History of America's Criminal Justice System

History of America's Criminal Justice System

The American Criminal Justice System is the structured system which acts as a tool of maintaining social control. There exist various components working together to give justice for law breakers and any other form of crime. The U.S Criminal justice therefore helps protect the criminals from unfair judgment as well as abuses that criminals are normally prone to at the hands of the police and the government. This system has undergone several changes ever since the time it was first put in place.

The History of the U.S Criminal Justice System

The American criminal system has its roots in the colonial era. During the colonial period the Americans used the England common law system model. This U.S. Criminal Justice System received much of its influence from both religion and philosophy. From the time of its implication up to date it has kept the idea of checks and balances (Morn 161). The founders of the system created a government with fair distribution of responsibilities so that no one was fully in control of the system and therefore prevent authoritative form of rule during criminal sanctioning. A jury of peers was put in place to help individuals understand the laws of the government as well as the punishment given to various crimes.

They did not have trained lawyers or any other people who had any knowledge in law. The common law system stipulated rules used to solve any problem in the then society. The system dealt with two forms of offences; felonies and misdemeanors (Morn 161). When dealing with more complex crime, a grand jury of the community members was contacted. For this system, there was no influence by the district attorneys and the public prosecutors. The criminal was expected to pay for investigation as well as the prosecution of the criminal case. Since they did not have an expert in the system, the colonialists were so careful in their procedure of coming up with the criminal justice system. The laws implemented were actively affected by the western frontier. The colonial continued settlement especially on the western side had an effect on the enforcement of laws. In addition, religion played a great role in the establishment of the laws of the land. Some of the criminal codes which were influenced by the bible included sexual crimes, drunkenness and idleness as stipulated by the scriptures. Among the institutions of colonial criminal justice was County Sheriff. This was an important figure in the criminal justice system. His role was to collect taxes, run and supervise all the elections and in addition he was supposed to deal with any other legal transaction in the American Society(Weidner, 2009). The sheriffs were a representation of the governor as well as the then English government. Their duty in the criminal system was to deal with complaints directed to them by the citizens. Judges were also paramount figures as well as the magistrates in the colonial criminal justice systems. Their roles were mainly carried out in the law courts. Judges were mostly religious as well political figures from their counties. They were fully responsible in the undertakings of all the court cases in their counties; they were to fulfill the will of God in their proceedings. Apart from the punishment that the criminal received, there was also a need for repentance and confession. These proceedings were viewed as a way of instilling order to the then American society. It was only when there were serious crimes that other judges from other courts were consulted. The courts were also modeled after the England courts though they were not as, complex and formal as those of England. The courts were open to every one in the society to help solve all kinds of tensions that were reported by the citizens. The number of judges in courts differed; there were some that only had one judge while others had as many as ten to fifteen.

As compared to the present way of trial process, the then American system was very different. The crime was reported and either a judge or a magistrate had to make out whether the case or the claims were valid or not. In the condition that the magistrate concluded that indeed the crime was committed; the individual in question was expected to go to the magistrate for questioning (Weidner, 2009). The questioning procession was done in the house of the magistrate in presence of a number of witnesses as well as a number of marshals. After hearing the offender's explanations the magistrate would then decide if there was a necessity of a trial for him or her. Upon his affirmation of the trial the accused was always released with no bail up to the day of the trial and vice versa was true also. Unlike the system in America today, there was no attorney general during the day of trial and therefore the accused would only be given a chance to defend him or herself. A district attorney put in place by a governor would always oversee the proceedings of the trial. Unlike today there was no position for a defense attorney. The system gave a chance to the few lawyers of the time and so it was a bit expensive for the accused and most of them would not be able to afford. The use of Juries was not allowed because it was seen as a way of degrading the work of a magistrate after giving out his say in the trial. The trial was public and this was a way of reaching the greater society so as to be able to discourage others who might have had plans of committing the same offence. After some time the colonialists discovered that the Sheriffs were not enough to administer criminal justice in the country and so there was an addition of criminal agents in the cities as well as the villages. To administer justice there were various forms of punishments some of which were public. For public punishment, an individual was subjected to shaming and according to the criminal justice system it was supposed to be a lesson to the offenders who mostly were men. For offences such as witch craft and adultery individuals involved were mostly women. The most punished were the lowly ranked in the then society

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