General Knowledge in Criminal Justice

Name

Professor

General Knowledge in Criminal Justice

April 17 , 2007

Introduction

Every country is governed by a set of laws designed to maintain within it . There are laws that govern the political relations with its citizens while there are also laws that regulate the civil rights of its citizens . There are a set of rules that define what acts or omissions are considered felonies or offenses and prescribes punishment for violations of these rules . The latter is called the criminal justice system of a country

This criminal justice

system is manifested by the enactment of penal laws of the state . Penal laws define what acts are considered crime and determine the proper penalty for its commission . Because of the enactment of penal laws , each state is able to enforce and maintain law and within its jurisdiction . Society is a complex structure which does not simply function harmoniously by accident . There must be a conscious effort on the part of the state to regulate the behavior of its members . It is because of this reason that the system of punishment was institutionalized and legitimized in our society

Punishment is the action taken by the State for every violation of its laws . Punishment can be considered as a response by the society to any offense or felony committed against it . It may range from the deprivation of liberty of the convicted individual or the payment of fine for the reparation of injury caused . The deprivation of liberty can last from several days or it may extend to several years depending on the nature of the crime committed . If the crime however is heinous capital punishment may be imposed

Classical Theory

There are many theories on which our criminal justice system is based One of the foundations for imposition of the criminal justice system is the Classical Theory . It attempts to give an explanation on the root cause of crime for the purpose of controlling it or preventing it from happening . It argues that man is by nature a moral creature with a free will . This free will gives him the capacity to choose between right and wrong . When man performs an act , the assumption is that the same is a rational and conscious decision arising from a careful calculation of its possible consequences . It is to be presumed that the doer of the act has carefully weighed the consequences of his action so that he will achieve his end-goal which is to maximize pleasure and to minimize pain Thus , when a person engages in deviant behavior and commits a crime it is to be presumed that he voluntarily and willfully committed it after a careful calculation of both the benefits and risks of its commission Crime is therefore a product of rational and conscious choice deliberately performed by an individual and not the result of the external forces surrounding him

There are those who hold that crime is a social and natural phenomenon as contradistinguished from the Classical Theory . According...