Criminal justice can be viewed as

The description of the criminal and juvenile justice systems that follows portrays the most common sequence of events in response to serious criminal behavior.
The justice system does not respond to most crime because so much crime is not discovered or reported to the police.

A discussion of the events in the criminal justice system follows.
This first response may come from individuals, families, neighborhood associations, business, industry, agriculture, educational institutions, the news media, or any other private service to the public.

Individual citizens as well as public and private sector organizations have joined with criminal justice agencies to prevent crime and make neighborhoods safe.
We apprehend, try, and punish offenders by means of a loose confederation of agencies at all levels of government.