Criminal Justice System
Part 1.

1. Research the training requirements for your local police department (searching for the State’s POST requirements will help you with find this information)

2. Find 2 areas of training that you think are most valuable for police based on what you read this week, and based on the argument that police do not have good training- share these in the discussion board and tell WHY you think they are most valuable

3. Identify 2 areas where you think training is lacking in terms of how training in these areas would help the current state of police and community relations today and explain WHY you think the training is lacking and HOW training in these areas may improve policing and police/community relations.

Part 2.

It is often stated that the United States does not have two systems of courts (i.e. State and Federal), rather, we have 51, because each State has its own system and then there is the Federal system. Discuss two pros and two cons of our current court system and then detail how having 51 “systems” may impact the idea of equality under the court of law in your opinion. Be sure to use resources to back up your opinion.

Part 3

Below are scenarios of two crimes. The questions for the discussion follow each of the scenarios.

You must use at least two resources to back up your thoughts and you must base your opinion off of your readings for the week.

1. A murderer, who experienced years of abuse at the hands of his victim, finally “snapped” and killed his girlfriend. Should this offender be considered for a sentence of community supervision? Why or why not? In addition to providing justification with resources, detail two factors you took into consideration in determining whether or not they should receive this sentence.

2. A college student who has no previous criminal record engaged in reckless driving and a pedestrian was killed as a result. Should this offender be considered for a sentence of community supervision? Why or why not? In addition to providing justification with resources, detail two factors you took into consideration in determining whether or not they should receive this sentence.

Part 4.

Based on what you have learned in this class, come up with a solid policy that you think should be implemented into the Criminal Justice system. Base this recommendation off of everything you have learned (e.g., crime, why people commit crimes, victimization, police, courts, corrections, CJ policy, etc..). Your policy should be directed at either controlling crime or changing police, courts or corrections. Be sure to use several resources to back up your justification for the policy. Also be sure to give your policy a name!