NCJ Number
124343
Journal
Journal of Criminal Justice Education Volume: 1 Issue: 1 Dated: (March 1990) Pages: 9-20
Date Published
1990
Length
12 pages
Annotation
Until the 1950s, there had been relatively little effort to look at the criminal justice system in detail to determine how it actually functioned in day-to-day practice.
Abstract
Thirty years ago, Justice Robert Jackson persuaded the American Bar Foundation to conduct, and the Ford Foundation to finance, a major empirical study of criminal justice administration. That research demonstrated the importance and complexity of criminal justice and the inadequacy of then current university programs to address this subject. As the field of criminal justice has developed over the past three decades, it has demonstrated both strengths and significant weaknesses. University contribution to the field of law enforcement is cause for satisfaction and optimism. The same cannot be said for university contribution to the fields of prosecution, adjudication, individual sentencing, and correctional treatment. This article covers five stages in the development of criminal justice: the decades before the American Bar Foundation (ABF) research, the ABF research itself, the contributions made by the ABF research, where we are today, and a final word as we look to the future. 23 references. (Author abstract modified)