Generational differences in criminal justice hiring and leadership

Criminal Justice Issues of Note

Generational differences certainly influence the hiring within any sort of organization. This same truth is applicable to those that specialize in the field of criminal justice. Those generational differences might influence the hiring for criminal justice organizations by affecting the interpretation of the values that those entities seek in applicants. For the most part, the values upon which criminal justice agencies -- and their employees -- are based are fundamentally the same. What is more mutable is how the different generations interpret and actuate them. Younger generations that are hired might have the tendency to value the authority of positions in this field and the power associated with it in a more absolute way than older generations do. Older generations are likely to temper this aspect of their jobs with an innate understanding of the social dynamics at play between people and groups, and leverage those subtleties to influence their work.

Hiring the younger generation can possibly upset this delicate balance between the interpretation of values in criminal justice organizations. I think the different generations will affect the criminal justice organization I am affiliated with in a fairly standard way. I believe the older generations will set examples and precedents in terms of modes of behavior. The younger generation will strive for the outward manifestations of those modes, while perhaps dedicating less energy to the wisdom and understanding that facilitates them.

For the most part, it appears to me that leadership in any criminal justice organization is loosely based on the concept of the chain of command upon which the military is predicated. There are few organizations that have a flat or a horizontal management style of leadership. Typically they are structured with superiors and subordinates, involving police chiefs, captains, lieutenants, and the various other denominations in this sort of chain of command. However, there are orders that are administered from the top of the chain of the command that those on the bottom must carry out. This sort of hierarchy is what leadership in criminal justice organizations is based upon in most circumstances.

These definitions could best be applied to improve my own criminal justice system in a variety of ways. As long as the aforementioned chain of command is in place, it is simply a matter of implementing leaders who have an understanding of the community and of the larger society of which it is a part. It is up to those leaders to produce the sort of leadership that is carried out at a granular level by subordinates that benefits the organization as a whole. Still, those boons must be applicable to the community and the surrounding society for them to become truly beneficial.