Text В. A FRAGMENTED CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

1. Although the three components of the criminal justice system are separate organizations, they are also tied together. Each component must interact with the others. This process is best visualized as three overlapping circles: one representing the police, another the courts, and the last corrections . All three operate within a wider circle representing the general public.

2. Of necessity, police, courts, and corrections work together, but the criminal justice system is neither uniform nor coordinated. The major components of the law enforcement and criminal justice system do not make up a smoothly functioning and internally consistent organization. ‘Not only is each element fragmented and lacking coherence itself, but the separate elements often are not coordinated with each other, even though the operation of each has a direct bearing on the functioning of the others (Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, 1977). Moreover, the interrelationships among police, courts, and corrections are often marked by tension, conflict, and at times even hostility. Conflict results in part from competition for limited attention and funds from outside the system. But it also results from different perspectives on the common task of processing persons accused of breaking the law (National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals, 1973).

3. The competing perspectives of police, courts, and corrections (to say nothing of differing views within the court community itself) toward processing the accused have raised the question of whether America has a system of criminal justice or a nonsystem. Some argue that the process is so fragmented and decentralized that there is no overall coordination in the American justice process. Others disagree, arguing that it is still useful to view criminal justice as a system. They point out that the system has some overall purpose and an interrelationship among the various components. The term system does not necessarily mean that all actions must be rationally ordered. The criminal justice process is a living system composed of a number of parts that are characterized by competing goals. Tensions and conflicts among police, courts, and corrections are not necessarily undesirable. Tensions arising from competing goals provide important checks on other organizations. This friction is particularly evident in the criminal justice system, where the work of each component is evaluated by others: The police make arrests, yet the decision to charge is made by the prosecutor; the judge and jury rate the prosecutor’s efforts. Indeed, the very essence of the adversary process is conflict, which ensures that multiple sources of information will be considered.

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