NCJ Number
125000
Date Published
1990
Length
6 pages
Annotation
Although criminal justice research operates within a political context and is often dictated by political controversy, current debates over the criminal justice system are waning both in the United States and the United Kingdom. Governments and opposition parties are avoiding the use of a "law-and-order" theme during their political campaigns because of past failures to reduce the crime rate.
Abstract
The likely future trends in criminal justice research will be introspective, with an emphasis on improving the current system rather than changing it. However, valuative research of this nature can engender its own political consequences by destroying law and order rhetoric as well as most policy proposals. In order to reap the benefits of valuable research, researchers will need to assist the organization in interpreting research results from a policy perspective and to take some responsibility for how the research can be positively used. For research to play a constructive role in the criminal justice system, it will need to become an integral function of criminal justice agencies. In addition, future research will demand comparisons of many national criminal justice systems to identify systematic effects; however, this effort will require a massive collection of international data.