Portal:Criminal justice

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Wikipedia portals: Culture · Geography · Health · History · Mathematics · Natural sciences · Philosophy · Religion · Society · Technology

The Criminal justice Portal

Scales of Justice
Criminal justice is the system of, practices, and organizations, used by national and local governments, directed at maintaining social control, deterring and controlling crime, and sanctioning those who violate laws with criminal penalties. The primary agencies charged with these responsibilities are law enforcement (police and prosecutors), courts, defense attorneys and local jails and prisons which administer the procedures for arrest, charging, adjudication and punishment of those found guilty. When processing the accused through the criminal justice system, government must keep within the framework of laws that protect individual rights. The pursuit of criminal justice is, like all forms of "justice," "fairness" or "process," essentially the pursuit of an ideal. Throughout history, criminal justice has taken on many different forms which often reflect the cultural mores of society.
More about Criminal justice...

Selected article

1901 assassination of President William McKinley by Leon Czolgosz
Gun violence in the United States is associated with the majority of homicides and over half the suicides. It is a significant public concern, especially in urban areas and in conjunction with youth activity and gang violence. Gun violence is not new in the United States, with the assassinations of President Abraham Lincoln in 1865, and of Presidents James Garfield, William McKinley, and John F. Kennedy. High profile gun violence incidents, such as the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr., and, more recently, the Virginia Tech massacre, the Columbine High School massacre and the Beltway sniper attacks, have fueled debate over gun policies. Many suffer non-fatal gunshot wounds, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimating 52,447 violence-related and 23,237 accidental gunshot injuries in the United States during 2000. The majority of gun-related deaths in the United States are suicides, with firearms used in 16,907 suicides in the United States during 2004. Gun policy in the United States is highly influenced by the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, which prohibits infringement of "the right of the People to keep and bear arms."

Selected picture

Bavarian Ministry leaflet, warns about organized crime.
Credit: Jeff Barnes

Organized crime or criminal organizations are groups or operations run by criminals, most commonly for the purpose of generating a monetary profit. The Organized Crime Control Act (U.S., 1970) defines organized crime as "The unlawful activities of ... a highly organized, disciplined association...".

News

Selected biography

W. Mark Felt is a former agent and top official of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation. After 30 years of denials, Felt revealed himself in May 2005 to be the Watergate scandal informant called "Deep Throat." During the early investigation of the Watergate scandal (197274), Felt was the Bureau's Associate Director, the second-ranking post in the FBI. While Associate Director, Felt provided Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward with critical leads on the story that eventually saw the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon in 1974. In 1980, Felt was convicted of violating the civil rights of people thought to be associated with the Weather Underground by ordering FBI agents to break into their homes. On May 31, 2005, Felt was revealed to have been "Deep Throat". His identity as Woodward's informant was a secret for three decades and had been the source of much speculation in American political and popular culture. Felt resides in Santa Rosa, California and has completed an update of his 1979 autobiography which provides information on his past as "Deep Throat."

Did you know...

Jonathan Zittrain

Categories

WikiProjects

Selected quote

H. L. Mencken
The doctrine that the cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy is like saying that the cure of crime is more crime.

Featured content

Main topics

Criminology

Crime

Main topics

Criminal justice system

Law enforcement (Police)

Courts

Corrections (Penology)

Things you can do

Things you can do

Related portals

Associated Wikimedia