Toward Theories about Criminal Justice

Abstract

Theories about criminal justice are needed because of the important social policy implications of this area of study. There are three major questions which must be addressed by theorists as part of the study of criminal justice:(1) what are the aims of criminal justice agents? (2) what is the efficacy of criminal justice? (3) what are the consequences of criminal justice? Theories which have been proposed to answer these questions are reviewed and possible policy implications of these theories are explored.People seek answers to diverse questions about criminal justice, and defensible answers require a theory. Accordingly, the principal concern here is this question: What theories about criminal justice are needed and how can their pursuit be furthered?The Aims of Criminal Justice Because of their preoccupation with latent functions, many social and behavioral scientists are reluctant to view criminal justice in terms of aims or goals. The alternative view is that criminal laws are enacted and enforced by faceless societal agents, and the purposes of those agents are regarded as irrelevant or rarely realized. That view is not conducive to research on the efficacy of criminal law as a means of controlling human behavior. Rather, the view suggests only two questions about criminal justice. First, what are its causes? Second, what are its consequences? Both questions are too general for a complete answer or even to guide research, and aims cannot be equated with the apodictic consequences of criminal justice. The very idea of aims entails the notion of intention and is implied when one speaks of crime prevention. However, the subject transcends crime prevention; and it is best expressed by the first of three major questions in the study of criminal justice: What are the aims of criminal justice agents? at RMIT UNIVERSITY on July 15, 2015 ccj.sagepub.com Downloaded from

The effect of police paramilitary unit raids on crime at micro-places in Buffalo, New York

“…Deterrence theory posits that an offender weighs the cost of being punished against the benefit of committing a crime (Andenaes, 1974;Gibbs, 1975Gibbs, , 1988. Law enforcement programs are expected to convey that risk; policing programs such as increased patrols (Tonry, 2011) and crackdowns (Sherman, 1990;Tonry, 2011) should demonstrate to potential criminal offenders that illegal behavior will result in arrest and punishment.…”

“…An important aspect of deterrence is the perception of risk (Andenaes, 1974;Gibbs, 1975Gibbs, , 1988. Offenders must recognize the potential risk associated with unacceptable behavior, otherwise there will be no impact on the decision to engage in that behavior.…”