Criminal Justice Essay - Based on included paper

Although the American society is divided into various federal states they have a common justice system. Because U.S formal criminal justice system is structured in a way that achieves one common aim of maintaining the social order in the entire United States, they have advanced their justice system.

The legal system is divided into Federal laws and state laws. While federal laws are enacted by the Congress, state laws are enacted by the State Legislatures (May, 2008). However, there are common laws which cut across states with common jurisdiction. The common laws harmonize the practices within states. Unless the U.S legal system was structured in a way that caters for disparity amongst these states US justice system could have failed terribly. Notably, the Congress and the State Legislatures have a common legislation process or procedures of enacting the laws. They do this through handling and dealing with criminal conduct.

The Structure of U.S. Formal Criminal Justice System

There are three basic structure of U.S Justice System. These include, The Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary. Executive which is devolved into federal governments do ensure for the execution of the both the state laws and federal laws. Legislature is for enactment of the laws while the Judiciary is for enforcement of these laws. State legislatures at some instances pass laws on common issues for which they share jurisdiction with the Congress. The Judiciary on the other hand has various levels of courts, from; Mayors Courts to Supreme Courts.

Because of the complex system the U.S. justice system has been narrowed down into four major components, these include; law enforcement, prosecution and defense, judiciary, and corrections. These institutions are the ones which are directly influencing the criminal justice system (Elmore, 2004).

Under the U.S. formal justice federal and state laws classify offences into two types; these include a felony and a misdemeanor. Felony is all those offences which are listed or classified under the law or penal code as felony whereas misdemeanor is all offences classified under the law or penal code as misdemeanor. These two offences earns have disparities in the weight of their punishment.

While federal courts have jurisdiction to hear over cases or disputes involving federal Statutes State Courts have the jurisdiction to hear any other cases. The classification of courts in terms of the Geographical and inherent jurisdiction assists in minimizing cases of conflict of laws.

Finally, the U.S judicial system is improvised to be more of a correctional institution than for punishment (May, 2008). Despite all these improvement, they are still subject to various challenges including; Racism, where there is unfair treatment between black and white in mates or accused persons, the rights for fair trial at some instances is at test as some accused persons do not enjoy these rights fully, Corruption is yet a challenge even though it is not noted in many cases, Drug abuse is also a big challenge among juveniles under juvenile courts and finally the rate of recidivism is much higher among the adult inmates than on the adult in mates.

References

May, D. C. (2008). Corrections and the criminal justice system. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett Pub.

Elmore, J. V., & Rose, Y. (2004). Fighting for your life: The African-American criminal justice survival guide. Phoenix, AZ: Amber Books.