Information about the Criminal Justice System
Criminal justice is a process, involving a series of steps beginning with a criminal investigation and ending with the release of a convicted offender from correctional supervision. Rules and decision making are at the center of this process.
Many of the assumptions of the criminal process focus on “normal” NT behavior. This generally is not a problem, but there are times when police and court efficiency conflicts with the reality of normal behavior of autistics.
It is therefore possible that someone on The Spectrum will have a run-in with the criminal justice system. “The Spectrum” generally means the autism Spectrum, including Asperser’s syndrome, HFA, PDD and Kanner’s autism. Many of us are comfortable with the generic reference of “autistic”.For the above reason someone on The Spectrum should be prepared for an encounter with the criminal justice system. This is a four-fold process:
initial police encounter investigative and interrogative procedures prosecution prison environment
Text and Materials on the Criminal Justice Process provides a critical account of the criminal justice system, looking specifically at the role and impact of major players and institutions involved in each of the key decision-making stages.
Law enforcement officers can file a written complaint, which starts the criminal justice process in motion. The next step is the arraignment process, when a preliminary hearing is done in an open court. The charges are read to the accused person by the judge and the defendant is asked to plea guilty or not guilty. The crime control model, by contrast, proceeds from a presumption of guilt and focuses on efficiency. The goal of the first is to do justice, that of the latter to provide security. Although Packer was careful not to express too strong a preference for one or the other, his sympathies for the due process model were plain enough.
The criminal justice process starts with the complaint, information or grand jury indictment. Misdemeanor and some felony cases can proceed by the issuance of the complaint or information by the prosecutor. The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution requires that charges for all capital and “infamous” crimes be brought by an indictment returned by a grand jury. The Supreme Court has held that this part of the Fifth Amendment is not binding on the states, so they can use grand juries or not, as they wish. When the grand jury indictment is used, it takes the place of the complaint or information in starting the criminal justice process.
The arrests can occur at either the scene of a crime or based on warrants or sworn statements ordering a court appearance, typically after the complaint, information or grand jury indictment is filed. All arrests must be based on probable cause, or reasonable grounds to believe that an offense has been committed and the defendant may have committed the offense.
