Organizational Trends of Criminal Justice
Criminal justice organizations were typically comprised from public resources and structures, yet there have been movements towards different style organizations that do not rely on the public domain for their support. The privatization of criminal justice organizations is essentially when such organizations are removed from the public control and placed into private ownership. A major reason for the privatization of such criminal justice resources is because of a lack of funding or other resources on behalf of a public government to carry out the tasks at hand. Privatized organizational structure is often quite different from the types of structures seen in public criminal justice organizations. Often, private organizations are contracted by local governments to augment the already established criminal justice structure. Thus, privatized organizations may be much smaller or more specified in regards to their organizational structure in compared to traditional criminal justice organizations. This means they are often structured through a situational or contingency model of organization in order to provide greater flexibility to meet the demands of whatever the contract need is. Corporate criminal justice organizations follow suit, based on the nature of their role within private criminal justice endeavors in the corporate world. Again, they tend to work with already existing criminal justice organizations, and thus tend not to follow bureaucratic model as much as public criminal justice organizations. These too are often structured in a situational or contingency model. Yet, corporate organizations do tend to have more structure because they must align themselves with the rigid structure of the larger corporation's order.
On the other hand, the militarization of criminal...
These organizations are much larger and often continue within a rigid bureaucratic structure. The textbook claims that within this model, "organizational principles are applied somewhat rigidly, with the hierarchy principle given very high priority. Authority is very precisely allocated, with those higher up in the hierarchy having more power." All communications follow through the chain of command and control filters from the top down in an extremely rigid structure. Also, there are many functional divisions of labor from within a militarized criminal justice organization.
The behavioral theories that guide organizational behaviors have evolved from their historical roots. One of the earliest theories that are still in use today is that of a bureaucratic structure. First presented by Max Weber, a bureaucracy helps determine the flow of power and commands in a streamlined chain of command. This eliminates confusion and really ensures that and organization follows a specific hierarchy that is effective. This relies on rules and established procedures to ensure that the organization stays true to its rigid structure of command and control. The backbone of a bureaucracy is the hierarchal structure that establishes a chain of command and a given set of procedures to follow given specific circumstances. This concept was then built on my James Q. Wilson who posited the idea that there should be a certain degree of flexibility within the bureaucracy. Essentially, when the members of the group are allowed greater flexibility and incentives to motivate them, there will be an increase of independent action which helps keep the organization running smoothly without the delays of waiting for permission from the top of the chain of command.…
