Criminal Justice Essay -- Crime Criminal Justice Police Essays

Criminal Justice This paper will describe my understanding of the text and of the lectures provided in the class. Unlike most classes, where I understood only my view of the text, this class was geared so each student would understand each other’s view. 3 An organization is a collective that has some boundary and internal structure that engages in activities related to some complex set of goals. Members of organizations attempt to meet their psychological, ego and emotional needs within the organization. Criminal justice organizations are particularly unique compared to other public or private sector organizations because of the governmental granted authority. Management within these organizations can be defined as the process by which the elements of a group are integrated, coordinated and/or utilized so as to efficiently achieve the organization’s objectives. In Law enforcement and correctional organizations, the front line officers manage people. This is especially true in the contro l of inmates. In these organizations, we must consider the hierarchy to be inverted. The front line officers, not limited to sergeants and lieutenants, influence the direction of the organization. Leaders in criminal justice establish direction by developing a vision of the future, align people through shared values and vision, and motivate and inspire people to move them toward the shared vision. Leaders will challenge existing processes and systems, focus on the future of the basic assumptions, values, and beliefs and create the basis for structural or programmatic change. 4 Conversely, leadership in corrections is often more complex. Prison and jail overcrowding, along with the increasing number of geriatric, mentally ill and an influx of younger and more violent inmates requires the managers of the organization to increase the training and motivation of line officers in order to deal with problems. In law enforcement agencies, leaderships must recognize the need for more communi ty policing programs. These criminal justice organizations must look inside themselves and adapt change in order to meet their goals and objectives. The goals of organizations not only provide direction but also serve as constraints or limits. An example in the criminal justice model would be for an agency to make more arrests to meet the public outcry, but also to insure the judicial and corr... ...ders within the organization must utilize all their skills to ensure agency goals and objectives are met, especially in the criminal justice system. The organization culture is very complex in nature within the criminal justice system. The law enforcement, judicial and correctional systems, even though essentially in the same business, are different. Each level of the justice system belongs to it’s own subculture. Each also, has subcultures within it. They act on individual socialization within themselves. A great example would be life within a prison institution. The warden, of course, is in charge of the institution but when off, the ranking correctional officer is in charge when he/she is with the inmates. The individual group leader of the inmates (according to the â€Å"pecking order†) is in charge when the correctional officer is not around. The examples given are of formal and informal socialization. Before taking this course and thoroughly reading the text, I was only exposed to law enforcement organizations. Most of the professors were either lawyers or law professionals. It was enlightening to read the text and to hear a different perspective from a corrections professional.