The criminal justice set of processes that have been established by the US government to combat crime as well as impose penalties on law-breakers. The system is composed of collective institutions through which an accused person – offender – passes until their accusations have been disposed or conclusions drawn for the assessed punishment ( Neubauer, & Fradella, 2015 ). Neubauer illustrates that the system is made up of three major parts including law enforcement, adjudication, and corrections. The law enforcement part involves the police, sheriffs, and marshals. Also, adjudication is inclusive of judges, lawyers, and prosecutors while corrections part includes prison officials, parole officers, and probation officers. In the criminal justice system, the offender first contacts the law enforcement unit, say a police officer, who investigates the wrong-doing and warrants an arrest. Secondly, the court takes up the disputes and works through justice to administer a settlement. If the offender is found guilty, the court system turns them to the correctional authorities.
There are two distinct models used in the criminal justice system. These models include the consensus model and the conflict model. The consensus or rather the systems perspective model emphasizes on cooperation in a bid to produce justice. Technically, the model denotes a due process mode of administering justice where the majority of citizens share common values and beliefs. The conflict model, on the other hand, implies that to produce justice the criminal justice system ought to work competitively as opposed to cooperatively. In this article, we shall look into the pros on the US criminal justice system as a non-system, in other words, advantages of the conflict model in administering justice.
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The conflict model entails a school of thought denoting that the model represents the reality of criminal justice ( Akers, 2013 ). The theory is a field of sociology focusing on competition as well as the dynamics of conflicting interests. The model tries to assess the functionality and goals within a criminal justice system. The model is advantageous in some ways. For instance, the model is not oriented in what is right or wrong. Also, the conflict model is not biased in that it does not declare the superiority of criminal justice system. The model further describes and analyzes impacts as well as intentions of different systems and events.
Another major pro of the conflict model is that it helps us understand the social mechanics behind competing groups and in turn, the ability to exert a criminal system influence on a given society. The model further encourages the understanding in situations of conflict of interest. A conflict model in the criminal justice system is also found to maintain social order in the society. The model addresses the societal inequalities though competition and conflict. Historically, it is evident that criminal justice systems habitually share little information. By employing a conflict model in the system , information flow is enhanced, and hence the society benefits from the competitiveness within the system processes. Unlike the consensus model where there is majority agreement, a conflict model represents larger and diverse segments of the society. The model captures different value systems – norms – and exposes the constant struggle that exists between separated segments .
In conclusion, the criminal justice system is composed of two distinct models including the consensus and the conflict model. The consensus model works under majority agreement where people are gathering as a group form a society and decide on what is wrong or right. Conflict model conversely works under diverse segments of society harboring different norms that encourage competitiveness. The conflict model is then unbiased on the superiority of the criminal justice system and is hence not oriented on what is right or wrong in the society. Furthermore, the model works against the habitual sharing of little information concerning the system.
References
Akers, R. L. (2013). Criminological theories: Introduction and evaluation : Routledge.
Neubauer, D. W., & Fradella, H. F. (2015). America's courts and the criminal justice system: . Cengage Learning.
