Criminal Justice Organizational Trends Research Paper

Criminal Justice Organizational Trends Paper

Antonio Gayler

CJA/444

August 21, 2014

Edward Lopez

Running head: CRIMINAL JUSTICE ORGANIZATIONAL TRENDS PAPER

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CRIMINAL JUSTICE ORGANIZATIONAL TRENDS PAPER

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Criminal Justice Organizational Trends Paper

The advancement of technology is affecting everyone in their everyday lives whether we want to accept it or not. The criminal justice system is no stranger to this; it has created more work for them and in order for them to keep pace with criminals they have to continue to evolve and stay current with the progress of technology. Technology changes from one day to the next and in order to fight and prevent crime the criminal justice system must stay current with the many changes of
technology. Their success in the fight against crime depends on how well they are able to adapt to the changes. The writer will talk about the use of privatization and militarization of the criminal justice organizations as well as different behavior theories and the effect of societal and organizational diversity and the use of the criminal justice motivational theories matrix in this paper.

"Privatization" can be accomplished in a host of ways; in its most basic form, it is the adoption of public functions by private entities or individuals (Finegan).
Privatization has had a heavy effect on the criminal justice system and punishment systems. This is definitely not a new idea; it is in some ways a return to what was done years ago. Before the nineteenth century private groups and individuals handled the majority of criminal justice functions. The privatization of law enforcement services are on the rise, and as a result law enforcement agencies will be in competition with private organizations for law enforcement services (Harvey).

It 's time for American police to remember that they are supposed to protect and serve our communities, not wage war on the people who live in them (n.d.). Law enforcement agencies everywhere are spending billions of dollars on military type equipment to use in their everyday policing, acting as if the neighborhoods they serve are warzones. As Ryan Grim said in the Huffington Post in reference to the situation in Ferguson, Missouri, "Police militarization has been among the most consequential and an unnoticed development of our time and it is now beginning to affect press freedom"
(Timm).

Radly Balko of the libertarian Cato Institute is highly critical of the way police tactics and swat teams have grown in this country. He believes that swat teams have a place in larger jurisdictions but not so sure about the smaller jurisdictions. Balko is especially critical of the way swat teams are used in an unsuitable fashion when conducting routine police work and where an individual 's civil liberties are often violated and where the swat team mistakenly uses force against innocent people.

Diversity within the criminal justice system has both positive and negative effects throughout our communities. There have instances where unethical practices of discrimination, bias, and prejudice have been committed against minorities in our communities. These practices have been performed by prosecutors, law enforcement officers and judges who have been designated with the power by our state and federal governments.

United States in the twenty first century is facing multicultural societies; individuals working in the system are characterized with defendants, society, inmates, victims, political leaders and professionals all originating from diverse cultural orientations (Barlow, 2000).
The government believes that cultural diversity in the United States contributes to creative thinking, policy changes, new ideas and looks at laws, procedures, and policies that contribute to inequality and equality. There are some people that support the notion that laws protecting minority group are a direct result of cultural diversity, and these people are inclined to be against such
laws.

While the advancement in technology might decrease the need for additional police officers, there are other factors that just might cause a different effect. The first change is our overall demographic change, a rise in people of color. This increase unfortunately has also caused the crime rate to increase. Therefore the changes may just cancel one another out and in order to provide adequate service and protection to our communities, the law enforcement agencies will probably need to maintain their current staff levels moving forward. While law enforcement agencies will be held accountable like never before, both for their actions and what happens in their jurisdictions, they need to do more in preparation for the future. They can select, place and train their employees to assure their success through the appropriate jobs, good organizational structure, and an emphasis on strong ethical values.

References

Barlow, H. D. (2000). Criminal Justice in America. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.

Finegan, S. (2012, August). Watching the Watchers: The Growing Privatization of Criminal Law Enforcement and the Need for Limits on Neighborhood Watch Associations. ORLANDO SENTINEL.

Harvey, A. J. (1994). Building an Organizational Foundation for the Future. Retrieved from http://www.hitechcj.com/organizational_foundation.html

Timm, T. (2014, August 14). Lessons from Ferguson: Police Militarization is Now a Press Freedom Issue. Huffington Post.

War Comes Home: The Excessive Militarization of American Policing. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.aclu.org/war-comes-home-excessive-militarization-american-policing