ABSTRACT
Criminal justice refers to the system of social control that encompasses police, courts, and corrections. Police, courts, and corrections comprise the elements of what we think of as the criminal justice system. Police need probable cause for an arrest. The concept that law enforcement, courts, and corrections form a system can be traced back directly to President Johnson's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice and their report, The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society, issued in 1967. Philosophers, political scientists, and sociologists have asked the question why anyone would voluntarily subject themselves to onerous rules imposed by society. One of the most well-known answers to this question is the social contract. Our legal system in the United States comes from English common law, except for the state of Louisiana, which, because of its history as a French possession, has evolved from the continental civil law (or code) system.
