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Issues in criminal justice

The current issues in criminal justice are characterized by the rich history of criminal gangs operating in the United States. This is because the factors accelerating the criminal activities are immense in the sense that the climate favorable for criminal gangs to execute their activities easily and broadly are readily available. They include the inability of the authorities to structure efficient mechanisms meant to abolish criminal gang once and for all. This lack of efficient methods to deal with criminal activities has served as the main basis for the accelerating criminal activities in the United States (Maxfield & Babbie, 2014).

The other issue affecting criminal justice activities is the fact that criminals have utilized any loophole they identify within the law enforcement agencies such as the FBI and CIA. When criminals like terrorist identify any form of loophole among the security agents, they are utilizing it to the fullest a fact that has accelerated the criminal activities in the country. Among this loopholes include the dirty police officers who engage themselves in criminal activities. They involve themselves with criminal activities such as taking bribes in order to cover certain known criminals (Surette, 2014). This is a major issue facing the criminal justice department in the United States.

Despite the increased drug wars by the DEA, the drug cartels are able to smuggle drugs and engage in illegal activities which enable these criminal gangs to realize hefty profits necessary to expand their activities countrywide. This issue of blood money has been one of the major issues the criminal department is addressing with much concern given that the money realized from this trade is laundered making it hard for the security agencies like the FBI and CIA to identify the real perpetrators of these criminal activities.

The other issue facing the criminal justice department in the United States is the increased number of illegal immigrants in the country since a majority of these immigrants are criminals who disguise them as asylum seekers to either smuggle drugs and other unlawful activities in the country. The criminal justice has been faced with the issue of determining the genuine asylum seekers from criminals since it’s not possible to identify possible criminals from their looks. Human trafficking is also an issue given that the people arriving in the country have a record in their countries and are trying to evade the rule of law in their countries (Bottoms & Tankebe, 2012). However, proper screening of individuals has been boosted in all borders and airports as measures to stop these criminals.

The current data on criminal activities is worrying in the sense that the current data shows that various criminal activities are perpetuated by criminal attorneys who use their authority to defend criminal in criminal courts. The current data shows that the crime rates are increasing criminal given the general permissiveness in the society and changing lifestyles. The data pertaining criminal activities ranks drug trafficking, human trafficking and terrorism as the major crimes where criminal justice must restructure the laws pertaining the offenders’ punishment given that these activities have great impacts in the lives of the people.

The data also shows various organized criminal gangs are more motivated to commit crime than individual criminals. This is because the networks provide support to one another. It’s also good to note that organized criminal gang counts a lot since these gangs are involved in high profile criminal activities such as cyber-crimes. The data also show that the economic status of the American people contributes also to the crime given that people with low economic capabilities have a high chance of committing crime unlike their counterparts in a high level of social status whose economic capabilities are very high (Bachman & Schutt, 2013). On the other hand, the data also shows that the origin of a person counts a lot in an individual possibility of being involved in criminal activities. This is more common with the Mexican and Columbian nationals who are American citizens by registration. Human trafficking is also an issue realized through the data collected since it’s mostly perpetuated by high-ranking government officials.

The trends for this issue would be well-reformed security agencies whereby the individual working in this institutions have a high level of integrity. The laws pertaining human trafficking should also be harsher so that other potential criminal does not engage themselves in these activities. Likewise, the borders should be totally secure to prevent illegal immigrants from entering the United States. Integrity and accountability among government officials are also a trend that could reduce these criminal activities. The people should also be educated extensively on the impacts of being involved in criminal activities so that they can avoid and change their behaviors.

Recidivism should also be dealt with accordingly since the repeated crimes will be stopped. On the other hand, tough laws on drug trafficking cannot be ignored and the criminal justice department should invent tough rules and regulations to discourage the people from this activities. People who are arrested for being in the United States illegally should be deported back to their country and banned from states forever. This tough rules and regulations should also be employed within the security agents like the FBI and the CIA so that there are no cases of agents being involved in criminal activities (Maxfield & Babbie, 2014). Good information and communication networks like CCTVs should elect in areas regarded as crime hot spots and across the United States borders to effectively monitor the boundaries on a 24-hour basis.

References

Bachman, R., & Schutt, R. K. (2013). The practice of research in criminology and criminal justice. Sage.

Bottoms, A., & Tankebe, J. (2012). Beyond procedural justice: A dialogic approach to legitimacy in criminal justice. The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 119–170.

Maxfield, M. G., & Babbie, E. R. (2014). Research methods for criminal justice and criminology. Nelson Education.

Surette, R. (2014). Media, crime, and criminal justice. Nelson Education.