Running head: LITERATURE REVIEW

A literature review on UTEP introducing Criminal Justice as a major of study?

Literature Review
Fernando Garcia
The University of Texas at El Paso
Rhetoric and Composition 2
Professor Paul J. Vierra
October 14, 2016

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Abstract

The University of Texas at El Paso has been in El Paso since the beginning of the
twentieth century. It was mainly a mining school at the time it was built. So the Criminal Justice
program and major were nonexistent at this timeframe. At some point in the decade the
university must have added more opportunities for the citizens of El Paso to get a degree in a
variety of education fields, including Criminal justice. What caused the school to want or have
this particular field taught? Issues in the citys past may have something to do with this decision.
Could be what the citizens think about the policies in Criminal justice, and may want a change,
or there is more to El Paso than we know? By taking these questions into consideration, the
students at the University of Texas at El Paso will have more of an understanding of why
Criminal Justice was inducted.

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Introduction

UTEP is a college that has a variety of different and unique type of education fields such
as Engineering, Astronomy, and so many more. The school did not always stay the same as it
was many decades ago. There are always changes being made to the school, it was originally a
mining school back in the early days of El Paso. Why was the criminal justice program created
as a major of study at the University of Texas at El Paso?
The criminal justice program was introduced as a field of study for students in El Paso
back in the 1970s. The officials at the University must have either seen this program as another
opportunity for people to come and persuade their degree, or was there a reason to why this had
occurred. For these reasons, people and students at the school continue to wonder about this
mystery, and to consider these questions though this review.
1. Do people in El Paso agree that criminal justice policies should be changed?
2. How has the system changed in El Paso since the 1970s?
3. Were there issues in El Paso that caused UTEP to introduce Criminal Justice as a
field of study?
4. What was El Paso like before the University introduced Criminal Justice?
These questions will give more inside to the purpose of this literature review by providing more
information on what the people of El Paso and scholars think about the criminal justice policies,
how the system has changed in El Paso, what issues did El Paso experience in the citys past and
to give more background to what El Paso was like before the University adopted Criminal
Justice.
What kind of Criminal Justice Policies do people want to see changed or reformed?

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To get more information on this I had conducted a survey with twenty different people in
the local El Paso area on types of criminal justice policies they believe should change. Policies
such as financial policies, offender registration, drug policies and law enforcement policies.

The results concluded that out of twenty people of one-hundred percent, the majority
show they want to mostly see change on the policies of drugs. Now we will see what other
scholars have to say about policies they want to see change in.
Mazerolle and Ransley acknowledged in their book Third Party Policing that there is a
different form of policing, called third party policing (Mazerolle and Ransley, 2005). Both
authors define it in a way that its mainly a tactic in policing (p. 3). They emphasize that this is a
point that is used in different aspects of life going over problems on third party policing and
provide analysis on the results of it being used as way of strategy (Mazerolle and Ransely, 2005).
Showing the reader and making the reader aware of the term and what it is and where this is
used.
If Mazerolle and Ransley are right that third party policing is an important term, then it is
necessary to reassess the popular assumption that there are issues in this type of policing
(Mazerolle and Ransley, 2005). The authors show information about how different policies have

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used third party policing when it comes to different crimes and situations (Mazerolle and
Ransley, 2005), it must be pointed out that this kind of policing has regulations and ways of
dealing with these different crimes that are committed. Rather if the crime affected the general
population, a local business or the local government such as the city council.
Eric argues about the policy for helping people with drug addiction in his essay Drug
Policy: A Challenge of Value (Eric, 2004). He emphasizes that the policy on drug offenders are
to make people fill themselves up with fear, explaining that drugs can be harmful to individuals
who use them (p.54). He argues that the drug policy really means more of a way to punish the
offenders, only way that they will learn and be better is to get caught, suggesting that there is
discrimination involved, as he goes over more problems that should be looked into (p.61).
Eric is mistaken because he overlooked on why there is a policy on drugs in Criminal
Justice. As he proves in his own paper that drugs can cause the department and the individual
harm. It can boost up expenses to deal with drugs and it can cause people to become addicted to
the drug that can really hurt them (Eric, 2004). He also explains that the policy that is supposed
to help criminals with drug addiction, is more of a way to imprison and arrest the druggies,
seeing this as a view of discrimination (Eric, 2004).
Arkin claims in his essay Grand Juries Should Be Reformed to Check Prosecution
Power that the grand jury give in to prosecutors who have very good claims and evidence to
convict the accused, as the prosecutors put much of time and hard work into the trial (p.23). He
shows what the idea of the grand jury, also presents how the prosecutor has the power in the
court room. The power to send someone to jail. Prosecutors have more leverage as they know the
law and its their job to not be fair and being against the accused. United States v. Thompson is
an example that is presented (Arkin, 2009).

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Although Arkin stated that prosecutors have a good amount of power in the court room
(Arkin, 2009), it must be pointed out that there is a reason why the court system is practice this
way. Prosecutors who are educated individuals in law do their duty which is proving that the
defendant is guilty of the accused crime. The grand jury are individuals who hear both sides of
the court, listen to the evidence they present and they decide as a group on the outcome.
Washburn emphases in his essay Grand Juries Should Be Reformed to Reflex the
Communities They Serve that the grand juries are flawed as they are not made of individuals in
the local community (Washburn, 2009). The grand jury selection should change its structure not
its purpose (Washburn, 2009) stating the structure should consist of members of the local
community. To have more citizens participate in court, as he states crime is often a community
problem and should involve community response (Washburn, 2009). He shares some
advantages of this kind of structure and some disadvantages but he emphasizes that this practice
should be taken into possible consideration (Washburn, 2009).
By focusing on the structure of the grand jury, Washburn overlooked the deeper problem
of this kind of practice. If the grand jury consist of a court case where the community members
know the defendant, its possible that the jury in this situation would be less harsh on the
decision if they are guilty or not (Washburn, 2009). Or the other way around to they dont know
the defendant. This points out that this kind of court case wouldnt be fitting the grand jury in
fulling its purpose in court, which is to fairly decide on what should happen to the accused
individual. This literature has shown what certain citizens think about Criminal justice policies
and what other scholars think about and their policies.
How has the system changed in El Paso since the 1970s?

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As we live our lives we know that nothing stays the same. Change is all around us so
when we realize this; we know that the criminal justice system must have experienced changes
since the 1970s. Here are some scholars who explain the changes they have discovered and their
opinion on the outcome.
Holmes, Hosch, Daudistel, Perez and Graves emphasize in their article Judges Ethnicity
and Minority Sentencing: Evidence Concerning Hispanics that minorities are being sentenced
more harshly that normal offenders to protect members of groups and their interests (Holmes,
Hosch, Daudistel, Perez and Graves, 1993). They conduct a study of nonfederal crime cases that
were presented in El Paso, Texas in the 1990s, putting certain factors of the group judge in the
courtroom, kind of felony, the number of charges, convictions, and if a firearm was involved in
the crime, as well as their kind of back ground and resource accessibility on page 501 (Holmes,
Hosch, Daudistel, Perez and Graves, 1993). They found that the sentencing for Hispanic and
Anglo judges are similar, but Hispanic ones sentencing is slightly more severe (Holmes, Hosch,
Daudistel, Perez and Graves, 1993). Showing that groups of judges arent much different when
sentencing minorities.
Holmes, Hosch, Daudistel, Perez and Graves contradicted themselves. On the one hand,
they argued that minorities are suffering with lengthier sentences when convicted, on the other
hand, they also say that there is no real evidence of this occurring (Holmes, Hosch, Daudistel,
Perez and Graves, 1993). The kind of method they use to conduct their findings on answering
their claim, is organized but it seems more that this kind of method of research is flawed as the
results were almost the same for their Hispanic and Anglo judges. Their findings show what they
state there are small differences between them (Holmes, Hosch, Daudistel, Perez and Graves,
1993).

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Callen argues about getting rid of the plea bargain policy in the criminal justice system in
the article An experience in justice without plea negotiation. Law and Society Review (Callen,
1979). He believes that this policy creates ridiculous results, making it distrust worthy and
unequal justice (Callen, 1979). He then creates an experimental system that eliminates the plea
negotiation. Stating that the system allows more factors for the judge to not control the
sentencing, cases are decided individually (Callen, 1979). The experiment takes place in El
Paso and shows that the system doesnt do what it was intended to do to reduce crime
sentencing. More cases were put and more sentences caused the punishments to be more severe.
After examining this, he can now see why there is plea negotiation was in the court room in El
Paso at the time.
Callens view that the plea bargain is flawed, as his own research has shown that the
policy plays a factor to crime. He thinks that this particular policy shouldnt exist in the first
place so in creating an experiment to where court cases dont have the negotiation, have caused
the main purpose of it to become the opposite. The number of crime cases have increased since
he had gotten rid of the policy, increasing the length of sentences as he shows in his table of
results (Callen, 1979). This shows him that the plea bargain is important in court cases and why
this policy shouldnt be changed as this policy is keeping crime rates low and thats good for
cities even El Paso (Callen, 1979).
As shown from these educated individuals, there have been changes in the criminal
justice system that might have formed it to the ordered system that we are aware of today but no
system is perfect there must be issues with the system.
Were there issues in El Paso that caused UTEP to introduce Criminal justice as a field of
study?

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As it was asked earlier in this review, there must have been issues that might have caused
the University of Texas at El Paso to consider introducing the Criminal justice department, the
following are some sources that go over some events that have happened in the past that might
have raised some concerns at the time.
Misleh and Haanneman acknowledged in Emerging Issues: The Faith Communities and
the Criminal Justice system that faithful groups are important as they are part of helping with
crime. The authors explain that the main objective in criminal justice is to capture the individual
who is a danger to society and punish them. They introduce different types of religions and
churches who have become more involved in helping criminal justice by having sessions and
give suggestions to officials, the one that stands out is the Roman Catholic religion, as they show
that the religion experimented with their own ways of dealing with victims who have suffered,
crime in their community and how to keep it safe (Misleh and Haanneman, 2004). This
experiment goes on with roman catholic in many places across the country. They show that the
criminal justice system is being assisted by different religions.
Misleh and Haanneman claim that relation groups help with the criminal justice system
but they rest upon the questionable assumption that although they can assist in their
communities, they really dont have any power or authority on what should be done (Misleh and
Haanneman, 2004). The different religions have mostly helped them by giving suggestions,
arguing and sending statements about what the system should do on certain crimes (Misleh and
Haanneman, 2004). The only real power that possess are being involved with reaching out to the
public and inform them on the sins of their religion in their many locations across the country, as
sins in every religion are very similar to the modern laws that are to be followed today.

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Massey argues in Battlefield: El Paso. The National Interest about an invasion of illegal
immigrants coming the United States. He states that the problem is that this never happened
(Massey, 2009). He explains the U.S policy on dealing with the emerging problem of illegal
immigration. During the 1950s he explains that there are thousands of Mexicans, working in the
labor force under an agreement (Massey, 2009). When this agreement was abolished the country
created amendments on immigration that put restrictions on Mexicans immigrating legally
(Massey, 2009). Since then there has been more programs and law enforcement agencies that are
to battle this issue that has been around for decades.
On the one hand, Massey was correct that the so called invasion on America never really
was an invasion at all (Massey, 2009). On the other hand, however, illegal immigration has
become an issue in the United States. Giving the history he presented, it wasnt always a problem
it was legal due to the Bracero program, to compensate for the requirements of labor force in the
1950s (Massey, 2009). So he emphasizes that this issue didnt start as a problem for the country,
until the program disappeared as he states (Massey, 2009). Due to this event happening, the
workers who are still in the country stay, the result being they are now in the country illegally.
Programs have been created to better deal with this continuing issue (Massey, 2009).
Martinezs claim in the article Border Conflict, Border Fences, and the Tortilla
Curtain Incident of 1978-1979 there has been tension along the border since the world wars
that caused the creation of fences in along the border cities (Martinez, 2008). He presents how
relations were with both countries have been on edge since the disagreement with land
ownership (Martinez, 2008). The fences along the border at the 70s were only in both rural and
urban areas (Martinez, 2008). It wasnt until The Tortilla Curtain Episode that changed that
(Martinez, 2008). The episode is stated of immigrants who rejected the option to depart from

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their own deportation (Martinez, 2008). The result of this, was the creation and approval of the
fences in the bordering cities and reinforcing the existing fences to the fences that we now see in
El Paso.
Martinez claim bring us into more information on why there are fences in the bordering
cities (Martinez, 2008). Going over the history of Mexico and the United States since before the
creation of the border, helps the audience get more insight into what was going on in the
bordering cities (Martinez, 2008). The Tortilla Curtain incident is one of the events that is
probably not aware of to the public today (Martinez, 2008). As this is proven as he presents a
survey that proves on the awareness of the fences being constructed and if they agree with it
(Martinez, 2008). This event presentation has given more historical background of the city of El
Paso.
Kanopy claims on the social issues that are affecting people into the ways of crime. The
video emphasized what criminal justice is and issues have been erupting in their video (Kanopy,
2016;2003). Showing people who are discussing the social issues as a group, giving their
experience or own opinion about the issue. One such issue is what is causing people to violate
the law (Kanopy, 2016;2003). They discuss on factors such as the kind of family and community
the individual was exposed to. This video discussed more issues that open up discussion and
what should or shouldnt be changed in criminal justice as a whole (Kanopy, 2016;2003).
Kanopy contradicted himself. On the one hand, Kanopy argued that there are some
imperfections when it comes to the criminal justice system. On the other hand, Kanopy also
discuss about the kind of issues that are present when it comes to criminals, why they commit to
crime in the first place (Kanopy, 2016;2003). This video does show the viewers that the
arguments on the social issues of individual that have caused them to think the system is flawed

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(Kanopy, 2016;2003), these issues of society and expectation and having education have brought
up more factors for people to account for when discussing criminal justice.
This literature has shown their insight to the kind of issues that might have caused the
program to come to the University of Texas at El Paso.
What was El Paso like before the University introduced Criminal justice?
As a citizen of El Paso, you would get curious to how the city was like during times
where you werent even alive. The city never looked the same as it does today, there are forms of
change, the buildings were different, the life at the border was different for early citizens and the
border city overall was seen uniquely.
Stern acknowledged and examines some documents of El Paso during the beginning of
the twentieth century. Stern starts with pictures and blue prints of some old buildings like on
page 44, showing an old plant that existed in 1917 in figure one (Stern, 1999).

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Source: Stern, A. M. (1999). Buildings, boundaries, and blood: Medicalization and

nation-building on the U.S.-mexico border, 1910-1930. The Hispanic American Historical
Review, 79(1), 41-81. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2518217
She also shows images on the kind of life that early El Paso citizens had to go through
with issues of the border at the time such as quarantine labor that she shows on page 69 (Stern,
1999). She gives the reader more insight to how life was like nearly a decade ago.
Although Stern goes though the history of the buildings and the kind of life it was back
then; it must be pointed out that much has changed since then. Most of the buildings from that
time probably no longer exist as El Paso has been remodeled and now there are more building in
the city (Stern, 1999). Showing the images (p.71) that were taken for the border at the time and
discussing the kind of labor that was present shows the city of El Paso almost a century ago
(Stern, 1999). This source has given us more information on what El Paso was like in the past
when it comes to life, and the buildings (Stern, 1999).
Conclusion
In conclusion, in this literature review we have seen results of what El Paso citizens think
about Criminal Justice policies and examined what scholars think about certain policies. We
have seen from writers what has changed in the Criminal justice system in El Paso. The issues
that might have put pressure to the University of Texas at El Paso to have Criminal Justice as a
major and lastly we have seen more of the historic part of El Paso (Stern, 1999). These questions
have put in perspective on why the University of Texas at El Paso gave birth to the Criminal
Justice education and made it available to the people of the border land.

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References

Callan, S. W. (1979). An experience in justice without plea negotiation. Law & Society Review,
13(2), 327-347. doi:10.2307/3053257
Haugen, D. M., & Musser, S. (2009). Criminal justice. Detroit: Greenhaven Press.
HOLMES, M. D., HOSCH, H. M., DAUDISTEL, H. C., PEREZ, D. A., & GRAVES, J. B.
(1993). Judges' ethnicity and minority sentencing: Evidence concerning hispanics. Social
Science Quarterly, 74(3), 496-506. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/42863205
Judah, E. H., & Bryant, M. (2004). Criminal justice :Retribution vs. restoration?. Binghamton,
NY: Haworth Social Work Practice Press.
Criminal justice: Social issues. Kanopy (Director). (2016; 2003).[Video/DVD] San Francisco,
California, USA: Kanopy Streaming. Retrieved from http://0utep.kanopystreaming.com.lib.utep.edu/node/
Martinez, O. J. (2008). Border conflict, border fences, and the "tortilla curtain" incident of 19781979. Journal of the Southwest, 50(3), 263-278. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/40170391
Massey, D. S. (2009). Battlefield: El paso. The National Interest, (102), 44-51. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/42896225
Mazerolle, L. G., & Ransley, J. (2005). Third party policing. Cambridge, UK; New York:
Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/
ecip0512/2005012922.html
Stern, A. M. (1999). Buildings, boundaries, and blood: Medicalization and nation-building on the
U.S.-mexico border, 1910-1930. The Hispanic American Historical Review, 79(1), 4181. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2518217