![Lady justice with a gavel and books on a desk in the background](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/optimized/public/2021-01/GettyImages-1203173838.jpg?itok=rBZtUl2z) # Criminal Justice At a Glance The role of criminal law is to identify, discourage, and, when necessary, punish behavior that harms other people or otherwise threatens the very fabric of civil society. In order to be legitimate, a criminal justice system must accomplish those tasks in a way that is substantively and procedurally fair while ensuring accountability from government officials who abuse their authority. Cato’s research focuses on unconstitutional overcriminalization, self-defeating policing, coercive plea bargaining, and challenging our policy of near-zero accountability for law enforcement. Join the Conversation [\#CatoCJ](https://x.com/hashtag/CatoCJ) Share This Topic #### Featured Content [![Typical Flock camera](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/content_teaser/public/2026-08/Flock%20camera.jpg?itok=2kJJFFIs)](https://www.cato.org/blog/digital-panopticon-why-automated-surveillance-threatens-free-society) blog ## [The Digital Panopticon: Why Automated Surveillance Threatens a Free Society](/blog/digital-panopticon-why-automated-surveillance-threatens-free-society) By [Mike Fox](https://www.cato.org/people/mike-fox) True accountability requires holding every link in the chain responsible: the corporations manufacturing and operating the automated tools, the jurisdictions purchasing them, and the officers executing high-risk traffic stops based on unverified alerts. [![US Justice](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/content_teaser/public/2026-08/U.S._Department_of_Justice_%28DOJ%29_%2853840386529%29.jpg?itok=bGf0BjP4)](https://www.cato.org/blog/criminal-justice-vs-unitary-executive-theory) blog ### [Criminal Justice vs. Unitary Executive Theory](/blog/criminal-justice-vs-unitary-executive-theory) By [Dan Greenberg](https://www.cato.org/people/dan-greenberg) In the long run, a president who flexes his muscles by instructing prosecutors how to run their cases is likely to find that he has made himself, and his country, weaker. [![airport](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/content_teaser/public/2025-08/GettyImages-2151913752.jpg?itok=KwR5J0uJ)](https://www.cato.org/commentary/us-customs-officers-want-password-its-insidious-trap) Commentary ### [U.S. Customs Officers Want Your Password? It’s an Insidious Trap.](/commentary/us-customs-officers-want-password-its-insidious-trap) By [Mike Fox](https://www.cato.org/people/mike-fox) Your privacy rights don’t disappear at the border. [![Aerial view of highway with cars and trucks on it](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/content_teaser/public/2021-01/GettyImages-1189545570.jpg?itok=PCbfRbxb)](https://www.cato.org/blog/unconstitutional-attempt-use-fender-benders-fuel-expansion-federal-power) blog ### [An Unconstitutional Attempt to Use Fender Benders to Fuel the Expansion of Federal Power](/blog/unconstitutional-attempt-use-fender-benders-fuel-expansion-federal-power) By [Mike Fox](https://www.cato.org/people/mike-fox) To preserve the balance of power established at the nation’s founding, Congress must leave local criminal law enforcement where the Framers rightly placed it: with the individual states. [![prison](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/content_teaser/public/2024-05/prison%20.jpg?itok=T4glWQmT)](https://www.cato.org/blog/contradictions-socialist-prison-abolitionism) blog ### [The Fatal Contradiction at the Heart of Socialist Prison Abolitionism](/blog/contradictions-socialist-prison-abolitionism) By [Ilya Somin](https://www.cato.org/people/ilya-somin) You can’t have socialism without a massive apparatus of state coercion. And that, at the very least, strengthens the case against it. [View More Related Content](/search/topic/97) #### Meet Our Experts [![Matthew Cavedon-cropped](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/bio_picture_mobile/public/2025-11/Matthew%20Cavedon-cropped.jpg?itok=iF-7RHjW)](/people/matthew-cavedon) ##### [Matthew Cavedon](/people/matthew-cavedon) Director, Project on Criminal Justice [![Patrick G. Eddington](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/bio_picture_mobile/public/2021-01/Patrick%20Eddington.jpg?itok=ZZOgYGj0)](/people/patrick-g-eddington) ##### [Patrick G. Eddington](/people/patrick-g-eddington) Senior Fellow [![Clark Neily](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/bio_picture_mobile/public/2021-01/Clark%20Neily.jpg?itok=iSXnNmXb)](/people/clark-neily) ##### [Clark Neily](/people/clark-neily) Senior Vice President for Legal Studies ##### Featured Video ##### [Hold Police Liable](https://www.cato.org/multimedia/cato-video/hold-police-liable) One idea we think is very promising is requiring police to carry insurance the same way that we require other professionals like doctors and lawyers to carry it. It ensures that there’s always going to be funds to cover judgment so that the victim is compensated. You know, it protects individual officers, from what could be extraordinary litigation costs. But it also means that over time, as you see, it will price out of the market that minority of officers who routinely commit these kinds of violations.