NCJ Number
84249
Date Published
1982
Length
258 pages
Annotation
Ways in which lower-level criminal justice functionaries view their vocational worlds and the meaning of what they do are examined, and implications for policymakers and reformers are discussed.
Abstract
The beliefs, values, and strategies that new police recruits are exposed to as they become socialized in the police role are described, and officers' decisionmaking processes are analyzed. How police officers are taught to enforce the law and how they actually enforce the law are also explored. Theories that attempt to explain law violation are then briefly reviewed to determine if they give sufficient attention to the dynamics of law application by the police. Readers are given exercises that allow them to go through the process of making law and proposing sanctions for its violation, and the factors that may have been involved in this decisionmaking process are analyzed. The tenets of ethnomethodology are then detailed and reviewed to determine their help in understanding law as a process of order construction. The worlds of other actors in the criminal justice system, including attorneys and judges, are described, including the conflicts they face, the pressures on them, and the values used in decisionmaking. The plight of the victim is then considered. Finally, policy implications are suggested by examining law in process and application. References accompany each chapter, and a subject index is provided. (Author summary modified)