CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

Criminal Justice System

Criminal Justice System

The traditional model is centered on the idea that the criminal justice system is the state's legal apparatus for the use of public penal power. In brief, the criminal justice system is considered as the subsystem of the overall legal system of the state that is concerned with crime and punishment. The purpose of the criminal justice system is to secure social order on the territory of the state, by means of crime control through the threat and use of punishment. From this starting point, the basic justification for the systems' existence lies, paradigmatically, in the argument of its general preventive effect. (Adler 1975)

The substantive rules define the crimes that are punished in the particular state or country and are in this regard at the centre of the criminal justice system. These rules are paradigmatically divided into a general and a special part. Typically (notwithstanding terminological differences) a national criminal code lays out the definitions of offences in the code's “special part” and prescribes general principles of responsibility in the code's “general part”. The special part and the general part are considered to be necessarily interrelated; the general part has to be understood in relation to the special part and the scope of criminalization of the special part depends on the rules of the general part. In addition, the rules of substantive criminal law are most often taken to protect the most fundamental interests of a certain (national) society. (Adler 1993)

In more general terms, the traditional model rests upon the idea of the rule of law, at least in its formal sense (cf. legality). The basic requirement of legal certainty is at the core of the criminal justice system. And only by reference to some idea of a monistic and coherent system does it seem possible to ultimately establish the difference between right and wrong action. (Agozino 2003)

By having this normative and institutional organization, the criminal justice system is considered to have the capacity to function as a complete and efficient system. As a state-based system, the criminal justice system is viewed as subordinated to the basic requirements of legitimacy of the US Constitution; above all the criteria of democratic legitimacy and protection of individual rights. (Ahmed 2001)

In fact, inherent in its conception of legitimate penal power, the traditional model perceives the criminal justice system as state-based, in the meaning that the State is ultimately considered as the necessary (and most often also the exclusive) institutional basis of penal power. The criminal justice system is understood as democratically founded in a population of a state, represented by a national legislature, and subordinated to a state's constitution. However, the idea of a conceptual link between the State and the criminal justice system could ultimately be traced to the concept of state sovereignty and to the state's traditional claim to a monopoly of force on its territory. (Ainsworth 1999)

At the same time as the national criminal justice system is considered a subsystem of the legal order ...