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CHAPTER 1
Basic Concepts for Understanding Criminal Justice Organizations
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After reading this chapter, the students will have achieved the following objectives:
■ Comprehend criminal justice administration history.
■ Understand a definition of an organization.
■ Comprehend the concept of management.
■ Know the concept of leadership.
■ Comprehend the public context of both management and leadership.
KEY TERMS
activities
bureaucracies
civil service
closed system
complex environment
complex goals
complex internal constituencies
leadership
organization
public sector
purpose
management
open-system theory
LECTURE OUTLINE
I. Criminal Justice Administration: History
A. According to historian Sam Walker (1980), the history of American
criminal justice is a visible tension between the arbitrary and
capricious practices of criminal justice officials, and on the other hand, the rule of
law.
B. Historically, criminal justice “officials,” were political appointees who served at the
whim of politicians.
C. As a result of scandals and reform movements, the rule of law became the
substitute standard over arbitrary and uneven practices as the country moved into
the twenty-first century.
D. A reliance on laws, policies, and procedures to manage criminal justice
organizations became a new standard by which criminal justice administration
became assessed.
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E. Consequently, a new cadre of professional criminal justice administrators was born in
the second half of the twentieth century.
II. What is an Organization?
1. Weber was first to distinguish corporate group from other forms of social
organization.
2. Weber’s Bureaucratic Model (1947):
3. Barnard’s definition (1938): “Organization is system of consciously
coordinated activities or forces of two or more persons.”
B. Purpose
2. Organizations have many goals and they are often conflicting.
3. The threat of terrorism has changed how we understand criminal justice
organizations and how they function.
C. Activities
2. Socialization of employees affects activities.
4. Organizational cultures guide behaviors of members and the organization
itself.
III. What Is Management?
A. Carlisle’s definition (1976): “The process by which the elements of a group are
integrated, coordinated and utilized to effectively and efficiently achieve the
organization’s objectives.”
B. May be associated with a particular office
IV. What is Leadership?
A. Kotter’s definition (1990): “Leadership refers to a process that helps direct and
mobilize people and their ideas.”
1. Leadership is tribal in nature.
3. Leaders establish a shared vision, then motive and inspire group movement
toward that vision.
5. Leaders create change and practice the art of statesmanship.
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B. Stojkovic and Farkas (2002) view correctional leadership as being linked to the
values and culture of the organization.
C. Schein (1997) and others say understanding organizational leadership requires
reference to the manipulation, management, and even the destruction of
organizational culture.
D. Criminal justice managers have assumed they work in a closed system.
1. A closed system controls its environment.
3. Power and authority are a function of the office.
4. Change is slow and directed by management.
E. Leaders must recognize that criminal justice systems are more complex and their
effective leadership is connected with the external environment.
V. Open-System Theory.
A. Taylor focused on increasing the efficiency of work through job design, ignoring
many variables outside the workplace that could influence the efficiency of labor.
VI. Complex Goals
A. Simon (1964) emphasized the multiple and conflicting goals of organizations.
2. Several goals may be met simultaneously.
B. Wilson (2000): Goals provide direction and serve as limits and constraints.
C. Wright (1981): Goal conflict is desirable, and may promote efficiency.
VII. Complex Environment
A. Lipsky (1980): Conflicting goals of human services organizations are the result of
unresolved disagreements in society at large.
VIII. Complex Internal Constituencies
A. Hall and Tolbert (2005): There is an internal struggle for power in organizations.
B. The work force is major internal constituency.
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CHAPTER SUMMARY
This chapter provides a brief foundation for the discussions in the rest of the book. We have
covered concepts that we regard as central to understanding criminal justice administration and
management. It is important to bear in mind that these concepts are not presented here as
indisputable facts but as analytical tools. For example, criminal justice organizations may be
studied as open or closed systems. But it is not the organizations that are open or closed, only our
and often conflicting goals. Second, the organizations operate in a complex environment that
exercises considerable influence. And, third, internal constituencies in these organizations are
becoming increasingly powerful.
This is a difficult chapter, full of rich theoretical concepts that we have just begun to
discuss. Students with a penchant for theory will wish to investigate the suggested readings and
to follow up on the citations in the chapter. Students without such a penchant may feel relieved
REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. Using the concepts discussed in this chapter, describe your local probation department.
What is its structure? What management functions are performed and by whom? What
people and organizations outside the agency exert an influence on it? How does that
influence show in organizational structure or process?
2. Discuss the goals of a victim-witness program. In what ways are they complex or
conflicting? In what ways do some goals serve as constraints? Now consider those goals
3. Using both a closed-system and an open-system analytical framework describe your local
jail. How might these frameworks lead to different views of the jail’s effectiveness or of
the causes of jail violence? Describe how jails are affected by their environment and how
4. Discuss the potential problems in the interface between the Department of Homeland
Security and a criminal justice organization. In light of the range of functions associated
with the Department of Homeland Security, what internal and external constituencies are
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powerful? How is the importance of those constituencies affected by the fact that if a
DISCUSSION TOPICS/STUDENT ACTIVITIES
1. Form the class into three groups. Give the groups 30 minutes to analyze the case study on
pages 16 and 17 of the text (The Department of Homeland Security). Assign each group
2. Have the students formulate a collective definition of the term organization.
4. Have the students formulate a collective definition of the term leadership.
INTERNET CONNECTIONS
2. Browse the Organizational Theory page and associated links on the International Society
3. View organizational theory applied to elementary and secondary educational facilities at
http://www.funderstanding.com/org_theory.cfm
