Policies , Processes , and Decisions of the Criminal Justice System

This volume examines issues related to decisionmaking in criminal justice. We began with the idea of producing a volume that would examine “changes in decisionmaking and discretion in the criminal justice system.” However, we quickly recognized that such a focus suggests a far too narrow, traditional view of decisionmaking, in which criminal justice officials make choices about processing individuals through various sanctioning stages—arrest, charging, sentencing, and parole release. Criminal justice decisionmaking at the turn of the century must be viewed in a broader context of policies and emerging processes. This volume, Policies, Processes, and Decisions of the Criminal Justice System, emphasizes this broader perspective. In this introduction, we provide a brief overview of the individual chapters and point to overriding themes that emerge from them.