Different Models

There are three different models used to describe the process of criminal justice system. The first model is known as the funnel process. This model is represents the number of crimes committed versus the number of crimes that end in conviction. The top and widest part of the funnel represents the number of crimes that are committed and reported in the legal system. The narrowest part of the funnel and end of the judicial process is the cases that end in a criminal conviction. "Of those reported, some are processed further through the legal system, but at each stage of the process fewer and fewer cases are handled by the system because cases are shunted out of the system at a variety of points along the way"(Meyer, J. F., & Grant, D. R, 2003).

The next model used to describe the processes of the criminal justice system is the wedding cake model. The wedding cake model represents the seriousness of the crime committed and the volume of the number of crimes committed when compared to each level. The four main levels that are represented from bottom to top is misdemeanors, the base of the cake and level at which most criminal offenses occur, felonies, serious felonies, and the top of the cake with the fewest number of cases are the notorious cases. "The layers of the criminal justice wedding cake illustrate two important points about case processing: First, cases at different layers are accorded quite different treatment, in keeping with the differences in case seriousness. Thus, misdemeanors at the bottom layer of the cake are handled quite differently than serious felonies in the third layer. Second, within each layer, cases are similar and therefore should be handled consistently. Under the wedding cake model we expect minor cases to receive less attention, and thus there is greater attrition at this level, represented by the bottom layer of the cake. More serious offenses, however, are more likely to be pursued through all stages of the criminal justice process" (Meyer, J. F., & Grant, D. R, 2003).

The third model that is used to describe the criminal justice process is the fish net model. This model represents the criminal justice system and its cases as a whole, all the fish in one net, but for various reasons some fish or criminal cases are allowed to escape thru the various holes in the net. This model shows that some cases in the criminal justice system are allowed to exit the criminal justice process