Due Process Model Of Criminal Justice

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The purpose of the criminal justice system in the United States “is to deliver justice for all, by convicting and punishing the guilty and helping them stop offending, while protecting the innocent” (Garside, 2008). Since the beginning of our country, there has been ways of ensuring justice is achieved. Herbert Packer was an American law professor and criminologist who developed two models within the criminal justice system; the crime control model and the due process model. Each model has its own pros and cons and with that comes support and opposition. The two models are polarities designed to aid in analysis and in operation within constitutional values and argue for balance (Kraska, 2004). Each model in its own right has shown effectiveness …show more content…
This model puts a lot of emphasis on law enforcement assuming that the police will respect an individual’s rights from the moment they are arrested all the way through the investigation. The crime control model focuses more on the quantity of arrests rather than the quality with the philosophy that more arrests mean less crime. People have made the statement that the crime control process is favored more by conservative people that want people to pay for their crimes. It is hard to ignore the political nature of criminal justice, especially today when people want to be more involved and want to have a say in what goes on within their local law enforcement agencies. Politicians often use the term “War on Crime,” and that stance would fall directly under the crime control model. A war on crime would mean to identify, pursue, isolate, and ultimately eliminate criminals in our society by targeting high crime areas, increased patrols and traffic stops, profiling, undercover sting operations, wiretapping, surveillance, and aggressive raids to stop criminals before the crime (Perron, n.d.). Obviously, not every time the police go out and raid someone’s property are they going to be successful; people may lose possessions, or worst case, get hurt in the process. Supporters of the …show more content…
Our country was founded on these rights and the Supreme Court is sworn to uphold it, so it’s important for all things to be considered. The Fourth Amendment of the Constitution protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures. So, under the crime control model where police objectives are searches and seizures (among other things) they have to also be careful not to violate rights – which are a concern in the due process model. The constitution addresses due process in both the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments stating that the government “shall not deprive anyone of life, liberty, or property, without the due process of law” (U.S Constitution, n.d.) The Fifth Amendment ensures people the right to refrain from testifying against themselves or implicating themselves in a crime; officers have to be careful in their “war on crime” that they aren’t making people incriminate themselves during the course of the arrest and investigation or else it would be in violation of their rights. Also, the Fourth and Fifth Amendments include the exclusionary rule, which means that an officer using the crime control model need to make sure evidence obtained is done so