Comparative criminal justice

Comparative criminal justice is a subfield of the study of criminal justice that compares justice systems worldwide. The study can take a descriptive, historical or political approach. It looks at the similarities and differences between systems in structure, goals, punishment and emphasis on rights, along with their history and political standing. The functions of a criminal justice system are commonly grouped into policing, adjudication by the courts, and corrections, although other categorization schemes exist. Comparativists study four different types of societies, their methods of enforcement and their different types of punishment, such as capital punishment and imprisonment. Within these societies they study different legal traditions and analyze the issues those traditions solve and create. They use what they learn to find effective ways of enforcing laws and to identify and solve problems that arise within a system because of its methods.