Political Styles and Organization Strategies of American Prosecutors: Examples from Nine Courthouse Communities

• NCJ Number: 125073
• Journal: Law and Policy Volume: 12 Issue: 1 Dated: (January 1990) Pages: 25-50
• Author(s): R B Flemming
• Date Published: 1990
• Length: 26 pages
• Grant Number(s): 79-NI-AX-0062; SES-8309609
• Sponsoring Agency: National Science Foundation; National Institute of Justice (NIJ); US Dept of Justice NIJ Pub
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This paper focuses on the relationship between the political styles and organizational strategies of prosecutors in nine medium-sized courthouse communities in the United States.

Abstract

Three political styles are identified and a choice model developed that rests on the prosecutors' satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the status of their offices and on their view regarding the expected value of conflict. In turn these styles lead to different organizational strategies in which bureaucratization and office culture, given the mediating effects of office size and staff loyalty, are used as policy tools to achieve prosecutor goals. 1 table, 1 figure, 7 notes, 26 references. (Author abstract)