Informative Speech Audience Assessment

Criminal Justice

Specific Goal: To teach our class about the criminal justice system

My Narrowed Topic:
a) Strategy: Ill teach my topic my explaining three parts of our criminal justice
system.

b) Narrow Focus:
a. Original topic: What makes up the criminal justice system
b. Narrower topic: What are correctional facilities and the death
penalty
c. Even narrower topic: Correctional facilities and death penalty in a nut
shell
Ethos:
a) Primary Ethos: I wanted to major in criminal justice I find the topic quite
entertaining to research

b) Secondary Ethos: I will site Robert Bohm, Brian Stevenson, Bureau of

Justice Statistics.

Audience Knowledge Level: Most audience members have little knowledge of the
topic.
Adaptation to Audience Knowledge: Il help my audience understand my topic by
giving background and statistics.
Pattern of Organization: Ill use a topical pattern of organization.
 Informative Speech Full Sentence Outline
Criminal Justice

Introduction:
Hook: We all probably know somebody who has been in trouble with the
law or has heard about it on the news or even from a friend.
Thesis: Today I am going to inform you about our criminal justice system
Preview:
1. What Criminal justice is
2. What are Correctional facilities
3. What is Capital Punishment

Transition: So what exactly is the Criminal Justice System? Police

officers? Judges? Well yes but thats not all.

Body:
I. The Criminal justice system is the system of law enforcement that
is directly involved in apprehending, prosecuting, defending,
sentencing, and punishing those who are suspected or convicted
of criminal offenses.
A.
i. The first contact a defendant has with the criminal
justice system is usually with the police (or law
enforcement) who investigate the suspected
wrongdoing and make an arrest, but if the suspect is
dangerous to the whole nation, a national level law
enforcement agency is called in.
ii. When warranted, law enforcement agencies or police
officers are empowered to use force and other forms of
legal coercion and means to effect public and social
order.
iii. The courts serve as the venue where disputes are then
settled, and justice is administered. There are many
 important people in any court setting. These people are
the courtroom working group and includes both
professional and nonprofessional individuals.
iv. These include the judge, prosecutor, and the defense
attorney. The judge, or magistrate, is a person, elected
or appointed, who is knowledgeable in the law, and
whose function is to objectively administer the legal
proceedings and offer a final decision to dispose of a
case.
v. Offenders are then turned over to the correctional
authorities, from the court system after the accused
has been found guilty. Like all other aspects of criminal
justice, the administration of punishment has taken
many different forms throughout history.

B. Brian Stevenson said, We have a system that treats criminals

better than our poor and homeless innocent people
i. Prisoners get tv for cheap
ii. They get free food
iii. They dont have to work hours on end to afford to live
pay check to pay check.

Transition: The United states has the largest prison population in the
world, imprisonment only became a form of criminal punishment just be
for the American Revolutionary War.

II. The history of how punishment was evolved

i. there are two major things that shaped how corrections
is today
1. . The first one being a shift from vigilante justice
to government justice, this was important
because vigilante justice was when the families of
the victim could get their own revenge but once
 the government stepped in they in a way owned
the crime and were in total control of the
punishment that would be given.
ii. The second major change was physical punishment to
physiological punishment. They said that if a person
was humiliated they would not repeat the crime again
such as amputation or public beatings.

B. In the last forty years incarceration has increased by 500%

i. The Bureau of Justice Statistics said that in 2012 there
was 2,228,400 prisoners with state and federal
combined.
ii. In 2009 the United States housed more inmates than
the top 35 European countries combined.
iii. After an interview with correctional officer Jeri Duke
she said Prisons are a scary and dangerous place to live
and or work in, being called an unstable and violent
jungle.

Transition- The controversial topic of capital punishment was mentioned

in a book Called Death Penalty today by Robert Bohm.

III. There are a couple of types of Capital punishment; Lethal Injection,

Electrocution, Gas Chamber, Firing Squad, and Hanging.
A. You get to decide as long as the state offers that type
i. Not all capital punishment is painful and cruel, lethal
injection in not painful at all.
ii. Very rarely are people wrongly executed for a crime
they did not commit, normally they have to have
substantial evidence
B. Many people are against the death penalty, but some are for
it
 i. Some say it goes against our right that cruel and
unusual punishment isnt allowed
ii. Some say the death penalty goes against some religious
beliefs, it goes against free will.
iii. The death penalty is only for those who commit crimes
that are against the right to life, safety, and freedom of
the victims
iv. Costs the government less for the death penalty then it
is to hold an inmate for life.

Transition to close- Everyone will have their own opinion but knowing
the background and history helps make up your mind

Conclusion:
Review thesis/main points: The criminal Justice System involves courts,
law enforcement, correctional facilities, and punishments such as the
death penalty.

Bookend: Without the criminal justice system it would not be safe to do

anything, imagine a life where these criminals did not get put away
behind bars and they walk the streets with you every day. There are pros
and cons to everything including some of the rules we have in our justice
system. Price is a big factor in how things work and most of the times
prisoners get treated better then we do. Robert Bohm said, The death
penalty in the United States remains a hotly debated and controversial
issue but no longer is a silent issue. I hope that today you learned
something new about how our criminal justice system works. Thank you.
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal_justice

(NIC), National Institute of Corrections. "NIC State Statistics." NIC State Statistics - Utah. NIC,

n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2017.

"Total correctional population." Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). BJS, n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2017.

The death penalty today by Robert M Bohm