Criminal Procedure Policy

Criminal Procedure Policy

Charles Bickford

CJA/364

October 3, 2011

Keith E. Reed MCJ, LCC

Criminal Procedure Policy

For this assignment, a contrast and comparison of the two models of the criminal process will be made. An assessment of the impact of the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution on the criminal justice system will be provided as they apply to the two models. The applicability of the Bill of Rights to the states according to the Fourteenth Amendment will be included.

Criminal procedure is a vital part of the criminal justice system in America due to the very way the framers designed the Constitution and the necessity to maintain order in a civilized nation. The necessity for an orderly and predictable procedure for justice, that advocates the greatest amount of individual liberty while limiting the power of government, is evident and prominent in the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and Amendments. The tenuous balance between legitimate state power and freedom from state control is difficult to achieve and of great importance especially within the criminal justice process.

Herbert Packer outlined two models of criminal procedure through his examination of the hierarchy of values relating to constitutional order as a way to better understand the procedures and policies applied to criminal procedure. Packer named these models the “Due Process Model” and the “Crime Control Model”. Common to both models is the furtherance of the Constitution to enforce criminal laws, limiting government’s power to determine criminals, and upholding the right of an individual to due process. These commonalities hold only to surface evaluation, however, and when examined more deeply divide the two models in fundamental ways.

Packer’s Crime Control Model limits criminal conduct and behavior for the sake of public safety and personal freedom. It uses an almost automatized process when applying procedures and law to achieve...