most profitable heist. Besides huge profits and a big number of heists, they are also known for bizarre and comical escapes. In one of the robberies they were dressed as women, and just calmly walked out of the jewelry shop.
In a 6-year time span, they robbed over 120 in more than twenty countries. The gang is a sore point for the Interpol and other agencies that are chasing them, even though Pink Panthers most known female member, Olivera Cirkovic, claims that there is no actual gang. In one of the tv interviews that she did, she stated that there is no Pink Panthers, it is just an urban legend that gives leverage in prison if you claim you are one of them.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_Panthers - English Wikipedia
https://sr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_Panteri - Serbian Wikipedia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pG1jx7WhaAQ -Dubai Heist Footage
Bubacar Sisay
Law Enforcement
Why I Choose Becoming A Police Officer As A Career
What should we do in life? That always seems to be the question. Life is not guaranteed to be easy, never turning out the exact way that we want it to. A lot of people work hard to achieve their dreams of making a massive amount of money and having more than a seven percent return on their 401k plan. Truth is, life is not about the amount of money that we have saved up, it is about what we do to make a difference and how we will make our lifetime worth it. Something that people should set into place is a plan for their future. A plan that would help not only directs their path in life, but the paths of those around them too.
My plan in life is to become a Police Officer. Not only would that give me the opportunity to help other people but becoming a Police Officer also gives me the opportunity to follow in my Uncles footsteps and do something that I have wanted to do my whole life. I have always wanted to make a difference in the world, and this gives me the chance. Performing justice the right way and making sure that the laws of the government are obeyed is the job that I want to pursue. Being a Police Officer is a challenging job but also very rewarding. There would be a number of skills I would need to learn, not to mention that every day on the job would be a learning experience itself. Every single day that I would go to work, I would potentially be saving someone’s life. Stopping a speeder, arresting a criminal, preventing harmful attempts, they are things that would save someone’s life. Even if my actions were not as simple as that, for example, if I were to witness an accident or arrive onto the scene of one, just being there gives me the opportunity to take preventative measures. When I become a Police Officer, it would also allow me to help other people to help themselves. If I were to pull over a speeder, or a drunk driver, I would be able to show them a better way even though they would be punished. If they get a ticket, the possibility of them speeding or driving under the influence again would be smaller than before.
Entering the career of law enforcement is not always easy. Becoming a Police Officer means that I would become a justified employee of the police force. As a Police Officer, I would typically be responsible for placing criminals under arrest, looking for crimes and preventing them before they can happen, protecting the community and it's property and many other things. It is not an easy job at all, Police work can be stressful and dangerous because there is a constant possibility of being injured or killed every day, but it is definitely worth it in the end. Even though those were clear examples, being a Police Officer alone would just be saving someone’s life. Enforcing the law saves peoples lives, and that is exactly what I would be doing. Everything that I would do would be preventing something that could have been fatal.
2URL
https://www.abqjournal.com/839160/women-break-barriers-as-border-patrol-agents.html/female-border-patrol-agents
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_enforcement
Drake DeBolt
Parole Officer
Parole officer career
I have always wanted to help people its who I am. I wanted to be in the military all of my life but I thought to myself what about helping here at home. How could I help and change people’s lives? So I decided that I wanted to become a parole officer. Parole is the release of inmates before the end of the maximum sentence given to that person. Parole officers work closely to other correctional professions. A person wanting to become a Parole officer can choose to work with children or adults and in some cases one could work with both. Before an inmate can qualify for parole a Parole officer will develop a plan with that person. One of the main responsibilities that a Parole officer has is to make sure the person on parole follows the conditions of his or her parole. For example finding a suitable place to live a job and staying out of trouble are just a few examples. The Parole officer will also go to the parolees home and job to speak with coworkers loved ones and the boss of said job.
Drake DeBolt
Jails and Prisons
Prisons and jails are examples of institutional corrections facilities. Prisons being a federal holding place and jails being a local place for housing criminals. Prisons hold convicted felons with a convicted sentence of longer than a year. While a jail is for the local officers in towns and cities usually for smaller crimes and most likely will not hold evictees for longer the six months to a year. Jails operate on work release programs and education and substance abuse programs to try and educate and help change inmates lives to make them expectable members of society. Prison are designed to hold more serious criminals' prisons are designed to help inmates depending on their level of custody those levels are minimum, medium, and maximum. Minimum and medium security programs can include work release programs, halfway houses and community restitution centers.
Prisons are meant for a person to be there for a long period of time. This meaning that prisons need to be hospitable for inmates to live in. Jails usually only hold people for a short amount of time so they do not need to cater to all the needs of people so jails have less well-developed facilities. People who are repeat offenders will often ask for prison time rather than jail time with a chance for parole. Jails are usually under budget so inmates will complain that the food and poor living conditions violates the right that protects them from cruel and unusual punishment most claims of this are rarely successful. In both systems inmates have a right to visitors. An inmate will also have the basic right of every inmate these are a right to be treated humanely not to suffer from cruel and unusual punishment and be protected from sexual harassment. They would also have access to medical care and not face racial discrimination. So, as you can see prisons and jails are different in many ways but are very similar and have the same goal. That goal being to take a person who upstages the law is taken out of society to make it a better and safer for the law-abiding citizens. Also, part of that goal is to make these law breakers into upstanding citizens. Yes, jails and prisons have their flaws and those flaws definitely need to be addressed but they still protect us and need to be given the credit they deserve.
cleminfostrategies.com/whats-the-difference-between-prison-and-jail/
Brina Linder
YOUTH IN THE JUSTICE SYSTEM: AN OVERVIEW
The juvenile justice has grown and changed since 1899. Before, the court process was not as formal as how it is now. It used to be a conversation between the judge and the child who got into trouble and the defendant lacked legal representation. As the years pass, we’ve had an issue of most people thinking that when minors who commit the same crime as an adult, they automatically say that they are a child and typically don’t know what they are doing. What most people don’t believe is that a child can perform the same exact crimes as a normal adult that can range from 18-52. From when we started growing up, we were told from when we were kids up until adults what is right from wrong and how our actions create consequences. Youth under the age of 18 who are accused of committing a delinquent or criminal act are typically processed through a juvenile justice system. Some are like the adult criminal justice system in many ways which processes include arrest, detainment, petitions, hearings, adjudications, dispositions, placement, probation, and reentry. The juvenile justice process operates according to the premise that youth are fundamentally different from adults, both in terms of level of responsibility and potential for rehabilitation. The primary goals of the juvenile justice system are skill development, habilitation, rehabilitation, addressing treatment needs, and successful reintegration of youth into the community. Today’s juvenile justice system maintains a rehabilitation as its primary goal and distinguishes itself from the criminal justice system in a couple ways. In most states, delinquency is defined as the commission of a criminal act by a child who was under the age of 18 but most states also allow youth to remain under the supervision of the juvenile court until the person is 21. However, unlike adult criminal proceedings, juvenile court hearings are often closed to members of the public and records in some states remain confidential, protecting children from collateral consequences when their records are publicly available. Juvenile records now have increasingly became more accessible though. Jurisdictions are not automatically sealed when the child becomes an adult and can create an obstacle to gain more employment, to serve in the military, or enrolling in higher education programs.
https://jlc.org/youth-justice-system-overview
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_juvenile_justice_system
Jahrod Hendersonxx
Fatoumatta Darboexx
Tahnee Saxtonxx
