Conceptualizing criminal justice theory

General systems theory and criminal justice

“…Despite recent attempts (e.g., Kraska, 2004), the theoretical tradition in criminal justice is in its infancy and devoid of many working theories (Bernard & Engel, 2001). This weak theory tradition is due in part to the youth of the discipline, which originated in the 1950s, and in part to the abundance of descriptive, evaluative, and policy-driven research that tended to short cut the iterative process of theory construction.…”

Exploring theoretical linkages between self-control theory and criminal justice system processing

“…The applicability of self-control to criminal justice outcomes is largely unknown. Potentially, self-control theory has much to offer criminal justice research because it can provide the theoretical unification called for by Bernard and Engel (2001). This has important implications for research.…”

“…Recently, Bernard and Engel (2001) issued a call to criminologists to advance and promote theorization in criminal justice. Noting that researchers commonly segregated criminal justice inquiry into three domains (police, courts, and corrections), they suggested that a unified approach was needed to fully understand the criminal justice system and its effects.…”

The influence of perceptions of social disorder and victimization on business owners' decisions to use guardianship strategies

“…The size of the community's network structure, therefore, determines the amount of informal social control the community has on behavior of its residents (Bellair, 1997). After waning interest for the last fifteen years, there has recently been somewhat of a revival of the group model, particularly with social disorganization (Bernard & Engel, 2001;Cantillon, Davidson, & Schweitzer, 2003).…”