Open Systems Theory: A Framework for the Analysis of Criminal Justice Administration
| Author | Jim L. Munro |
| DOI | 10.1177/000486587000300303 |
| Date | 01 September 1970 |
| Published date | 01 September 1970 |
142 AUST. &N.Z. JOURNAL OF CRIMINOLOGY (Sept., 1970): 3, 3
Open Systems Theory: A Framework
lor
the Analysis
01
Criminal
Justice Administration
JIM
L. MUNRO*
EVEN a cursory survey of
the
periodical
literature
in
the
criminal justice
area
is a convincing
argument
for
the
need of
an
integrative framework
for
the
analysis of inquiries
into
criminal justice
related
problems. 'Present
field
research
presents avariety of methodologies
and
problems,
and
while
rich
in variety
and
individually frequently quite insightful
and
illuminating,
the
overall effect is depressing. Depressing because in spite
of
the
many
brave words
about
acriminal justice system! research
effort
is still primarily oriented towards specific agency
and/or
topical concemst.
Such
an
orientation
tends
to obscure
the
trans-agency
nature
of
the
criminal
justice process, provides
an
intellectual rationalization for
the
maintenance
of
current
occupational identifications
in
the
criminal justice
system
and,
most importantly, impedes
the
creation
of
the
kind of
inter-
disciplinary research which
has
proven so essential to
the
development of
other
problem oriented professional fields, i.e., medicine, business adminis-
tration,
social welfare, etc.
This
essay proposes
the
use of open systems analysis as a research
framework.
It
is not proposed
that
open systems analysis is a
theory
of
crime causation or of social action,
although
it
has
implications for
the
development of theory in
those
areas;
nor
is
it
held
that
open systems
analysts excludes specific methodologies
currently
employed in
the
social
sciences.
What
this
essay does
maintain
is
that
open systems analysis
provides a basis for inter-disciplinary studies
which
will serve
to
stimulate
research
and
teaching
that
will view
the
various problems of
the
adminis-
tration
of criminal justice in
an
inter-related
and
inter-dependent
fashion.
Since systems analysis is occasionally used in criminal justice adminis-
trative
research
and
is
often
the
cause of
the
damning
of open systems
analysis by academicians
and
practitioners alike,
this
essay first presents a
discussion of administrative systems analysis before proceeding to a con-
sideration
of open systems theory
and
its application to
the
criminal
justice area.
*
John
Jay
College
of
Criminal Justice, City University of New York.
1. System is defined as an inter-related and inter-dependent
patterning
of acts. In
the
U.S.A.,
there
are
various schools and colleges of criminal justice;
the
President's Commission on
Law Enforcement frequently used the
term
and one
may
find it generally in
the
pro-
fessional literature.
2. This orientation can
best
be noted by scanning the
contents
of The Journal of Criminal
Law, Criminology and Police Science or Excerpta Criminologica.
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