A little background: Criminal Justice is a system comprised of police, courts and corrections. As such, decisions made by one person/group of people in one part of the system affects the others. It is important to understand the various components of the system to be able to analyze the impact that their interactions and inter- relatedness have on the administration of justice. The study of Criminal Justice involves cumulative learning and thought.

Directions: Please answer each of the following questions as thoroughly as possible and be sure to back up your answers with scholarly resources.

1. What are the main components of the Criminal Justice system?
2. How are these components interrelated?
3. How might these components conflict?
4. Based off of your answers in questions 1-3; describe the steps of the criminal justice process and the role that each component plays within each step. Specifically describe the decision making points that influence the next step in the process. (hint: be sure to look at the chart of the steps of Criminal justice contained in the week 1 readings).
5. In your opinion, how does the interrelatedness and interactions between the components affect the administration of justice?