Criminal Justice System Paper
Latesha Hagger
CJS/200
February 15, 2015
Thomas Hopkins

The phrase “criminal justice system” refers to the collection of federal, state, and local public agencies that deal with crime. The basic makeup of this system consist of legislative, judicial, and executive branches of government. Criminal justice is a process, which, involves several steps beginning with a criminal investigation and which then ends with the release of the convicted offender from correctional supervision. “In the United States the criminal justice system are divided into three categories: federal, state, and military” (Smith, 1999-2015). There are two goals in the criminal justice system; the “first step is the need to enforce the law and to maintain public order and the second step; is the need to protect individuals from injustice, especially at the hands of the criminal justice system” (Schmalleger, 2011, Chapter 4, Criminal Law). The criminal justice process is taking several steps to process a criminal case beginning with an investigation which often leads to an arrest. The police do an investigation while gathering enough evidence that identify the suspect in order to make an arrest. For instance, if a young male or female decides to rob a bank with a weapon. He or she was in the middle of robbing the bank and security guards comes from out of nowhere and orders the criminals to put down their weapon, and they do so. The guard calls the police, when the police arrives the criminals are then arrested. At this point in time the criminals are no longer criminals but are now considered offenders. Arrests are a serious step in the criminal justice