Criminal Justice

Criminal Justice

In the criminal justice system every decision requires balancing concerns investigating the guilty, and respecting the rights of accused victims. One of the police department/investigators job responsibilities is to make sure the community is safe from all types of crime and violence.

Looking at the tutorial, the case of the gang members, the boys that were arrested were fourteen years of age. They were minors. So when the one investigator interviewed them alone, did not contact the parents, and did not record the interview, that brought up some red flags to the other investigator. I feel the investigator, who was not in the room while his partner was interviewing the suspects, is thinking down the line. Thinking about what is going to happen in court and can they get a conviction.

What the investigator did can help the defensive attorneys or it can get the case thrown out of court. The defensive attorneys can fight that the boys were under age without a parent and could have been persuaded to say they did the crime. Also it can be he said, she said, there was no video of the confession. Then there is no evidence. The boys were arrested for being in the area and the investigators only arrested 2 of the gang members. Just because someone has a criminal history, does not mean they did that particular crime.

Now the investigator who wasn’t included in anything has to hope this conviction goes through because several things can back fire for the police department. Some of the things that can go wrong are, more rapes and violence continue in the community, the police department can get sued by the boy’s parents since they were underage or the case could get thrown out, and that would be no justice for the victim and her family.

So the question is,” Was the investigator morally or ethically correct by handing the case in the way he did?” I personally think he was wrong and selfish, especially since there was no evidence. That isn’t fair to the...