Systems of administration in criminal justice organizations Essay

Systems of administration in criminal justice organizations - Essay Example Applying these theories to the modern Criminal Justice administration any organisation whether based on Criminal Justice or any other Department requires the use of Open and Closed systems for its effective functions. The organisation of Criminal Justice is in a constant state of flux due to changes in the outside environment, societal attitudes, mandates, legal decisions and other uncontrollable variables.In this regard if we look at the Police Systems and other Law enforcement Organisations there is large influence of extraneous factors. There was   an era   with in the police history of Political appointments with in the traditional Police systems(pre 1900) when the city politicians wanted political control over the Police Stations .In this sense Police Stations were historically open systems in an administrative sense because they were openly controlled by politicians. This system was criticised because this so called â€Å"political era† of policing was a time of high level corruption and bribery and undue influence of the extraneous factors .A rather reformed period of administration began at the turn of thee 20th century when there was an organizational attempt by these departments at professionalising and organising the police departments and to isolate themselves from political influence and corruption. By necessity such a step required a closed system which would isolate them organizationally from the public. The organizational and administrational set ups of the Police departments adopted a more bureaucratic colour. and their structure became very rigid and organised. There was less Individual discretion and separate rules and regulations for the institutional reform and management. This closed system required a certain "detachment" from the community which was not necessarily very ideal but indispensable to the pending reform. Things changed however after this reform era of the 1940's and the 1950's ,due to civil unrest so characteristic of the 1960's.A more open system where the public would be taken in trust and confidence was seen as a means promoting better crime management. The 1970's therefore saw a more open system i.e. a form of community policing.(Falcon, 2002) It can be seen therefore that the American criminal justice has experienced a transformation of organizational approach that transformed it from a closed set up and made it significantly more community interactive. Community interactivity has become a critical component in the ongoing struggle to balance the extremely uneven presence of perpetrators to law enforcement officers. The advantage of a closed-system approach was seen as the most appropriate way to protect society against criminal infiltrators by keeping information and management hidden from the public eye.However law enforcement officials realised that there was a kind of a "beneficial impact" by involving the community members by means of the open-system approach .The arrangement was practical and economically sound. The closed system ideology is still predominant across many parts of the US and also figures prominently in the mechanisms of the FBI and DEA today.(Hodgson 2001