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Criminal Justice in Crisis

NCJ Number
153237
Date Published
1988
Length
78 pages
Annotation
This report of the American Bar Association's Special Committee on Criminal Justice in a Free Society provides citizens with a fuller understanding of real problems of the criminal justice system in America and offers professionals and planners ideas for future study and change.
Abstract
The Committee focused its inquiry on the crimes that alarm the public most: violent crime, property crime, and drug offenses. Information was obtained from the principal participants in the criminal justice system: police officers, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and judges. At hearings held in three representative urban and geographically dispersed locations, witnesses detailed the problems they face daily in their work. To supplement this testimony, the Committee reviewed most of the major criminal justice studies and commissioned a professionally structured national telephone survey of over 800 defense lawyers, judges, prosecutors, and high-ranking police administrators. The Committee concluded that constitutional restrictions, such as the exclusionary rule and Miranda, do not significantly handicap police and prosecutors in their efforts to arrest, prosecute, and obtain convictions of criminal defendants for most serious crimes. The major problem identified by all criminal justice respondents is lack of sufficient resources. An equally major problem reported by all criminal justice participants is the inability of the criminal justice system to control the drug problem in the Nation through law enforcement. The Committee also concluded that the public should be better informed about the causes of crime and the significant but limited role that the criminal justice system plays in crime control. There is need for greater attorney involvement in the criminal justice system if quality defense services are to be provided. The defense lawyer, performing in accordance with professional standards, provides a necessary challenge to the prosecution and, notwithstanding popularly held beliefs, does not cause dysfunction in the criminal justice system. 121 notes, appended survey methodology, and 5 tables