Role of criminal justice bureaucracy in administration of Justice

Bureaucracy can be defined as a system of government in which the work of the government is carried on under different departments which are controlled by different heads (Niskanen, 2017). Bureaucracy can typically be observed as referring to both policy making groups of the administration as well as the government officials who are not elected. Bureaucracy can be seen as a powerful institution as it has been neutral means for administration in rational way. Implementation of law enforcement by way of criminal justice bureaucracy is done in multiple steps. A bureaucratic law is made in a conscious way by the government and it is helpful for marking of the presence of the state for the determination of the relations that are present within different groups in the way of a power that is centralized. Bureaucracy can be seen as having different roles in the different structures of criminal justice system for the administration of justice among the individuals (Weber, 2015). As example, The law enforcement agencies are consisting of the police and they represent the authority of the government in the civil affairs. The roles of the police generally include the responsibilities for the maintenance of the safety and the order of the citizens; detection, investigation and prevention of the activities involving crimes and enforcement of crime. Another example of the criminal justice bureaucracy is the court system. The main function of the courts is the adjudication of the disputes between individuals that are legal in nature and to be carrying out justice administration following the rules of the laws. The role of the court system in this context is the determination of the disputes between individuals in the forms of cases that are presented in front of them (Hall, 2015).

Impact of Bureaucracy in the OJ Simpson trial

 The OJ Simpson trial had been a landmark case in the history of murder trials in the United States of America. OJ Simpson, a famous athlete, was charged as guilty for the murder of his ex-wife and her friend. As the athlete was black, there were tremendous outrage among the press and media, who were of the speculation that since OJ Simpson was a wealthy black man marrying a white woman, the case was transcended to be the case of domestic violence. This further politicized the case and it became a racial issue. The prosecution was seen as trying to raise awareness among the public about the evils of the social issue of domestic violence and instead another social issue was raised by the defence, that was the issue of racial discrimination towards OJ Simpson by the press, media and the criminal justice system. Although there was a strong case by the prosecution against Simpson yet the defence was seen to be convincing the jury about the reasonable doubt towards the validity of the DNA evidence provided by the State. Simpson was free of his charges despite of having a strong case against him.

References

Hall, D. (2015). Administrative Law: Bureaucracy in a Democracy. Boston: Prentice-Hall.

Niskanen, J. (2017). Bureaucracy and representative government. Routledge.

People of the State of California v Orenthal James Simpson (1995)

Weber, M. (2015). Bureaucracy. In Working in America (pp. 29-34). Routledge.