Welcome to AJ101-Introduction to the Administration of Justice

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Course Description: This is a comprehensive discourse on crime and its causes, including the history and philosophy of the Administration of Justice in America, the development of criminal justice, identification of the various subsystems, role expectations, and their interrelationships, theories of crime, punishment, adjudication, and rehabilitation and training for professionalism in the entire system.

Course Assignments 

Unit 1- email your instructor and acknowledge due dates for completed work and final exams. 

Unit 2---Define or discuss:

A.     The basis for the American criminal justice system

B.     Two source of crime data

C.     Part I offenses

D.     Due process and individual rights

• State of crime in the United States.
  Crime date which provide a national picture of crime in our society, include the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) and the Bureau of Justice Statistics National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). An examination of the Uniform Crime Reports provides crime trends in the eight Part I and nineteen Part II offenses. Social aspects of crime may not be apparent in statistics and include fear, roles of victims and offenders, economic costs, and impact on the elderly.
  
• Search for causes.
  Since at least the mid-1700s theories have been proposed to explain the "why" of crime. The theories include
  Classic-role of free will; Biological-phrenology, atavism, somatotypes, chromosome, and nutrition; Psychological-psychoanalysis; Sociological-anomie and subculture; Social Psychological-differential association, restraint, neutralization, and labeling; Conflict-radical criminology and new criminology; and Phenomenological-criminal personality and career criminology.
  
• National Criminal Justice Reference Service and Federal Bureau of Investigation
  The National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS) and F.B.I. "Uniform Crime Report" contain some of the most extensive sources of information on criminal and criminal behavior.
  

 Unit 3---Define or discuss:

A.     Purpose of law

B.     Civil vs. criminal law

C.     Elements of a crime

D.     Defenses against criminal charges

• Evolution of law
  Modern law in society developed from the codified precepts of Hammurabi, through early Roman Law, the Magna Carta, English common law, the Law of Franks, to the U. S. Constitution. Two major categories of law are mala in se/mala prohibita; bad in themselves and bad because they are prohibited.
  
• Various types of law
  Law serves several purpose; support of social order, maintain social values, among others. The types of law include: criminal (offenses against society), case (precedents), procedural (rules of the justice system), civil (noncriminal relationships between persons), administrative (regulation of activities of industry, business, and individuals), and constitutional (regulation of government).
  
• Categories of law
  Crime categories of law include misdemeanors (relatively minor crimes-punishable by one year or less in a local institution), felonies (more serious offenses-punishable by over one year in a State institution or death), and infractions (offenses -usually not punishable by imprisonment).
• Elements of crimes
  The elements of crimes, corpus delicti, include the concepts of Actus Reus (guilty act), Mens rea (guilty mind), concurrence (joining of act and intent), harm (damage as a result of the criminal act), causation (link between criminal act and harm), legality (existence of law prohibiting the criminal act), and punishment (an established penalty).
  
• Defenses
  Defenses can fall into the categories of Personal (protection against accountability based on some characteristic of the individual), Special (protection based on some action or understanding), and Procedural (protection based on some established requirement upon the prosecution).

 Unit 4---Define or discuss:

A.     The evolution of American policing

B.     Local vs. state agencies

C.     Team and community policing

D.     Protections provided by the 4^th and 5^th amendments  

• Policing: History and structure
  U. S. Policing dates from medieval England. The Bow Street magistrate, Henry Fielding, is credited with the creation of a group of dedicated officer - Bow Street Runners. From this beginning came the formation of the London Metropolitan Police Force by Sir Robert Peel, hailed as the worlds first modern police force; uniforms, patrolling, and a military-style organization. American policing developed to meet the needs of settlers in the Western frontier to replace vigilantism. New York City established the first organized police department in 1844, followed by other urban centers. Private protection services also developed to protect the assets of the railroad expansion-Pinkerton, Wells Fargo and Brinks to name a few.
  
• Police management
  Janes Q. Wilson proposed three styles of policing - watchman (order maintenance), legalistic (strict enforcement), and service (concerned with helping). The advent of Police-Community Relations has stressed the need for the police and the community to work together. From this concept has come "team policing" (delivery of total service rather than segmented) and "community policing" (working partnership between the police and the community). Contemporary issues facing the police include corruption, substance abuse, job-related stress, combined with the factors influencing the use of discretion by officers and the development of a police culture.
• Policing: Legal aspects
  The legal setting in which the police function has become more complex and more visible; owing in some part to recent incidents. Specific Constitutional requirements, sanctions, and prohibitions determine many of the police actions; due process, search and seizure, arrest, and interrogation. Significant Supreme Court decisions have developed into "rules" that govern the actions of officers; exclusionary rule, fruit of the poisonous tree, plain view doctrine, expectation of privacy among others. The area of interrogation has become particularly rule oriented with the Miranda decisions requiring specific waiver(s) from the suspect.

   Unit 5---Define or discuss:

A.     Major source of police civil liability

B.     Law Enforcement Code of Ethics

C.     Status of private policing

• Policing today
  Police departments throughout the country are forging new, stronger links with the communities they serve. Communities are experimenting with interdisciplinary approaches in recognition of the need to ensure a balance of enforcement with social and allied services. Researchers are making new efforts to identify the roots of crime to assist in the development of long-term solutions. The end of the Cold War has generated interest on the part of the Department of Defense in transferring technologies to operations other than war, and this presents an opportunity to explore adoption of these technologies to law enforcement. Computer technology will also be exploited more intensively.
  
• Professionalism and ethics
  Contemporary issues facing the police include corruption, substance abuse, job-related stress, combined with the factors influencing the use of discretion by officers and the development of a police culture. One easy answer to the question of ethics might be to say that ethical problems have become so acute that a special effort is required. Or another response might suggest that there is a moral crisis in society at large and that this focus only mirrors concerns found in other sectors of society. Or it also might be argued that the Rodney King incident in L.A. sparked the latest wave of self-examination among police and the emphasis on ethics is just a consequence.
• Policing: Legal aspects
  The legal setting in which the police function has become more complex and more visible; owing in some part to recent incidents. Specific Constitutional requirements, sanctions, and prohibitions determine many of the police actions; due process, search and seizure, arrest, and interrogation. Significant Supreme Court decisions have developed into "rules" that govern the actions of officers; exclusionary rule, fruit of the poisonous tree, plain view doctrine, expectation of privacy among others. The area of interrogation has become particularly rule oriented with the Miranda decisions requiring specific waivers from the suspect.
  

  Unit 6---Define or discuss:

A.     Trial vs. Appellate Courts

B.     Role of the District Attorney vs. the Public Defender

C.     Three goals of sentencing

D.     Probation vs. parole

 Unit Overview:

• The courts
  The American court system includes state and federal systems; trial and appellate. The federal system includes the district courts, U. S. Courts of Appeal and the U. S. Supreme Court. The state system includes Municipal Courts, Superior Courts, and State Supreme Court. Pretrial activities include the magistrate's review, first appearance, bail: and bail alternatives such as release on recognizance, property bonds, deposit bail, unsecured bond, conditional release, third-party custody, and signature bond. Preliminary hearings are the opportunity for the defendant to challenge the legal basis for the detention. The filtering process of the grand juries are a means for eliminating cases for which there is insufficient evidence.
• The Courtroom work group and process
  The actors in the courtroom include both subjects or supporting staff. This includes those who are in the courtroom as regular participants (judge, prosecuting attorney , defense counsel, bailiff, court administrator, court recorder, clerk of the court, and expert witness) and nonprofessional participants (lay witnesses, jurors, victim, defendant, and press). The Sixth Amendment guarantees the right for a speedy trial after arrest. The trial purpose is to determine guilt or innocence and functions as an adversary system. The steps include: trial initiation, jury selection, opening statements, presentation of evidence, presentation of a defense, closing arguments, judge's charge to the jury, jury deliberation, verdict, and sentencing.
• Sentencing
  The general five goals of sentencing are retribution, incapacitation, deterrence, rehabilitation, and victim restoration. The models of sentencing are determinant (one specific punishment for each type of crime) and indeterminate (encourages rehabilitation since the inmate's behavior while incarcerated determines the actual time served). The traditional sentences are typically incarceration, fines, probation, and the death penalty. Innovative new sentencing programs include split sentencing, shock probation/parole/incarceration, intensive supervision, and home confinement.
  
• Probation and parole
  Probation is conditional freedom granted to a convicted adult offender or adjudicated juvenile offender. Parole is the conditional release from a prison prior to expiration of sentence. Some of the advantages of probation and parole include loser cost, restitution, increase opportunities for rehabilitation. Some of the disadvantages include relative lack of punishment, increased risk to the community, and increased social cost. New innovations include split sentencing (period of time in confinement followed by probation), shock probation/parole/incarceration (imprisonment followed by unannounced release or "boot camp" type of imprisonment), etc.

 Unit 7---Define or discuss:

A.     Determinate vs. indeterminate sentencing

B.     Three strikes law

C.     Victim’s rights  

• Sentencing
  The general five goals of sentencing are retribution, incapacitation, deterrence, rehabilitation, and victim restoration. The models of sentencing are indeterminant (one specific punishment for each type of crime) and indeterminate (encourages rehabilitation since the inmate's behavior while incarcerated determines the actual time served). The traditional sentences are typically incarceration, fines, probation, and the death penalty. Innovative new sentencing programs include split sentencing, shock probation/parole/incarceration, intensive supervision, and home confinement.
  
• Victims
  Generally victims of crimes have the following rights: (1) the right to be informed by the appropriate law enforcement agency or the prosecuting attorney of the date of trial and the date of sentencing of the case in which the victim is involved; (2) the right to be notified that a sentencing hearing or a court proceeding to which the victim has been subpoenaed will not occur as scheduled; (3) the right to receive protection from harm and threats of harm arising out of cooperation with law enforcement and prosecution efforts, and to be provided with information as to the protection available; (4) the right to be informed of the procedure to be followed to apply for and receive any compensation under perscribed by law; (5) at the request of the prosecution or a law enforcement agency, the right to cooperate with the criminal justice process without loss of pay and other employee benefits as perscribed by law and without interference in any form by the employer of the victim of crime; (6) the right to obtain access to immediate medical assistance and not to be detained for an unreasonable length of time by a law enforcement agency before having medical assistance administered; however, an employee of the law enforcement agency may, if necessary, accompany the person to a medical facility to question the person about the criminal incident if the questioning does not hinder the administration of medical assistance; (7) the right to make a written or oral statement for use in preparation of the presentence report of a felony defendant; (8) the right to appear personally at the defendant's sentencing hearing to present a written statement, and to give sworn testimony or an unsworn oral resentation; and (9) the right to be informed by the prosecuting attorney, at any time after the defendant's conviction, about the complete record of the defendant's convictions.

 Unit 8---Define or discuss:

A.     Prisons vs. Jails

B.     Costs associated with incarceration

C.     Prison culture

• Prisons
  Prisons (the long-term care facilities) include emphasis on the effects of overcrowding, the cost of new construction, and innovative solutions to the ever increasing and changing prison population. Jails (short-term facilities) carry a heavy daily workload with many of the same concerns faced by prisons. Modern studies of prisons and jails include the use of private prisons, various levels of prisoner security; maximum custody, maximum security, and minimum security.
  The various eras include the penitentiary (1790-1825), mass prison (1825-1876), reformation (1876-1890), industrial prison (1890-1935), punitive (1935-1945), treatment (1945-1967), community-based (1967-1980), warehousing (1980-1990), and overcrowding/early release (1990-present).
• Prison life
  Prison life occur within a total institution; enclosed facilities, generally separated from society physically and socially, where the inhabitants share all aspects of their daily lives. Prison subcultures come from two social realities; the official rules and procedures established by the administration and the less formal but decidedly more powerful inmate worlds. Socialization of new inmates vie the process of "prisonization" involves acceptance of prison lifestyle and criminal values as an adaptation to being institutionalized (the prison code). Some of the issues involved in studying prison life involve homosexuality, mentally ill, women, aging of the inmate population and inmates with AIDs.

 Unit 9---Define or discuss:

A.     Difficulty in comparing crime rates

B.     DNA and its application

C.     Technology applications and personal freedoms:

1.  Radar

2.  Video surveillance

3.  Eaves dropping devices  

• International perspective
  Ethnocentrism, or cultural-centeredness, involves using one's own culture as a benchmark against which to judge all other patterns of behavior. The problems with this approach involves definitional differences. Nations report offenses according to their own legal system and definitions, practices, political biases, and delays. Consequently, direct comparisons are virtually impossible.
  
• International criminal justice organizations
  The first international conference on criminology and criminal justice met in London in 1872. Subsequent meetings trough the 1970s brought little agreement on the wide range of issues facing the participating nations. Growing concern about human rights throughout the 1960s and 1970s influenced existing international organizations. The United Nations actively addresses criminal justice through;
  -resolutions supporting protection of human rights in the treatment of prisoners,
  -collection of data for international research, and
  -provisions for guidance to member nations, such as the UN Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials, and the Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Program.
  
• The future
  Technology signals threats and opportunities. The National Institute of Justice's Technology Assessment Program concentrates on four areas of advancing technologies;
  -communications and electronics,
  -forensic science,
  -transportation and weapons, and
  -protective equipment.
  The emerging technologies include DNA profiling, inline clearinghouses, computer-aided investigations, computer-based training. With these technologies come the possible impact on individual rights; increased potential for incriminating forms of non-testimony evidence, devices for listening to conversations over distances and telephones, computer profiling and reenactment of crimes, and reliance on criminalities analysis of highly technical evidence.

  Here is a quick chronology of technology in law enforcement, courtesy of a student's research--thanks Rob:
  
  Police Technology Time-Line:
  

• 1850s The first multi shot pistol, introduced by Samuel Colt, goes into mass production. The weapon is adopted by the Texas Rangers and, thereafter, by police agencies nationwide.
• 1854-59 San Francisco is the site of one of the earliest uses of systematic photography for criminal identification.
• 1877 The use of the telegraph by police and fire departments begins in Albany, New York in 1877.
• 1878 The telephone comes into use in police precinct houses in Washington, D.C.
• 1888 Chicago is the first U.S. city to adopt the Bertillon system of identification. Alphonse Bertillon, a French criminologist, applies techniques of human body measurement used in anthropological classification to the identification of criminals. His system remains in vogue in North America and Europe until it is replaced at the turn of the century by the fingerprint method of identification.
• 1901 Scotland Yard adopts a fingerprint classification system devised by Sir Edward Richard Henry. Subsequent fingerprint classification systems are generally extensions of Henry's system.
• 1910 Edmund Locard establishes the first police crime laboratory in Lyon, France.
• 1923 The Los Angeles Police Department establishes the first police crime laboratory in the United States.
• 1923 The use of the Teletype is inaugurated by the Pennsylvania State Police.
• 1928 Detroit police begin using the one-way radio.
• 1934 Boston Police begin using the two-way radio.
• 1930s American police begin the widespread use of the automobile.
• 1930 The prototype of the present-day polygraph is developed.
• 1932 The FBI inaugurates its crime laboratory which, over the years, comes to be world renowned.
• 1948 Radar is introduced to traffic law enforcement.
• 1948 The American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS) meets for the first time.
• 1955 The New Orleans Police Department installs an electronic data processing machine, possibly the first department in the country to do so. The machine is not a computer, but a vacuum-tube operated calculator with a punch-card sorter and collator. It summarizes arrests and warrants.
• 1958 A former Marine invents the side-handle baton, a baton with a handle attached at a 90-degree angle near the gripping end. Its versatility and effectiveness eventually make the side-handle baton standard issue in many U.S. police agencies.
• 1960s The first computer-assisted dispatching system is installed in the St. Louis police department.
• 1966 The National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System, a message- switching facility linking all state police computers except Hawaii, comes into being.
• 1967 The President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice concludes that the "police, with crime laboratories and radio networks, made early use of technology, but most police departments could have been equipped 30 or 40 years ago as well as they are today."
• 1967 The FBI inaugurates the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), the first national law enforcement computing center. NCIC is a computerized national filing system on wanted persons and stolen vehicles, weapons, and other items of value. One observer notes NCIC was "the first contact most smaller departments had with computers."
• 1968 AT&T announces it will establish a special number, "911," for emergency calls to the police, fire and other emergency services. Within several years, 911 systems are in widespread use in large urban areas.
• 1960s Beginning in the late 1960s, there are many attempts to develop riot control technologies and use-of-force alternatives to the police service revolver and baton. Tried and abandoned or not widely adopted are wooden, rubber and plastic bullets; dart guns adapted from the veterinarian's tranquilizer gun that inject a drug when fired; an electrified water jet; a baton that carries a 6,000- volt shock; chemicals that make streets extremely slippery; strobe lights that cause giddiness, fainting and nausea; and the stun gun that, when pressed to the body, delivers a 50,000-volt shock that disables its victim for several minutes. One of the few technologies to successfully emerge is the TASER which shoots two wire-controlled, tiny darts into its victim or the victim's clothes and delivers a 50,000-volt shock. By 1985, police in every state have used the TASER, but its popularity is restricted owing to its limited range and limitations in affecting the drug and alcohol-intoxicated. Some agencies adopt bean bag rounds for crowd control purposes.
• 1970s The large-scale computerization of U.S. police departments begins. Major computer-based applications in the 1970s include computer-assisted dispatch (CAD), management information systems, centralized call collection using three- digit phone numbers (911), and centralized integrated dispatching of police, fire, and medical services for large metropolitan areas.
• 1972 The National Institute of Justice initiates a project that leads to the development of lightweight, flexible, and comfortable protective body armor for the police. The body armor is made from Kevlar, a fabric originally developed to replace steel belting for radial tires. The soft body armor introduced by the Institute is credited with saving the lives of more than 2,000 police officers since its inception into the law enforcement community.
• Mid-1970s The National Institute of Justice funds the Newton, Massachusetts, Police Department to assess the suitability of six models of night vision devices for law enforcement use. The study leads to the widespread use of night vision gear by today's police agencies.
• 1975 Rockwell International installs the first fingerprint reader at the FBI.
• In 1979, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police implements the first actual automatic fingerprint identification system (AFIS).
• 1980 Police departments begin implementing "enhanced" 911, which allows dispatchers to see on their computer screens the addresses and telephone numbers from which 911 emergency calls originated.
• 1982 Pepper spray, widely used by the police as a force alternative, is first developed. Pepper spray is Oleoresin Capsicum (OC), which is synthesized from capsaicin, a colorless, crystalline, bitter compound present in hot peppers.
• 1993 More than 90 percent of U.S. police departments serving a population of 50,000 or more are using computers. Many are using them for such relatively sophisticated applications as criminal investigations, budgeting, dispatch, and manpower allocation.
• 1990s Departments in New York, Chicago, and elsewhere increasingly use sophisticated computer programs to map and analyze crime patterns.
• 1995 Virtual reality is adapted into the officer training regimen. Just like a large screen video game, officers learn pursuit driving techniques, and tactical response to high-risk situations. Another innovative aspect to this training is that supervisors can participate from a "command post" setting and interact with the "playing" officer, which closely simulates a real incident.
• 1996 The National Academy of Sciences announces that there is no longer any reason to question the reliability of DNA evidence. Another example of the technological advances in law enforcement, in addition to the time line above, is "The Law Enforcement Television Network" (LETN). LETN is one of the most innovative uses of training technology, which was initiated in 1989. LETN is a relatively inexpensive response to traditional modes of training that were often time consuming, management intensive, and expensive, particularly if travel, lodging and meals were involved. Via satellite, LETN delivers training modules to classes in subscriber police departments around the country on everything from domestic violence to defensive tactics.

Final Examination. Your grade for the course will be weighted as follows: Written Assignments = 50%, Final Exam = 50%. In order to successfully complete the course you MUST complete the written assignments and, take the final examination. If you live within 50 miles of the campus, you MUST take the final examination on campus. You may contact the Learning Assistance Center at (562) 692-0921 x 4016 or 3169 to schedule taking the final exam. The Learning Assistance Center is located at the Police Academy which is on the main campus on Canyon Drive. If you live over 50 miles from the college the exam may be proctored at your location. Contact your instructor for details.

If you experience any difficulty or need any further clarification, contact the Online Coordinator, Carley Mitchell at mitchellcarley@hotmail.com or in an emergency call him at (801) 953-6173.

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