Contemporary Criminal Justice Policies in US

Introduction

Globally crime is one of the incidences that is affecting many countries and leading to the downfall of their economy; hence, lawmakers have to come forward and enact policies that will try to curb these criminal incidences. As we correctly understand, these policies are the guidelines that every individual in the state follow so that they be on the safe side. Contemporary policies are the modern laws enacted by the lawmakers in the country so that they are used to prevent and minimize the rate of criminal activities. In the United States, illegal activities have been seen to be rampant in many cities in different states. An example of a city where criminal activities such as gang issues and drug incidence are widespread in the city of Oakland in California; hence, policies had to be enacted to fight these incidences. The contemporary policies include registration, warning, and residence acts for sex reprobates (Harvell, Welsh-Loveman, Love & Vigne, 2016). And a variety of daring offenders as well as sexual psychopath laws. Another policy is drug law.

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The crime rate is so high in the united states, especially in Oakland hence the Congress who are the lawmakers who made the policies to try and prevent or even reduce the criminal activities. The drug incidences such as the usage of cocaine are rampant in the area. These gangs are the once who are selling these drugs (Arredondo, Strathdee, Cepeda, Abramovitz, Artamonova, Clairgue & Olivarria, 2017). To the citizens in this area, although it is illegal. To curb this, issue the gangs are to be arrested and later imprisoned to reduce the drug sale. Therefore, the policies are challenging the city since the level of illegal drug usage is decreasing and the dangerous gangs are being dissolved slowly by slowly.

Evident Solutions on the Policy

The national government in cooperation with the California state has implemented the drug abuse programs in American schools so that the students in every school can be taught on the effects of using these illegal drugs such as cocaine commonly referred to as 'coke.' In the school curriculum, the students are educated on the dangers of using these drugs. In some countries, bhang is illegal, although, in the united states, it is legalized since it is used as a drug in hospitals. They are educated on the effects and consequences that they are likely to engage themselves when they are found using illegal drugs. In the united states, anyone participating in the illicit drug business is either fined or imprisoned for a given duration of time. Schools in Oakland students are educated and informed appropriately on drug abuse. The fight against illegal drugs has been fought for many years by the united states government, and several drug lords have been jailed and even killed by the united states government. For instance, in 2017, united states arrested the famous drug lord 'El Chapo.' This is to inform the entire world that the united states do not tolerate illegal drug usage. In media, the people of Oakland are also sensitized on the measures taken to anyone who engages in the usage of illicit drugs. The police officers are very strict on anyone who uses the illegal drugs, and when found committing the offense, they will arrest the offender and arraign him in court for prosecution. The American government has used a lot of resources to create awareness so that when caught committing the offense, you don't bring out any excuse.

Technology is seen to be advancing in the united states, and criminal incidences committed by the criminals are recorded in the computer systems and record kept for future use. The old way of recording criminal information in big books has stopped and replaced by the new technology. This has helped the police department so much since most of the information concerning the criminal incidences in the city was being misplaced. Therefore, this technique helps the police officers to monitor the criminal's records. When an individual is released from prison, and he commits an offense the police department of that state will enter his details and find out in the system whether the person has ever involved himself in any criminal incidence. When it is found that he has a criminal record, the prosecutor will include the information against the committed offense so that the judge can understand that the person has a bad track record of criminal incidences. Therefore, the new technology has assisted the police in curbing the criminal incidences in the city of Oakland, which is one of the high rated cities in united states affected by criminal incidences.

Table estimating the people involved in different criminal incidences in Oakland:

According to the table usage of these illegal drugs is the main criminal activity in the city, and the police should work to reduce the usage by arresting the peddlers and the users of these drugs.

Conclusion

Countries all over the globe have been working tremendously through law enforcement officers to reduce all sorts of criminal incidences such as corruption, drug abuse, terrorism, and even rape cases. A country where the crime rate is high does not develop fast since the investors are afraid to invest in the area due to security measures and no government will always want his nation to grow so they will fight every bit of criminal activity that might prevent the nation from developing. Laws are even made and formulated each moment to fight this criminal incidence. For instance, in great countries such as the United Kingdom and even the united states, technology such as satellite is used to monitor any criminal incidence and an alert sent to the police department before any attack. Hence they can control the criminal incidences. This has assisted these nations so much since many wealthy individuals globally will always want to invest in these countries since they know that their investments are in safe hands and secured. The developed nations should inspire the developing nations on how to tackle the criminal incidences, and they have proven their assistance by assisting the developing nations especially the African nations by involving themselves in case of any incidence related to illegal activity such as terrorism. Through this, even the developing countries acquire skills on how to combat the criminal offenses.

References

Brisman, A., South, N., & White, R. (Eds.). (2016). Environmental crime and social conflict: contemporary and emerging issues. Routledge.

Braswell, M. C., McCarthy, B. R., & McCarthy, B. J. (2017). Justice, crime, and ethics. Taylor & Francis.

Pickett, J. T., Mancini, C., Mears, D. P., & Gertz, M. (2015). Public (Mis) understanding of crime policy: The effects of criminal justice experience and media reliance. Criminal Justice Policy Review, 26(5), 500-522.

Welsh, W. N., & Harris, P. W. (2016). Criminal justice policy and planning: Planned change. Routledge.

Harvell, S., Welsh-Loveman, J., Love, H., & La Vigne, N. G. (2016). Reforming sentencing and corrections policy: The experience of Justice Reinvestment Initiative states. Washington, DC: Urban Institute.

Wandall, R. H. (2016). Decisions to imprison: Court decision-making inside and outside the law. Routledge.

Hall, W., & Weier, M. (2015). Assessing the public health impacts of legalizing recreational cannabis use in the USA. Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics, 97(6), 607-615.

Arredondo, J., Strathdee, S. A., Cepeda, J., Abramovitz, D., Artamonova, I., Clairgue, E., ... & Olivarria, H. O. (2017). Measuring improvement in knowledge of drug policy reforms following a police education program in Tijuana, Mexico. Harm reduction journal, 14(1), 72.