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Criminal Justice Paper
Criminal Justice System

CJA/204 INTRODUCTION TO CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Criminal Justice System

This first week the assignment was to Define crime, its relationship to the law, and the two most common models of how society determines which acts are criminal, Describe the government structure as it applies to the criminal justice system, Identify choice theories and the their assumptions in regards to crime, Describe the components of the criminal justice system and the criminal justice process, Identify the goals of the criminal justice system.

Define crime, its relationship to the law, and the two most common models of how society determines which acts are criminal. Crime is breaking of laws or rules of different of localities such as county, state, or city even international. Society has determined what acts are criminal by what society itself considers normal. This is defined by how society interacts within itself. This leads to laws that pertain to the locality that made them. This can also mean that what is a crime in one area does not mean that it is a crime in another. For example in California you may posses marijuana for medical use only while it is still a crime in other states to possess it.
Describe the government structures as it applies to the criminal justice system The government structure applies to the criminal justice system is that a crime only becomes an issue when violating social norms or rights. One thing criminal justice professionals must consider is who benefits from this law. This implies that it must not violate basic rights or civil laws as well.
Identify choice theories and their assumptions in regards to crime. There are four choice theories in the criminal justice system. The first being legalistic which means crimes only exist when there are already laws against them. An example of legalistic theory would be an individual went to the local grocery store and stole a leather jacket but there is no



References: (2011). CJi Interactive. Retrieved from https://ecampus.phoenix.edu/secure/aapd/UC/CJ/index.html. Schmalleger, F. (2009). Criminal Justice Today: An Introductory Text for the 21st Century (10th ed.). Retrieved from https://ecampus.phoenix.edu/content/eBookLibrary2/content/eReader.aspx.

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