Assignment 1: The Criminal Justice Process

The criminal justice process begins with the commission of a crime. A crime is the act in which the law has been violated. Often when a crime occurs, it is not immediately noticed by law enforcement. Crimes are normally reported by the victim or another citizen who witnessed the crime. For serious crimes such as felonies, police officers must have knowledge, facts, and circumstances which would allow a person of reasonable caution to believe that a crime has been committed (State, 2013). This paper provides a hypothetical scenario, where an in progress crime is taking place and a neighbor calls in the incident. Equally important, this paper focuses on the criminal justice process and
Identify the crime that occurred
On October 14, 2015 …show more content…
This information gave officers’ probable cause for an arrest. In this case the two suspects were arrested in the commission of a felony. Suspect number one was charged with breaking and entering an occupied residence. Suspect number two was charged with breaking and entering, and grand theft auto. Although an arrest takes away a person’s fundamental right to freedom, police must still follow proper protocol to carry out a legal arrest. In this case, neither the officer nor the deputy read the arrestees their Miranda Rights. Technically, since the first arresting officer did not interrogate the suspect, he was not obligated to read him his rights. When the detective interviewed the suspect, Miranda Rights were read. In this case the arresting deputy was in the wrong. The law states that Miranda Rights must be read prior to any interrogation procedures (Lewis, 2010). In order to prevent any unethical practices, many law enforcement agencies recommend that rights be read to a person at the time of an arrest. Furthermore, it is common practice for agencies to have this written into their …show more content…
The level of knowledge of a crime and the circumstances of arrest leading up to the trial is crucial to all criminal justice practitioners. Police officers, prosecutors, and judges must emagulate to ensure their actions are justified and the facts presented before them are consistent throughout the trial process. Disattention to any details could potentially clear a criminal of any wrong doing. Failure to examine all the evidence or commit prejudice before prosecution discredits criminal justice professionals and defaces the system as a