Comparative Criminal Justice: United states and China

Comparative Criminal Justice coupled tells and chinaequality and contrast ii different types of poisonous judge dodgings.The deuce criminal solelyice system of ruless that shall be discussed in this paper are those of the United States and that of the Peoples commonwealth of chinaware. When comparing and contrasting these two systems one should start with the premises that twain are instituted in their reciprocal countries in the attempt to curb the proliferation of crime, offenders and dissuade potential offenders. Both the U.S. and chinawares criminal arbiter systems make use of a court system, practice of law enforcement organizations and detention and correctional facilities on a regional biases. However this is as much as similarities go as the two systems are radically different since they are based on ideologically opposing judicature structures.The U.S g everyplacenment is based on a cede market capitalist economy support by a instance democracy. On the oth er hand that of china is founded on a sociable communist ideology. As for demographic figures, the U.S. has roughly 355 meg citizens objet dart China has over one billion, which makes up one fourth of the world population. Klaus Mhlhahn (2009), in his book Criminal Justice in China, states that Peoples Republic of China (P.R.C.) was established as a accessibleist country in 1949. From that full stop onwards efforts occupy been made to enact basic polices concerning criminal justice administration and enforced nationwide.The U.S. judicature is hierarchally based on a corporate organization where power is shared between the federal official and state governments. hence this means that the political system secures autonomy of each state in the U.S. but at the same time adopting a centralized government (Gaines and Miller, 2006). The U.S. justice system is derived from the British common law tradition. Common law is the law that is agreed upon by the common people and exists i n two ca-cas, Lex Scripta (written law) and Lex non Scripta (unwritten law).On the other hand Mhlhahn (2009), says that the Chinese justice system is quite difficult to put under one unitary system. This is referable to the fact that the Chinese criminal justice system was repeatedly reorganized in the wake of political changes and internal party disputes. Mhlhahn (2009) too notes that the Chinese justice system under socialism is not an free-living administrative system but was integrated into a network of social control and political mobilization. The Chinese Criminal Law is based on the ideological precepts of Marxism, Leninism and Mao Zedong. Its tasks are to use punishments to resist against all subversive or criminal acts in order to safeguard the system of the peoples popular dictatorship.The police forces of the United States are the successors of Militias originally instituted in the early colonies to foster the population and control the Native Americans. The differe nt forming States developed their own earnest forces and these operated autonomously. Major cities instituted their own police forces, which functioned under the control of a city government (Gaines and Miller, 2006).Currently the U.S. police forces are structured on topical anesthetic/city/county and federal/state levels, thus having a federal system. totally local policing duties are shared between local municipalities and counties. Cities, towns and villages turn in the cleverness to institute their own police forces, while others, usually rural localities, depone on a county Sheriffs department for the task of enforcement and policing. Usually the size of police forces in the U.S. is directly proportional to the population of the area being controlled. The 50 States forming the U.S. withal have their own police forces that are ascribed to different regions and very much patrolling undeveloped rural areas. The job of such agencies allow in investigating crimes against the state such as alcohol licensing violations or welfare fraud, fish and plot violations, and highway traffic infractions (Gaines and Miller, 2006).According to a statistic of the U.S. Department of Justice (2008), on average the ratio of police to population in the U.S. is about 2.3 officers per constant of gravitation residents, however larger cities have higher ratios. That force ratio has re mained truehearted for nearly three decades at around 2.21-2.34 police officers per 1000 noncombatant population.Next up on the U.S. hierarchal police system is the federal Governments police force that subdivided into various other agencies. There is the Federal business office of Investigation, which is single-handed of any administration. The F.B.I. intervenes when federal laws are infringed, an interstate crime is committed, or if national security is threatened. However the last case scenario has been taken over by the Department of Homeland Security established after the attack s of kinsfolk 11th 2001. The U.S. has about 20 federal law enforcement agencies, which also include the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, U.S. Secret Service, Postal follow-up Service and U.S. Marshals Service. Further more there exist the do drugs Enforcement Agency, the Treasury Department, the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearm Agency and the U.S. Customs officials that pile with border violations while the Immigration and Naturalization Services deal with illegal immigrants. However this specialism of the different policing agencies has its drawbacks. Problems can arise due to jurisdictional issues, when what one should rattling take care of is the upholding and maintenance of the law (Gaines and Miller, 2006).The P.R.C. employs around 2 million police officers, of which most work is small offices that serve communities of roughly 10,000 citizens. The main policing agency in the P.R.C. is the Peoples Armed Police (nipple), which includes about 700,000 officers. Th is agency was instituted in 1983 and was formed by incorporating disbanded units of the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) on domestic demur duty and arm frontier defence and fire fighting. The rise of the PAP shows how Chinese leadership in many ways is more come to about domestic security than foreign threats (Mhlhahn, 2009). The PAPs main task is to deal with domestic disturbances, by acting as riot police, guarding government compounds and also foreign embassies. It usually handles border defence but is called in sometimes to back up local police. Recently it has been employed to suppress anti-government protest. The national Security Service (PSB) is both a local police and the Chinese equivalent of the CIA in the U.S. The P.R.C. justice system also employs paramilitary armed police and more than 1 million security guards. Quasi-police force know as cheng guan also operates in China. These carry out tasks deemed unpopular by the citizens, such as collecting fines and tax money, o ften these are just thugs hired by the official police. In December 2008, the Chinese government announced the creation of a new special unit aimed at cracking down on gun-related crimes and organized crime such as organized prostitution, gambling, drug production and trafficking. The public security budget was elevated by nearly a third in 2009 to $4.2 billion in part to address concerns about unrest in Tibet and western China and trouble brought about by unemployed workers and other problems associated with the economic crisis in 2008 and 2009In the past, police agencies in the US have been accused of decadency and the Good-Old Boy network of hiring practices. Recently, charges of racism, racial profiling, and use of excessive force have been made by concerned citizens and organizations.Family members of crime victims often become anger with police for their incompetence and unwillingness to make an effort to solve crimes that allude them. Chinese police have a reputation for being infect and connected to smuggling. They are regarded with suspicion by ordinary Chinese, particularly in rural areas. Police have traditionally been more involved in maintaining government control than solving crimes.As for the US court system, this is a dual judiciary system, of which the two constituent parts (federal and state) function in capable of each other. The federal judiciary system includes district courts, circuit courts of appeals, and the United Stated Supreme Court. The state system includes trial courts at the local and state levels, intermediate courts of appeal, and state Supreme Court (Gaines and Miller, 2006). The primary agents on the job(p) along each other are the judge, prosecutor, and defence attorneys in the U.S. system.As already stated the U.S. follows the principles of Common law, that were inherited from English jurisprudence. This tradition holds that a decision taken in court is always made on the basis of the Rule of Precedent. This means th at each case previously unyielding serves as reference and guide for new cases. new(a) aspects of law whitethorn be determined or discovered and thus a motive arises. The U.S. justice system allows for presumption of innocence until proven guilty, plea-bargaining, trial by jury, and the right to a speedy trial (Gaines and Miller, 2006). Such aspects make the justice system in the U.S. more flexible and makes it easier to meet citizens the needs.The penal system of the U.S., like the judicial system, branches into federal, state and local levels. The prison system is supported by governmental funds, in the form of tax revenue from federal (corporate income), state (sales) and local (taxes) revenues. Is also receives funding through Inter-governmental transfer, in the form of federal grants and state grants. Sentences in the US justice system hunt down to be significantly longer than in China and many states have adopted the three strikes law which forces judges to sentence a susp ect to life imprisonment for their third felony offense. The penal system in the US is facing major problems due to overcrowding, gang and drug activity at bottom the prisons, the imprisonment of mentally ill individuals, increase of sex offenders, and extremely untrained offenders. Privatization of the prison systems is being adopted in many regions of the country as prisons are becoming more and more overcrowded.Juvenile offenses and crimes in the US vary in each state and all are dependent on the age of the defendant. For example, in New York State, a juvenile status is considered if the individual is more than 7 but less than 16 class old, unless it is murder then the individual can be 13 or if charged with rape then the defendant can be as young as 14. Contrary to the French system, the tendency in New York and possibly in the rest of the US is to treat the offender as an adult and increase the levels of punishment including incarceration.Gaines, Larry K. and Roger Le Roy M iller, Criminal Justice in Action (2006).http//www.project.org/info.php?recordID=33http//www.lectlaw.com/files/int10.htmKlaus Mhlhahn, Criminal Justice in China A History, Harvard University Press (2009)