History of criminal justice
Throughout the history of criminal justice, evolving forms of punishment, added rights for offenders and victims, and policing reforms have reflected changing customs, political ideals, and economic conditions.
The guards, chosen by kings and nobles from among the military and ex-military, were tasked with apprehending criminals and protecting caravans, public places and border forts before the creation of a standing army.
In ancient China, when minor judicial incidents such as robberies occur, the client reports to a police officer (a.k.a.
[7] Approximately one out of four court cases featured corrupted officers who accepted bribes to ignore certain crimes, or sometimes even assisted the criminals.
The local qadis were, in addition to this, responsible for maintaining order by following Sharia law under Islamic domination, according to the Qur'an.
Results of a trial were announced by the "town crier", and punishment for most trivial crimes usually consisted of confiscation of merchandise or even imprisonment since various prisons existed throughout the Empire.
Even with offenses as serious as murder, justice was the prerogative of the victim's family and private war or vendetta the means of protection against criminality.
In Athens, a group of 300 Scythian slaves was used to guard public meetings to keep order and for crowd control, and also assisted with dealing with criminals, manhandling prisoners, and making arrests.
[citation needed] During the Middle Ages, crime and punishment were dealt with through blood feuds (or trial by ordeal) between the parties.
The Anglo-Saxon system of maintaining public order was a private system of tithings, since the Norman conquest led by a constable, which was based on a social obligation for the good conduct of the others; more common was that local lords and nobles were responsible to maintain order in their lands, and often appointed a constable, sometimes unpaid, to enforce the law.
The legal process, mostly for more serious crimes, involved a grand jury, composed of members of the community, which decided whether there was enough evidence for prosecution.
Legal codes, such as the 1648 Book of the General Laws and Liberties of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, contained very strong biblical references, more so than did the ones in England.
Many colonial makeshift criminal codes considered lying, idleness, drunkenness, certain sexual offenses, and even bad behavior to be crimes.
The county judge was in charge of the court for the area he presided in and vehemently believed their role in society was to enforce God's will.
In addition to hearing the disputes of the local colonists, the courts also held the responsibilities of the legislature, executive, and judicial branches of the county's government.
However, the courts with many judges met very infrequently and this made it almost impossible to conduct any legal business in a fast and efficient way.
The matter was even worse in the back country where there often was a complete lack of courts to settle any conflicts or perform governmental services.
Unlike the prosecutors in England, who worked privately and for a payment from the victim, the district attorneys of colonial America handled the prosecution in almost all trials.
This stemmed from an English legal tradition of severely restricting the role of the defense to challenging or question narrow points of the law.
The theory behind the trial and punishment being very public was that they would serve to reinforce the rules of conduct and discourage others from acting out and breaking laws.
Riots, a common disturbance in colonial America, occurred for many reasons including to contest elections, to protest economic conditions, or to enforce standards of morality.
The gradual development of a sophisticated criminal justice system in America found itself extremely small and unspecialized during colonial times.
Many problems, including lack of a large law-enforcement establishment, separate juvenile-justice system, and prisons and institutions of probation and parole.
Thus, its functions largely overreached simple law enforcement activities, and included public health concerns, urban planning (which was important because of the miasma theory of disease; thus, cemeteries were moved out of town, etc.
[21][22] Bobbies can still be found in many parts of the world (for example in British Overseas Territories or ex-colonies such as Bermuda, Gibraltar or St Helena).
Wilson, a student of Vollmer, helped reduce corruption and introduce professionalism in Wichita, Kansas, and later in the Chicago Police Department.
[29] Following urban unrest in the 1960s, police placed more emphasis on community relations, and enacted reforms such as increased diversity in hiring.
It marked the first instance where the federal government began to play a role in regulating and overseeing certain aspects of the economy, and this included some law enforcement responsibilities.
It was created to provide legal counsel and representation to the government, and its role gradually expanded to include law enforcement duties.
This historical progression reflects the evolving role of the federal government in law enforcement and the criminal justice system in the United States, marking a shift from primarily local and state responsibility to increased federal involvement in various aspects of law enforcement and corrections.
