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Defining criminal behavior in our dysfunctional criminal justice system is easy. Criminal Behavior is that behavior which violates the laws and rules a society has in place, by common consent, to provide for an orderly society.

It's defining our dysfunctional criminal justice system that is more difficult. What, exactly, makes it dysfunctional? Is it the Judiciary branch? Or maybe the Prosecutorial Branch is where the problem lies. Perhaps the Law Enforcement arm is the broken part of the system.

For years liberal Federal Judges made law from the bench with their ground breaking rulings. Of course, they were abetted in these actions by the American Civil Liberties Union [ACLU]. Judges set precedent after precedent, upholding the rights of criminal defendants, decimating the rights of Victims and hamstringing the efforts of Law Enforcement to be effective in fighting crime for literally decades!

Prosecutors more concerned with their win/loss ratio for that is what raises are based on, began to rely more and more on the "Plea Bargain" system. They lost their ability to actually try cases. Then again, as crowded as most local and District court dockets are, due to tax rollbacks, without plea bargains, the system would grind to a halt.

Law Enforcement has been struggling for years to keep up with the technological, financial, and firepower resources available to the better organized criminals. I don't mean Organized Crime, as in the Mafia or the Drug Cartels. I just mean a criminal with average intelligence. For it's really only the stupid or sloppy criminals who wind up in prison.

Defining "Criminal Behavior" is a snap. Defining the problems in the criminal justice system, if you have worked in it, just takes some analytical skills. Fixing those problems will take time, money and the dedication of our entire law-abiding society.

Learn more about this author, Holly Berry.
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