Management of Criminal Justice, Essay Example

Management of criminal justice is described as supervising and overseeing the criminal justice system. Organization refers to the enforcement of the law via a paramilitary hierarchy with strict lines of command and fixed controls which forms a structure that emphasizes flexibility and network-type communication (Giblin, 2014). In an organization, a leader is at the top of the hierarchy. Management, on the other hand, has a manager at the highest position, who directs the actions of those below and who makes the decisions.

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The roles of a manager include organizing, planning, controlling, and leading. One of the functions that a manager serves is directing, making a manager a leader theoretically. Leadership, on the other hand, is based on followership, where people the power that a leader has is temporary and is contingent on their ability to inspire people to follow them (Giblin, 2014). In other words, leadership depends on the efficiency of the person in charge through inspiration, trust, and people. Therefore, one does not need a formal position to be a leader.

In criminal justice organizations, the roles of leaders differ from that of managers. Whereas manager is solely concerned with the accomplishment of tasks, leaders are concerned with more than that. The leaders ensure that the mission of the organization is achieved no matter what and they look beyond the horizon, pertaining the goals of the organization. Managers, on the other hand, operate like machines and focus on the attainment of short-term objectives that are task-oriented. The impact of the difference in the two ways of running criminal justice system organizations is that where leadership is practiced, the organization can achieve long-term gains while management only realizes short-term goals.

A closed-system model regards the external environment as stable, and therefore, it does not interfere with the running of an organization or cause any problems to it (Giblin, 2014). The implication of this is that closed-system does not rely on external factors for the explanation of issues facing an organization or in the determination of solutions to the problems. An open system, on the other hand, the organization takes into consideration external factors (Giblin, 2014). The organization includes external factors when considering the causes of problems and in devising their solutions. The system processes environmental inputs them return them as outputs.

The closed system model is suitable for the police department of the criminal justice system. The reason this is the case is that in this department, Fayol's organization elements particularly unity of direction has to be adhered to for the efficient functioning of the department. In some instances where this was not observed, such as the riots in Los Angeles on May 1992, where the officers charged with assaulting Rodney King were acquitted. The reason for this was that no specific senior officer from whom they received orders could be identified. The incident demonstrates that for the effective delivery of services by the police department, closed-system model is recommended.

The open systems model is recommended in the department of crime prevention and control. The reason this is the case is that several environmental factors influence the occurrence of crimes. For instance, some neighborhoods characterized by poverty are associated with high crime rates. Therefore, for practical crime prevention and control, it is mandatory to put in external factors that significantly contribute to the rates of crime.

References

Giblin, M. J. (2013). Organization and management in the criminal justice system (Vol. 12). Sage.