Three-Tiered Court Structure in the United States Essay

Introduction

Every sovereign state has a judicial system through which legal cases are examined and completed for correction measures. Every country has its unique court system sufficient for its functions and does not necessarily copy from another country. However; all the judicial systems must have regulated system of functionality based on human rights, constitutions, and international judicial requirements. The American court system is based on the English law since this country colonized it and laid the rudimentary foundation of the legal judicial framework. The judicial business is conducted by independent arm of the government, an institution called the court (Karstan Lovorn, 2007).

Main text

The Judiciary of the U.S is divided into the Supreme Court headed by nine justices, and is the highest court in the land. Its principal responsibility is to interprets the U.S constitution and its rulings have the force of the law in the U.S.It is followed by the Courts of appeal comprising twelve judicial circuits and the District of Colombia. Thirdly is the Federal Districts Courts found in each State (Thomson Business Reuters, 2008).

The Judiciary of the U.S is a three tiered judicial system divided into the Supreme Court, The Courts of appeal and the Federal District Courts. The Court of appeal was established in 1891.It comprises twelve judicial circuits and the District of Colombia. Thirdly is the Federal Districts Courts do not deal with a lot of cases and handles only 1% of the nation’s judicial cases since the State and the local courts found at the county, municipal and town level, hears most of these cases. The local courts hear minor cases and violation of local regulations like zoning, juvenile cases, domestic cases, disturbance of peace and many other minor offenses. The State court systems are organized into three tiered system of trial, appellate and supreme courts. The Courts are assigned police powers at the State level involving health, moral and safety of the American citizens (Gregory A.Nussel, 2005).

Correctional administrators must resolve the following crucial issues in order for institutions to be safe and secure for both employees and inmates. The judges, advocates and justices are all correctional administrators who hear, investigate, compare and recommend judicial measures called corrections or sentences on the culprits or criminals. The courts must consider its interpretation of the constitution in dealing with the cases before it. The court process must be procedural to ensure that the cases are heard in good time and relevant corrective measures are done. The courts also follow their traditions in the judicial process to avoid social discrepancies and injustices that may arise from the process. The courts also must transact judicial business as independent institutions that must be respected and empowered (Charles W.Johson, 2008).

Policing is the practice of upholding the law and order and also respecting the rights of the people they are serving. The police normally conduct regular patrol to ensure the law is followed and to prevent any men’s rea acts and capacity or potential of offense by the public. This kind of patrol is called preventive patrol. Community policing is a concept developed on the philosophy of involvement of the local community in identifying their social problems in cooperation with the police in the area. The police officer is based in that area permanently and rebuilds public confidence in them. It is an attempt of the police to collaborate with the public in solving common problems in the community. It is a promising way of reducing crime within the communities and it is also achieving the objective of rebuilding the integrity of the police (Bertus R.Ferreira, 1996).

James Q.Wilson refutes deterministic theories of criminality and instead advocated for a conservative ideology. Willson attempted the deterrence argument and the willingness to commit crime and that deterrent measures would incarcerate the criminals through publicity and tough sanctions as opposed to the excuse of the external forces as a cause of crime. He states the criminals think rationally and willingly over their acts and act due to lack of inhibition against their acts hence supporting the community policing (James Q.Wilson, 1985).

Conclusion

The convicts and criminals may request for plea-bargain. Plea bargain is an acceptance of responsibility of the offense and seeks to request for reduction in magnitude of the sentence to which an allocation may be followed. The allocution is used for case closure for a lesser/light sentence. General or indirect deterrence encompasses general prevention of criminal activities by using the involved individuals as exemplary cases. It is meted in public to make others avoid the same act. Even though deterrence has been used it has not been effective in achieving the goal since offenders are only afraid of being caught but do not change their habits (Martine, Jacqueline, 2005).

References

1. Karstan Lovorn, “Overview of the United States Court System”.2007. Web.
2. Bertus R.Ferreira, “The use and effectiveness of community policing in a democracy” 1996. Web.
3. Gregory A.Nussel, “The Fifth Circuit Announces Return to New Orleans.” 2005.
4. Thomson Business Reuters, “How our Laws are made.” 2008. Web.
5. Charles W.Johson, 2008 “United States House of Representative.” 2008.
6. James Q.Wilson, “Rational Choice Perspective.” 1985.