Law Discussion Questions - Essay Example

If violated, this is a violation of the constitutional rights of the individual, and, hence, a criminal activity. Q2: The statement "judge-made law leaves plenty of play in the joints for criminal justice professionals to exercise discretionary decision making" can be understood if it is broken down into several parts and analyzed (Samaha, 2011).

Firstly, it should be understood that not all laws are drafted in the constitution; some are made at the state or county levels by local judges (Samaha, 2011). These laws are defined for the day-to-day working of police officers during their duty out in the field (Samaha, 2011). Most of these are related to criminal procedures, and since they are not very circumventive or clearly defined, these laws leave much to the discretion of the police officers to decide on the spot as to the best approach and nature of action (Samaha, 2011).

Hence, it is known as discretionary decision-making or informal decision-making (Samaha, 2011). It is very flexible and the officers have a lot of room to operate, hence the phrase “play in the joints” (Samaha, 2011). The real danger in this regard is the transgression of the individual constitutional rights of the suspects that these officers might be investigating or interrogating. They have to make sure that they are not violating any laws themselves and have to act in strict accordance with the defined and determined laws and modes of action.