Main Stages of the Criminal Justice Process

This report covers the main stages required for the process of criminal justice process. It will also explore the way various stakeholders of criminal justice work together for delivering justice to the people. Different methods have discussed in the report to measure the effectiveness of the process. Evaluation of stakeholders’ role in minimizing reoffending is supported by law case studies.

TASK 2

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Main stages of the criminal justice process.....................................................................................3
Explore how stakeholders work together in the delivery of justice.................................................5
Different methods of measuring the effectiveness of the criminal justice process.........................6
Evaluate stakeholders’ effectiveness in reducing reoffending using specific case studies.............7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
The criminal justice system refers to those agencies of the government working to
enforce laws, pass judgments on criminal cases, and improve criminal conduct. In fact,
the criminal justice system is an instrument of social control, because society considers
certain behaviors to be so dangerous and destructive that it tries its best to control
them. The act of preventing, controlling and punishing those who do this is done by
judicial institutions. This report covers the main stages required for the process of
criminal justice process. It will also explore the way various stakeholders of criminal
justice work together for delivering justice to the people. To support this; different
methods have discussed in the report to measure the effectiveness of the process.
Evaluation of stakeholders’ role in minimizing reoffending is supported by law case
studies. An important aspect of judicial reform is the restructuring of the functioning of
the court and judicial procedures so that cases can be disposed of quickly.
Main stages of the criminal justice process
Criminal justice is the process, which involves various steps starts with investigation of
particular report and finish with punishing convict through applying rules and decision
making of offender (Neubauer and Fradella, 2018). Some of the important steps of
criminal justice process are discussed below:
1. Investigation: Police investigate, which may include arrest. Once the investigation is
over, the police will file all their findings in a charge sheet. If it is understood that
there is sufficient evidence on the charge sheet then the case goes to court. On the
flipside, after their investigation if the police conclude that there is not enough
evidence or evidence that the crime has been committed, they can close the case in
court after justifying their reasons (The Process of Criminal Justice, 2020).
2. Arrest warrant: A warrant is an official order signed by a magistrate, who orders the
police to do certain things. An arrest warrant is a magistrate's order to arrest
someone. In some circumstances the magistrate may also authorize any other
person to execute an arrest warrant.

3. Prosecution: A defendant is a person accused of committing a crime in a criminal
prosecution or against whom some sort of civil relief is being sought in a civil case.
The terminology varies from one jurisdiction to another. For example, Scots law does
not use the term "defendant"; the term "accused" or "panel" is used in criminal
proceedings and as "defender" in criminal proceedings.
4. Indictment: An indictment is a document that formally accuses a person of a criminal
act and lists that person's charges. The indictment process involves a grand jury, a
jury that analyzes the evidence brought by the prosecution to decide whether the
case should proceed to trial.
5. Arraignment: The court decides whether to proceed with the proceedings. If he
decides that there is no truth in the case, he dismisses the case without calling the
"defendant". But if the court feels that there is any truth in this matter then it continues
the proceedings.
6. Pretrial detention: This law empowers the government to take into custody any
person who is a threat to the security system. This law allows the government to
imprison anyone over the age of 16 for a period of two years without prosecuting
them.
7. Plea Bargaining: It is a bargaining provisions were made to deal with cases of
imprisonment up to seven years, which is not connected to social crime. In this, the
investigation officer and the victim have to agree with convict. There is an argument
to abolish the reason for the non-use of this law.
8. Trial/adjudication of guilt: A panel of jury members at trial determines that the
defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt or not guilty. The vast majority of
criminal cases never get to the trial stage. Most are resolved prior to testing in the
pre-trial speed stage or plea bargaining platform (Bohm and Haley, 2017).
9. Sentencing: If convict is found guilty, then judge passes a sentence which includes
fine, punishment, probation and a period of incarceration like jail or prison.
10. Appeals: If such an order of acquittal has been passed in any case established
by the complainant and the High Court, then on this application made by the
complainant, special leave is granted to appeal the order of acquittal.

11. Punishment and Rehabilitation: If convict found guilty then local, state or federal
correctional authorities will released before the expiration of maximum sentences.
Explore how stakeholders work together in the delivery of justice
The main function of the judicial system is not just to resolve disputes but also to protect
justice. How effective the judicial system is depends on the extent to which it is able to
protect justice. Theoretically it is believed that the idea of justice goes ahead with the
perception of positive law but as far as practice is concerned, the concept of ‘justice
accords to law' dominates over justice. While joining the process of reforming the law,
we should keep three things in mind that this reform should be in keeping with quality
justice and speedy justice (Cole, Smith and DeJong, 2018).
The role of stakeholders in working together in delivery of justice is discussed below:
Police: Police in the country have been entrusted with the responsibility of maintaining
common law system, preventing and investigating crimes. The common law system and
police are subjects of the State Government under the Constitution. Therefore, the state
government is controlled by the police and it is taken care of by the state government.
Court: Each state has a court which has appellate jurisdiction throughout whole area.
There are several lower courts under these local courts. Like the Central courts and the
Magistrate Courts, several provisions have been made in the Constitution to keep the
local Courts independent of the Executive (DeMatteo and et.al., 2019).
Advocate: These lawyers take full care that their client's arguments are best presented
before the court. The job of lawyers is to understand these laws and help us all to make
our life successful. Many lawyers help the distressed and contribute to areas such as
women's rights. If you want to bring changes in people's lives for a better tomorrow,
then law is the best path.
These stakeholders try to deliver justice to victim through coordination and with the
support of truth. The main objective of court is to not punishing innocent at any cost.

Different methods of measuring the effectiveness of the criminal justice
process
There is no specific method to measure the effectiveness of the criminal justice process;
but there are certain measures which can show the result whether criminal justice is
doing better than other institutes or it can be used to compare different courts and
countries performance in achieving justice for the people (Agozino, 2018). Some of
these measures are discussed below:
1. The frequency of cases in the court:
In this performance analyses method; it is recorded that how much cases have been
converted into successful justice to the public. Cases are analyzed on the basis of
above criteria and more result shows increasing crime and low level punishment but at
the same time; alertness of police to detect issues in the society.
2. Analyzing whether maximum result has been achieved at minimum cost:
Here minimum cost refers to extra payment given for extra hearing to the prosecution. If
cases are solved at minimum time then it will become factor to reduce overall cost or
expenses bared by clients. Hence, it measures the whether criminal justice process has
achieved optimized result or not.
3. Measuring the satisfaction level and quality of decisions and the degree to which
there is satisfaction with process:
This measurement is done through survey or questioning to clients or victims whether
they are satisfied with the result or statement by judge or not. It consist overall
evaluation or experience from different stake holders.
4. Time within which activities or processes occur:
This time mentioned here denotes over all duration of whole cycle of criminal justice
process. This cycle starts with detecting case and ends with statement by jury or court.
The minimum time to complete whole cycle denotes better performance of criminal
justice process (Siegel and Worrall, 2018).

Evaluate stakeholders’ effectiveness in reducing reoffending using
specific case studies
One of the primary elements of the adolescent equity framework is to keep adolescents
from re-ordering the demonstrations that will be viewed as offenses submitted by
grown-ups (Lofstrom and Raphael, 2016). Regardless of whether the court is a
functioning member in network wide counteraction exercises, it will hold the essential
duty to react to adolescents who were not kept from taking part in illicit conduct. So as
to force authorizes or offer types of assistance, the court will keep on deciding the sort
and power of mediations for young people and families that precede it. Regardless of
whether the court can diminish repeating, on the capacity to complete two interrelated
assignments relies upon. The viability lies in the capacity of the framework to (a) meddle
with the correct young people and (b) utilize the right sort and measure of intercession.
To accomplish this perfect, or if nothing else push toward it, the court expected to
analyze its techniques for surveying the different purposes of contact with adolescent
frameworks, their limits, and their way to deal with meddling with their lives. Is, and how
the court's assets and practices can advance the center demonstration of forestalling
protections (Maschi and Dasarathy, 2019).
CONCLUSION
From the analyses of report it can be concluded that, for any solution, we must first
understand the problem. The criminal justice system needs to be reformed to prevent
crime. Police is not an option. Correcting any link in the criminal justice system will not
work. Only with comprehensive reforms will it be done law is the best path. He is called
as Sessions Judge while handling civil cases and District Judge and criminal cases. In
fact, prosecution has no strategy in dealing with habitual criminals. They commit crimes
again and again, but the bail they have received in the past is not rejected. The sixth
link to reform the criminal justice system is related to parallel reforms in the civil justice
system. Actually, both have a common obligation to stop crime.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Agozino, B., 2018. Black women and the criminal justice system: Towards the
decolonisation of victimisation. Routledge.
Bohm, R.M. and Haley, K.N., 2017. Introduction to criminal justice. McGraw-Hill
Education.
Cole, G.F., Smith, C.E. and DeJong, C., 2018. The American system of criminal justice.
Cengage Learning.
DeMatteo, D., and et.al., 2019. Problem-solving courts and the criminal justice system.
Oxford University Press.
Lofstrom, M. and Raphael, S., 2016. Crime, the criminal justice system, and
socioeconomic inequality. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 30(2), pp.103-26.
Maschi, T. and Dasarathy, D., 2019. Aging with mental disorders in the criminal justice
system: a content analysis of the empirical literature. International journal of
offender therapy and comparative criminology, 63(12), pp.2103-2137.
Neubauer, D.W. and Fradella, H.F., 2018. America's courts and the criminal justice
system. Cengage Learning.
Siegel, L.J. and Worrall, J.L., 2018. Essentials of criminal justice. Cengage Learning.
Online
The Process of Criminal Justice, 2020; Online available through:
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system/the-process-of-criminal-justice>