What is the role of criminal justice practitioners in the development and implementation of technology in the criminal justice system? Describe some of the controversial issues criminal justice policy makers face when considering an expansion in the use of DNA in criminal justice.
The criminal justice system is divided into three subsystems, each with its own set of responsibilities and functions. They operate in the subsystems of law enforcement, courts, and corrections in federal, state, and local jurisdictions. Practitioner tasks vary according on jurisdiction and subsystem assignment, which are sometimes intertwined. In the case of terrorist activities, for example, the federal government has primary jurisdiction, but federal police and prosecutors collaborate with state and local authorities to gather intelligence, locate suspects, and make arrests. While awaiting trial, federal inmates are detained in local jails. Although the criminal justice system in the United States is interconnected, it is also decentralized. Practitioners from the federal and state governments collaborate to solve and prevent crime.
Teamwork plays an essential role within both Fiedler’s Contingency Theory and Chelladurai’s Multi-dimensional model particularly regarding leader-member relations, if the group are familiar and trusting of the leader policy implementation becomes much simpler. Similarly to leadership, understanding and adapting to the situation is key to a leader being able to implement policies that ensure a group work as a team. Teamwork is a product of good leadership, and is again the responsibility of the leader to ensure the group are working successfully together. Highly functioning teams are essential within organisations to increase productivity and member satisfaction, by utilising the talents of all group members effectively within the constraints of the task, personal relationships and the group goals (Pettinger, 2007). Figure 2: Tuckman’s Model of Group Development (Agile Scrum Guide, 2019) Tuckman in his Model of Group Development provides easily identifiable stages that a groups performance can be measured against, making it useful for monitoring performance, Figure 2 shows Tuckman’s model. Ranking group performance against this scale can provide leaders with a clear understanding of how the group are functioning, allowing them to implement policies to change this if performance is unsatisfactory (Pettinger, 2007). Within organisations, the theory can be loosely applied to creating teams by grouping familiar individuals with the aim that they will reach the norming and performing stage of the model quicker. For short and simple tasks this is an extremely effective way of organising groups, due to the increased short term productivity. However there are significant issues with grouping individuals in this manner, particularly when tasks become more complex, and ultimately the model should mainly be used for monitoring the progress of groups (Pettinger, 2007). Figure 3: Belbin’s Team Roles (PrePearl Training Development, 2019) A more functional approach of grouping individuals is to utilise Belbin’s Team Theory (Belbin, 2017). Belbin identifies 9 key roles that must be fulfilled within a group to ensure success, the role