CLJ

• Criminal Justice System


  The machinery established by the government to deal with the problem of crime and criminality. It takes the orderly progression of events from the time a person is arrested or taken out to the community, investigated, prosecuted, sentenced, punished, and eventually returned to the community.
• Criminal Justice


  The procedure by which criminal conduct is investigated, arrests made, evidence gathered, charges brought, defenses raised, trials conducted, sentences rendered, and punishment carried out.
• The Philippine Government have organized and established institutions that are responsible for preventing crimes, enforcing laws, and apprehending and prosecuting those who violated the law.
• Pillars of the Criminal Justice System in the Philippines


  • Law Enforcement / Police
  • Prosecution
  • Courts
  • Corrections
  • Community
• The first four pillars (law enforcement, prosecution, courts, and corrections) are formal institutions, which pertain to the traditional agencies vested with one official responsibility in dealing with crime or in crime control. The last pillar (community), which is the broadest among the five, is an informal institution.
• Functions of the Criminal Justice System

  • Prevent and control the commission of crime
  • Enforce the law
  • Safeguard lives, individual rights, and properties
  • Investigate, apprehend, prosecute and sentence those who violate the rules of society
  • Rehabilitate the convicts and reintegrate them into the community as law abiding citizens
• Law


  A body of rules of action or conduct prescribed by controlling authority and having binding legal force.
• Purposes of law


  • Maintain order in the society
  • Regulate human interaction
  • Define the economic environment
  • Enhance predictability
  • Promote orderly social change
  • Sustain individual rights
  • Identify evildoers
  • Mandate punishment and rehabilitation of offenders
• Main parts of the Criminal Justice System

  • Legislative - create laws
  • Courts - adjudication
  • Corrections - jail, prison, probation, parole
• Criminal


  One who has committed an offense punishable by law; Implying crime or heinous wickedness.
• Circumstances for a person to be branded as criminal

  • He must have committed a crime
  • He must have been apprehended and investigated by the police
  • By virtue of sufficient physical evidence and testimonies of witnesses, he/she must have been arrested
  • Due to the presence of prima facie evidence, the case was remanded to the court by the prosecutor for trial
  • There was arraignment
  • There was trial
  • The offender was found guilty
  • A sentence was rendered by the court
  • The convict was confined in prison
  • The convict has fully served his sentenced in prison
• Justice


  Adherence to truth or fact; Impartiality; the rendering of what is due or merited.
• Under Sec. 1, Art III of the 1987 Philippine Constitution, no person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law, nor shall a person be deprived of the equal protection of law.
• Kinds of due process


  • Procedural due process - Hears before it condemns, proceeds upon inquiry and renders judgment only after trial
  • Substantive due process - Requires the intrinsic validity of the law in interfering with the rights of the person to his life, liberty or property
• Justice according to the Supreme Court of the Philippines is symbolically represented by a blindfolded woman, holding with one hand a sword and with the other, a balance, meaning thereby that it is administered without respected to persons, equally to the poor and the rich.
• Lady Justice is a symbolic representation of the moral force in judicial systems. She is typically depicted as a blindfolded woman holding a set of scales and a double-edged sword.
• No one is above the law and it applied to everyone; therefore, law must be just or equal. The law must be upright and obligatory for the general welfare and benefit of all people.
• Basic principles of application of criminal laws

  • Generality - refers to the person/individual covered by our penal law
  • Prospectivity - refers to the time when our penal laws are to be applied
  • Territoriality - refers to the place where our penals laws are to be applied
• Logomacy is a statement that we would have no crime if we have no criminal law and that we can eliminate crimes by merely abolishing criminal law.
• Crime


  The breaking of rules or laws. It is an act (or sometimes a failure to act) that is deemed by statute or by the common law to be a public wrong and is therefore punishable by the state in criminal proceedings or via mechanisms such as legal systems.
• Under the social perspective, most crimes, such as harming people's lives, safety, morals, and property, are considered by society as deviant. Punishment is necessary only for criminal acts, which are so disruptive as to interfere with society's normal functioning.
• Under the legal perspective, crime is defined as an act or omission punishable by law. It includes all acts or behavior of a person, which our society considers as wrong and socially unacceptable.
• Nullum crimen, nulla poena sine legis


  There is no crime if there is no law punishing it.
• Criminal Law


  A branch or division of law, which defines crimes, treats of their nature, and provides for their punishment.
• Criminal


  An individual who has been found guilty of the commission of conduct that causes social harm and that is punishable by law; a person who has committed a crime.
• Factors contributing to criminal behavior

  • Criminal tendencies
  • Situation preceding a crime
  • Resistance of a person to commit an offense
• Criminal tendencies


  The criminal tendencies of a person would come to develop if the materials for committing a crime are present.
• Situation


  An environmental factor that induces or invites an individual to commit a crime.
• Resistance


  The person's susceptibility to commit violations or failure to follow certain social standards or rules of conduct whenever his emotional, spiritual, moral, mental, and physical or physiological being is weak.
• Other law enforcement agencies in the Philippines


  • NBI - National Bureau of Investigation
  • BIR - Bureau of Internal Revenue
  • LTO - Land Transportation Office
  • BOC - Bureau of Customs
  • FDA - Food and Drug Administration
  • PCG - Philippine Coast Guard
  • PASC - Philippine Aviation Security Command
  • MARINA - Maritime Industry Authority
  • BFD - Bureau of Forest Development
  • BFAR - Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources
  • CAA - Civil Aviation Authority
  • DENR - Department of Environment and Natural Resources
  • DFA - Department of Foreign Affairs
  • BID - Bureau of Immigration and Deportation
  • PDEA - Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency
• The law enforcement alone cannot create an orderly community in a democratic society. Realistically, people cannot fully hope nor expect that the police alone will be able to control all crimes, all the time, everywhere.
• Policing or peacekeeping is everybody's concern. It is not a sole function of the police in spite of the fact that they are paid. The people give only the power and authority to police the community and not the responsibility of policing. Power and authority can be delegated while responsibility could not, in any manner, be delegated.
• Key functions of the Philippine National Police

  • Enforce all laws and ordinances relative to the protection of lives and properties
  • Maintain peace and order and take all necessary steps to ensure public safety
  • Investigate and prevent crimes, effect the arrest of criminal offenders, bring offenders to justice and assist in their prosecution
  • Exercise the general powers to make arrest, search and seizure in accordance with the Constitution and pertinent laws
  • Detain an arrested person for a period not beyond what is prescribed by law, informing the person so detained of all his rights under the Constitution
  • Issue licenses for the possession of firearms and explosives in accordance with law
  • Supervise and control the training and operations of security agencies and issue licenses to operate security agencies, and to security guards and private detectives, for the practice of their professions
  • Perform such other duties and exercise all other functions as may be provided
• Levels of action in crime prevention


  • Primary level of prevention - Focused on addressing the root causes of crime through social awareness programs
  • Secondary level of prevention - Focused on specific problems aimed at diminishing opportunities that increase the commission of crime through law enforcement practices
• Primary level of prevention


  Focuses on passive measures such as social awareness programs to eliminate the root causes of crime
• Criminal etiology


  Scientific analysis of the causes of crime
• Secondary level of prevention


  Focuses on law enforcement practices like problem-oriented policing and hot-spot analysis to diminish opportunities for crime
• Tertiary level of prevention


  Focuses on deterrence and minimizing loss/damage through measures like carrying protective devices, insurance, and self-protective measures
• Once the first line of defense (crime prevention) is broken


  The second line of defense (crime suppression) will take place
• Police investigation


  • Aims to identify the person who committed the crime, the location, and gather evidence to prove guilt