Text В. A fragmented criminal justice system

Text A. THE PIVOTAL ROLE OF THE COURTS

КОНТРОЛЬНАЯ РАБОТА №1

Вариант №8

Выполните следующие задания:

1. Образуйте форму множественного числа следующих существительных: a system, an agency, a component, a suspect, a sentence, a process, information, a life.

2. Поставьте все личные местоимения в объектном падеже и напишите соответствующие им формы притяжательных местоимений.

3. Образуйте степени сравнения следующих прилагательных: wide, general, useful, bad, important, just, successful, little.

4. Прочтите и переведите тексты. Абзацы 1, 2 текста В переведите письменно.

The term criminal justice system refers to the various agencies and institutions that are directly involved in the implementation of public policy concerning crime. The criminal justice system consists of three principal components: police, courts, and correction. The courts play a pivotal role within this system, because after a crime has been committed, any formal action must be funneled through the courts. Only the courts can detain a suspect prior to trial, find a person guilty, and sentence the guilty to prison. Alternatively, of course, the courts may release the suspect prior to trial, find him or her not guilty, or decide not to send a convicted person to prison. The decisions that courts make (and how they make them) have important consequences for other components of the criminal justice system. The reverse is equally true: the operations of police and corrections have major impacts on the criminal courts.

1. Although the three components of the criminal justice system are separate orga­nizations, they are also tied together. Each component must interact with the others. This process is best visualized as three overlapping circles: one representing the police, another the courts, and the last corrections. All three operate within a wider circle representing the general public.

2. Of necessity, police, courts, and corrections work together, but the criminal justice system is neither uniform nor coordinated. The major components of the law enforcement and criminal justice system do not make up a smoothly function­ing and internally consistent organization. ‘Not only is each element fragmented and lacking coherence itself, but the separate elements often are not coordinated with each other, even though the operation of each has a direct bearing on the functioning of the others (Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, 1977). Moreover, the interrelationships among police, courts, and corrections are often marked by tension, conflict, and at times even hostility. Conflict results in part from competition for limited attention and funds from outside the system. But it also results from different perspectives on the common task of processing persons accused of breaking the law (National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals, 1973).

3. The competing perspectives of police, courts, and corrections (to say nothing of differing views within the court community itself) toward processing the ac­cused have raised the question of whether America has a system of criminal justice or a nonsystem. Some argue that the process is so fragmented and decentralized that there is no overall coordination in the American justice process. Others disagree, arguing that it is still useful to view criminal justice as a system. They point out that the system has some overall purpose and an interrelationship among the various components. The term system does not necessarily mean that all actions must be rationally ordered. The criminal justice process is a living system com­posed of a number of parts that are characterized by competing goals. Tensions and conflicts among police, courts, and corrections are not necessarily undesirable. Tensions arising from competing goals provide important checks on other orga­nizations. This friction is particularly evident in the criminal justice system, where the work of each component is evaluated by others: The police make arrests, yet the decision to charge is made by the prosecutor; the judge and jury rate the prosecutor’s efforts. Indeed, the very essence of the adversary process is conflict, which ensures that multiple sources of information will be considered.

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