Explain the meaning of, "the criminal justice system is an instrument of social control.". Describe the size and extent of this social control instrument

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The criminal justice system is essentially an instrument of social control: society considers some behaviors so dangerous and destructive that it either strictly controls their occurrence or outlaws them outright. It is the job of the agencies of justice to prevent social harm and to dispense formal social control by apprehending and punishing those who violate the law and in so doing deter those who may be contemplating future wrongdoing. The contemporary criminal justice system is monumental in size. It now costs federal, state, and local governments more than $200 billion per year for civil and criminal justice; the cost of corrections is now about 68 billion per year. The criminal justice system employs more than 2.4 million people in thousands of independent law enforcement, court-related and correctional agencies; almost 18,000 law enforcement agencies; 17,000 courts and 1,200 correctional institutions. State and federal courts convict a combined total of over 1 million adults on felony charges; more than 7 million people are under some form of correctional supervision (2 million in jails and prisons).