Article

Criminal justice managers: Setting targets or becoming targeted?

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Abstract

Despite the rhetoric of new public sector management, criminal justice agencies in England and Wales are still driven by a political agenda. Initiatives, such as the setting of targets and increased efficiency objectives, can be over-ridden not only by reversals of government policy but by clashing agency policies. The absence of a clear management strategy for all criminal justice agencies renders them liable to sudden change in a sensitive political climate. Analyses case examples discussing cautioning of offenders and the granting of bail to demonstrate the “knock-on” effects of policy change in one area for a whole series of agencies further along the line. Concludes that moral panics and political pressure are greater predictors of managerial change than sound business sense.

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... The lack of co-ordination between the different agencies working within the criminal justice system has only fairly recently been the subject of practitioner and academic comment (Nicholl 1995;Nash and Savage 1995). Realisation is dawning that performance indicators for one agency have adverse consequences on the performance indicators of another. ...
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Expecting community consultation structures of doubtful effectiveness devised for one purpose in 1984 to be able simultaneously to meet very different demands in 1994 is unrealistic. The role for community consultation groups is considered within the context of the Enforcement, Service and Community Models of policing and within the philosophy of New Public Management. Community consultation is examined alongside other democratic values pertinent to policing. More honest expectations of what consultation can realistically achieve are advocated because community consultation structures cannot reliably be used as a basis for setting policing objectives, and indeed are largely impotent in the objective‐setting process.
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Public managers throughout the world work in an unforgiving environment in which to take risks. Managers face varying pressures from a range of informed publics to ensure that risks to them are minimized or eliminated; while many are simultaneously subject to criticism, via private practice models, that they are too risk-averse. Concurrently, leadership from public managers is sought in drives to ensure quality in public services. Risk and quality appear strongly inter-linked, although managerial discussion of their interrelationship seems relatively rare, at least within the public domain. Links these two concepts, as they are experienced by public managers, through two pilot case studies of managerial practice in the UK, based in probation and health services. Gives consideration in each study to the contribution of understanding and managing risk as a core element in improving public services quality. The theoretical underpinnings of the research are drawn primarily from the literature on strategic management and risk-taking in public services.
Article
Preface Section 1: Historical and Political Background 1. Private Policing: Before and After the 'New Police' 2. Ideologies of Public and Private Provision Section 2: Private Policing: Current Developments and their Policy Implications 3. Privatization and Public Policing 4. The Private Security Sector I: Structure and Control 5. The Private Security Sector II: Activities 6. Hybrid Policing 7. Citizenship and Self-Policing: Responsible Citizenship 8. Citizenship and Self-Policing II: Autonomous Citizenship Section 3: Theoretical Conclusions 9. New Directions in the Sociology of Policing 10. Privatization and Social Control
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Offending While on Bail
  • P F Henderson
  • T Nichols
NationalStandards for the Supervision of Offenders in the Community
  • Home Office
PrisonDisturbances April 1990: Report of an Inquiry
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