Chapter 1 Chapter Summary

This chapter provides an overview of the structure of the Canadian criminal justice system, which includes the police, courts, and corrections. Discretion plays a key role in allowing criminal justice workers to operate in an effective and efficient manner. This helps us understand how most offenders are “funnelled” out of the criminal justice system (as not every offender who is arrested ends up in prison). Since this may be confusing to some students, the goals of the criminal justice system are presented. These goals include anything from preventing crime and protecting the public to assisting with offender reintegration. Most Canadians agree on these goals but will place a different value on criminal justice issues themselves.

This chapter ultimately provides a foundation for understanding crime, the criminal justice system, and the competing criminal justice perspectives in order to assist us in making sense of criminal justice. This chapter introduces us to the complexities of crime and the criminal justice system. As a result, not all solutions to crime or how we should respond to it are simple. Most of our knowledge about crime has been shaped by the media. As a result, most Canadians are confused about the volume and seriousness of crime that occurs in Canada (and how the Canadian criminal justice system should respond to those acts). It is necessary to look at all aspects of a crime, as its impact is subjective and the law itself is dynamic.