Duties and obligation of criminal justice staffs

Introduction
Criminal justice profession is important in any civilized society because of the role it plays. Crimes are inevitable and require a body that will regulate or reinforce laws. There are different populations that require the services of the staffs in the criminal and justice department.
Needs of populations served in criminal justice profession vary. These needs include maintenance of law and order through law enforcement, ensuring that the parties are entitled to fair hearing through a legal process and ensuring that behaviors of law offenders are corrected in a justice manner (Young, 2013). Criminal justice profession has various people that address various roles in their jurisdiction. There are the police, the courts and the prisons or rehabilitating institutions with responsibility to instill values and positive behaviors to offenders. The criminal justice professionals therefore are able to address the needs of every population by ensuring that there is law and order. This is achieved by deploying of security personnel to areas that are prone to insecurity to ensure that such incidences do not happen. They also use various strategies such as setting up of laws, building of police stations in some areas, using intelligence officers on the ground and community policy concept. Intensifying of security is to ensure that the safety of the citizen is not compromised. The courts help to ensure that there is fairness and justice in the cases. It ensures that all parties offended or in a crisis receive fair hearing before a decision is made. Therefore, courts play a vital role in the promotion of peace and ensuring fairness. Prisoners or those people that are accused and found guilty are also locked in prisons where they are counseled and trained on vocation skills. This program makes them to change their mindset on crime and transform them into responsible members of the society. Rehabilitation centers are also used in inculcating positive values and morals to some of the offenders making them to become responsible members of the society.
Members of the society through education and awareness understand the obligations of the justice professionals. A good number of the citizens understand these duties because of the different institutions granted the power to execute certain functions. For instance, police department is for enforcing and maintaining order in the society. It is the duty of the police officer to ensure that citizens comply with the laws established. Hence, community requires and expects police to address all sorts of insecurity in their areas (Levin, 2013). The courts are known to deal with the cases that are presented before it. Therefore, society members know this role as well as that once an individual is found guilty, he/she is taken to prison for correction or to a rehab center. Therefore, many people understand these roles and duties. The creation of awareness has also contributed towards enlightenment among the citizens.
The perception that the society has on the profession varies from one community to another. Some communities have negative perceptions while others have positive perception towards the professions. Police officers or the law enforcers are mostly perceived in negative way in many developing and underdevelopment countries because of their brutality in nature compared to the western countries or developed nations where the profession is respected and viewed like any other (Lacey, 2013). The most coveted career in this field is in the judiciary arm of government. Many people would wish to become judges, advocates, and legal professional because of the status. Therefore, it is a question of the region and the way of socialization, that determines how a society views the criminal justice profession.
Elimination of the stereotypes linked with the profession is achievable when there is will and determination. One thing that should be done is for the institutions to embrace reform and become friendly to the members of the public. The law enforcers such as police must work together with the members of the public and project a servant hood attitude. Moreover, it is important to create awareness among the members of the public that these professionals have the mandate to serve them and should not be despised (Klein, 2013). The other things that can help change the negative stereotype is to rebrand themselves. For example, they can change their names and dressing codes to change the perception and attitude of the members of the public. The examples that support this are provided as changing their dressing codes, using other names to refer to the professionals to trigger change in attitudes among members of the public and through education and creation of awareness among the members of the public that these people are there to serve them and not to be feared.
It s therefore that these professionals have important roles they execute in maintaining of law and order and ensuring that there is justice and fairness as well as inculcation of values and morals to those that violate the law. Even with these responsibilities, there are still negative stereotypes on their duties and responsibilities. The stereotypes such as harassment can be managed through education and creation of awareness, rebranding and changing of names and uniforms as well as laws that govern how they should act.

References
Klein, J. (2013). Law & Justice CTE Program Offers a Handson Approach to Learning. Techniques: Connecting Education & Careers, 88(1): 44-47.
Lacey, N. (2013). Humanizing the criminal justice machine: re-animated justice or frankenstein’s monster? The Machinery of Criminal Justice. Harvard Law Review, 126: 1299.
Levin, B. (2013). De-naturalizing criminal law: of public perceptions and procedural protections.
Albany Law Review, 76(3):1777-180.
Young, R. (2013). Exploring the Boundaries of the Criminal Courtroom Workgroup. Common Law World Review, 42(3):203-229.