NCJ Number
135545
Date Published
1987
Length
132 pages
Annotation
Reports presented to the 17th Criminological Research Conference (1986) of the Council of Europe focus on improvement in the performance of criminal justice agencies by the enhancement of their effectiveness and efficiency and on the protection of those freedoms that characterize a democratic State.
Abstract
The discussions of interaction among the various components of the criminal justice system address problems of coordination and cooperation among the various agencies in daily practice, law enforcement problems that arise out of conflicts between various criminal justice agencies regarding the appropriate reactions to various kinds of crime, and how the aforementioned difficulties impact the processing of a case from the police through corrections. There was agreement among the conference participants that there must be an alignment of the number of cases that enter the criminal justice network with the capacity of the agencies which compose the network. This usually involves a reallocation of existing resources, a redistribution of discretionary decisionmaking, and new approaches to interagency interactions. The conference challenges Council of Europe Member States to articulate and develop interactive strategies that seek efficiency and effectiveness in crime control, but which also retain and strengthen the fundamental rights of suspects, defendants, and sentenced offenders. Recommendations are offered for policy and research. A 120-item bibliography and data tables