How Police Access Data to Obtain Criminal Information: Uncle Bob's Story

Seal of the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), USA. — “Servicing Our Citizens” (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

by Tabetha Cooper

In the Criminal Justice system there are different types of data.  Law enforcement can obtain just about any type of information desired about any through their databases.  Uncle Bob was arrested for this very reason.  Through Uncle Bob's story a person can see the process and learn the databases officer's have at their fingertips as well as the communication techniques law enforcement agenciesuse.

            Uncle Bob and I reside in California and decided to take a vacation to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.  As later verified on mapquest.com, we were ten miles from Tampa on Interstate 75 when Uncle Bob was pulled over for speeding, he was traveling 80 miles per hour in a 70 mile per hour zone.  Uncle Bob seemed to be a bit nervous about the cop pulling him over.  I guess that he knew at the moment the officer was using his two way radio to call in the license plate number.  He knew that I was on probation for driving with no insurance and Uncle Bob hates delays.  "Uncle Bob, please settle down.  It is alright I have insurance now.  Plus you are driving, there is no reason to worry." I tell him.

            "I am sorry, I will be fine," he replied as he pulled to the shoulder of the interstate.  The officer, I believe his badge read Officer Blake, asked Uncle Bob for his license and registration.  He calmly took out his wallet as I grab my registration and proof of insurance from the glove box.

            As Officer Blake walked back to his vehicle, I told Uncle Bob not to worry because my probation would not come up simply by a license plate check.  He said that he was aware of that.  While Officer Blake was in his care you scanned the bar code on Uncle Bob's driver’s license which verified that they were valid with no restriction.  He then entered the information from Uncle Bob's license (name, birth date, and social security number) into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database.  This is done by accessing the Internet from the mobile office set up in his cruiser.  The mobile office consists of a computer, a two way radio, and a scanner. (Foster, 2005).

            The next thing I knew Officer Blake requested Uncle Bob to step out of the car with his hands in the air.  I ducked slightly to look out of the driver's window, I was going to ask what was going on until I saw that Officer Blake had his gun drawn.  He told me to set in the passenger seat with my hands on the dash.  I was really beginning to wonder what was going on.  Uncle Bob said, "Do what the officer says.  Officer, she has nothing to do with this I promise you that."  That was the last thing I heard from Uncle Bob.  Officer Blake had as my Uncle to place his hands on the trunk of the car.  Although I could not see what was going on I was sure the officer was searching Uncle Bob for weapons. 

            As the officer read Uncle Bob his Miranda Warnings I sat in the car wondering what in the world this was all about.  Uncle Bob did not seem to surprise of the event.  I knew he has been in trouble in the state of California more than one time in the past.  Remembering the big party Uncle Bob had thrown the month before, celebrating his "true freedom" as he put it, I was aware he was no longer on probation.  What could all this be about?  As I finished that though the officer came to my side of the car and started to ask me questions about how I knew Uncle Bob.  Giving the shortest answers possible, I completely complied with Officer Blake.

            Officer Blake explained to me that upon requesting information about Uncle Bob from the NCIC database he learned that Uncle Bob had a warrant out for murder.  "Sir, you have to be mistaken!  He could never do anything like that,” were all the words that I could manage to say.  Deciding the best thing to do was follow them to the police station, I got in my car still dumbfounded by what I had heard.

            Once at the station, the officer found out that both the agency that possessed the warrant on my uncle and their own agency used software purchased from a first tier manufacturer.  He was able to access the portion of Sacramento's record management system (RMS) and evidence management system (EMS) that gave information that pertains to Uncle Bob. (Foster, 2005).  Looking over Officer's Blake shoulder I was able to see that Sacramento's police department had physical evidence, more specifically DNA evidence, that Uncle Bob had raped and murder a little girl that lived on his block.  I could not believe what I had seen.  I called Aunt Pauline and informed her of what was going on.  Meanwhile, Officer Blake booked Uncle Bob and set up extradition back to California.

            As a note to all those interested, Uncle Bob got the death penalty after convicted for the rape and murder of a seven year old girl in Sacramento, California.  California adopted the 1994 Three Strike Law, which states that any offender that has committed their third felony would be sentenced to twenty-five years to life, regardless of the actual offense. (Egelko, 2010)  Since this was Uncle Bob's third offense we knew he would at least get that.  California also adopted the death penalty in 1872 and after ruling it unconstitutional in 1972 went on to reinstate it in 1977.   Needless to say, it was no suprise to the family that Uncle Bob received the death penalty.  We were just happy that Uncle Bob was able to choose lethal injection! (State of California, 2009).

References

Egelko, Bob. (2010) High Court: Calif. can apply '3 strikes' law to juveniles. Retrieved April 20, 2010, from http://www.correctionsone.com/juvenile-offenders/articles/2050079-High

            -Court-Calif-can-apply-3-strikes-law-to-juveniles/

Foster, R.E. (2000). Police Technology. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall

MapQuest. (2010) Driving Directions from Sacramento, California to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.                Retrieved April 19, 2010, from http://www.mapquest.com/maps?1c=Sacramento&1s

            =CA&1y=US&1l=38.581699&1g=-121.493301&1v=CITY&2c=Fort+Lauderdale

            &2s=FL&2y=US&2l=26.121901&2g=-80.1436&2v=CITY

State Of California. (2009) History of Capital Punishment in California. Retrieved April 17,                                 2010, from http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/Reports_Research/historyCapital.html

  

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Criminal Justice Technology: From the Past to the Future

by Tabetha Cooper

Today’s criminal justice system owes a lot to technology.  Without technology, life for law enforcement personnel would be more difficult and more offenders would walk away from the crimes they commit never seeing justice.  According to Foster (2004), technology assists law enforcement but is not the reason crimes get solved.  Criminals are brought to justice by personnel that are assigned a 

Adult Criminal Justice System (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

case, their good judgment, and their ability to use the information that technology provides them.  Technology has evolved over time and it is important to look at all the technology available.  To have full appreciation of the technology that will be used in the criminal justice field an exploration of past, present, and even potential future technology must be conducted.

            Major evolution in technology began in the Political Era of Policing, which lasted from the 1840s through the 1920s.  Best stated in the article History of Police Technology (1998), at the beginning of this era police only used the existing technology of the gun and nightstick.  Both of these technologies are still used today but several advancements have been made throughout the era.  Samuel Morse and Alexander Graham Bell need to be acknowledged for making communication with the police a much easier and quicker task.  In the late 1870s, the criminal justice field adapted the technologies known as the telegraph (Morse), telephone, and police call boxes (Bell).  The telegraph was a way t

FBI Criminal Justice Information Services. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

o communicate using a series of dashes and dots to send a message, according to the National Museum of American History.  Bell invented the telephone making verbal communication possible; although, it took away precious time in an emergency waiting on the operator to patch the call to the desired location.  A short time later police call boxes where appearing on the streets of America and by the early 1900s where being introduced in other countries.  These call boxes where wired directly to the police station so police officers could report their locations and the public could quickly contact the police if need be. (History of the Metropolitan Police).

            Forensics started to see advances in technology during the Political Era as well.  Francis Galton, interested in the fingerprint, believed that no two people’s fingerprints were alike.  He was by no means the only person to notice or find a use for fingerprints, but he was the first to realize the significance of them.  He studied fingerprints and was able to see three different patterns in each: loops, whorls, and arches.  In 1892 he published his findings in his book, Fingerprints.  (Osterburg & Ward, 2007).  Osterburg & Ward (2007) address the fact that prior to 1901 a source of a stain could not be determined.  If the stain was obviously blood there was no way to prove if the source was animal or human.   Paul Uhlenhuth, in 1901, found a way to test to see whether an animal or human deposited the blood found with the precipitin test.  Crime laboratories used to process evidence came into the 

English: A photo of a traditional "blue lamp" as located outside most English police stations. This one is outside the Covent Garden Police Station of the Metropolitan Police in London. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

criminal justice field in 1910, when the first was established in London.  By the 1920s there were many crime laboratories in the United States.

Technologies at the end of the Political Era included not only the gun and night stick, but also the telephone, police call boxes, fingerprinting, and blood testing.  Technologies continued to advance in the next era of policing, the Professional Era (1920-1970).  William Marston believed that a person’s heart rate increased when they were lying.  He came up with a lie detector test that was administered using a blood pressure cuff to monitor blood pressure.  He would ask yes and no questions to determine if someone was lying.  After a series of tests with employees of the Berkley Police Department, Marston was convinced that his 

John Jay College of Criminal Justice Field Trip to Forest Hills - 1993-94 (Photo credit: Duke of Crydee)

method was accurate.  In 1921, the Berkley Police Department began using his method of lie detecting in the investigations of minor thefts in the community.  (Fisher, 2008)

In 1923, Calvin Goddard made another step toward making investigations easier.  He invented the comparison microscope that could be used to compare bullets or cartridges left at the scene of a crime with bullets fired from a particular gun. (Osterburg & Ward, 2007).  If the gun was found at a suspect’s house and was used during the commission of a crime, strong evidence is present for trial.  Transportation for early police officers was either done by foot or bicycle.  In the 1930s police departments started to use police wagons.  Although police wagons were used by a few agencies starting at the beginning of the 1900s, it was not until the 1930s that their use was wide spread. (History of Police Technology, 2008).  Communication also advanced a little more during this era.  According to the Massachusetts Institution of Technology (2000), Al G

ross invented the walkie-talkie in 1938, and then came up with the Citizen’s Band (CB) in 1948.  These two technologies, when combined, became the two-way radio, which gave officers added safety and speedier response times.

Local police motorcyclists (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Making an emergency phone call was difficult throughout much of the Professional Era.  If someone needed police, fire or medical help they had to either call the operator or they had to have the number for the agency they needed at hand.  AT&T launched a plan that was suggested by the National Association of Fire Chiefs, implemented in 1968, for a number that could be used by the public to summon the assistance of emergency personnel.  They wanted the number to be something short that everyone could remember.  Based on the fact that Great Britain was already using 999 as an emergency number and that in the United States 1 as the second and third digit of a number had been reserved for business offices, AT&T decided to make this new emergency number 911.  (Foster, 2004).  The 1960s also brought about a widely used database, the National Crime Information Center (NCIC).  NCIC was implemented by the FBI in 1967, in an attempt to have one program that store several types of criminal information.  NCIC now stores a vast array of information such as fingerprints, DNA samples, stolen items, probated offenders, criminal histories, and missing person’s information. (NCIC, 2010)

As the Professional Era of Policing came to an end around 1970, the Community Policing Era began and is still in effect today.  As time marched on, law enforcement agencies had more resources at their fingertips.  At the beginning of this era most police department were using what had become traditional technologies such as the gun, nightstick, telephone, fingerprinting, and blood testing.  In addition, now they had polygraphs, comparison microscopes, police wagons, two-way radios, and 911 systems.  At the rapid pace that technologies were being offered to the general public, there was more need for additional police technologies and upgrades on existing ones.  In the 1970s computers were introduced into the criminal justice field.  Due to financial reasons, not very many police departments had them.  What departments that had the finances available to use them, did not use them that often due to the complexity of the systems and lack of training available.  It was not until the 1980s that computers were commonly being used.

Police downtown (Photo credit: Toban B.)

As automobiles evolved so did the technology police needed to enforce laws concerning them.  Although police radars were being used in a few police agencies by the late 1940s, the modern police radar was introduced in law enforcement in the 1980s.  When automobiles gained the ability to run at high rates of speed, there was a need for a device that could clock the speed of passing motorist.  John Aker and William Goodson secured a patent, in 1980, for a device that could accurately determine the speed of vehicles as they passed, the police radar.  Using technology now available with the advancements of computers, like microprocessors, helped Aker and Goodson improve existing military technology to give the police radar the ability to give an accurate reading on the speed of moving vehicles. (Traffic Radar Device, 1980).  In addition to the police radar, this era perfected and put many technologies into use.  There are far too many to discuss in detail but the most valuable include: metal detectors, portable x-ray machines used to detect bombs, night vision devices, bulletproof vests, and raid gear. (History of Police Technology, 1998).

In the 1980s, DNA was discovered and explained by Dr. Alec Jeffreys.  DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic acid and states a person’s genetics.  It can be found in the nucleus of cells and is same within every cell of each individual.  Much like fingerprints, no two DNA profiles are the same.  The only exception to this is identical twins.  DNA can be found in skin cells, hair, any bodily fluid, mucus membranes, organs, and fingernails.  With all of the possible place to find DNA, it is very 

State police hunt for the McMath kidnappers in Cape Cod section (Photo credit: Boston Public Library)

probable that a trace amount of it will be left at a crime scene, and when found can lead to a suspect.  The best thing about DNA is that it does not just point a finger to the guilty; it has also freed people that have been incarcerated for years on crimes that they did not commit. (Basic Biology of DNA, 2003)

With the use of computers, many of the existing technologies evolved; computers were becoming more useful for information storage and retrieval.  In 1979, AT&T set Enhanced 911, referred to as E911, into motion.  The E-911 system was able to connect to the telephone company and provide the dispatcher with the telephone number from which the called was made, as well as the address that the phone is actually located.  This worked until cell phones were invented.  By 2001 cell phones were more common than house phones.  With the high volume of calls being placed to 911 dispatched from cell phones, it was evident there needed to be a better way to track the location of the call.  The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) decided that it was time to put tracking devices on cell phones.  Cell phone providers already kept track of which cell phone towers were providing service to a phone that was in use.  With the aid of Geographical Information Systems (GIS), the provider was able to use a triangulation method to determine an approximate location that the call was being placed from.  The triangulation method is done by using the three closest cell phone towers to locate the caller. (Foster, 2004).

: Criminal Justice Center (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Dispatchers were now able to assign speedy emergency help, but the 911 systems were not done evolving yet.  In the early 2000s dispatch centers started using the Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) systems.  CAD systems help manage the dispatch center.  Software and hardware make it possible for dispatchers to access information from a number of databases.  It enables workers to pull up any available information on the 911 caller, including past calls and arrest records.  It helps the responding emergency personnel to be prepared for what they may encounter upon arrival to the scene.  It also has the capability to keep track of an officer’s whereabouts.  This enables the dispatcher to send the closest available unit and know where to send back up, should the need arise. (Foster, 2004).

With the continual evolving of computers and them becoming easier to use, police agencies have utilized them more for their own benefit.  Since the 1980’s several databases have been added to computers that can be accessed through other agencies via the Internet.  One of those databases is a widely used one called Automated Fingerprinting Information Systems (AFIS), here fingerprints can be stored on a computer verses index cards and filed in the storage room of an agency.  The national database can be accessed through NCIC.  Computers have made past duties much easier.  Take crime mapping for example.  At one time crime, mapping had to be done on a big map hung on the wall; pus

: Criminal Justice Center (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

h pins would be stuck in the location of crime, and it helped identify the high crime areas.  Now it can be done on the computer, and with its convenience, can help an officer determine if, when, and where a crime is going to happen in a particular section of town.  Most patrol units have computers in their squad cars that link to NCIC, their agency, and some to AFIS directly.  Since most of society has become dependent on computers, more agencies have developed web pages where the public can voice concerns, leave anonymous crime tips, or simply find out what is going on in their community. (Foster, 2004)

Safety has been a huge concern during this era, not only for law enforcement but also for the general population.  Steps have been made to find less lethal weapon alternatives.  Some of these alternatives include: tazer guns, bean bag rounds, flash grenades, smoke bombs, and rubber bullets.  There are ongoing studies that may help implement future technologies.  Scientists have looked into a person’s reactions with electromagnetic waves.  They hope to find a way to safely cause extreme nausea, a brief seizure, a bout of disorientation, or even something that may make an offender temporarily see white spots before their eyes; anything to momentarily incapacitate him.  Studies are also being done to aid an officer with safety when it comes to his own gun.  Ideas have been formed for a gun that requires a special activation ring or fingerprint verification in order to get it to fire. (Foster, 2004)

English: Blackwell-Thurman Criminal Justice Center (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

All kinds of wonderful technologies are in the works.  There are several devices that can attach to a patrol car.  One will give the officer the ability to turn any traffic light to green, during an emergency.  Another will be a remote that can deploy a spike strip.  A possibility of another device shooting an offender’s car with an electromagnetic beam that can disable his cars entire computer system.  With satellite systems advancing rapidly as well, it may be conceivable that eventually there will be a satellite that transmits footage of a crime happening as it is being committed, so an officer can see what a suspect looks like and where he is going when he leaves the scene of a crime.  One day all security cameras may be linked to one central network that uses facial recognition technology to give the police department the name and all the information available on a suspect before he is even finished committing the crime.  Most valuable merchandise sold in stores today has magnetic strips that sound an alarm if they have not been deactivated.  Plans have been made to manufacture everything with a computer chip that will work off of the same idea of technology.  The chip will always be inside of the merchandise and can be activated using a special scanning device.  This could help aid officers in locating stolen items.  All of these ideas are conceivable and further yet probable.  (Foster, 2004).  Most of these future technologies are being studied and may be implemented before the new criminal justice majors retire from their careers.

Police vans on Waterloo Bridge (Photo credit: Martin Deutsch)

Criminal Technology has made life for law enforcement increasingly easier throughout the years.  Technology slowly began to advance as each era of policing passed.  Officers started out with nothing more than a nightstick and gun.  Today there is more technologies available to police officers than one could mention.  Every new technology leaves promise for a better one down the road.  And with the rapid pace of advancing technology within that last thirty years, it can be agreed that when it comes to technology of tomorrow, the sky is the limit.

References

DNA Initiative. (2003) Basic Biology of DNA. Retrieved May 22, 2010, from             http://www.dna.gov/basics/biology/  

Federal Bureau of Investigation. (2010) NCIC: The National Crime Information Center.   Retrieved May 20, 2010, from http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cjisd/ncic.htm

Fisher, J. (2008) The Polygraph Wars. Retrieved May 23, 2010, from             http://jimfisher.edinboro.edu/forensics/polywar1.html

Foster, R.E. (2004). Police Technology. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (2000) Inventor of the Week. Retrieved May 24, 2010,    from http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/gross.html

National Museum of American History. (N.D.) Telegraph. Retrieved May 23, 2010, from            http://www.150.si.edu/150trav/remember/r819.htm

New World Encyclopedia. (2008) Bell, Alexander Graham. Retrieved May 20, 2010, from                       http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Alexander_Graham_Bell

Osterburg, J.W. & Ward, R.H. (2007) Criminal Investigation: A Method for Reconstructing         the Past (5^thEd.) Newark, NJ. Mathew Bender & Company, Inc.

Patent Storm. (1980) Traffic radar device - US Patent 4236140 Abstract. Retrieved May 21,        2010, from http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/4236140.html

Unknown. (1998) History of Police Technology. Retrieved May 21, 2010, from                                         http://www.police-technology.net/id59.html

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Criminal Justice and Technology: DNA

by 

Tabetha Cooper

In criminal cases, DNA is an effective and accurate evidentiary tool that aids in conclusively convicting the guilty or freeing the innocent.  The art of DNA analysis originated in the 1980's and has since become a routine part of all investigations.  

Micah's DNA (Photo credit: micahb37)

Since DNA analysis has aided in solving so many cases, it is now mandatory for convicted person to submit a DNA sample for future comparison.  Since this endeavor has become successful it is now being debated as to whether a person arrest but not yet convicted should be made to submit a DNA sample.  After the sample has been collected it is stored in a database called CODIS where it can be run among other DNA samples found at past crime scenes and stored for use in impending investigations.  This wonderful scientific discovery and its wide spread use has raised ethical questions regarding privacy when comes to mandating the not yet convicted to submit a sample of their DNA.  Upon understanding what DNA is, its use, and hearing arguments on both sides of this issue, I am sure that you will find mandating arrestee’s to submit a DNA sampling to a useful procedure.   

            Deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA is the molecule that represents a person's unique genetic makeup.  It can be found in any cell with a nucleus and is the same within each cell of a person's body.  It has four identifying bases that are sequenced individually for each person (except for identical twins).  The bases are Cytosine (C), Guanine (G), Thymine (T), and Adenine (A).  In 1985, Dr. Alec Jefferys explained how these bases repeat in unique sequences to each individual and how based on these sequences a person paternity, or in the field of criminal justice, involvement in a crime could be determined based upon these sequences. (www.dna.gov)

DNA (Photo credit: Gravitywave)

            In an investigation, evidence is collected in an attempt to identify the perpetrator of the crime.  Among this evidence can be any number of DNA containing cells.  DNA can be found in hair, bone, teeth, fingernails, blood, semen, urine, feces, 

sweat, saliva, mucus membranes, skin cells, muscles, organs, and brain cells.  As it can easily be seen, with the vast array of places DNA can be found, it is quite impossible to do anything in life and not leave a least a trace amount of it behind.  When DNA tested first started in the 1980's it took a large amount of it to get a profile but with the advances in technology within the last twenty-five years all it takes is a very minute amount to get a conclusive DNA profile.  After DNA evidence has been analysis it is compared to known suspect samples in a case.  If there are no known samples it is ran through a DNA database called Combined DNA Index Systems or CODIS.  There, the sample can be compared to known offenders as well as to other crimes that may have the same DNA evidence, linking the two crimes.  CODIS is used in many different jurisdictions from local, state, to federal agencies.  In the event that no match is immediately made an automatic search will be done weekly.  If a DNA match is made during that search, the results will be sent to the agency that submitted the DNA sample for comparison. (www.dna.gov)

English: tSMS DNA sample sequencing: image templates and cleave (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

            Because of the success with DNA evidence, both in convicting guilty perpetrators and exonerating the innocent who have been sitting in prison for years, most states require that offenders submit a DNA sample upon conviction.  According to Berson (2009), courts have continued to uphold the ruling that a convicted person should have to submit a DNA sample.  She goes on to explain that the controversy has now targeted arrestees who have not yet been convicted of a crime.  DNA is collected from an offender by taking a swab from the inner cheeks of an offender's mouth.  It has been debated about whether this is ethical and even constitutional when an offender hasn’t even been convicted of a crime by a jury of his peers.  After all isn’t he still protected by the Bill of Rights?

  DNA can determine more than merely if a person perpetrated or at the very least was at the scene of a crime.  DNA can be used to establish paternity and be used for a number of other medically related things.  Due to the ability to determine these other things it raises the question of intrusion upon privacy.  It can be argued that mandatory DNA samples go against the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.  The Fourth Amendment guarantees the protection of privacy of person and possessions against unreasonable searches and seizures and the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination and the privacy of personal information. (topics.law.cornell.edu).

CODIS (Combined DNA Index System) logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

On the other hand, as Berson (2009) states, DNA sampling is the same as fingerprinting.  When a suspect has been arrest it is part of the booking procedure to fingerprint him.  If he is later found innocent he has the option of asking for his fingerprints to be taken off the books.  If mandatory DNA sampling was part of the booking process and the suspect was later found guilty he could then ask for the fingerprint and the DNA sample to be removed from the records.  Privacy is an issue because so much information can be received from a DNA sample.  Medical records could be breached.  Most crime laboratories are not concerned with nor equipped to gain medical information.  There is no personal information in regards to physical attributes when DNA results are entered into a database.

With the success that has come from mandating convicted offenders to enter their DNA, a person could only infer that mandating arrestee’s to submit a sample of their DNA would only bring that more results.  With a complete understanding of what DNA is and how it can be used most people have to agree that the more samples that we can compare DNA evidence to the more criminals we can get off the street.  This will make our communities a safer place for future generations.  DNA is a biometric feature as with a fingerprint, it can link a particular person to a particular crime due to the characteristics that make 

it individual to each person.  The difference with DNA evidence is that it can be done more conclusively and with less room for error.

References

Berson, Sarah B. (2009) Debating DNA Collection. Retrieved May 12, 2010, from

http://www.genome.duke.edu/education/seminars/journal-club/documents/Berson2009.pdf  

Foster, R.E. (2000). Police Technology. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall

http://www.dna.gov/basics/

http://www.dna.gov/basics/analysishistory/

http://www.dna.gov/basics/biology/

http://www.dna.gov/dna-databases/

http://www.dna.gov/dna-databases/codis

http://topics.law.cornell.edu/constitution/billofrights

           

           

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Criminal Justice and Criminology: How Are They Related?

by Tabetha Cooper

Through observation it has been noticed that many people confuse criminology with criminal justice, thinking at times that they are the same thing.  This paper is going to define what each are, explain how they are different, and show you the relationship between both.  To begin with, it has been cited by Kathryn Sellers from source unknown to me that “Criminology is to criminal justice as theory is to policy.”

            Criminology is “the scientific study of the nature, extent, cause, and control of criminal 

Cover of Criminology: The Core

behavior” (Criminology: The Core, 2008. pg. 2).  On the other hand criminal justice is “thecriminal (penal) law, the law ofcriminal procedure, and thearray of procedures andactivities having to do with theenforcement of this body of law” (Criminal Justice Today, 2007. pg. 14).  A simpler definition would be that criminal justice is the agencies that deal with offenders such as police departments, courts, and correctional facilities.

            As can be told by the definitions, criminology and criminal justice are two very different things.  Criminology is the study and theories of crime.  It focuses on what causes crime and what things presumably can be done to lower the crime rates.  Criminal justice is the creation and enforcement of the laws.  Laws are governed by the Federal courts and upheld by law enforcement agencies.  The local courts deal with the prosecution and sentencing of offenders and the correctional facilities house the criminals and enforce their punishment.

After the criminologist have studied the causation of crime and have developed theories on how to lower the recidivism rates, they sometimes petition the courts for laws to be imposed that support their theories.  Over the course of time different theories have played a part in the creation of laws.  One of the most influential theories is the rational choice theory that states that an offender evaluates their actions prior to ever committing an offense.  As said by Siegel 2008, a part of this theory is making the punishment harsher for offender, therefore minimizing their gains when compared to the risks.

English: This is a chart illustrating the amount spent on criminal justice by function from 1982-2006, from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

According to http://www.popcenter.org/about/?p=situational, a theory that that is being considered today is the opportunity theory.  This theory states that crime can only happen if there is an opportunity to commit such an act.  The opportunity theory can help law enforcement officers to literate the importance of minimizing the chances of victimization through eliminating the opportunity for a criminal to take advantage of a situation.  Officers can inform the public and local business of the different measurements that can be taken to protect themselves from becoming victims of a senseless crime.  Inferences can be made that this theory is what has made many cities decide to install video surveillance camera in public places, helping to deter criminal acts. 

Now that the definitions have been given and the difference has been established, one could see how criminology and criminal justice are two separate things that work hand in hand to keep crime at a minimum.  In short, criminology is the theory of crime and criminal justice is the policy that enforces it.  As the field of criminology grows, a safe assumption would be that the criminal justice system will see a decrease in the offenders running through it.

References

http://www.popcenter.org/about/?p=situationalRetrieved 1.25.10

Schmalleger, F. (2007). Criminal Justice Today: An Introductory Text for the 21st Century (9th

ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Retrieved 1.24.10

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