Criminal Justice System

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The criminal justice system within the United States was created in order to serve and protect, to control crime and most importantly to deliver justice. In order to deliver justice, individuals that violate the law must be convicted and found guilty so they can be punished for their crime; in order to stop the individual from being a danger to society and to send a message. Although the criminal justice system within the United States was created to benefit society it is instead detrimental due to its numerous flaws concerning police corruption within the system leading to injustices against minorities, racial profiling, large disproportionate racial disparities in the incarceration rates sentencing, and death.
Police officers are feared, …show more content…
Police corruption is the violation of state and federal laws by the misuse of police authority for direct gain by law enforcement officials. Police corruption can be established into three different categories: discounts and gifts, disruption of justice, and scale and organization. “The most common forms of police corruption include committing perjury, making false reports, thefts of drugs, protecting illegal gambling, and selling information about the police operation” (Bayley & Perito, 2013, p. 4). Local and state police departments are more prone to police corruption opposed to federal agencies; Federal agencies possess a higher standard due to their high-level code of conduct and teachings. Although police officers receive adequate counseling, instructions and training for being in law enforcement many still manage to fall victim to police corruption due to numerous issues which include lack of education, low morality, lower pay rate, psychological problems, and often discrimination ranging from homophobia, sexism, and racism. In addition, where there is limited monitoring of police activity and behavior when dealing with citizens and criminals it leads to some form of corruption. The information obtained regarding police corruption comes from civil and criminal investigators of …show more content…
2). In order to reduce and ultimately eliminate police corruption specific reforms of the police culture need to be changed including the disciplinary process and the recruitment and training procedures.
Although the criminal justice system found the six officers not guilty, the officers still violated ethical laws. Police officers swear an oath to protect and serve. The public entrusts public officers and depends on police officers to have integrity and to be ethical. The laws are made to protect and serve citizens foreign and domestic. This incident is evident to all that even when given power, public officials still manage to act on bribes or become corrupted do to the motivation of money or power. According to (Pollock 2007) police officers should enforce the laws created by legislators and have discretional power (p.3). Pollock states that police officers “posses a great deal of discretion in defining criminal behavior and deciding what to do about it” (p.113). It is obvious that the six officers that were involved in this scandal made many unethical decisions that not only affected their careers but placed a doubt in many American citizens’ minds. In summary, corruption exists in all fields of work and when given power, one cannot be easily influenced by money or popularity. One takes
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