Criminal Justice System and its Three Branches

This article explores the functioning of the criminal justice system and its three branches: law enforcement, court, and correction. It discusses how these branches interact and rely on each other for justice.

Running head: CRIMINAL JUSTIC E 101 1
Criminal Justice 101
Name
Institution

CRIMINAL JUSTICE 101 2
Criminal justice system has a unique way of operation as each activity relies on the
outcome of another activity. How the three branches operate can be likened to the way the
arms of the government operate. All the three branches have different functions uniquely
designed to achieve justice at the end. Most justice systems reflect the needs of the society
and are structured in a way to deal with the problems emerging within a society.
The law enforcement branch has the role of apprehending criminals and ensuring that
proper investigation is conducted into the matter before presenting the suspect in court.
Evidence presented by the police is very crucial in the continuity of the case. The law
enforcement branch is responsible for arrests, collecting of evidence from crime scene,
investigating the matter and presenting the same to the court branch. The court branch is
responsible for hearing and deciding the cases as presented before it relying on the evidence
produced from both parties. In most cases the court determines the sentencing and sanctions
to be imposed on a convicted suspect. The correction branch has the responsibility to oversee
that the sentence pronounced by the court branch is served. This branch also uses correctional
facilities to ensure that criminals are punished and reformed.
The branches interact with one another in limited ways; actually law enforcement branch
does not interact with correction branch. The court branch receives evidence from the law
enforcement branch; the suspects are arraigned before court from the law enforcement branch
(Neubauer & Fradella, 2015). The correction branch receives convicts from the court branch
and oversees that they serve their sentences.
All the three branches complement each other as this is seen in the way they interact; the
court receives evidences from the law enforcement branch. It’s the police who arraign
suspects before court. The correction branch ensures that the sentence is served as directed by
the court (Roth, 2010).

CRIMINAL JUSTICE 101 3
If one branch is broken then there would be no criminal justice system at all because they
all rely on each other to function. For instance courts would have no cases to listen to if the
law enforcement branch is broken; the correction branch will have no criminals to oversee
their sentencing.
All parts of the systems are important and none is important than the other because none
can function independently. It is not possible for one part of the system to change without
influencing the others because this will affect the way in which the systems operate.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE 101 4
Reference
Neubauer, W., & Fradella, H. (2015). America's Courts and the Criminal Justice System.
Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
Roth, M. (2010). Crime and Punishment: A History of the Criminal Justice System.
Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.