Criminal Justice Policy Process



Criminal Justice Policy Process

Introduction

The entire society is dependent on the criminal justice system to regulate the law and order within the society. The criminal justice system has to make sure that they provide a safe and secure environment for the citizens. In order to provide a safe and secure environment for the society, the criminal justice system has to remove certain dangerous and criminal minded individuals from the society who pose a threat to the citizens or the properties. This is the reason why the criminal justice system has to design and implement certain policies to follow so that they can manage to achieve the safe and secure society. The paper discusses the criminal justice policy process and the key actors that play a part in the policy process. Furthermore, the steps involved in the policy making process of the criminal system are also discusses and the recommendations have been given for bringing improvement in the policy process.

Key Roles in the Criminal Justice Policy Process

Policies are not created overnight and by everyone. Policy making is a prolong process in which some major participants are involved. There is a certain policy community comprising of key players who analyze the situation, come up with effective solutions. The policy community is defined as a division of the political system that has a dominant voice in the determination of the decisions of the government because of its vested interests, functional responsibilities and specialized knowledge (Sampson & Scott, 2009). The policy community can play a part in specific field of the public activity and they have been given the authority by the society as well as the public authorities to determine the making and implementation of the policy process.

There are two groups in the policy community that play a key role in the criminal justice police process. These two groups include the sub-government and the attentive public. The sub-government is made up of the different agencies of the government and elected officials. These are the main players that actually make the policies in the criminal system. the federal level include the president and Congress' elected members, the local and state level includes the state legislatures, city councils, mayors and governors (McKay, 2001). The attentive public is not a close knitted group as compared to the sub-government. The attentive public consist important members though they are less central private institutions, government agencies, specific interests, pressure groups and individuals. These policy community members are responsible for forming such an environment in which proper justice is equally provided to everyone. The key players design the laws and policies that make guidelines for people to follow to maintain order in the country (McCombs, 2004). The illegal activities or injustice in the country leads to punishments and penalties to the culprits.

Steps Involved in the Policy Process

The policy process of the criminal justice system involves a series of simple steps. These steps include identification of the problem, agenda setting, and formulation of the policy, implementation of the ...