Good Essay About Do You Think That We Are Currently Under A Crime Control Model Or A Due Process

model? Or both? Justify your answer. Which model should we be under? Justify
I think that the country’s present criminal justice system can be characterized as one overlapping the crime control model and due process model with a tendency to lean towards the former. According to the BJS, 95% of felony convictions in state courts in 2004 resulted from guilty pleas (Durose and Langan 2007). On the other hand, federal data showed that 97% of convictions in federal courts resulted from guilty pleas (DOJ 2014). Haley and Bohm (2014) suggested that plea bargaining is one of the hallmarks of the crime control model. This is because plea bargaining brings about greater ‘speed and finality’ in resolving cases, which is the paramount goal of this model (Haley and Bohm 2014). Nonetheless, it is impossible for the country’s criminal justice system to advocate for a complete departure from the due process model because it underpins the country’s Bill of Rights. The Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eights Amendments all basically provide that legal guilt, in addition to factual guilt, must be observed in processing suspects and accused (Haley and Bohm 2014).
The due process model should primarily characterize the country’s criminal justice system with the crime control model taking only a secondary role. The due process model takes into account human error (Haley and Bohm 2014) and for this reason is a better model. Moreover, the democratic and liberal nature that underlies the American justice system will be lost and the Bill of Rights will just be simply some historical documents without meaning if the due process model takes a backseat to the crime control model. Plea bargaining can be good and serves a specific purpose, but it should not characterize the criminal justice system because justice is not something that should be bargained or negotiated. The accused should have the liberty to choose to plead guilty, but not compelled or bullied into choosing it. Safety and order are paramount for the continued survival of society, but they should not be achieved at the expense of justice.

References

DOJ (2014). “United States Attorneys’ Annual Statistical Report: Fiscal Year 2013.” Department of Justice. Retrieved from www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/usao/legacy/2014/09/22/13statrpt.pdf
Durose, M. and Langan, P. (2007). “Felony Sentences in State Courts, 2004.” Bureau of Justice Statistics. Retrieved from http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=909
Haley, K. and Bohm, R. (2014). Introduction to Criminal Justice. McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages.