iPAP Briefing: UK Criminal Justice Reform Lessons from US History

This report examines the history of the United States criminal justice system between the early 1980s and the early 2000s to identify principal lessons for criminal justice reform in the United Kingdom. It begins by outlining the historical context of the US system, tracing its roots back to colonial times and the subsequent development of the US Constitution, which guaranteed rights and freedoms absent during the colonial period. The report then delves into significant reforms and changes that have occurred in the US criminal justice system, including the shift from a decentralized approach to a more coordinated national effort aided by the Federal Government. It highlights the establishment of the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA) and the enactment of the Omnibus Crime bill in 1984, which led to a new Federal regime for prosecuting serious criminals and gang leaders. Furthermore, the report emphasizes the importance of collaboration not only among state, local, and federal levels but also with the media and the community, referencing the establishment of victim-witness assistance programs and community-based initiatives like Crime Stoppers. The analysis concludes that a collaborative approach involving law enforcement, media, and the community is essential for effectively deterring crime and ensuring the protection of citizens.

Running head: CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Critical Perspectives on Criminal Justice
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Overview
 The Criminal Justice System in the United States dates back to the colonial days when
the nationals were governed under the British laws;
 The laws and punishments were not considered as just and fair;
 Post the American Revolution, the US Constitution was drafted that guaranteed rights
and freedoms which were not in place during the colonial period;
 This marked the beginning of stipulating guidelines for punishments , crime and
procedures that must be followed to safeguard the rights of the innocent;
Introduction
Criminal justice may be defined as the systems of practices and institutions of
governments that are purported to uphold social deterring or control and mitigating crime or
sanctioning those who infringes such laws. The infringers are deterred with rehabilitation efforts
and criminal penalties (Braswell, McCarthy and McCarthy 2017). The criminal justice system
varies from one country to another. In the United States, after a person is charged of an offence,
they are entitled to certain rights whereas in come other countries the person charged with an
offence are not even entitled to any rights to trials or remain silent on being questioned; instead,
they are sentenced without having any access to such rights.
In the United States, the criminal justice policy has been governed by the 1967
President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice that paved the
way for the enactment of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act 1968. This system
promoted an approach towards criminal justice that ensured improved coordination between
courts, correctional agencies and law enforcement. This approach was defined as a criminal

2CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON CRIMINAL JUSTICE
justice system, which provided the means for society to implement a standard of conduct that is
necessary to safeguard the community and the individuals of the community.
Issues and Analysis
According to Pakes (2017), although the pattern of initiating a criminal case is similar in
both UK and US that is, it commences with an arrest, there are certain points that differentiates
America from England. After the United States have gained its independence, the country
developed its very own Common law based upon the Constitution. While England , Northern
Ireland, Wales rely on Common Law or case laws, Scotland follows both civil law and common
law amongst which, majority of laws derive from legislation and statutes. The difference is while
common law particularly deals with case laws, the judge made decisions does not bind civil
laws.
Further, in the United States, a lawyer is entitled to deal with criminal or civil matter, in
the UK, lawyers are not called to deal with every matters unlike US where solicitors are involved
in almost every legal matters including representing clients in petty criminal matters. The
solicitors are empowered to act directly on behalf of their clients.
As stated above, after gaining independence, the USA criminal justice system has
undergone several significant reforms and implemented such changes to ensure protection of the
rights of the innocent. Pakes (2017) states that the past three decades have witnessed significant
changes in respect of crimes and criminals, in resources invested in combating crime and in the
institutions that are relied upon to enforce laws and prevent crimes.
One of the significant changes refers to the transformation from the decentralized
approach to criminal justice, which was prevalent since the establishment of the Republic to a

3CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON CRIMINAL JUSTICE
more coordinated national effort that has been aided by the Federal Government. Further, there
has been a significant innovation at State, local and Federal levels, mostly due to the assistance
from Federal Department of Justice agencies. It has changed the manner in which governments
should respond to crime and criminal at every level. After the establishment of Law
Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA), it launched a massive grant-making program
to provide Federal financial support to the local and State criminal justice systems (Reiman and
Leighton 2015).
With the enactment of the Omnibus Crime bill in 1984, new Federal regime was
developed to prosecute serious criminals and gang leaders. In 1988, Federal sentencing laws
were made stronger after the enactment of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act. Pound (2018) states in
1990, collaboration in the Federal, local and State in prosecuting offenders involved in drug
offenses and weapon offenses. Federal task force activity increased after the establishment of
FBI’s Safe Streets Program to combat violent crimes in American cities.
Despite the huge incline in the Federal assistance and other direct expenses funded by the
Federal government agencies, local and state governments are mostly involved in spending most
of the resources in respect of criminal justice work. Pakes (2017) asserted that the incline in the
coordination has not only taken place vertically that is between Federal, local and State criminal
justice agencies which resulted in closer working relationship but it also took place horizontally
resulting in close working relationship between public agencies, other justice agencies and
private organizations. The consistency in the collaborative relationship is the outcome of the
rapid growth and intricacies in crime, which is not possible for a single criminal justice agency,
address and that the solution to these crimes require more than a legal enforcement response.

4CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Similarly, during 1980s and 1990s, jurisdictions rapidly established victim-witness
assistance programs that aimed at supporting victims within the criminal justice system.
Thousands of community-based programs were established to meet the needs of the victims of
crime. Other community-based programs were introduced like Crime Stoppers programs, which
required reluctant citizens to provide secret information regarding suspected criminals to the
police. These programs were established and it worked with community, news media and offered
cash rewards to people who provided such information about criminal suspects (Schmalleger
2017).
From the above discussions, it can be stated that the evolution of criminal justice system
in the United States is evident of the fact that the police officials alone cannot handle rapid
growth in the criminal activities (Greer and Reiner 2015). It requires collaboration not only at the
state, local and federal level but also requires collaboration with the media and community
altogether.
As mentioned earlier, the United states have established various community programs
that assists the law enforcement authorities to seek information about criminal suspects which
otherwise they are unable to obtain if they did not enabled participation of the community.
Additionally, it shall make the public more aware and cautious about the criminal activities in
their locality, state and nation (Neubauer and Fradella 2015). Therefore, collaboration with the
law enforcement of authorities, media and community shall enable nation to deter crime instead
of deterring the criminals ensuring protection of its nationals.

5CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON CRIMINAL JUSTICE
References
Braswell, M.C., McCarthy, B.R. and McCarthy, B.J., 2017. Justice, crime, and ethics. Taylor &
Francis.
Cole, G.F., Smith, C.E. and DeJong, C., 2018. The American system of criminal justice. Cengage
Learning.
Greer, C. and Reiner, R., 2015. Mediated Mayhem: Media, crime and criminal justice.
Neubauer, D.W. and Fradella, H.F., 2015. America's courts and the criminal justice system.
Cengage Learning.
Pakes, F., 2017. Comparative criminal justice. Routledge.
Pound, R., 2018. Criminal justice in America. Routledge.
Reiman, J. and Leighton, P., 2015. The rich get richer and the poor get prison: Ideology, class,
and criminal justice. Routledge.
Schmalleger, F., 2017. Criminal justice. Pearson.