criminal justice | Wex | US Law | LII / Legal Information Institute

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class="container-fluid"> <div class="row"> <div title="Definitions Frame"></div> <div id="extracted-content"> <div id="main-content"> <h1 class="title" id="page-title">criminal justice</h1>  <h2 class="element-invisible">Primary tabs</h2> <div id="content1"> <article about="/wex/criminal_justice" class="node-11055 node node-wex-cck en view-mode-full clearfix" typeof="sioc:Item foaf:Document"> <header> <span class="rdf-meta element-hidden" content="criminal justice" property="dc:title"></span> </header> <div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"> <div class="field-items"> <div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-14508618-7fff-cf5b-6166-050cb9730580">Criminal justice is an umbrella term that refers to the </span><a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/law">laws</a>, <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/procedural_law">procedures</a>, institutions, and policies at play before, during, and after the commission of a <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/crime">crime</a>. As a modern concept, criminal justice expresses two central ideas:聽</p> <ul dir="ltr"> <li><span id="docs-internal-guid-14508618-7fff-cf5b-6166-050cb9730580f0a6fc90-9083-11ef-b8c7-e9213680cfdc">Suspects, convicted </span><a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/criminal">criminals</a> and victims of crime all have certain <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/right#:~:text=A%20power%20or%20privilege%20held,2.">rights</a>;</li> <li><span id="docs-internal-guid-14508618-7fff-cf5b-6166-050cb9730580f0a6fc91-9083-11ef-b8c7-e9213680cfdc">Criminal conduct should be </span><a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/prosecute#:~:text=In%20criminal%20law%2C%20prosecute%20means,criminal%20proceedings%20against%20a%20person.">prosecuted</a> and punished by the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/state#:~:text=A%20state%20is%20a%20political,a%20territory%20defined%20by%20frontiers.">state</a> following set laws.聽</li> </ul> <p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-14508618-7fff-cf5b-6166-050cb9730580f0a6fc92-9083-11ef-b8c7-e9213680cfdc">By contrast, throughout ancient history, criminal acts were resolved privately, often by聽鈥漛lood feuds鈥澛爁or </span><a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/murder#:~:text=Definition,unlawfully%20kills%20another%20human%20being.">murder</a> and聽<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-45799443">trial by ordeal</a>聽for other crimes. The biblical phrase "an eye for an eye" embodied the criminal justice principles of ancient times. In聽<a href="https://kosmossociety.chs.harvard.edu/?p=40452">ancient Athens</a>, for example, citizens were left to investigate and prosecute crimes with no government assistance. In this context, criminal justice referred to all available means private citizens had to avenge the harm caused by a crime.</p> <p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-14508618-7fff-cf5b-6166-050cb9730580f0a6fc93-9083-11ef-b8c7-e9213680cfdc">Criminal justice has since evolved as a concept. In modern times, criminal justice reflects developments in </span><a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/legal">legal</a> theory, social science, politics, and changes in legal systems. Private citizens are no longer charged with the duty to investigate and prosecute crimes for personal vengeance. Instead, modern societies are built on a聽social contract聽that governments are responsible for maintaining order in their <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/jurisdiction#:~:text=definition,Marathon%20Oil%20Co.">jurisdictions</a>. To achieve order, governments created criminal laws, developed police systems, and established <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/court">courts</a> and facilities for <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/incarceration">incarceration</a>; including <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/jail">jails</a> and <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/prison">prisons</a>. Governments funded criminal defense lawyers to represent the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/indigent#:~:text=A%20person%20is%20referred%20to,Wainwright.">indigent</a> in legal proceedings and paid the salaries of judges to apply laws to the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/case">case</a> at hand. In this context, criminal justice is the system that prescribes the fate of the criminal. It is also the system that provides recompense to the victim under the rule of law. Criminal justice seeks to deter future crimes by creating <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/penalty#:~:text=A%20penalty%20is%20the%20punishment,%2C%20a%20rule%2C%20or%20regulation.">penalties</a> for criminal conduct and rehabilitate criminals through incarceration. It is a system that delivers "<a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/justice#:~:text=Justice%20is%20a%20legal%20structure,the%20state%20courts%20of%20appeal.">justice</a>" through聽a punishment <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/justice-retributive/">proportionate</a> to the crime.</p> <p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-14508618-7fff-cf5b-6166-050cb9730580f0a6fc94-9083-11ef-b8c7-e9213680cfdc">In the United States, criminal justice evolved dramatically during the聽</span><a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/herbert-hoover/">Hoover administration</a>聽when聽President Herbert Hoover聽established聽<a href="https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/44540NCJRS.pdf">the National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement</a>, chaired by聽<a href="https://www.justice.gov/ag/bio/wickersham-george-woodward">U.S. Attorney General George Wickersham</a>. Known as聽<a href="https://law.jrank.org/pages/11309/Wickersham-Commission.html">the Wickersham Commission</a>, the coalition studied the criminal justice system's current state, from policing tactics, prison conditions, and the root causes of crime. The final report documented rampant corruption among police officers, dangerous prison conditions, and hostile police tactics. Indeed, the聽<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1147362">Wickersham Report</a>聽criticized the police for their "general failure... to detect and arrest criminals guilty of the many murders, spectacular bank, payroll, and other holdups and sensational robberies with guns." In turn, the Commission led to dramatic reform in the criminal justice system.</p> <p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-14508618-7fff-cf5b-6166-050cb9730580f0a6fc95-9083-11ef-b8c7-e9213680cfdc">Criminal justice also refers to聽</span><a href="https://eji.org/criminal-justice-reform/">reform movements</a>聽targeted at ending聽<a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/history-mass-incarceration">mass incarceration</a>. In the聽United States, criminal justice reform efforts highlight issues such as聽<a href="https://ccrjustice.org/home/what-we-do/issues/discriminatory-policing">discriminatory policing</a>, the聽disproportionate number of poor people of color incarcerated, the聽high cost of incarceration, the聽<a href="https://eji.org/issues/prison-conditions/">dangerous conditions</a>聽of the prison, and the聽questionable benefit聽of imprisonment to聽<a href="https://storage.googleapis.com/vera-web-assets/downloads/Publications/for-the-record-prison-paradox-incarceration-not-safer/legacy_downloads/for-the-record-prison-paradox_02.pdf">public safety</a>, among others.</p> <p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-14508618-7fff-cf5b-6166-050cb9730580f0a6fc96-9083-11ef-b8c7-e9213680cfdc">聽[Last updated in July of 2022 by the</span><a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/lii/about/lii_staff/wdt"> Wex Definitions Team</a>]聽</p> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-7 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"> <ul> <li class="field-label">wex <ul class="field-items"> <li class="field-item even"><a aria-label="category: wex: CIVICS" datatype="" href="/wex/category/civics" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" typeof="skos:Concept">CIVICS</a></li> <li class="field-item odd"><a aria-label="category: wex: government" datatype="" href="/wex/category/government" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" typeof="skos:Concept">government</a></li> <li class="field-item even"><a aria-label="category: wex: THE LEGAL PROCESS" datatype="" href="/wex/category/the_legal_process" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" typeof="skos:Concept">THE LEGAL PROCESS</a></li> <li class="field-item odd"><a aria-label="category: wex: criminal law" datatype="" href="/wex/category/criminal_law" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" typeof="skos:Concept">criminal law</a></li> <li class="field-item even"><a aria-label="category: wex: criminal procedure" datatype="" href="/wex/category/criminal_procedure" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" typeof="skos:Concept">criminal procedure</a></li> <li class="field-item odd"><a aria-label="category: wex: evidence" datatype="" href="/wex/category/evidence" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" typeof="skos:Concept">evidence</a></li> <li class="field-item even"><a aria-label="category: wex: criminal law and procedure" datatype="" href="/wex/category/criminal_law_and_procedure" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" typeof="skos:Concept">criminal law and procedure</a></li> <li class="field-item odd"><a aria-label="category: wex: legal education and practice" datatype="" href="/wex/category/legal_education_and_practice" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" typeof="skos:Concept">legal education and practice</a></li> <li class="field-item even"><a aria-label="category: wex: wex articles" datatype="" href="/wex/category/wex_articles" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" typeof="skos:Concept">wex articles</a></li> <li class="field-item odd"><a aria-label="category: wex: wex definitions" datatype="" href="/wex/category/wex_definitions" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" typeof="skos:Concept">wex definitions</a></li> </ul> </li> </ul> </div> </article> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div id="page-bottom" aria-hidden="true"> <div class="region region-bottom"> <div id="block-liidfp-2" class="block block-liidfp first last odd"> <div class="gfs"> <div id="div-gpt-ad-bottom" data-google-query-id="CNH77Z7C7d8CFURLAQodp9oMpg"> <script type="text/javascript"> googletag.cmd.push(function () { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-bottom'); 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