Crime,Justice and Systems Analysis: Two Decades Later

Abstract

For about the last twenty years, policy dealing with crime and administration of justice has been heavily permeated with the systems perspective. This was particularly true during the 1970s. Since then such emphasis has waned. This essay profiles both the events which led to the enthusiastic application of the systems framework to crime and justice policy and the events which led to its decline. The latter is attributed to the failure of the criminal justice system's concept to properly take into account fundamental political and operational realities involved in the administration of justice.