Course Syllabus

The criminal justice system is a living, breathing organism that exists to help protect people, maintain order, punish wrongdoers, and compensate victims. We call it a living breathing organism because it operates under many of the same principles that an organism does, it has a purpose, it uses the principle of cause and effect, and it has many parts that function independently. Nevertheless, to see the primary purpose come to fruition, it can grow or collapse according to a variety of circumstances, and it can be considered "sick" or "healthy" just to name a few. 

It is important to know, however, that the criminal justice system is not something you can easily point to and say, "That is the criminal justice system." It is not only an organism but it is also a concept, like political power. With politics, you can point to the White House or to Capitol Hill and say, "That is where politics happens." although everyone knows that political power stretches out from the White House and Capitol Hill into the very fabric of society, through our democratic process, in all levels of government (federal, state, and municipal).

In the same way, the criminal justice system cannot be pointed to, specifically. Instead, because it is a concept, the best you can do is point to one part of the criminal justice system, the courts, or a lawyer, or a police car, and say that that thing is just a part of a greater thing. 

The ultimate purpose of a criminal justice system is to maintain order. To achieve this, different parts of the criminal justice system use different tactics and strategies to help maintain order: The Constitution outlines rights of people, lawmakers create laws, police use patrolling techniques, courts impose punishment, and so on, all to help maintain order. 

The concept of maintaining order is just that, a concept. Will we ever get to a place in which we do not need a criminal justice system? Unfortunately, no. It can never be fully achieved in spite of what shows such as Star Trek, might have us believe. We will explore why this is the case later in the course. 

To "achieve" this ultimate, and by "achieve" of course, we mean simply to strive to achieve it, the various parts of the criminal justice system work independently, but together to create confines (laws) in which people can act and to proactively and reactively deal with people who step outside of those confines. 

Some of the proactive measures include education, socialization, community policing, and the threat of punishment. Some reactive measures include incarceration, capital punishment, fines, restitution, and loss of rights. Neither of these lists are comprehensive, but are simply meant to show you how the criminal justice system goes about trying to achieve its unachievable goal. 

Although the unachievable goal of the criminal justice system is to maintain order, that is not the intended result. The intended result of the criminal justice system is to have happy citizens who can live their lives peacefully. In general, this is very achievable, although it will never be fully achievable because the saying is true, "You can't please everyone all the time."