Toward an Understanding of How Professional Values Influence the Decision-Making Process of the Criminal Justice Functionaries

• NCJ Number: 102591
• Author(s): W S Chung
• Date Published: 1982
• Length: 255 pages
• Publication Format: Dissertation/Thesis
• Publication Type: Thesis/Dissertation
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Saint Louis University - doctoral dissertation

Annotation

This study examines whether criminal justice professionals' penal decisions (punishment and rehabilitation) are significantly related to their value orientations.

Abstract

Value orientations refer to moral judgment as defined in Kohlberg's moral stage theory and professionalism and bureaucraticism as defined by Wilensky. Study subjects were 150 criminal justice professionals working in the St. Louis metropolitan area during May 1979 through September 1979. The questionnaire administered to each subject solicited information on penal orientations, levels of moral judgment, and degrees of identification with professionalism and bureaucraticism. Hypothesized relationships were tested by using multiple regression with a planned entry of variables into the regression equation and backward solution. Individual value orientation variables were not significantly related to penal orientations, but when combined in a regression model that included demographic characteristics, the model accounted for 45 percent of variance in explaining the subjects' penal orientations. Findings indicate that penal decisions which are presented as objective are in fact subjective. Implications are drawn for the structure of justice decisionmaking. Appended study instruments, computations, and scales. 66 references.