POLS 3700 Lecture Notes - Exclusionary Rule
5 May 2018
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-CJ as a social system
-CJ in the US is best understood as a system
-A complex network consisting of interdependent people and orgs
-Directed toward goals and influenced by the environment in which they function
-Influences on CJ Decision-Making
-Each org’s own goals, preferences, and needs
-Government
-Laws
-Funding
-Authority
-The public
-The workings of the cjs have 4 major characteristics
1. Discretion
a. The freedom to make decisions according to own’s own judgement and
conscience
b. Discretion permeated the cjs
c. The authority to make decisions without reference to specific rules or facts, using
instead one’s own judgement
d. Needed because
i. You cannot write policy for every conceivable situation
ii. Empowers officials to make good choices, lead to better outcomes
2. Resource Depletion
. CJ orgs do not generate most of their own revenue
a. Have to depend on the gov and the political system to support them
.Often works with popular orgs
i.Less functional for those like public defenders
b. Depend on other agencies for funding. Therefore, actors in the system must cultivate
and maintain good relations with those who allocate resources
3. Sequential Tasks
. A criminal case is passed along through a process where procedural steps must be
followed
a. Decisions made earlier can impact later decisions
.The exclusionary rule
i.Credits for jail time
b. The sequential nature of the system is key to the exchange relationships among the
justice system’s decision makers, who depend on one another to achieve their goals. The
system is highly interdependent partially because it is sequential
4. Filtering
. An operation by which official screen out some cases or defendants while advancing
other onto the next level
a. At each stage, some defendants are sent on to the next stage while others are either
released or processed under changed conditions
-The Police have 4 major duties
1. Keeping the Peace
2. Apprehending violators and combating crime
3. Preventing crime
4. Providing social services
find more resources at oneclass.com
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Document Summary
Cj in the us is best understood as a system. A complex network consisting of interdependent people and orgs. Directed toward goals and influenced by the environment in which they function. The workings of the cjs have 4 major characteristics. The public: discretion, the freedom to make decisions according to own"s own judgement and conscience, discretion permeated the cjs, the authority to make decisions without reference to specific rules or facts, using instead one"s own judgement, needed because. You cannot write policy for every conceivable situation. Empowers officials to make good choices, lead to better outcomes: resource depletion. Cj orgs do not generate most of their own revenue. Have to depend on the gov and the political system to support them. often works with popular orgs i. less functional for those like public defenders. Therefore, actors in the system must cultivate and maintain good relations with those who allocate resources: sequential tasks.
