The Legal Landscape

You have just graduated from the AIU Online Criminal Justice program and acquired your dream career working with the National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS). You love to write articles of criminal justice interest, and because the NCJRS provides links to millions and millions of criminal justice references, you find yourself in awe of your career.

For your first assignment, you have been asked to present a report at an upcoming criminal justice conference. This report will help your colleagues better understand how databases, technology, policies, and so forth affect the administration of justice and the outcome of court cases in particular. Your training coordinator expects you to highlight several examples of how criminal justice databases, computer technology, and policies have changed the way in which crimes are investigated and how criminals are brought to justice.

Pick 2 of the following databases, and address how technology tools and policies have changed the legal landscape in the United States in a 2-page paper:

Fingerprint analysis
DNA databases
Ballistics testing
Tire-tread analysis
Tracking of illegal pornographic images
Modus operandi databases
Three-strikes laws
Gun control laws
The USA PATRIOT Act
Megans law
Domestic violence laws
The exclusionary rule
Lie detectors
Inmate classification systems
Truth-in-sentencing laws