This paper examines two competing frameworks in American criminal justice: the crime control model and the due process model. The crime control model prioritizes efficient adjudication and public safety, even at the risk of incarcerating innocent individuals. The due process model, by contrast, places the highest value on protecting defendants' constitutional rights and individual freedoms. The paper outlines the core priorities and extreme positions of each model, then argues that the due process model is preferable because it safeguards innocent individuals and promotes equitable application of the law, despite the administrative burdens it may impose on courts.
The conservative crime control model and the liberal due process model each have their respective strengths and weaknesses, as well as their extremes. Understanding both frameworks is essential to evaluating how criminal justice systems balance public safety against the protection of individual rights.
The crime control model concentrates on ensuring that an efficient legal system is in place — one capable of adjudicating criminal defendants in an expeditious fashion in order to get as many lawbreakers off the streets as quickly as possible, thereby enhancing social stability and public safety. At its extreme, proponents of the crime control model would argue that incarcerating innocent people is the harsh but acceptable price that society must pay to ensure that criminals are also identified and locked up, removing their threats to the public good. These priorities mean that individual freedoms are considered less important than controlling criminal activity.
In addition, plea bargaining is more commonplace under the crime control model, since it serves to speed up the otherwise-sluggish legal process (Burke, Carter, Fedorek et al., 2020). In sum, Jones (2010) reports that the crime control model's view is "that the proper role of the criminal process (and criminal justice) is to protect 'law-abiding citizens' from dangerous others" (p. 331).
The main priority of the due process model is to ensure that all criminal defendants are afforded the opportunity to fully defend themselves in courts of competent jurisdiction and that their full range of constitutional rights is protected from abuses (Burke, Carter, Fedorek et al., 2020). In sharp contrast to the crime control model, the due process model places the highest priority on fundamental individual freedoms and rights (Jones, 2010). The due process framework holds that procedural safeguards are not bureaucratic obstacles but essential guarantees of a fair and just legal system. At its extreme, the due process model would advocate releasing as many guilty individuals as necessary in order to avoid incarcerating even a single innocent person (Jones, 2010).
"Argument for due process as the superior framework"
Always verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.