he Legal Landscape

You have just graduated from College with a degree in the Criminal Justice program and acquired your dream career working with the National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS). You love to write articles of criminal justice interest, and because the NCJRS provides links to millions and millions of criminal justice references, you find yourself in awe of your career. For your first assignment, you have been asked present a report at an upcoming criminal justice conference. This report will help your colleagues better understand how databases, technology, polices, and so forth affect the administration of justice and the outcome of court cases in particular. Your training coordinator expects you to highlight several examples of how criminal justice databases, computer technology, and policies have changed the way crimes are investigated and how criminals are brought to justice. Address how 2 of the following databases, technology tools, and policies have changed the legal landscape in the United States in your paper of 3–4 pages. On the two topics selected, you should address the history, administration, purpose, and so forth:

• Fingerprint analysis
• DNA databases
• Ballistics testing
• Tire tread analysis
• Tracking of illegal pornographic images
• Modus operandi databases
• Three strikes laws
• Gun control laws
• The USA PATRIOT Act
• Megan’s law
• Domestic violence laws
• The exclusionary rule
• Lie detectors
• Inmate classification systems
• Truth in sentencing laws