NCJ Number
213936
Date Published
2002
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This chapter provides an overview of the prospects and the needs of America's criminal justice system in the 21st century.
Abstract
In the current century, the criminal justice system must experience a shift from a philosophy of punishment as the primary response to offenders to treatment that focuses on changes in attitudes and behaviors that will better serve offenders' and society's interests. Technological and social developments hold promise for the criminal justice system in meeting this objective. These include technologies that can aid in the search for missing persons, the increased development and use of nonlethal weapons, new surveillance technologies, electronic tracking devices, expanded alternatives for supervising offenders in the community, and implanted behavior-altering drugs for sex offenders and drug addicts. This chapter mentions the technologies that will aid police investigations in the 21st century, notably digital technology for automated fingerprint image capture, storage, retrieval, and transmission, as well as increased efficiencies in information management and communication. Crime laboratories will also benefit from technological advancements and innovations in collecting and analyzing evidence. In making the criminal justice system more therapeutic and respectful of human rights for offenders and victims, the justice system will become more participatory, using a mediation process where victim and defendant will develop satisfactory agreements on how best to address the harms caused by the crime at issue. Increased resources will be required to make such a system effective as an increasingly culturally diverse population with widening socioeconomic differences leads to an increase in crime.