The advent of crime and criminal activities in the contemporary society remains as one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century. In this respect, the government of the United States has formed different institutions to ensure that those people who are affected by crime are compensated for their loss; though in most cases these losses are incommensurable. In other words, these institutions have been formed to administer justice to the affected people. In consistent with this, justice can be defined as the quality of a social order regulating the mutual relations of men; it is an order that regulates the behavior of men in a way that is satisfactorily to all men, that they may find their happiness in it (Kelsen, 2000, p.2). Therefore, justice is a form of order that ensure that people are satisfied with the decisions that are made in the society.
With this in mind, the main components of criminal justice system are interrelated with each other. In this regard, these components work together to ensure that justice is done in the society. Notably, administering justice involves a process which is carried out by three different bodies. These bodies have different tasks which are executed systematically to guarantee justice is attained. Studies that have been carried out in the past indicate that each decision point report major effect of seriousness of offense (Gottfredson & Gottfredson, 1988, p.258). Therefore, each component acts as a subsequent supporter of the other. For instance, the police department works by arresting criminal, whereas the courts are tasked with determining whether these criminal are innocent or guilty. However, the court depends heavily on the police department to gather evidence for the case that is involved.
Whereas the main components of the criminal justice system are interrelated, there have been numerous cases of conflicts that have arisen in the past. These conflicts often results from the breakdown of communication that emanates from these components. For instance, when the police department fails to gather enough evidence concerning a particular crime case, it would attract rage from the court system since they would be placed at a point where they cannot pass judgment and allow justice to be done (Wong, 2001, p.13).
There are two models of the criminal justice that have been identified so far. These include; crime control model and due process (Cole & Smith, 2007, p.21). The crime control model believes that effort must be made to ensure that every form of crime is contained whereas due process requires the justice system to follow systematic process to ensure that freedom is maintained and thus the need to carry out sufficient investigation and gather as much evidence as possible. Whereas both models are critical in administering justice, due process is more useful in containing crime in the society as compared to crime control model. Furthermore, due process model is more accurate as it is based on sufficient evidence that must be collected before passing judgment. This is unlike the crime control model which may not necessarily pass judgment based on sufficient evidence.
