NCJ Number
87695
Editor(s)
J A Cramer
Date Published
1981
Length
271 pages
Annotation
This series of essays focuses on both the structure and organization of the court system and the judicial decisionmaking processes which take place within that framework.
Abstract
One of three essays in the section on court organization notes that no single court organizational design is appropriate for all circumstances and that it is unnecessary for all parts of a complex court organization to conform to the same structural principles so long as the organization reduces uncertainty while reinforcing the court's purposes. The second paper indicates that, much like business organizations, courts are organized bureaucratically, with a hierarchy of authority, spheres of competence, and specialization of tasks; the courts also have many of the problems of businesses, such as the selection and maintenance of competent judicial personnel. The final essay in the section on court organization concludes that changes in work, relations among legal actors, and adherence to due process guarantees -- all factors considered in most court research -- are affected by historical factors and economic demands, factors not dealt with in the preponderance of research on trial courts. Essays in the section on the judiciary consider such topics as the socialization of State trial judges after initially coming on the bench and throughout their careers, characteristics of judicial performance in the supervision of the guilty plea hearing, and the nature of judicial and prosecutorial discretion under Federal sentencing guidelines. Other essays examine judicial responses to technocratic court reform in Ohio and the dynamics of implementing judge selection in Mississippi. References and notes accompany each essay. For individual entries, see NCJ 87696-87704.