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Essays on Criminal Justice

Criminal justice essay topics and outline examples, essay title 1: reforming the criminal justice system: challenges, progress, and the road ahead.

Thesis Statement: This essay examines the challenges within the criminal justice system, the progress made in recent years, and the ongoing efforts required to reform and ensure a fair and equitable system for all.

• Introduction
• The Criminal Justice System: Structure and Key Components
• Challenges and Injustices: Racial Disparities, Mass Incarceration, and Sentencing
• Reform Movements: Criminal Justice Reform Advocacy and Legislation
• Alternatives to Incarceration: Restorative Justice and Rehabilitation
• Police Reform: Building Trust and Accountability in Law Enforcement
• The Role of Technology: Advancements in Criminal Justice Practices
• Conclusion: Towards a More Just and Equitable Criminal Justice System

Essay Title 2: Criminal Justice and Civil Rights: Analyzing the Intersection, Historical Struggles, and Contemporary Debates

Thesis Statement: This essay explores the intersection of criminal justice and civil rights, tracing historical struggles for equality, and examining contemporary debates regarding policing, incarceration, and civil liberties.

• Civil Rights Movements: Historical Context and Achievements
• Law Enforcement and Civil Rights: Cases of Police Brutality and Protests
• Mass Incarceration: Disproportionate Impact on Communities of Color
• Criminal Justice Reforms: The Role of Advocacy and Grassroots Movements
• The Fourth Amendment: Searches, Seizures, and Privacy Rights
• Contemporary Debates: Balancing Security and Civil Liberties
• Conclusion: Upholding Civil Rights within the Criminal Justice System

Essay Title 3: International Perspectives on Criminal Justice: Comparative Analysis of Legal Systems and Global Challenges

Thesis Statement: This essay provides a comparative analysis of criminal justice systems worldwide, highlighting variations in legal approaches, international cooperation, and shared challenges in addressing transnational crime.

• Legal Systems: Common Law, Civil Law, and Hybrid Systems
• International Law Enforcement: Interpol, UNODC, and Global Cooperation
• Transnational Crime: Cybercrime, Human Trafficking, and Drug Trafficking
• Human Rights and Criminal Justice: International Treaties and Agreements
• Case Studies: Comparative Analysis of Criminal Justice in Selected Countries
• Challenges of Globalization: Addressing Legal and Jurisdictional Issues
• Conclusion: The Quest for Effective Global Criminal Justice Solutions

Most Popular Criminal Justice Essay Topics in 2024

• The Evolution of Cybercrime Laws in the Digital Age
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• Racial Bias and Reform in Policing Practices
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• Balancing Rights and Health: Public Smoking Ban Dilemmas
• Restorative Justice: Benefits and Challenges in Modern Society
• Drug Decriminalization: Effects on Crime Rates and Public Health
• Epstein Case Controversies: Societal & Justice System Impact
• The Role of Mental Health in the Criminal Justice System
• Privacy Rights vs. Surveillance: Finding the Balance in Criminal Justice

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The Criminal Justice System in The UK

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Criminal justice is the delivery of justice to those who have been accused of committing crimes. The criminal justice system is a series of government agencies and institutions.

Law enforcement agencies, usually the police. Courts and accompanying prosecution and defence lawyers. Agencies for detaining and supervising offenders, such as prisons and probation agencies.

Goals of criminal justice include the rehabilitation of offenders, preventing other crimes, and moral support for victims.

Relevant topics

• Forensic Science
• Juvenile Delinquency
• Juvenile Justice System
• Criminal Behavior
• Mass Incarceration
• Criminal Procedure
• Criminal Profiling
• Criminology
• Criminal Investigation

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104 Criminal Justice Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

Inside This Article

Criminal justice is a broad and complex field that encompasses various aspects of law enforcement, corrections, and the judicial system. If you are studying criminal justice or planning to pursue a career in this field, you will likely be required to write essays on various topics related to criminal justice. To help you get started, here are 104 criminal justice essay topic ideas and examples:

• The evolution of criminal justice systems over the years.
• The role of technology in modern law enforcement.
• The impact of media on public perception of criminal justice.
• The relationship between poverty and crime rates.
• The effectiveness of community policing in reducing crime.
• The ethical implications of using artificial intelligence in criminal justice.
• The use of body cameras by police officers and its impact on accountability.
• The role of forensic science in solving crimes.
• The challenges of investigating and prosecuting white-collar crimes.
• The impact of mandatory minimum sentencing on the criminal justice system.
• The causes and consequences of wrongful convictions.
• The role of rehabilitation in the criminal justice system.
• The effectiveness of drug courts in reducing recidivism.
• The relationship between mental illness and criminal behavior.
• The ethical considerations of capital punishment.
• The impact of racial profiling on minority communities.
• The role of restorative justice in repairing harm caused by crime.
• The challenges of addressing cybercrime in the digital age.
• The impact of the war on drugs on criminal justice policies.
• The role of victim services in the criminal justice system.
• The effectiveness of probation and parole in reducing recidivism.
• The relationship between poverty and overrepresentation in the criminal justice system.
• The impact of the criminal justice system on marginalized communities.
• The role of criminal profiling in solving serial crimes.
• The challenges of addressing domestic violence within the criminal justice system.
• The impact of the "war on terror" on civil liberties.
• The role of eyewitness testimony in criminal trials.
• The effectiveness of alternative dispute resolution methods in reducing court congestion.
• The relationship between drug addiction and criminal behavior.
• The impact of mandatory reporting laws on child abuse cases.
• The role of private prisons in the criminal justice system.
• The challenges of addressing human trafficking within the criminal justice system.
• The impact of social media on criminal investigations.
• The role of forensic psychology in criminal profiling.
• The effectiveness of anti-gang initiatives in reducing gang-related crimes.
• The relationship between gun control laws and crime rates.
• The impact of the "three strikes" law on recidivism rates.
• The role of community-based corrections programs in reducing incarceration rates.
• The challenges of addressing police misconduct within the criminal justice system.
• The impact of DNA evidence on criminal investigations and convictions.
• The relationship between immigration policies and crime rates.
• The effectiveness of sex offender registration laws in protecting communities.
• The role of social programs in preventing juvenile delinquency.
• The challenges of addressing hate crimes within the criminal justice system.
• The impact of surveillance technologies on privacy rights.
• The role of criminal justice policies in addressing the opioid crisis.
• The effectiveness of rehabilitation programs for incarcerated individuals.
• The relationship between mental health treatment and recidivism rates.
• The impact of mandatory sentencing for drug offenses on minority communities.
• The role of community-based organizations in reducing gang violence.
• The challenges of addressing police brutality within the criminal justice system.
• The impact of globalization on transnational crimes.
• The role of forensic anthropology in identifying human remains.
• The effectiveness of diversion programs for first-time offenders.
• The relationship between poverty and juvenile delinquency.
• The impact of the Fourth Amendment on law enforcement practices.
• The role of victim impact statements in sentencing decisions.
• The challenges of addressing elder abuse within the criminal justice system.
• The impact of technology on the privacy rights of individuals.
• The role of criminal justice policies in addressing human rights violations.
• The effectiveness of drug education programs in preventing substance abuse.
• The relationship between mental health courts and recidivism rates.
• The impact of the "school-to-prison pipeline" on marginalized communities.
• The role of forensic entomology in estimating time of death.
• The challenges of addressing child exploitation within the criminal justice system.
• The impact of mandatory drug testing for welfare recipients on poverty rates.
• The role of community supervision in reducing recidivism.
• The relationship between police presence and crime rates.
• The effectiveness of victim-offender mediation in addressing the harm caused by crime.
• The impact of the Fifth Amendment on interrogation practices.
• The role of criminal justice policies in addressing human trafficking.
• The challenges of addressing cyberbullying within the criminal justice system.
• The impact of surveillance cameras on crime prevention.
• The role of forensic linguistics in analyzing written evidence.
• The effectiveness of gun buyback programs in reducing gun violence.
• The relationship between mental health treatment and criminal behavior.
• The impact of mandatory arrest policies on domestic violence cases.
• The role of criminal justice policies in addressing environmental crimes.
• The challenges of addressing police corruption within the criminal justice system.
• The impact of eyewitness misidentification on wrongful convictions.
• The relationship between substance abuse and child neglect.
• The effectiveness of reentry programs for formerly incarcerated individuals.
• The role of criminal justice policies in addressing hate crimes.
• The impact of predictive policing on law enforcement practices.
• The challenges of addressing human rights violations within the criminal justice system.
• The role of forensic odontology in identifying human remains.
• The effectiveness of community-based drug treatment programs.
• The relationship between poverty and gang involvement.
• The impact of the exclusionary rule on the criminal justice system.
• The role of criminal justice policies in addressing environmental justice.
• The challenges of addressing cyberstalking within the criminal justice system.
• The impact of community surveillance programs on crime prevention.
• The role of forensic accounting in investigating financial crimes.
• The effectiveness of gun control policies in reducing gun-related crimes.
• The relationship between substance abuse treatment and recidivism rates.
• The impact of mandatory reporting laws on elder abuse cases.
• The role of criminal justice policies in addressing animal cruelty.
• The challenges of addressing corruption within the criminal justice system.
• The impact of false confessions on wrongful convictions.
• The relationship between substance abuse and intimate partner violence.
• The effectiveness of diversion programs for mentally ill offenders.
• The role of criminal justice policies in addressing cybercrime.
• The impact of community-based restorative justice programs on crime reduction.
• The challenges of addressing international crimes within the criminal justice system.

These essay topics provide a starting point for your research and analysis in the field of criminal justice. Remember to choose a topic that interests you and aligns with your academic goals and career aspirations. Good luck with your essays!

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Reflections on Criminal Justice Reform: Challenges and Opportunities

Pamela k. lattimore.

RTI International, 3040 East Cornwallis Road, Research Triangle Park, NC 27703 USA

Associated Data

Data are cited from a variety of sources. Much of the BJS data cited are available from the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data, Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research. The SVORI data and the Second Chance Act AORDP data are also available from NACJD.

Considerable efforts and resources have been expended to enact reforms to the criminal justice system over the last five decades. Concerns about dramatic increases in violent crime beginning in the late Sixties and accelerating into the 1980s led to the “War on Drugs” and the “War on Crime” that included implementation of more punitive policies and dramatic increases in incarceration and community supervision. More recent reform efforts have focused on strategies to reduce the negative impacts of policing, the disparate impacts of pretrial practices, and better strategies for reducing criminal behavior. Renewed interest in strategies and interventions to reduce criminal behavior has coincided with a focus on identifying “what works.” Recent increases in violence have shifted the national dialog from a focus on progressive reforms to reduce reliance on punitive measures and the disparate impact of the legal system on some groups to a focus on increased investment in “tough on crime” criminal justice approaches. This essay offers some reflections on the “Waged Wars” and the efforts to identify “What Works” based on nearly 40 years of work evaluating criminal justice reform efforts.

The last fifty-plus years have seen considerable efforts and resources expended to enact reforms to the criminal justice system. Some of the earliest reforms of this era were driven by dramatic increases in violence leading to more punitive policies. More recently, reform efforts have focused on strategies to reduce the negative impacts of policing, the disparate impacts of pretrial practices, and better strategies for reducing criminal behavior. Renewed interest in strategies and interventions to reduce criminal behavior has coincided with a focus on identifying “what works.” Recent increases in violence have shifted the national dialog about reform. The shift may be due to the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 epidemic or concerns about the United States returning to the escalating rise in violence and homicide in the 1980s and 1990s. Whichever proves true, the current rise of violence, at a minimum, has changed the tenor of policymaker discussions, from a focus on progressive reforms to reduce reliance on punitive measures and the disparate impact of the legal system on some groups to a focus on increased investment in “tough on crime” criminal justice approaches.

It is, then, an interesting time for those concerned about justice in America. Countervailing forces are at play that have generated a consistent call for reform, but with profound differences in views about what reform should entail. The impetus for reform is myriad: Concerns about the deaths of Black Americans by law enforcement agencies and officers who may employ excessive use of force with minorities; pressures to reduce pretrial incarceration that results in crowded jails and detention of those who have not been found guilty; prison incarcerations rates that remain the highest in the Western world; millions of individuals who live under community supervision and the burden of fees and fines that they will never be able to pay; and, in the aftermath of the worst pandemic in more than a century, increasing violence, particularly homicides and gun violence. This last change has led to fear and demands for action from communities under threat, but it exists alongside of other changes that point to the need for progressive changes rather than reversion to, or greater investment in, get-tough policies.

How did we get here? What have we learned from more than 50 years of efforts at reform? How can we do better? In this essay, I offer some reflections based on my nearly 40 years of evaluating criminal justice reform efforts. 1

Part I: Waging “War”

The landscape of criminal justice reform sits at the intersection of criminal behavior and legal system response. Perceptions of crime drive policy responses. Perceptions of those responsible for crime also drive responses. And perceptions of those responses result in demands for change. To establish context for the observations that follow, this section describes trends in crime, the population of justice-involved individuals, and the expenditures supporting the sprawling criminal justice enterprise in the United States since the mid-to-late twentieth century.

But first, my perspective: Over the last nearly 40 years, I have observed justice system reform efforts since working, while a first-year graduate student in 1983, on a National Institute of Justice (NIJ) grant that funded a randomized control trial of what would now be termed a reentry program (Lattimore et al., 1990 ). After graduate school, I spent 10 years at NIJ, where I was exposed to policy making and the relevance of research for both policy and practice. I taught for several years at a university. And, for most of my career, I have been in the trenches at a not-for-profit social science research firm. Throughout my career, I have conducted research and evaluation on a broad array of topics and have spent most of my time contemplating the challenges of reform. I’ve evaluated single programs, large federal initiatives, and efforts by philanthropies to effect reform. I’ve used administrative data to model criminal recidivism to address—to the degree statistical methods allow—various dimensions of recidivism (type, frequency, and seriousness). I’ve developed recidivism models for the practical purpose of assessing risk for those on community supervision and to explore the effects of covariates and interventions on recidivism and other outcomes. I’ve participated in research attempting to understand the shortcomings of and potential biases in justice data and the models that must necessarily use those data. While most of my work has focused on community corrections (e.g., probation and post-release interventions and behavior) and reentry, I have studied jail diversion programs, jail and pretrial reform, and efforts focused on criminal record expungement. These experiences have illuminated for me that punitiveness is built into the American criminal justice system—a punitiveness that traps many people from the time they are first arrested until they die.

Crime and Correctional Population Trends

The 1960s witnessed a dramatic rise in crime in the United States, and led to the so-called “War on Crime,” the “War on Drugs,” and a variety of policy responses, culminating with the passage of the Violent Offender Incarceration and Truth-in-Sentencing Act of 1994 (“The 1994 Crime Act”; Pub. L. 103–322). Figure  1 shows the violent crime rate in the United States from 1960 to 1994. 2 In 1960, the violent crime rate in the United States was 161 per 100,000 people; by 1994 the rate had increased more than four-fold to nearly 714 per 100,000. 3 As can be seen, the linear trend was highly explanatory (R-square = 0.96)—however, there were two obvious downturns in the trend line—between 1980 and 1985 and, perhaps, between 1991 and 1994.

US Violent Crime Rate, 1960–1994

Homicides followed a similar pattern. Figure  2 shows the number of homicides each year between 1960 and 1994. In 12 years (1960 to 1972), the number of homicides doubled from 9,100 to 18,670. By 1994, the number had grown to 23,330—but it is worth noting that there were multiple downturns over this period, including a drop of more than 4,000 between 1980 and 1984. These figures show the backdrop to the “War on Drugs” and the “War on Crime” that led reformers to call for more punitive sentencing, including mandatory minimum sentences, “three-strikes laws” that mandated long sentences for repeat offenders, and truth-in-sentencing statutes that required individuals to serve most of their sentences before being eligible for release. This was also the period when the 1966 Bail Reform Act, which sought to reduce pretrial detention through the offer of money bond, was supplanted in 1984 by the Pretrial Reform Act, which once again led to increased reliance on pretrial detention.

United States Murder and Non-negligent Manslaughter Rate, 1960–1994

The 1994 Crime Act, enacted during the Clinton Administration, continued the tough-on-crime era by enabling more incarceration and longer periods of incarceration that resulted in large increases in correctional populations. In particular, the Violent Offender Incarceration and Truth-in-Sentencing (VOI/TIS) Incentive Grant Program, funded by the Act, provided $3 billion to states to expand their jail and prisons capacities between FY1996 and FY2001 and to encourage states to eliminate indeterminate sentencing in favor of laws that required individuals to serve at least 85% of their imposed sentences.

Figure  3 shows the dramatic rise in the number of state and federal prisoners prior to passage of the 1994 Crime Act—the number of prisoners more than tripled between 1980 and 1994. 4 The increase in numbers of prisoners was not due to shifts from jail to prison or from probation to prison, given that all correctional populations increased dramatically over this 14-year period—jail populations increased 164% (183,988 to 486,474), probation increased 166% (1,118,097 to 2,981,022), and parole increased 213% (220,438 to 690,371).

State and Federal Prisoners in the US, 1960–1994

So, what happened after passage of the 1994 Crime Act? Fig.  4 shows the violent crime rate from 1960 through 2020. As can be seen, the decrease in the violent crime rate that began prior to passage of the 1994 Crime Act continued. And, notably, it preceded the influx of federal funding to put more police on the streets, build more jails and prisons, and place more individuals into the custody of local, state, and federal correctional agencies. Even with a small increase between 2019 and 2020, the violent crime rate in 2020 was 398.5 per 100,000 individuals, well below its 1991 peak of 758.2. 5

United States Violent Crime Rate (violent crimes per 100,000 population), 1960–2020

Figure  5 shows the US homicide rate from 1960 to 2020. Consistent with the overall violent crime rate, the homicide rate in 2020 remained well below the peak of 10.2 that occurred in 1981. (Rates also may have risen in 2021—as evidenced by reports of large increases in major U.S. cities—but an official report of the 2021 number and rate for the U.S. was not available as of the time of this writing.) The rise in this rate from 2019 to 2020 was more than 27%— worthy of attention and concern. It represents the largest year-over-year increase between 1960 and 2020. However, there have been other years where the rate increased about 10% (1966, 1967, 1968, 2015, and 2016), only then to drop back in subsequent years. Further, it is difficult to determine whether the COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused massive disruptions, is a factor in the increase in homicides or to know whether the homicide rate will abate as the pandemic ebbs. Finally, it bears emphasizing that during this 60-year period there have been years when the homicide rate fell by nearly 10% (e.g., 1996, 1999). From a policy perspective, it seems prudent to be responsive to increases in crime but also not to over-react to one or two years of data—particularly during times of considerable upheaval.

United States Murder and Nonnegligent Manslaughter Rate, 1960–2020

The growth in correctional populations, including prisoners, that began in the 1970s continued well into the twenty-first century—in other words, long after the crime rate began to abate in 1992. Figure  6 shows the prison population and total correctional population (state and federal prison plus jail, probation, and parole populations summed) between 1980 and 2020. Both trends peaked in 2009 at 1,615,500 prisoners and 7,405,209 incarcerated or on supervision. Year-over-year decreases, however, have been modest (Fig.  7 ), averaging about 1% (ignoring the steep decline between 2019 and 2020). The impact of factors associated with COVID-19, including policy and practice responses, resulted in a 15% decrease in the numbers of state and federal prisoners and a 14% decrease in the total number of adults under correctional control. Based on ongoing projects in pretrial and probation, as well as anecdotal evidence related to court closures and subsequent backlogs, it is reasonable to assume that some, if not most, of the decline in populations in 2020 was due to releases that exceeded new admissions as individuals completed their sentences and delays in court processing reduced new admissions. To the extent that these factors played a role, it is likely that in the immediate near term, we will see numbers rebound to values closer to what prevailed in 2019.

United States Prison and Total Correctional Populations, 1980–2020

Year-over-Year Change in Prison and Total Correctional Populations, 2981–2020

Responding with Toughness (and Dollars)

The increase in crime beginning in the 1960s led to a political demand for a punitive response emphasized by Richard Nixon’s “War on Crime” and “War on Drugs.” In 1970, Congress passed four anticrime bills that revised Federal drug laws and penalties, addressed evidence gathering against organized crime, authorized preventive detention and “no-knock” warrants, and provided $3.5 billion to state and local law enforcement. 6 Subsequent administrations continued these efforts, punctuated by the Crime Act of 1994. As described by the U.S. Department of Justice:

The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 … is the largest crime bill in the history of the country and will provide for 100,000 new police officers, $9.7 billion in funding for prisons and $6.1 billion in funding for prevention programs …. The Crime Bill provides $2.6 billion in additional funding for the FBI, DEA, INS, United States Attorneys, and other Justice Department components, as well as the Federal courts and the Treasury Department. 7

Much of the funding went to state and local agencies to encourage the adoption of mandatory minimum sentences, “three strikes” laws, and to hire 100,000 police officers and build prisons and jails. This funding was intended to steer the highly decentralized United States criminal justice “system” towards a more punitive approach to crime; this system encompasses all levels of government (local, state, and federal) and all branches of government (executive, judicial, legislative).

The nation’s crime rate peaked in 1992. So, this “largest crime bill in the history of the country” began a dramatic increase in funding for justice expenditures just as crime had already begun to decline. Figure  8 shows that expenditures increased roughly 50% in real dollars between 1997 and 2017—from $188 billion to more than $300 billion dollars (Buehler,  2021 ). 8 More than half of that increase-—$65.4 billion additional—went to police protection. Roughly $50 billion additional went to the judiciary and corrections.

United States Justice Expenditures, 1997–2017

So, what did these increases buy? Dramatically declining crime rates (Figs. ​ (Figs.4 4 and ​ and5) 5 ) suggest that numbers of crimes also declined. That can be seen in Fig.  9 , which shows offenses known and an estimate of offenses cleared for selected years between 1980 and 2019. 9 In 1991, there were 11,651,612 known property offenses and 1,682,487 known violent offenses—these numbers declined 47% and 34% by 2019.

Offenses Known and Cleared in the US, Selected Years 1980–2019

Declining numbers of crimes and dramatic increases in expenditures on policing and justice system operation would suggest that there should have been improvements in offense clearance rates during this time. This did not happen. Crime clearance rates stayed roughly constant, which means that the numbers of offenses cleared declined by percentages like declines in the number of offenses over this period—49% for property offenses and 33% for violent offenses. More than 750,000 violent offenses and more than 2 million property offenses were cleared in 1991 compared to about 500,000 violent offenses and 1 million property offenses in 2019.

Presently, as violent crime ticks up, we are hearing renewed calls for “tough-on-crime” measures. Some opinion writers have compared 2022 to Nixon’s era. Kevin Boyle noted:

[Nixon] already had his core message set in the early days of his 1968 campaign. In a February speech in New Hampshire, he said: “When a nation with the greatest tradition of the rule of law is torn apart by lawlessness, when a nation which has been the symbol of equality of opportunity is torn apart by racial strife … then I say it’s time for new leadership in the United States of America.” There it is: the fusion of crime, race and fear that Nixon believed would carry him to the presidency. 10

Responding to the recent increase in violent crime, President Joseph Biden proposed the Safer America Plan to provide $37 billion “to support law enforcement and crime prevention.” 11 The Plan includes more than $12 billion in funds for 100,000 additional police officers through the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program. This proposal echoes the “100,000 cops on the street” that was a centerpiece of the 1994 Crime Act, which created the COPS office and program. Unlike the 1994 Crime Act, however, the Safer America Plan does not include funding for prisons and jails. Both the 1994 Crime Act and the Safer America Plan address gun violence, strengthen penalties for drug offenses, and provide support for programs and interventions to make communities safer and to address criminal recidivism.

The previous 50 or 60 years witnessed reforms efforts other than these that largely focused on bolstering the justice system infrastructure. The 1966 Bail Reform Act sought to reduce pretrial detention through the offer of money bond, but subsequently was supplanted by the 1984 Pretrial Reform Act that once again promoted pretrial detention. 12 This century—as jail populations exceeded 700,000, with most held prior to conviction—there has been considerable attention to eliminate money bond, which disproportionately leads to pretrial detention for poor and marginalized individuals (and release for the “well-heeled”). Private philanthropy has led much of this focus on pretrial and bail reform. For example, the MacArthur Foundation has spent several hundred million dollars on their Safety and Justice Challenge since 2015 with a goal of reducing jail populations and eliminating racial and ethnic disparity. 13 The Laura and John Arnold Foundation (LJAF) took a different approach and has invested substantial sums in the development and validation of a pretrial assessment instrument (the Public Safety Assessment or PSA) that provides assessments of the likelihood an individual will fail to appear to court or be arrested for a new crime or new violent crime if released while awaiting trial. 14 Although assessment algorithms have been criticized for lack of transparency and for perpetuating racial bias, the PSA scoring algorithm is publicly available and has not shown evidence of racial bias in a series of local validations conducted by RTI for LJAF. New York and New Jersey are among the states that have attempted to reduce reliance on money bond. However, as violent crime has increased, these efforts have faced considerable pushback.

The bail bonds industry has been a vocal opponent of efforts to reduce or eliminate the use of money bond. This industry is not the only one that profits from the imposition of punishment. As Page and Soss ( 2021 ) recently reported, “Over the past 35 years, public and private actors have turned US criminal justice institutions into a vast network of revenue-generating operations. Today, practices such as fines, fees, forfeitures, prison charges, and bail premiums transfer billions of dollars from oppressed communities to governments and corporations.” Fines, fees, and forfeitures generally profit the governments and agencies that impose them—although supervision fees to private probation services benefit businesses, as do fees for electronic monitoring, and drug testing. The Prison Policy Institute reports that there are more than 4,000 companies that profit from mass incarceration. 15 Court and supervision fees can quickly add up to hundreds or even thousands of dollars, burdening people with crushing debt and the threat of jail if they don’t pay. 16 There can be other consequences as well. After Florida passed a constitutional amendment to restore voting rights to individuals once they had completed their carceral or community sentence, the State specified that the right to vote would not be restored until an individual had paid all outstanding fees and fines. In addition, mistakenly voting with outstanding fees and fines is a felony. 17

Other work to reform pretrial justice includes early provision of defense counsel, and implementation of diversion programs for individuals charged with low-level offenses or who have behavioral health issues. The sixth amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees criminal defendants in the United States a right to counsel. In some jurisdictions (and the Federal court system), this is the responsibility of an office of public defense. In others, private defense counsel is appointed by the Court. Regardless, public defense is widely understood to be poorly funded. As noted by Arnold Ventures, a philanthropy currently working to improve access to defense, “The resulting system is fragmented and underfunded; lacks quality control and oversight; and fails to safeguard the rights of the vast majority of people charged with crimes who are represented by public defenders or indigent counsel.” 18

Mental health problems are prevalent among individuals incarcerated in local jails and prisons. The Bureau of Justice Statistics, in a report by Bronson and Berzofsky ( 2017 ), reported that “prisoners and jail inmates were three to five times as likely to have met the threshold for SPD [serious psychological distress] as adults in the general U.S. population.” Bronson and Berzofsky further reported that 44% of individuals in jail reported being told they had a mental disorder. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration’s GAINS Center has been at the forefront of efforts to implement jail diversion programs for individuals with mental health or substance use disorders and has also played a significant role in the establishment of treatment courts. 19 Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) for law enforcement to improve interaction outcomes between law enforcement and individuals in crisis. The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) notes that “The lack of mental health crisis services across the U.S. has resulted in law enforcement officers serving as first responders to most crises. A Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) program is an innovative, community-based approach to improve the outcomes of these encounters.” 20 Non-law enforcement responses—such as the CAHOOTS program that was developed in Eugene, Oregon—to certain calls for service are also being tested in multiple communities. 21 Despite multiple efforts to identify appropriate alternatives to jail, individuals with mental health disorders continue to disproportionately fill the nation’s jails.

A Recapitulation

The 1970 crime bills that passed early in Nixon’s presidency set the stage for the infusion of federal dollars that has provided billions of dollars in funding for police and prisons. Between 1970 and 1994, the number of adults in state and federal prisons in the United States increased from less than 200,000 to nearly 1 million. In 2019, that number stood at more than 1.4 million down from its peak in 2009. Another 734,500 individuals were in jail and more than 4.3 million were in the community on probation or parole. Although representing a dramatic decline since these populations peaked about 2009, this still means that more than 6 million adults were under the supervision of federal, state, and local corrections agencies in 2019.

Thus, it is important to recognize that we are at a very different place from the Nixon era. Today, the numbers (and rates) of individuals who are “justice-involved” remain at near record highs. As the progressive efforts of the twenty-first century encounter headwinds, it is worth waving a caution flag as the “remedies” of the twentieth century—more police, “stop and frisk,” increased pretrial detention—are once again being proposed to address violent crime.

Part II: Finding “What Works”

The 1994 Crime Act and subsequent reauthorizations also included funding for a variety of programs, including drug courts, prison drug treatment programs, and other programs focused on facilitating reentry and reducing criminal recidivism. Subsequent legislation authorized other Federal investments that resurrected rehabilitation as a goal of correctional policy. The Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative (SVORI) provided $100 million (and some limited supplements) to agencies to develop programs that began in prison and continued into the community and were intended to improve outcomes across a range of domains—community reintegration, employment, family, health (including mental health), housing, substance abuse, supervision compliance and, of course, recidivism (see Lattimore et al., 2005b ; Winterfield et al., 2006 ; Lattimore & Visher, 2013 , 2021 ; Visher et al., 2017 ). Congress did not reauthorize SVORI but instead authorized the Prisoner Reentry Initiative (PRI) managed by the U.S. Department of Labor; PRI (now the Reintegration of Ex-Offenders or RExO program) provides funding for employment-focused programs for non-violent offenders. In 2006, a third reentry-focused initiative was funded—the Marriage and Incarceration Initiative was managed by the Department of Health and Human Services and focused on strengthening marriage and families for male correctional populations. In 2008, Congress passed the Second Chance Act (SCA) to provide grants for prison and jail reentry programs. The SCA grant program administered by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) was reauthorized in 2018; it continues to provide reentry grants to state and local agencies (see Lindquist et al., 2021 ). These initiatives all primarily focused on supporting efforts at the state and local level. The First Step Act of 2018 focused on reforms for the federal prison system. These efforts signified a substantial increase in efforts aimed at determining “what works” to reduce criminal behavior—and provided an opportunity to rebut the “nothing works” in correctional programming that followed the publication of research by Lipton ( 1975 ).

Elsewhere, I have summarized some of the research into Federal initiatives that I have conducted over the years (Lattimore, 2020 ). These studies comprise work in dozens of states, involving thousands of individuals and have included studies of drug treatment, jail diversion, jail and prison reentry, and probation. Some involved evaluation of a substantial Federal investment, such as the multi-site evaluation of SVORI.

These evaluations, as has been largely true of those conducted by others, have produced mixed results. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses focusing on the effectiveness of adult correctional programming have yielded findings of modest or negligible effects (e.g., Aos et al., 2006 ; Bitney et al., 2017 ; Lipsey & Cullen, 2007 ; MacKenzie, 2006 ; Sherman, et al., 1997 ). In an updated inventory of research- and evidence-based adult programming, the Washington State Institute for Public Policy (Wanner, 2018 ) identified a variety of programs for which evidence suggests significant if modest effect sizes. As has been identified by others (e.g., MacKenzie, 2006 ), the most effective programs focused on individual change, including, for example, cognitive behavior therapy (estimated effect size of -0.11). Treatment-oriented intensive supervision programs were found to reduce recidivism by about 15%, while surveillance-oriented intensive supervision was found to have no demonstrated effects. Several types of work and educational programs (correctional industries, basic adult education, prison-based vocational education, and job training and assistance in the community) were found to reduce recidivism between 5 and 22%. Most non-zero treatment effect sizes were between about 5% and 15%. Lipsey and Cullen ( 2007 ) also suggest 14% to 22% reductions in recidivism for adult rehabilitation treatment programs.

Two thoughts about these small effects warrant consideration. The first, of course, is why reducing criminal behavior appears to be so difficult. Second, however, is that, in recognizing the first, perhaps we should adapt more realistic expectations about what can be achieved and acknowledge that even small effects can have a meaningful impact on public safety.

Challenges: Why Is Effective Criminal Justice Reform So Difficult?

One issue with most federal funding streams is “short timelines.” For example, typical of grant programs of this type, SVORI grantees were given three years of funding. During this time, they had to develop a programmatic strategy, establish interagency working arrangements, identify program and service providers, develop a strategy for identifying potential participants, and implement their programs. Three years is a very short time to develop a program that incorporates needs assessment, provides a multiplicity of services and programs within an institution, and creates a path for continuation of services as individuals are released to various communities across a state.

The “short timelines” problem underlies, and contributes to, a variety of other considerations that can plague efforts to identify “what works.” Based on my experiences, these considerations, which I discuss further below, include the following:

• People: Justice-involved individuals have multiple needs and there is an emerging question as to whether addressing these needs is the best path to desistance.
• Programs: Interventions often lack adequate logic models and are poorly implemented.
• Methods: Evaluations frequently are underpowered and unlikely to scale the alpha 0.05 hurdle typically used to identify statistically significant effects.

First, it is important to recognize that justice-involved individuals face serious and complex challenges that are difficult to remedy. Many scholars have highlighted the myriad of challenges faced by individuals returning to the community from prison (e.g., see Petersilia, 2003 ; Travis, 2005 ; Travis & Visher, 2005 ). In interviews conducted with 1,697 men and 357 women who participated in the SVORI multisite evaluation, 95% of women and 94% of men said at the time of prison release that they needed more education. Nearly as many—86% of women and 82% of men—said they needed job training. More than two-thirds indicated that they needed help with their criminal thinking and three-quarters said they needed life skills training. They were somewhat less likely to report needing substance use disorder or mental health treatment but still—at the time of prison release—66% of the women and 37% of the men reported needing substance use treatment and 55% of the women and 22% of the men reported needing mental health treatment.

Half of these individuals had participated in SVORI programs while incarcerated and the proportions reported reflect their self-assessment of need after in-prison receipt of programming. Figure  10 shows the percentages of SVORI and non-SVORI groups who reported receiving a select set of services and programs during their incarceration. Several things standout: (1) The receipt of programs and services during incarceration was much less than the indicated need at the time of release; and (2) SVORI program participants were more likely to report receiving services than the comparison group members who were not in SVORI programs.

Self-reported service receipt during incarceration for SVORI program evaluation participants. Note: * =  p  <  = 0.05. Educ = educational programming, EmplSrv = employment-related services, CrimAtt = programs for criminal attitudes including cognitive behavior therapy, LifeSk = life skills, AODTx = substance abuse treatment, and MHTx = mental health treatment. Sample sizes were SVORI men (863), non-SVORI men (834), SVORI women (153) and non-SVORI women (204).

Source: Lattimore & Visher (2009)

More recently, Lindquist et al. ( 2021 ) completed a seven-site evaluation of Second Chance Act reentry programs that were a mix of jail- and prison-based programs. About half of the study participants reported having received substance use disorder treatment and about one-third reported having received mental health treatment. At release, they reported limited-service receipt. For example, there was no significant difference between receipt of educational programming (23% of SCA program participants compared with 17% for comparison group members). SCA program participants were more likely to report receiving any employment services (60% versus 40%), which included job assistance, employment preparation, trade or job training programs, vocational or technical certifications, and transitional job placement or subsidized employment. SCA program participants were also more likely to report receiving cognitive behavioral services (58% versus 41%). But, again, not all program participants received services despite needing them and some comparison subjects received services.

Limited access to treatment by program participants and some access to treatment by comparison subjects were also observed in a multi-site study of pre- and post-booking jail diversion programs for individuals with co-occurring substance use disorder and serious mental illness (Broner et al., 2004 ; Lattimore et al., 2003 ). Across eight study sites, 971 diverted subjects and 995 non-diverted subjects were included in this evaluation; the research found only modest differences in the receipt of services and treatment at 3- and 12-months follow-up. For example, at the 3-month interview, 26% of both groups reported receiving substance abuse counseling, and at the 12-month interview, 0.7% of those diverted versus no non-diverted participant received two or more substance abuse counseling sessions. At 3 months, 38% of the diverted subjects and 30% of the non-diverted reported mental health counseling versus 41% and 38% at 12 months, respectively.

The service needs expressed by these individuals reflect their lack of education, job experience, vocational skills, and life skills, as well as the substance abuse and mental health issues identified among justice-involved individuals. The intervention response to these needs is reflected in the variety of services prescribed in the typical “reentry program bucket.” These involve the services and programs shown in Fig.  10 , as well as case management and reentry planning to coordinate services with respect to needs.

The identification of needs followed by efforts to meet those needs underlies the Risk-Needs-Responsivity (RNR) approach to addressing justice-involved populations (e.g., Andrews & Bonta, 1994 , 2006 ; Latessa, 2020 ). The RNR approach to addressing criminal behavior is premised on the assumption that if you address identified needs that are correlated with criminal behavior, that behavior will be reduced. In other words, recidivism can be addressed by providing individuals the education and job skills and treatment they need to find gainful employment, reduce substance use, and mitigate symptoms of mental illness. Latessa ( 2020 ) recently discussed the RNR approach, reiterating the importance of assessing individual criminogenic and non-criminogenic needs to improve reentry programs. He also reiterated the importance of focusing resources on those identified as high (or higher) risk by actuarial risk assessment instruments—pointing to important work he conducted with colleagues that found that interventions reduced recidivism among high-risk individuals and increased it among low-risk individuals (Lowenkamp & Latessa, 2002 ; Latessa et al., 2010 ). This approach to reentry programming is reflected in the requirements of most federal grants—like the SVORI and SCA—that require programs to incorporate reentry planning that includes needs assessment and services that address criminogenic and non-criminogenic needs.

As noted, most justice-involved individuals have limited education and few job skills, and many have behavioral health issues, anger management issues, and limited life skills. But if addressing these deficits is the key to successfully rehabilitating large numbers of individuals caught in the carceral and community justice system, the meager results of recent research suggests two possibilities. First, this is the right approach, but poor or incomplete implementation has so far impeded findings of substantial effects (a common conclusion since the Martinson report). Second, alternatively, this approach is wrong (or insufficient), and new thinking about the “what and how” of rehabilitative programming is needed. I address the second idea next and turn to the first idea shortly.

MacKenzie ( 2006 ) and others (e.g., Andrews and Bonta, 2006 ; Andrews et al., 1990 ; Aos et al., 2006 ; Lipsey, 1995 ; Lipsey & Cullen, 2007 ) have stressed that programs focused on individual change have been found to be effective more often than those providing practical services. The SVORI evaluation also found support for this conclusion. Services we classified as “practical” (e.g., case manager, employment services, life skills, needs assessment, reentry planning, and reentry program) were associated with either no or a deleterious impact on arrest chances—although few were statistically different from a null effect. Individual-change services (e.g., anger management, programs for criminal attitudes including cognitive behavior therapy, education, help with personal relationships, and substance abuse treatment) were associated with positive impacts on arrest. The original SVORI evaluation had a follow-up period of about 2 years and findings suggested that the overall impact of SVORI program participation on rearrest and reincarceration were positive but not statistically significant. In contrast to these findings, a longer follow-up that extended at least 56 months showed participation in SVORI programs was associated with longer times to arrest and fewer arrests after release for both men and women. For the men, SVORI program participation was associated with a longer time to reincarceration and fewer reincarcerations, although the latter result was not statistically significant ( p  = 0.18). For the women, the reincarceration results were mixed and not significant.

Support for positive impacts of programs focused on individual change are consistent with theories associated with identity transformation and desistance from criminal activity. Bushway ( 2020 ) has recently discussed two alternative views of desistance, contrasting the implications of desistance either as a process (i.e., the gradual withdrawal from criminal activity) or reflective of an identify shift towards a more prosocial identity. In examining these two ideas, Bushway posits that the second suggests that individuals with a history of a high rate of offending may simply stop (as opposed to reducing the frequency of criminal acts). If individuals do (or can or will) stop, the implication is clear: policies that focus on an individual’s criminal history (e.g., for employment or parole decisions) may fail to recognize that the individual has changed. This change may be evidenced by in-prison good behavior (e.g., completing programs and staying out of trouble) or positive steps following release (e.g., actively seeking meaningful employment or engaging in positive relationships). Tellingly, Bushway ( 2020 ) notes: “Individuals involved in crime get information about how they are perceived by others through their involvement in the criminal justice system. Formal labels of ‘criminal’ are assigned and maintained by the criminal justice system. As a result, identity models are much more consistent theoretically with an empirical approach that revolves around measures of criminal justice involvement rather than criminal offending per se.” He goes on to discuss the relationship of identity-based models of stark breaks and criminal career models. In short, reflecting insights that labeling theorists have long emphasized, the labels the criminal justice system and society place on individuals may impede the desistance process that is the supposed goal of the system.

The second consideration are concerns about program design and implementation—What is the underlying logic model or theory of change? Is there adequate time to develop the program and train staff to implement it appropriately? Is the resulting program implemented with fidelity? The two or three years usually provided to implement complex programs suggest that these goals are unlikely to be met. The “notorious” findings of Martinson (1975) that “nothing works” was more appropriately interpreted as “nothing was implemented.” Unfortunately, nearly 50 years later, we largely observe something similar—not “nothing” but “something” that is far short of what was intended.

As discussed in detail by Taxman (2020), the usual approach to program development and testing skips over important formative steps, doesn’t allow time for pilot testing, and provides little opportunity for staff training or for achievement and maintenance of program fidelity (if there is even a program logic model). From an evaluator’s perspective, this short timeline imposes multiple challenges. An evaluator must identify study participants (and control or comparison subjects), follow them largely while they are in the program, and hope to have at least one year of post-program follow-up—generally without being able to accommodate the impact of likely weak implementation on evaluation power to detect effects.

Thus, it may not be surprising that effects are generally small. However, these small effects may not be negligible from a public safety perspective. In a study of the effects of non-residential drug treatment for a cohort of probationers, Lattimore et al. ( 2005a ) found that treatment reduced the number of probationers with a felony arrest by 23% during the first year and 11% over the first two years. The total number of arrests was also reduced by 17% over 12 months and 14% over 24 months. “Back of the envelope” calculations suggested that if treatment cost $1,000 per individual, it would have been cost effective to provide treatment to all members of the cohort as long as the (average) cost of arrest (and all related criminal justice processing and corrections) exceeds about $6,463.

Another example is to consider that the impact of a treatment effect in the 10% range applied across all prison releases would imply the aversion of many crimes. For example, assuming 750,000 prison releases each year over a five-year period and a 66% rearrest rate within 3 years (and no additional arrests after 3 years), then 3.75 million prisoners will be released over the five years; of these individuals, 2.475 million will be arrested at least once during the three years following release. A 10% reduction in first-time rearrests would mean 247,500 fewer first-time rearrests. To the extent that many offenders are arrested multiple times, this figure represents a lower bound on the number of averted arrests. A similar analysis could be conducted assuming 2,000,000 probation admissions each year and a 39% rearrest rate within 3 years. In this case, there would be 10,000,000 probation admissions that would generate 3.9 million first-time arrests over the three years after admission to probation. A 10% reduction in first-time rearrests would mean 390,000 fewer arrests. In total, therefore, reducing recidivism—as measured by rearrest by 10% for these hypothetical correctional populations—would translate into 637,500 averted arrests. Extrapolating further and assuming that roughly 10% of the arrests were for violent crime and 90% for property crime, and applying the inverse of the crime clearance rates for these two types of crime to generate a “crimes averted” count, we find that a 10% reduction in recidivism for these two populations would translate into 140,110 violent and 3,519,939 property crimes averted. 22 Thus, “modest” improvements in recidivism may provide substantial public benefits—in crimes averted, and lower demands on law enforcement, prosecution, and correctional resources. 23

The third consideration is the adequacy of the evaluation methods we routinely apply to this complex problem of inadequate interventions that are partially and sometimes poorly implemented. At minimum, we need to explicitly recognize the impacts of the following:

• Programs partially implemented and partially treated control conditions.
• Recidivism outcomes conditioned on an intermediate outcome.
• Follow-up periods too short to accommodate short-term failure followed by long-term success.
• Focusing on a binary indicator of recidivism ignores frequency and seriousness of offending.

The impact of partial treatment of both treatment and control groups on effect sizes and the consequential impact on statistical power is seldom discussed—either in initial estimates of needed sample sizes or in subsequent discussions of findings. As shown earlier and is true for most justice evaluations, the control or comparison condition is almost never “nothing.” Instead, it is generally “business as usual” (BAU) that means whatever the current standard of treatment entails. Thus, the treatment group may receive some services that aren’t available to the control group, but in many cases both groups have access to specific services and programs although the treatment group may get priority.

As we saw in Fig.  10 , treatment was reported by some individuals in both the SVORI and non-SVORI groups. Table ​ Table1 1 shows the implications of partial treatment using data from the SVORI evaluation. 24 The percent treated for the SVORI and non-SVORI men are shown in columns three and four. Column 2 presents the effect sizes for four interventions as identified by Wanner ( 2018 ). If we assume that the recidivism rate without treatment is 20%, 25 the observed recidivism rate for the SVORI and non-SVORI men as a result of receiving each treatment is shown in columns four and five. Column six shows that the observed differences in recidivism between the two groups in this “thought experiment” are less than two percent—an effect size that would never be detected with typical correctional program evaluations. 26

Hypothetical treatment effects with incomplete treatment of the treatment group and partial treatment of the comparison group, assuming untreated recidivism rate is 20 percent

* Estimates from Wanner ( 2018 ).

Similar findings emerge when considering the effects on recidivism of interventions such as job training programs that are intended to improve outcomes intermediate to recidivism. Consider the hypothetical impact of a prison job training program on post-release employment and recidivism. The underlying theory of change is that training will increase post-release employment and having a job will reduce recidivism. 27 Suppose the job training program boosts post-release employment by 30% and that, without the program, 50% of released individuals will find a job. A 30% improvement means that 65% of program participants will find employment. Randomly assigning 100 of 200 individuals to receive the program would result in 50 of those in the control group and 65 of those in the treatment group to find employment. (This outcome assumes everyone in the treatment group receives treatment.) Table ​ Table2 2 shows the treatment effect on recidivism under various assumptions about the impact of employment on recidivism. The table assumes a 50% recidivism rate for the unemployed so, e.g., if the effect of a job is to reduce recidivism by 10% employed individuals will have a recidivism rate of 45%. If there is no effect—i.e., recidivism is independent of being employed—we observe 50% failure for both groups and there is no effect on recidivism rates even if the program is successful at increasing employment by 30%. On the other hand, if being employed eliminates recidivism, no one who is employed will be recidivists and 50% of those unemployed will be recidivists—or 25 of the control group and 17.5 of the treated group. The last column in Table ​ Table2 2 shows the conditional effect of job training on recidivism under the various effects of employment on recidivism shown in column 1. The effects shown in the last column are the same regardless of the assumption about the recidivism rate of the unemployed. So, employment must have a very substantial effect on the recidivism rate to result in a large effect on the observed recidivism rate when, as is reasonable to assume, some members of the control group who didn’t have the training will find employment. As before, this finding underscores the need to carefully consider the mechanism affecting recidivism and potential threats to effect sizes and statistical power.

Hypothetical effects of job training on employment and recidivism assuming job training increases employment by 30% and control (untreated) employment is 50%

A third concern is that follow-up periods which typically are 2 years or less may be too short to observe positive impacts of interventions (Lattimore & Visher, 2020). Although this may seem counterintuitive, it is what was observed for the SVORI multisite evaluation. The initial SVORI evaluation focused on the impact of participation with at least 21 months of follow-up following release from prison and showed positive but insignificant differences in rearrests for the SVORI and non-SVORI groups. A subsequent NIJ award provided funding for a long-term (at least 56 months) examination of recidivism for 11 of the 12 adult programs (Visher et al., 2017 ; also see Lattimore et al., 2012 ). In contrast to the findings in the original study, participation in SVORI programs was associated with longer times to arrest and fewer arrests after release for both men and women during the extended follow-up period of at least 56 months. Although untestable post hoc, one plausible hypothesis is that the early period following release is chaotic for many individuals leaving prison and failure is likely. Only after the initial “settling out period” are individuals in a position to take advantage of what was learned during program participation. In any event, these findings suggest the need to conduct more, longer-term evaluations of reentry programs.

A final consideration is the indicator of recidivism used to judge the success of a program. Recidivism, which is a return to criminal behavior, is almost never observed. Instead, researchers and practitioners rely on proxies that are measures of justice system indicators that a crime has occurred—arrest, conviction, and incarceration for new offenses—and, for those on supervision, violation of conditions and revocation of supervision. A recent National Academy of Sciences’ publication ( 2022 ) highlights some of the limitations of recidivism as a measure of post-release outcomes, arguing that indicators of success and measures that allow for the observation of desisting behavior (defined by the panel as a process—not the sharp break advanced by Bushway) should be used instead. These are valid points but certainly in the short run the funders of interventions and those responsible for public safety are unlikely to be willing to ignore new criminal activity as an outcome.

It is worth highlighting, however, some of the limitations of the binary indicator of any new event that is the usual measure adopted by many researchers (e.g., “any new arrest within x years”) and practitioners (e.g., “return to our Department within 3 years”). These simple measures ignore important dimensions of recidivism. These include type of offense (e.g., violent, property, drug), seriousness of offense (e.g., homicide, felony assault, misdemeanor assault), and frequency of offending (equivalent to time to the recidivism event). As a result, a typical recidivism outcome treats as identical minor acts committed, e.g., 20 months following release, and serious crimes committed immediately. Note too that this binary indicator fails in terms of being able to recognize desisting behavior, that is, where time between events increases or the seriousness of the offense decreases. Survival methods and count or event models address the frequency consideration. Competing hazard models allow one to examine differences between a few categories of offending (e.g., violent, property, drug, other). The only approach that appears to have tackled the seriousness dimension is the work by Sherman and colleagues (Sherman et al., 2016 ; also, see www.crim.cam.ac.uk/research/thecambridgecrimeharminde ) who have developed a Crime Harm Index that is based on potential sentences for non-victimless crimes. To date, statistical methods that can accommodate the three dimensions simultaneously do not, to my knowledge, exist. At a minimum, however, researchers should use the methods that are available to fully explore their recidivism outcomes. Logistic regression models are easy to estimate and the results are easily interpretable. But an intervention may be useful if it increases the time to a new offense or reduces the seriousness of new criminal behavior.

The last forty years or so have seen strides at identifying interventions that are promising, but much work remains to be done to find programs that result in substantial, broad-based improvements. Challenges in program development and implementation, partial treatment of treatment groups and control groups, and limited focus on recidivism as a binary indicator of failure were highlighted as some of the issues confronting practitioners and evaluators. 28 There is reason for optimism—if expectations are realistic from both a programmatic and methodological perspective: Identify promising programs, apply best practices of implementation science, calculate reasonable statistical expectations, and build on what has been tried.

Conclusions

In the past several decades, dramatic increases in crime resulted in large-scale legislative changes and expenditures. Correctional populations dramatically increased even as crime rates plunged. In addition, despite large increases in funding to law enforcement and other justice agencies, the number of offenses cleared declined. During this time, there were multiple federal initiatives focused on reducing criminal recidivism. Some, such as the Residential Substance Abuse Treatment (RSAT) programs, focused singularly on reducing drug use, while others focused broadly on addressing the multi-faceted needs of justice-involved individuals.

These changes occurred in a context of a highly decentralized approach to criminal justice, one that creates a myriad of costs and incentives. For example, if a federally funded reentry program reduces crime, the immediate agency beneficiaries are local law enforcement (due to fewer crimes to solve), prosecution (due to fewer crimes to prosecute), and the courts (due to fewer cases to try). That can reduce admissions to prison. But for cost-savings to occur, agencies have to respond to reductions in crime by reducing costs. That tends to run counter to the natural inclination of administrators, especially if it means reducing staffing. And it runs counter to what happened as crime declined over the last roughly 30 years.

We increasingly have research evidence that some programs can reduce recidivism, but many challenges, such as underpowered research designs, sometimes undermines this evidence. Even so, it is important to note that even modest reductions in recidivism imply opportunities to avert substantial numbers of crimes and subsequent criminal justice system processing and costs.

This essay suggests that it is time to embrace the modest improvements in recidivism that have been forthcoming from programs that have been subjected to the most rigorous evaluations. And it suggests that it is time to downsize our expectations for a “silver bullet” and, instead, prepare for a long-term and sustained investment in programming that will improve, refine and augment programs and approaches that “work.” By using “what works” today as the basis for the successful adaptation of multi-faceted programs that address the multiplicity of offender needs, criminal justice policy and practice will develop the tools needed to help a heterogeneous population of prisoners successfully reenter their communities.

Finally, as policymakers grapple with a recent increase in violent crime, it is important to recognize that the “tough-on-crime” responses of the twentieth century led to a 252% increase in the number of citizens under legal system control—including a 312% increase in prison populations—between 1980 and 2000. Correctional populations peaked in 2008 but in 2019 remain 255% above 1980 levels with more than 6.5 million individuals in prisons, jails, or on probation or parole. 29 As the current administration proposes the Safer America Plan, it is important that proper attention be addressed to assure that the result of these expenditures is not to reinvigorate the mass incarceration and mass supervision that followed the adaptation of the as the 1984 Pretrial Reform Act and the Violent Offender Incarceration and Truth-in-Sentencing Act of 1994. And it is important that we attend to widespread support for high-quality implementation of programs that have been shown to reduce recidivism.

is a Principal Scientist with RTI International’s Justice Practice Area. She has more than 35 years of experience evaluating interventions, investigating the causes and correlates of criminal behavior, and developing approaches to improve criminal justice operations. She was principal investigator for multi-site, multi-method evaluations including the Multi-Site Evaluation of the Serious and Violent Offender Initiative, the Second Chase Act Adult Offender Reentry Demonstration Program Evaluation, and the HOPE Demonstration Field Experiment. She is principal investigator for research examining pretrial risk assessment, policy, and practice; state-level reforms for adult probation; implementation and impact of criminal record expungement; development and implementation of dynamic risk assessment algorithms for Georgia probation and parole; and the long-term impact of a three-state RCT of the 5-Key Reentry Program Model. She is a past Chair of the American Society of Criminology Division on Corrections and Sentencing, a Fellow of the Academy of Experimental Criminology, and a recipient of the American Correctional Association Peter P. Lejins Researcher Award, the American Society of Criminology Division on Corrections and Sentencing Distinguished Scholar Award, and the Academy of Experimental Criminology Joan McCord Award. Dr. Lattimore has published extensively, has served on the editorial boards of multiple journals, and was the inaugural co-editor of the annual series Handbook on Corrections and Sentencing published by Routledge Press.

Data Availability

1 Some of the ideas presented here were initially explored in Lattimore ( 2020 ) and Lattimore et al. ( 2021 ).

2 Data 1960 to 1984 are FBI, Uniform Crime Reports, prepared by the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data; downloaded March 5, 2006; data from 1985 to 2020 are from https://crime-data-explorer.app.cloud.gov/pages/explorer/crime/crime-trend , downloaded July 12, 2022.

3 Violent crime commands the most attention and hence is the focus here, but property crimes are much more prevalent—directly affecting many more individuals. Property crime rates also increased in the 1960s and 1970s. The property crime rate increased from 1,726.3 per 100,000 in 1960 to 4,660.2 in 1994—an 170% increase. The property crime rate peaked in 1980 at 5,353.3 per 100,000—a 210% increase over 1960.

4 Data for 1960 and 1970 prisoners are from Cahalan, M.W. and Parsons, L.A. ( 1986 ). Data from 1980–2014 are from Glaze, L., Minton, T., & West, H. (Date of version: 12/08/ 2009 ) and Kaeble, D., Glaze, L., Tsoutis, A., & Minton, T. ( 2015 ). Data from 2015–2020 are from Kluckow, DSW, & Zeng, Z. (Date of version: 3/31/ 2022 ).

5 As noted in footnote 3, property crime rates also rose between 1960 and 1980—peaking at 5,353.3 per 100,000. With some minor fluctuations, the property crime rate has declined steadily since the 1980s and was 1958.2 per 100,000 in 2020.

6 The Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970 (PL 91–513); the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970 (PL 91–452); the District of Columbia Court Reorganization and Criminal Procedure Act of 1970 (PL 91–358); and the Omnibus Crime Control Act of 1970.

7 https://www.ncjrs.gov/txtfiles/billfs.txt

8 The trend shown in Fig.  9 continued a trend. Between 1982 and 1997, total justice expenditures increased 125% from $84.1 billion to $189.5 billion (2007 dollars), Kyckelhahn, T. ( 2011 ).

9 Data are from the FBI Crime in the United States publications for 1980, 1991, 1995, 2000, 2010 and 2019 https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/ . Numbers of offenses cleared were estimated by multiplying the offenses known by the offense clearance rates reported by the FBI.

10 https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/31/opinion/richard-nixon-america-trump.html

11 https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/08/01/fact-sheet-president-bidens-safer-america-plan-2/

12 For some thoughts on recommendations for reforms for pretrial and sentencing see Lattimore, Spohn, & DeMichele ( 2021 ). This volume also has recommendations for reform across the justice system.

13 Safety and Justice Challenge.

14 https://www.arnoldventures.org/

15 https://www.prisonpolicy.org/research/economics_of_incarceration/

16 For an example of how a minor traffic offense can result in thousands of dollars in fines and fees for extensive terms of private probation see In Small-Town Georgia, A Broken Taillight Can Lead to Spiraling Debt—In These Times.

17 See for example, https://www.propublica.org/article/florida-felonies-voter-fraud

18 https://www.arnoldventures.org/work/public-defense

19 https://www.samhsa.gov/gains-center

20 https://www.nami.org/Advocacy/Crisis-Intervention/Crisis-Intervention-Team-(CIT)-Programs

21 https://www.eugene-or.gov/4508/CAHOOTS

22 In 2005, the Uniform Crime Reports reported 1,197,089 known violent offenses and 8,935,714 known property offenses or a ratio of about 1:9. Clearance rates were 45.5% for violent and 16.3% for property crimes known to police. The estimated total number of arrests for 2005 was 14,094, 186. Thus, the violent and property arrests account for about 72% of all arrests. Of course, these estimates rest on many assumptions—in some cases, these assumptions would imply that we are estimating the lower bound, since each member of our study population is allowed only one arrest while many will have many more than one. On the other hand, to the extent that individuals are arrested who have committed no offenses, the estimates would over represent the impact of a reduction in crime. The goal here was not to generate a precise estimate but to illustrate that a 10% reduction in recidivism translates into substantial reductions in crime.

23 A model-based estimate of the effect of non-residential drug treatment on 134,000 drug-involved individuals admitted to probation in Florida showed treatment reduced arrests by more than 20% (Lattimore et al., 2005a , 2005b ). This analysis was extended to a cost-effectiveness framework in which it was shown that it would be cost effective to spend $1000 treating all drug-involved probations as long as the average cost of an arrest averted (including arrest, and the costs of judicial processing and corrections) is at least $6,463.

where R = recidivism rate for the group, r = recidivism rate in the absence of treatment, T = percentage of group that is treated, and p = the percentage reduction in recidivism due to treatment (the treatment effect). Differences in outcomes are constant with respect to the assumed recidivism rate in the absence of treatment.

25 Differences in outcomes are constant with respect to the assumed recidivism rate without treatment.

26 Lipsey ( 1998 ) discusses the issue of underpowered evaluations.

27 A similar example was presented in Lattimore, Visher, & Steffey ( 2010 ).

28 Although not addressed here because of page limitations additional important methodological considerations include whether a comparison group exists for some interventions such as incarceration (see Lattimore & Visher 2021 for a brief discussion) and, even more challenging, whether replication is even possible given the heterogeneity of context and populations. For an interesting consideration of the implications of the latter for examining the impact of incarceration see Mears, Cochran & Cullen ( 2015 ).

29 Correctional populations dropped dramatically in 2020 as law enforcement and the criminal justice system adapted to COVID-19.

Publisher's Note

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Criminal justice is the academic discipline concerning crime and the response to crime. It includes research on aspects of the criminal justice system – police, criminal courts, and corrections – as well as broader research in criminology. The Criminal Justice Research Network on SSRN is an open access preprint server that provides a venue for authors to showcase their research papers in our digital library, speeding up the dissemination and providing the scholarly community access to groundbreaking working papers and early-stage research. SSRN provides the opportunity to share different outputs of research such as preprints, preliminary or exploratory investigations, book chapters, PhD dissertations, course and teaching materials, presentations, and posters among others. SSRN also helps Criminal Justice scholars discover the latest research in their own and other fields of interest, while providing a platform for the early sharing of their own work, making it available for subsequent work to be built upon more quickly.

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The Idea of 'The Criminal Justice System'

American Journal of Criminal Law, Forthcoming

Vanderbilt Law Research Paper No. 17-48

41 Pages Posted: 10 Oct 2017 Last revised: 20 Oct 2018

Sara Mayeux

Vanderbilt University - Law School

Date Written: October 9, 2017

The phrase “the criminal justice system” is ubiquitous in discussions of criminal law, policy, and punishment in the United States — so ubiquitous that almost no one thinks to question the phrase. However, this way of describing and thinking about police, courts, jails, and prisons, as a holistic “system,” dates only to the 1960s. This essay contextualizes the idea of “the criminal justice system” within the rise of systems theories more generally within intellectual history and the history of science. The essay first recounts that more general history of systems thinking and then reconstructs how it converged, in 1967, with the career of a young systems engineer working for President Johnson’s Crime Commission, whose contributions to the 1967 report The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society launched the modern and now pervasive idea of “the criminal justice system.” Throughout, the essay reflects upon the assumptions and premises that go along with thinking about any complex phenomenon as a “system” and asks whether, in the age of mass incarceration, it is perhaps time to discard the idea, or at least to reflect more carefully upon its uses and limitations. For instance, one pernicious consequence of “criminal justice system” thinking may to be distort appellate judges’ interpretations of Fourth Amendment doctrine, because they imagine their rulings to be hydraulically connected in a “system” with crime rates.

Keywords: criminal justice, criminal procedure, criminal law, history of criminology, legal history, policing

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Sara Mayeux (Contact Author)

Vanderbilt university - law school ( email ).

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Criminal Justice Research Paper Topics

This page provides a comprehensive list of criminal justice research paper topics categorized into different areas such as criminology, types of crime, correlates of crime, theories of crime, criminal justice system, criminal justice process, criminal justice ethics, criminal justice administration, criminal law, criminal procedure, criminal investigation, criminal behavior, criminal psychology, juvenile justice, juvenile delinquency, death penalty, and gender and crime. Each category includes 10 unique topics, offering students an ample selection of research paper ideas. Additionally, this page provides expert advice on choosing a research topic and writing a criminal justice research paper, as well as an overview of iResearchNet’s writing services for students seeking custom research paper assistance.

Criminal Justice Reseach Field

Criminal justice is an interdisciplinary field that involves the study of crime, law, and justice. It encompasses a range of topics such as criminology, criminal law, law enforcement, and the criminal justice system. As a student studying criminal justice, you may be required to write a research paper on a specific topic within this field. However, choosing a topic can be challenging, as the field is vast and encompasses various subfields. In this guide, we will provide you with a comprehensive list of criminal justice research paper topics, expert advice on how to choose a topic, and tips on how to write an effective research paper.

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In this guide, we aim to provide you with a comprehensive list of criminal justice research paper topics, divided into several categories, to help you select a topic that interests you and aligns with your research interests. We also offer expert advice on how to choose a topic, conduct research, and write an effective research paper. Our goal is to help you succeed in your academic pursuits and make a meaningful contribution to the field of criminal justice.

100+ Criminal Justice Research Paper Topics

Criminal justice is a multifaceted field that encompasses various aspects of crime and punishment. As a student of criminal justice, it is crucial to choose a research paper topic that not only interests you but also provides ample room for exploration and analysis. In this section, we have compiled a comprehensive list of criminal justice research paper topics categorized into various themes. These categories are designed to help you navigate the vast field of criminal justice research and narrow down your options to a more manageable and focused list of topics. Whether you are interested in criminology, types of crime, theories of crime, criminal justice system, or other related topics, you are sure to find a suitable topic that will spark your curiosity and enhance your knowledge of the criminal justice field.

Criminology

• Theoretical Perspectives on Crime: An Analysis of Social Disorganization Theory
• The Impact of Childhood Trauma on Criminal Behavior
• The Relationship between Substance Abuse and Crime
• The Effectiveness of Rehabilitation Programs in Reducing Recidivism
• The Role of Genetics in Criminal Behavior: A Critical Analysis
• The Relationship between Education and Crime: An Empirical Investigation
• The Intersection of Race, Ethnicity and Crime: A Critical Review
• The Use of Restorative Justice in Reducing Crime: An International Comparison
• The Impact of Mass Media on Perceptions of Crime and Criminal Behavior
• The Relationship between Poverty and Crime: An Empirical Analysis

Types of Crime

• Hate Crimes
• Drug-Related Crimes
• Human Trafficking
• Organized Crime
• White-Collar Crime
• Sexual Crimes
• Domestic Violence
• Murder and Homicide
• Property Crimes

Correlates of Crime

• Poverty and Crime
• Mental Illness and Criminal Behavior
• The Impact of Substance Abuse on Crime
• Demographic Factors and Criminal Behavior: Race, Gender, and Age
• Educational Attainment and Criminal Behavior
• Religion and Crime
• Family Background and Crime
• Employment and Crime
• Neighborhood Characteristics and Crime
• Immigration and Crime

Theories of Crime

• Social Disorganization Theory: An Analysis of Neighborhood Crime Rates
• Rational Choice Theory and Criminal Behavior
• An Examination of the Classical School of Criminology
• Social Learning Theory and Juvenile Delinquency
• An Analysis of Strain Theory and Its Implications for Criminal Justice Policy
• The Role of Genetics in Criminal Behavior
• A Comparison of Conflict Theory and Consensus Theory in Criminology
• Psychological Theories of Criminal Behavior: An Overview
• A Critical Analysis of the Labeling Theory and Its Contributions to Criminology
• Marxist Criminology and Its Implications for Criminal Justice Policy

Measurement and Research in Criminology

• The use of survey research in criminology
• Experimental designs in criminology research
• The role of case studies in criminology research
• Analyzing archival data in criminology research
• Qualitative research methods in criminology
• Quantitative research methods in criminology
• Use of randomized control trials in criminology research
• Measuring crime and victimization rates
• Analyzing crime patterns and trends
• The use of GIS (geographic information system) in criminology research

Criminal Justice System

• The impact of privatization on the criminal justice system
• Police misconduct and accountability in the criminal justice system
• The role of prosecutors in the criminal justice system
• The impact of technology on the criminal justice system
• The effectiveness of community policing in the criminal justice system
• The role of plea bargaining in the criminal justice system
• The role of judges in the criminal justice system
• The impact of mass incarceration on the criminal justice system
• The role of the media in shaping public perception of the criminal justice system
• The role of restorative justice in the criminal justice system

Criminal Justice Process

• Bail and Pretrial Release: A Study of its Effects on the Criminal Justice Process
• Plea Bargaining: Advantages and Disadvantages for Defendants and the Criminal Justice System
• Sentencing Disparities among Minority Groups in the Criminal Justice System
• The Role of Prosecutors in the Criminal Justice Process
• Jury Selection: Challenges and Solutions
• The Impact of Victim Impact Statements on the Criminal Justice Process
• The Use of Forensic Evidence in the Criminal Justice System
• The Role of Defense Attorneys in the Criminal Justice Process
• The Criminal Appeals Process: Procedures and Outcomes
• The Role of Probation and Parole Officers in the Criminal Justice Process

Criminal Justice Ethics

• Ethical Considerations in Criminal Investigations
• The Use of Force By Law Enforcement Officers: Ethical Dilemmas and Solutions
• The Ethics of Plea Bargaining in Criminal Justice
• The Role of Ethics In The Criminal Justice System: A Comparative Analysis of Different Legal Systems
• The Morality of Capital Punishment: Arguments for and Against
• Ethical Issues in Criminal Defense: Conflicts of Interest and the Right to a Fair Trial
• Ethical Issues in Correctional Facilities: Rehabilitation vs. Punishment
• Police Brutality and Accountability: Ethical Implications for Law Enforcement Agencies
• The Ethics of Criminal Profiling: Balancing Effectiveness and Discrimination Concerns
• The Ethics of Surveillance in Criminal Investigations: Privacy, Security, and Civil Liberties Concerns

Criminal Justice Administration

• The Role of Leadership in Law Enforcement Agencies
• The Use of Technology in Criminal Justice Administration
• Private Prisons and Their Impact on Criminal Justice Administration
• The Role of Community Policing in Criminal Justice Administration
• Police Training and Its Effect on Criminal Justice Administration
• Ethics and Leadership in Criminal Justice Administration
• Diversity and Inclusion in Criminal Justice Administration
• The Effect of Budget Cuts on Criminal Justice Administration
• Collaboration and Coordination between Criminal Justice Agencies
• The Role of Public Opinion in Criminal Justice Administration

Criminal Law

• The History and Evolution of Criminal Law
• Comparative Analysis of Criminal Law Systems in Different Countries
• The Role of the Judiciary in Criminal Law Interpretation and Application
• Legal Principles of Criminal Liability and Their Application in Practice
• The Concept of Mens Rea in Criminal Law
• The Limits of Criminal Law in the Regulation Of Conduct
• The Use of Criminal Law to Address Societal Problems
• The Relationship Between Criminal Law and Civil Law
• The Impact of Technology on Criminal Law and Law Enforcement
• Critiques of The Criminal Law System and Proposals for Reform

Criminal Procedure

• The Fourth Amendment and Search and Seizure Law
• The Role of the Grand Jury in Criminal Proceedings
• The Right to a Fair Trial and Due Process Protections
• The Use of Plea Bargaining in Criminal Cases
• The Exclusionary Rule and its Impact on Criminal Cases
• The Role of the Defense Attorney in Criminal Proceedings
• The Admissibility of Evidence in Criminal Trials
• The Impact of the Media on Criminal Trials
• The Use of Expert Witnesses in Criminal Cases
• The Challenges of Prosecuting and Defending Cases Involving DNA Evidence

Criminal Investigation

• The use of DNA evidence in criminal investigations
• The reliability and limitations of eyewitness testimony in criminal investigations
• The role of forensic psychology in criminal investigations
• The use of surveillance technology in criminal investigations
• Investigating cybercrime: challenges and strategies
• The importance of crime scene investigation in solving cases
• The impact of digital evidence on criminal investigations
• The role of informants in criminal investigations
• The use of lie detection technology in criminal investigations
• The effectiveness of polygraph testing in criminal investigations

Criminal Behavior

• The role of genetics in criminal behavior
• The impact of childhood trauma on criminal behavior
• The relationship between substance abuse and criminal behavior
• The influence of peer pressure on criminal behavior
• The impact of poverty and inequality on criminal behavior
• The role of mental illness in criminal behavior
• The relationship between personality disorders and criminal behavior
• The impact of cultural factors on criminal behavior
• The role of social media in criminal behavior
• The impact of the media’s portrayal of crime on public perception and criminal behavior

Criminal Psychology

• The psychology of violent offenders: understanding motivations and triggers
• The relationship between childhood abuse and criminal behavior
• Criminal profiling: its validity and effectiveness in solving crimes
• The psychology of white-collar crime: motives and rationalizations
• The impact of social media on criminal behavior and investigations
• The psychology of false confessions: why innocent people confess to crimes they didn’t commit
• The role of substance abuse in criminal behavior and addiction treatment in the criminal justice system
• The psychology of serial killers: identifying patterns and predicting behavior
• The effects of incarceration on mental health and the rehabilitation of offenders

Juvenile Justice

• The effectiveness of diversion programs in reducing juvenile delinquency
• The use of restorative justice practices in juvenile court cases
• The impact of race and ethnicity on juvenile justice outcomes
• The role of mental health services in juvenile justice systems
• The use of solitary confinement in juvenile detention facilities
• The effectiveness of community-based alternatives to juvenile detention
• The impact of parental involvement on juvenile justice outcomes
• The effects of trauma on juvenile offenders and the role of trauma-informed care
• The relationship between juvenile delinquency and academic achievement
• The effectiveness of juvenile sex offender treatment programs

Juvenile Delinquency

• The impact of poverty and socioeconomic status on juvenile delinquency
• The role of mental health issues in juvenile delinquency
• The relationship between juvenile delinquency and drug abuse
• The impact of family dynamics and structure on juvenile delinquency
• The role of schools and education in preventing juvenile delinquency
• The effectiveness of community-based programs in reducing juvenile delinquency
• The impact of media and technology on juvenile delinquency
• The role of race and ethnicity in the juvenile justice system and delinquency rates
• The impact of neighborhood characteristics on juvenile delinquency
• The effectiveness of early intervention programs for at-risk youth in preventing juvenile delinquency

Death Penalty

• The history of the death penalty and its evolution over time
• Comparative analysis of the use of the death penalty in different countries
• The moral and ethical considerations of the death penalty
• The role of race and socioeconomic status in the administration of the death penalty
• The effectiveness of the death penalty as a deterrent to crime
• The psychological effects of death row and the death penalty on inmates and victims’ families
• The impact of wrongful convictions and exonerations on public trust in the death penalty
• The controversy surrounding lethal injection and other methods of execution
• The role of clemency and commutation in death penalty cases
• Critiques of the death penalty system and proposals for reform

Gender and Crime

• The Gender Gap in Crime Rates: Exploring the Trends and Explanations
• Women in Prison: Gender-Specific Issues and Challenges
• Masculinity and Crime: Exploring the Relationship between Masculinity and Criminal Behavior
• Gendered Violence: Examining the Intersection of Gender and Violence in Criminal Justice
• Female Offenders: Understanding the Causes and Consequences of Women’s Criminal Behavior
• Gender and the Law: Analyzing the Role of Gender in Criminal Justice Policy and Practice
• The Gendered Nature of Victimhood: Examining the Impact of Gender on Victimization and Justice
• Intersectionality and Crime: Understanding How Race, Gender, and Class Interact in Criminal Justice
• Women in Law Enforcement: Challenges and Opportunities for Female Police Officers
• The Gendered Impacts of Criminal Justice Policies: Analyzing the Differential Effects on Men and Women

Browse More Criminal Justice Research Paper Topics:

Choosing criminal justice research paper topics.

Choosing a research paper topic in criminal justice can be a challenging task, but there are several strategies you can use to make the process easier and more effective. The following tips will help you choose a topic that is both interesting and appropriate for your assignment.

• Understand the assignment requirements and guidelines : Before you begin researching and selecting a topic, it is important to understand the assignment requirements and guidelines. Make sure you know the scope, length, and format of the paper, as well as any specific topic restrictions or expectations.
• Consider your personal interests and passions: Selecting a topic that you are interested in or passionate about can make the research and writing process more enjoyable and engaging. Consider your personal experiences, values, and beliefs when choosing a topic.
• Look for current and relevant topics in the field: Choose a topic that is relevant and current in the field of criminal justice. Look for recent research, policy changes, or high-profile cases that have generated public interest and media attention.
• Focus on a specific aspect or issue within a broader topic: Instead of choosing a broad topic, focus on a specific aspect or issue within that topic. This will allow you to explore the topic in depth and provide a more focused and compelling argument.
• Conduct preliminary research to ensure there is enough information available: Before finalizing your topic, conduct preliminary research to ensure there is enough information available to support your argument. Use academic journals, databases, and reliable websites to research your topic and identify potential sources.
• Consult with your instructor or a librarian for topic suggestions and resources: Your instructor or a librarian can provide valuable guidance and resources for selecting a topic. They may be able to suggest specific topics or provide access to relevant databases and sources.
• Stay organized and keep track of sources and notes: As you research and write your paper, make sure to stay organized and keep track of your sources and notes. This will make the writing process easier and ensure you have accurate and reliable information to support your argument.
• Narrow down your topic and develop a thesis statement: Once you have selected a topic, narrow it down to a specific aspect or issue and develop a thesis statement. Your thesis statement should be clear, concise, and specific, and provide a roadmap for the rest of your paper.
• Brainstorm and outline your paper before writing: Before you start writing, brainstorm and outline your paper to ensure your argument is organized and cohesive. This will also help you identify any gaps in your research or arguments.
• Revise and edit your paper multiple times before submitting: After you have completed your paper, revise and edit it multiple times before submitting. This will ensure that your argument is clear, your writing is concise and effective, and your paper is free of errors and typos.

By following these expert tips, you can choose a criminal justice research paper topic that is engaging, relevant, and well-supported. Remember to always keep the assignment guidelines in mind and seek guidance from your instructor or librarian when needed.

How to Write a Criminal Justice Research Paper

Writing a criminal justice research paper requires careful planning and execution to ensure that you produce a high-quality and informative work. Here are some tips on how to write a criminal justice research paper:

• Select a topic and develop a thesis statement : Choose a topic that is interesting and relevant to the criminal justice field. Narrow down your topic and develop a clear thesis statement that outlines your main argument or perspective.
• Conduct thorough research and gather reliable sources : Use academic databases, library catalogs, and credible websites to find sources that support your thesis statement. Ensure that your sources are reliable and relevant to your topic.
• Organize your notes and create an outline : Organize your notes and sources into a logical order that supports your thesis statement. Create an outline that includes an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.
• Write an introduction that provides background information and introduces the thesis : Begin your paper with an introduction that provides context for your topic and introduces your thesis statement.
• Use clear and concise language throughout the paper : Write in a clear and concise manner that is easy to understand. Use simple language and avoid jargon and technical terms that may be unfamiliar to your readers.
• Support your arguments with evidence and examples from your research : Use evidence from your research to support your arguments and provide examples that illustrate your points.
• Write a strong conclusion that summarizes your findings and reinforces your thesis : End your paper with a conclusion that summarizes your findings and reinforces your thesis statement.
• Edit and revise your paper for grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors : Check your paper for grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors. Use spell-check and grammar-check tools to help you identify and correct errors.
• Properly cite your sources using the appropriate citation style (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.) : Use the appropriate citation style to cite your sources in the body of your paper and in your reference list. Follow the guidelines provided by your instructor or institution.
• Get feedback and revise your paper as needed : Share your paper with a peer or instructor and get feedback on your writing. Revise your paper as needed to ensure that it meets the requirements and guidelines of the assignment.

Writing a criminal justice research paper can be a challenging but rewarding experience for students in this field. By choosing a relevant and interesting topic, conducting thorough research, and following a clear and organized structure, students can produce a high-quality paper that showcases their knowledge and critical thinking skills. Seeking expert advice on topic selection and writing techniques can also be beneficial in producing a successful paper. With the right approach and dedication, students can create a valuable contribution to the field of criminal justice research.

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A better path forward for criminal justice: Conclusion

Subscribe to governance weekly, rashawn ray and rashawn ray senior fellow - governance studies brent orrell brent orrell senior fellow - american enterprise institute.

Below is the conclusion from “A Better Path Forward for Criminal Justice,” a report by the Brookings-AEI Working Group on Criminal Justice Reform. You can access other chapters from the report here .

As we write this report, the high-profile failures of the criminal justice system remain front and center in news coverage and the nation’s public policy agenda. The trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in the killing of George Floyd draws our attention to how police authority continues to be a frequent threat to life and well-being, especially for low-income individuals and people of color. The police killing of Daunte Wright in a Minneapolis suburb further fuels community distrust and racial division in the Twin Cities and around the country.

At the same time, we are seeing a sudden and disturbing spike in criminal activity and violent offenses in our major urban areas. This spike has variously been attributed to social stress related to the pandemic, a declining willingness of police forces (in the wake of the Floyd death and subsequent civil unrest) to risk potentially dangerous confrontations with individuals committing crimes, and a growing unwillingness among prosecutors to try lower-level offenses thus implicitly encouraging worse ones.

As we prepare to exit pandemic conditions, we recommend a strategic pause to gather data that will help us understand why criminal activity has gone up and inform both immediate responses as well as longer-term reform initiatives. There will be a temptation – on both sides – to argue that the recent spike confirms their prior understandings and policy preferences; either that the recent burst of crime can be effectively controlled by a ratcheting up “tough-on-crime” policies and practices or that it is exactly these practices that create the predicate for crime surges by disrupting lives, families, and neighborhoods through excessive reliance on force and incarceration. We should resist both of these views while we strive for a better understanding of the forces driving and shaping patterns of criminal offenses. It is entirely possible, given the unprecedented conditions of the past 12 months, we will find ourselves surprised by what we learn.

As is often the case, we may need an “and” approach rather than an “or” approach. Policies need to address recent rises in crime and overpolicing. This is why our report focuses on the criminal justice as a whole. Policing is the entree to the criminal justice system that sorts people based on race, social class, and place. Most people do not want less policing. They want equitable policing, and equitable treatment once interacting with the criminal justice system, either as a victim or perpetrator.

Research-informed innovation that builds a more flexible and effective toolbox of responses is needed to move us towards the more peaceful, flourishing, and just society that is the shared objective of conservatives and progressives alike.

The sources of criminal activity and public safety challenges are multifaceted while our responses to them are often singular: more and tougher policing, prosecution, and incarceration. Not every public order challenge is a nail in need of a hammer. If we are to honor the dignity of every person and respect the sanctity of human life, we need a more balanced and diversified approach that recognizes confrontation and coercion are not the only, and often not the best, strategies for protecting our communities. Research-informed innovation that builds a more flexible and effective toolbox of responses is needed to move us towards the more peaceful, flourishing, and just society that is the shared objective of conservatives and progressives alike.

The essays in this volume and the recommended supplemental readings provide much food for thought about the major areas of criminal justice reform that should be at the top of the nation’s agenda. The recommendations are varied and informed by differing perspectives on how to better balance the requirements of community safety, civil liberty, policing and procedural protections, and supporting and achieving lasting changes in attitudes, behaviors, and outcomes among justice-involved individuals as befits a nation committed to the idea of rehabilitation and not just retribution. The authors in this volume will continue convening to discuss, debate, and research these complex issues, with a shared goal of identifying ways to improve our country’s criminal justice system. These are deeply interconnected issues requiring a thorough, thoughtful, and comprehensive response rather than an immediate reversion to long-held and -argued views that may fit recent history or current conditions. A nation that incarcerates so many at such a high cost in public resources and wasted human lives can ill-afford to do otherwise.

The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit organization devoted to independent research and policy solutions. Its mission is to conduct high-quality, independent research and, based on that research, to provide innovative, practical recommendations for policymakers and the public. The conclusion and recommendations of any Brookings publication are solely those of its authors, and do not reflect the views of the Institution, its management, or its other scholars.

The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research is a nonpartisan, nonprofit 501(c)(3) educational organization. The views expressed in this report are those of the authors. AEI does not take institutional positions on any issues.

Support for this publication was generously provided by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. The views expressed in this report are those of its authors and do not represent the views of the Foundation, their officers, or employees.

Governance Studies

Allison P. Harris

August 8, 2024

Russell Wheeler

July 23, 2024

Richard Lempert

July 12, 2024

Criminal Justice - Essay Samples And Topic Ideas For Free

Essay topics on criminal justice are not easy. It requires much research and knowledge of the justice system of a particular country and the law rights of residents. This topic combines much information, but you should focus on one to reveal it well in your essay. For example, you can write about the United States criminal justice system: its foundation, laws, and punishments. Along with this, you can mention certain problems that touch on criminal law or how the government should react to a range of crimes. Also, you can explain the consequences of breaking the law.

To start such an essay is always difficult. There should be precise thesis statements that will be a focus throughout the entire research paper. It is essential to highlight it in the introduction so you will hook the reader and keep them interested until the end of the essay, its conclusion. If you don’t know what to start with, we recommend you get familiar with research paper examples about criminal justice. They will surely guide you in coming up with your own thoughts and assumptions of what problem to raise. Remember to get started with an outline that is a good predecessor for your successful essay. By doing so and studying essay examples on criminal justice, you will improve your writing skills.

Corruption of the Criminal Justice System

There is a long history report of police violence against civilians in the United States which has resulted in creating laws by the government so that citizens may find a way to find a possible solution when their rights are violated. Section 242 of the constitution allows police officers to be fined or even imprisoned for any law enforcer who deprives a person of their rights on the basis of their colour or race (Kevin). The corruption investigations done by […]

Three Problems of the Criminal Justice System and how to Fix them

The criminal justice system has an important role in society to maintain order and to ensure that law is equal and fair; no matter age, ethnicity, race, sex, or social economical status. Unfortunately, this is not true within the current judicial system. Racial discrimination, youth incarceration, and health related infirmities result from incarceration (Simonson, 2017). Three Problems of the Criminal Justice System and How to Fix Them There are many problems that plague our current criminal justice system. The problems […]

Gender Equality and Crime

The court and the Judiciary, in general, are guided by the basic principles of justice to all. Judges usually give rulings based on the rule of law with the intention of protecting the public, deterring crime, rehabilitating law offenders, punishing offenders and offering reparation to the victim. The principles of justice mean fairness, protecting the rights of all regardless of gender, race or religion. However, gender equality has been a significant issue for many years, and there has been a […]

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Dispute Resolution in Criminal Justice

In my class of Sociology of Criminal Justice, we are learning what happened socially in the United States to cause the criminal justice policy to change so dramatically into a punishment policy, where we deliver harsher punishment to individuals to incapacitate and deter them from committing punishment. The class also explores what the aspects are of this punishment policy and what the consequences have been for the past decades from this policy. One particular topic that has stuck with in […]

The Current Trends and Issues of Social Media and its Effects on the Criminal Justice System

Technology keeps changing and getting more and more in everybody's face we can't avoid it. With that being said the more it advances and what if has become from say 50 years ago takes a big effect on the criminal justice system in many ways. Now there are good and bad ways it affects it. A good way would be someone could record and officer doing something that is actually wrong and he gets in trouble for it or a […]

Gender and Crime

Gender has been attributed as one of the key factors that act a significant role in the crime patterns and the criminal justice systems. For a very long time, it has become a fact that women and men differ in their rates of committing crimes as well as their victimization pattern experience. However, from this report, we find that the victimization risk of violence among the male adults almost equal to that of female adults. My perception, however, is different […]

Presenting Juveniles as Adults in the Criminal Justice System

The word most frequently used to describe the growth in the rate of violent crime among children 17 years old and younger is epidemic. The alarming rate at which children are committing crimes has increased the amount of questions on what should be done with these juveniles. The National Center for Juvenile Justice states how “Every state but Hawaii now allows juveniles to be tried as adults for certain crimes,” so why are people struggling with laws allowing young offenders […]

How the Media Portray Crime and the Criminal Justice System?

Crime has become one of the most consumed topics in America media. Since the U.S citizens greatly believe, rely, and get fooled on whichever the media spit out to them mostly with anything regarding crime, therefore, they do not take a moment to find, think, and analyze what they have heard, watched, or read from the media to compare with statistical facts. Rather, they digest any news that is being released from the media as true and credible. In fact, […]

Juvenile Correctional Counselor

Introduction In the criminal justice system there are numerous available career opportunities one can choose. By definition, criminal justice is “the system of law enforcement, involving police, lawyers, courts, and corrections, used for all stages of criminal proceedings and punishment” (D. 2018). Any career one may choose will follow the three-tiered system found within criminal justice: law enforcement, the court system, or the correctional aspect of criminal justice. For this paper, I have chosen to discuss what entails the career […]

Latinos in Criminal Justice

Latinos have a large presence in America, and have for a long time. This large Latino presence is due to the freedoms that are afforded by the United States government since the founding of our nation. Latinos may come to The United States for many reasons, one reason that Latinos may have the desire to come to the states is due to the corruption and violence in Latin America and their home countries. Countries in Latin America may not be […]

Racial Profiling Within the Criminal Justice System

Abstract There are many different reasons for people to engage in criminal activities. Unfortunately, there is no way to pin point the source of crime. The purpose of this research paper is to reveal the influences that race has on the Criminal Justice System. More specifically, the researcher (Danielle Clarke) will be discussing the ethical issue of Racial Profiling within the criminal justice system.? Introduction Sampson and Wilson (1995) stated that, “The discussion of Race and Crime is mired in […]

Constitution of the United States and the Fourth Amendment

The method by which law enforcement should treat people is based on the Bill of Rights section of the Constitution of the United States. The Fourth Amendment protects individuals from unreasonable search by law enforcement. Police must show evidence, that a threat to public safety exists, and probable cause that a crime is, or will be, committed for courts to issue a search warrant. The details of the what, where, when and whom they are searching must be provided. Items […]

Women Mental Health and the Criminal Justice System

Veronica Sutton COUN 603 Prof. Clarisse Domingo October 20, 2018 Foundations of Mental Health Counseling Based on some estimates, as much as 50% of the U.S. prison population suffers from some form of mental illness. As a consequence, each year thousands of mentally ill men and women are sent to prisons because of limited community resources. Which, has lead to mass incarceration within correctional institutions that are poorly equipped to treat the mental ill as they are subjected to punishments […]

Spain Criminal Justice

Spain, one of the oldest and most successful countries in the world. One of the biggest countries in all of Europe, and one of the biggest tourist attractions in the world. The history of Spain can be traced back hundreds of years when monarchs ruled the country. Of course, over time many things have changed. The economy, politics, tourism, etc. But, one thing that obviously changed over time is there criminal justice system. How it has developed from the past […]

Careers in Criminal Justice

Education and Professional Law Enforcement The American police officer execrate a promise to defend and aid the people they embody. They are presented by the administration to implement the law by detaining offenders and sensing and averting misconducts. Germann (1967) commences by stating that “there was a time when the American policeman would be inclined to define his job and role in a very narrow fashion” (p. 603). However, he continues that policing obligations are no longer simple responsibilities necessitating […]

Supervision in the Criminal Justice Field

Abstract Law enforcement agencies understand the importance of a true partnership with the community. Positive relationships with some segments of the community are easier to come by than others. Most communities in America are rich with many different cultures. However, it is because of this diversity that many organizations struggle to build trust and secure relationships that lead to success. Law enforcement agencies have an obligation to make proactive efforts to bridge the divide between the officers and community. Existing […]

The Constitution of America and Laws

The constitution of America established fundamental laws and guaranteed certain rights for its citizens. It was written in 1787 that replaced the Articles Of Confederation which had been governing character of the United States. The law of the United States was predominantly gotten from the precedent based law arrangement of English Law. Nonetheless, U.S. law was drawn significantly from its English ancestors both as far as substance and method. It has fused various common law developments. It had proven a […]

Why is it Necessary to Teach Ethics in Criminal Justice Law Business and Medical

Babies are born into the world with no knowledge or understanding of what is “good” or “bad”. You learn from the world around you and the people within it, what constitutes “good” or “bad”. Ethics plays a major role in one’s daily routines, judgements, and decision making. Why do we study ethics? From previous lectures, there are so many people in the world that truly believe they are ethical, and live in moderation. Ethics is understanding the difference between good […]

Alaska Natives Criminal Justice System

In 1993 the Alaska Native Commissioned Report revealed that 32 percent of the state's incarcerated population is Alaska Native, even though Alaska Natives represent only 16 percent of the overall population. More recent reports have found that these number have not drastically changed (The Alaska State Offender Profile, 2015). In this paper I will briefly outline and address what some scholars, researchers, and reports have cited to explain why Alaska Natives are disproportionately represented in Alaska’s prison system, as well […]

U.S. Criminal Justice System Overview

Mr. President, I would like to thank you and your front office for taking the time to read about my concerns during such a busy sports season. I know you’ve grown particularly fond of basketball and football games since your presidency. I recently tried to reach out to you in my recent letter, but I have assumed it never arrived. As I have previously stated, I represent the many Americans who would like to discuss with you the current state […]

Is the Criminal Justice System Prejudicial?

At first, I thought that it is not. But after doing some research, I was convinced to believe the opposite. Prejudice can be defined as the preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience. Bias is the prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair. To introduce why I have come to believe that the criminal justice system is prejudicial, I want to […]

Source of Information about Crime

Violent wrongdoings (otherwise called violations against people) rule the vast majority's contemplations of wrongdoing and wellbeing. Regardless of criminal justice experts explanations that an individual's probability of being victimized little depends on him avoiding certain places, for instance, street gangs and drug peddler spots (Koper, Taylor, & Woods, 2013). This accumulation characterizes brutal violations as murder, persuasive assault, burglary, and irritated assault. Property violations are wrongdoings that are arranged as offenses against property. This incorporates robbery, theft, thievery, pyromania, misappropriation, […]

The Virtual Criminal Justice Alliance

The operational director for the visual security force Mr. James Dunbar has a very distinct job responsibility; some those responsibilities include dealing with prison reconstruction and decongesting those prison at large to minimize the high over population of those prison. Based on this, Mr. Dunbar has also partner with other entities to mitigate the risk of overcrowding of prison by advocating for other avenues such as private prisons and the community-based correction programs. This however, has enabled him to be […]

Criminal Justice System

Criminal justice is known to be the system exercises, and institutions of government mandated to sustain social control, discourage and lessen crime or sanction those violating the law through rehabilitation and subjecting them to criminal penalties. People who are accused of crime also have constitutional protections from abuse of prosecution and investigatory powers (Abdolsalehi, 2013). Law has the purpose of providing a set of rules which govern the conduct and order in society. The law provides the rights of the […]

Racism in Criminal Justice System

Scott Woods once said, The problem is that white people see racism as conscious hate, when racism is bigger than that. Racism is a complex system of social and political levers and pulleys set up generations ago to continue working on the behalf of whites at other people's expense, whether whites know/like it or not. Racism is an insidious cultural disease. It is so insidious that it doesn't care if you are a white person who likes black people; it's […]

“Just Mercy” is Bryan Stevenson’s Perspective on the American Criminal Justice System

Stevenson argues that the society should be aware rather than punishment. His personal stories share a representation of the criminal justice system. Stevenson is responsible for reducing the amount of wrongly accused victims. Throughout the story Just Mercy, the author, Bryan Stevenson, uses an optimistic tone. During cases, he would notice that things weren't going the way he expected. However, he still had hope in those situations. Bryan Stevenson uses real life experiences to bring awareness to incarceration. He uses […]

Care of the Mentally Ill in Prisons

A common problem facing the mentally ill inmates today is whether or not the use of restraints is safe and effective, or a deadly abuse of power. There are a plethora of articles that support either side, but in order to form an unbiased opinion, one must hear both arguments. There are several positive aspects of restraints. For example, when restraints are used inmates no longer have the ability to inflict damage upon oneself or others, additionally inmates are stabilized […]

Social Issues and Criminal Justice

The first key social issue is justice in the media. The subject of justice has become a hot topic in America this year, finding itself not only in the Criminal Justice field, but also addressed as in Social Justice, Racial Justice, and Economic Justice. In fact, Merriam Webster has chosen “justice” as its 2018 Word of the Year. It was chosen because it was searched 74% more times in 2018 than in 2017, and was the top-searched word this year […]

Racism and the U.S. Criminal Justice System

Introduction The primary purpose of this report is to explore racism issues in the United States justice system and addressing the solutions to the problem affecting the judicial society. Racism entails social practices that give merits explicitly solely to members of certain racial groups. Racism is attributed to three main aspects such as; personal predisposition, ideologies, and cultural racism, which promotes policies and practices that deepen racial discrimination. Institutional racism is also rife in the US justice system. This entails […]

Core Components of Criminal Justice System

When one looks at the criminal justice system core components, and their functions one can develop an understanding of how our country is able to balance justice if each core is applied properly. There are three cores of the American Criminal Justice system; police, courts, and corrections (Schmalleger, 2016). While many people may claim to know how each core component functions, many are like most that watch football games; they do know the role of each component on the field. […]

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How to Write an Essay About Criminal Justice

Understanding the criminal justice system.

Before writing an essay about criminal justice, it's important to understand the breadth and complexity of the criminal justice system. This system encompasses several institutions and processes established by governments to control crime and impose penalties on those who violate laws. Begin your essay by explaining the main components of the criminal justice system, typically including law enforcement, the judiciary, and corrections. Discuss the roles and functions of each component and how they work together to maintain law and order, protect citizens, and uphold justice. It's also important to consider various perspectives on the criminal justice system, including its effectiveness, fairness, and the challenges it faces.

Developing a Thesis Statement

A strong essay on criminal justice should be centered around a clear, concise thesis statement. This statement should present a specific viewpoint or argument about the criminal justice system. For instance, you might examine the impact of new technology on criminal investigations, analyze the challenges of prison overcrowding, or argue the need for reforms in the juvenile justice system. Your thesis will guide the direction of your essay and provide a structured approach to your topic.

Gathering Supporting Evidence

To support your thesis, gather evidence from a variety of sources, including academic research, government reports, and case studies. This might include statistical data on crime rates, research findings on criminal justice policies, or examples of criminal justice systems in different countries. Use this evidence to support your thesis and build a persuasive argument. Be sure to consider different perspectives and address potential counterarguments.

Analyzing Key Issues in Criminal Justice

Dedicate a section of your essay to analyzing key issues within the criminal justice system. Discuss current topics such as racial disparities in sentencing, the effectiveness of rehabilitation programs, or the impact of legal reforms. Consider both the theoretical aspects of these issues and their practical implications. Explore how these challenges affect not only the criminal justice system but also society as a whole.

Concluding the Essay

Conclude your essay by summarizing the main points of your discussion and restating your thesis in light of the evidence provided. Your conclusion should tie together your analysis and emphasize the importance of continued study and reform in the field of criminal justice. You might also want to suggest areas for future research or action needed to address the challenges identified in your essay.

Reviewing and Refining Your Essay

After completing your essay, review and refine it for clarity and coherence. Ensure that your arguments are well-structured and supported by evidence. Check for grammatical accuracy and ensure that your essay flows logically from one point to the next. Consider seeking feedback from peers, educators, or criminal justice professionals to further improve your essay. A well-written essay on criminal justice will not only demonstrate your understanding of the system but also your ability to engage with complex legal and societal issues.

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304 Criminal Justice Essay Topics & Examples

🏆 best criminal justice topics & essay examples, 👍 good criminal justice topics for essays, 📑 interesting criminal law essay topics, 🔍 social justice topics to write about, 💡 criminal justice persuasive essay topics, ⭐ simple & easy criminology essay topics, ❓ criminal justice research topics for college students.

• Importance of Math in the Field of Criminal Justice The work of police officers and other personnel in criminal justice requires proof and accuracy in determining the cause and effects of a crime.
• Indian Criminal Justice System Reforms In as much as some human rights activists often complain of the violation of the rights by the justice system, India’s criminal system has faced significant changes since colonial times to the present.
• Ethical Dilemmas in Criminal Justice If one is to discuss the issue with the senior management of the organization in which the crime occurred, there is a high chance that the issue will not be taken as seriously due to […]
• “Ethical Dilemmas and Decisions in Criminal Justice” by Pollock If hunting is the primary means of survival of a particular society, the euthanasia of the elderly and the sick can be deemed acceptable.
• Comparative Criminal Justice System Advantages The central values of the US criminal justice system are to protect the rights of citizens and ensure the safety of a society in which everyone is equal before the law.
• Technical Communication Methods and Practices of Criminal Justice It also examines the use of technology in the communication process and further looks at the potential technological advancement that will be used in the communication process in the future.
• Theories Required to be Successful in Supervisory Practices in the Criminal Justice Field In the field of criminal justice, it is necessary to understand whether failure to satisfy the following needs may result to the criminal acts.
• Criminal Justice Internship Report The primary goals of the course are to expose students to new contexts and environments, broaden and deepen knowledge of key concepts and theories relevant to the field, and improve an overall learning experience.
• Effective Communication in Criminal Justice Settings The officer should also package information in a way that it is easy to decode and understand. Such communication enables police officers in charge of the inmates to access important information from them.
• Financial Management in Criminal Justice Systems Criminal justice departments are touted to be one of the most inefficient and morally impaired sectors of the government. Therefore, discipline in law enforcement officers and other members of the criminal justice system is essential […]
• The Instrumental Theory in Criminal Justice In criminal justice, the instrumental theory is based on the idea that criminal justice and criminology is one of the main tools which help to control the poor.
• Criminal Justice as an Open System The same society and government also receive the output of the law enforcement organizations, meaning that the activity of the criminal justice system is never focused unto itself.
• Ethics and Professional Behavior in Criminal Justice One of the most important components of the criminal justice system is a code of ethics, which governs the behavior and conduct of professionals working within the system.
• Virtue and Stoic Ethics in Criminal Justice The lack of ethical grounds for the behavior of criminal justice officials makes the application of the law unreliable. As an employee of a juvenile correctional colony, I will be guided by the principles of […]
• Ethical Issues in Criminology and Criminal Justice Research Investigation officers be committed to obligation of ensuring that the bodily, social and mental health of a person participating in an investigation is not harmful distressed.
• Community Corrections and Criminal Justice Community corrections are the topic that has been the easiest to understand because, unlike other aspects of criminal justice, this is the area of the administration of punishment that is the most familiar to me.
• Stereotyping Individuals in the Criminal Justice System Cultural Deviance theory is based upon two other theories, which are: Social Disorganization Theory Strain Theory Social disorganization theory focuses on the environment and places it as the main reason for crime.
• Cybercrime Impact on Global Criminal Justice System Reports show that the crime is on the rise because more people have access to computers and the internet than ever before.
• Stanford Prison Experiment and Criminal Justice The researchers used cameras and microphones to assess the behavior of the correctional staffs and inmates. The capability of managing the correctional facility depends on effective communication between the inmates and the prison guards.
• Psychologists’ Role in Criminal Justice In addition to research, the accumulation, and application of knowledge, psychologists can also participate in assessing the effectiveness of legislation. In this setting, basic scientists conduct theoretical research on the effectiveness of police and court […]
• Pros and Cons of Using Discretion in System of Criminal Justice The initial stage in which discretion is applied in the system of criminal justice is where police officers make a decision on whether a suspect should be arrested for a particular offense or not., argues […]
• The Discipline of Criminal Justice: The Use of Mathematics The knowledge applied here is purely scientific and therefore the police can hire the services of such experts to assist in the investigation of crime.
• Report Writing for Criminal Justice Professionals The fifth one includes the targeted issues while the sixth indicates the decisions and actions. It is also appropriate to be aware of the speech mode of the individual being interviewed.
• Criminal Justice Ethics of Traffic Police Officers The police officer had the choice to take the children to a juvenile center home and arrange for a person to take care of the baby and then take the woman to jail as she […]
• Criminal Justice: Punishment and Sentencing The representatives of the general public got used to the fact that one party is to be punished, and another one is to provide punishment.
• Logical Fallacies in Criminal Justice The misrepresentation of the original argument is not taken into account, and the key objective of this fallacy is to confuse the opponent and form one’s opinion on the wrong argument.
• Forensic Psychology in the Criminal Justice System To evaluate the competency of a defendant, the forensic psychologist is guided by the scientific principles espoused in the field of psychological science.
• The Criminal Justice System On the other hand, the executive branch is mandated with the role of furnishing the criminal justice system with judges and heads of law-enforcing agencies.
• Pretrial Procedures in Criminal Justice Therefore, studying the processes that take place before the trial is important for understanding the overall delivery of criminal justice. Before the trial begins, the defense attorney and the prosecutor must prepare for it.
• Norwegian Versus Texan Criminal Justice Systems Despite accounting for a small population of the world, the US has the highest number of prisoners globally. As a result, the number of prisoners under solitary confinement is higher than in other states.
• Key Elements of Criminal Justice System It is the combination of all the administrative, operational, and technical divisions that are part of the law enforcement agencies. This essay will describe the key elements of law enforcement agencies, the key elements of […]
• Crime Scene Investigation in Criminal Justice In the process of controlling the crowd and maintaining order with the aid of the police officers, I took some photographs of the surrounding and then approached the main spot of event. I managed to […]
• Domestic Violence Ethical Dilemmas in Criminal Justice Various ethical issues such as the code of silence, the mental status of the offender, and limited evidence play a vital role in challenging the discretion of police officers in arresting the DV perpetrators.
• Discretion in Decision Making in Criminal Justice The role of discretion is to provide the capacity to make official judgments based on logic and judgment in the criminal justice system.
• Criminal Justice Ethics Definition Criminal justice ethics involves all the codes as well as standards that apply to all the concerned parties in the criminal justice system for example attorneys, prosecutors, and the other entire professionals in the criminal […]
• Cosa Nostra and Transnational Criminal Justice As a result of the criminal allure it exudes, the Cosa Nostra maintains connections with all of the major criminal groups, both in Italy and across the world.
• Ethical Behavior in Criminal Justice In the CJS, judges are the determinants of the sentencing and verdict of a criminal. Wilson that considers the health of the defendant and the safety of the community.
• Stress Among Criminal Justice Workers The criminal justice system is aware of the seriousness of the current problem and is trying to adapt to the emerging trend.
• Professional vs. Personal Life Dilemma in Criminal Justice As a member of a police force, Badpenny belongs to the soldier class in Plato’s classification, making courage her virtue. Overall, Badpenny’s decision to hide her boyfriend’s identity can only be morally justified from the […]
• Police Culture: Criminal Justice Ethics The set of values and standards in police culture shapes the perceptions of law enforcement officers about policing and the delivery of services. Therefore, police culture is similar to other customs and habits that guides […]
• The Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation Program The policy reflects social control, ensuring that members of society are compliant and follow the rules to ensure community safety and sustainability.
• Technology and Learning in Criminal Justice It is a two-way avenue that includes both the student and the educator and leads to knowledge and capacity growth. A third and somewhat uncommon motivating method is the inclusion of a genuine chance for […]
• Domestic Violence: Criminal Justice In addition, the usage of illegal substances such as bhang, cocaine, and other drugs contributes to the increasing DV in society.
• Ethical Dilemma Analysis: Criminal Justice Case The publicity of the case added another layer of complexity to the decision, as either verdict would alienate a part of the population.
• Solving Problems of Criminal Justice For example, the theory can be applied to better understand the problem of social inequality problem described in the cited documentary.
• The Criminal Justice System Practitioner The practitioner relied on the presented professional values, worldview, and philosophy to identify, handle, and support the rights of the identified clients.
• Contemporary Criminal Justice Issues When it comes to the dependent variable, it means the effect, and that means the reduction of infectious diseases will be the effect that the independent variable will determine.
• Negligence in the Criminal Justice System The last category of negligence is the most dangerous, and essentially stems to injury or death caused by the actions or lack thereof by the employees of the criminal justice system.
• The Youth Criminal Justice Act in Teresa Robinson’s Case 1 of the YCJA is relevant to the article since the offender’s name is still unreported despite the evidence of his involvement in the homicide.
• Ethical Obligations in Criminal Justice These criteria also include those that promote the values of honesty and compassion and the rights to life, bodily integrity, and privacy, all of which are defined as ethical standards. Empathy for others is the […]
• Research in Criminal Justice: Crime Solvability Factors In the sphere of criminal justice, inquiry can doubtlessly assist in the formulation of improved and more progressive laws and institutions.
• Criminal Justice in Relation to the Number of Criminals The main goal of my work is to build evidence that the number of criminals is not proportional to the severity of the crime and that despite a large number of crimes, not all of […]
• “The Role of Virtual Reality in Criminal Justice Pedagogy” by Smith The journal is titled “The role of virtual reality in criminal justice pedagogy: An examination of mental illness occurring in corrections”.
• Crime Problems and Criminal Justice Notably, except for the last one, all listed procedures can be applied to crime issues discussed above and seem practical in preventing law violations.
• COVID-19 and Juvenile, Criminal Justice Legislation The measures may help to reduce overcrowding in prisons, prevent the spread of the disease, and decrease federal and state expenses on COVID-19 preventive measures and protective equipment in correctional facilities.
• Criminal Justice Intervention in Case of Elderly However, the government has not been able to respond effectively to the abuse of older adults, with little information and statistics available to show the vulnerability of the elderly to abuse.
• Police-Minority Relations: Criminal Justice Occasionally, charges of police misbehavior, such as the tragic killings of Black individuals at the hands of police in Baltimore, Maryland, and Ferguson, Missouri, spark public unrest.
• Alexander & Ferzan’s Arguments on Criminal Justice The penal code has evolved in such a way that it only allows the system to blame offenders based on the nature of the eventual result or outcome.
• Criminal Justice: Burglary, Theft, and Criminal Trespass According to Section 2C:15-1, robbery is a first-degree crime if, in the course of committing the theft, the actor attempts to kill anyone or purposefully attempts to inflict serious bodily injury.
• Code of Criminal Justice: False Imprisonment However, the New Jersey Code interprets it specifically as an unlawful restraint with the risk of serious bodily injury or a goal of holding a victim in involuntary servitude.
• Leadership in the Criminal Justice System For example, the criminal justice system uses goals to task the police, correctional agencies, and the court with the strategy to execute, including deterrence, rehabilitation, retribution, restoration, and incapacitation.
• The Criminal Justice Core Competency Nowadays, the situation is different, and more women and minorities are encouraged to join law enforcement professions to reduce the impact of bureaucracy and other biases.
• Criminology and Its Significance in Criminal Justice Fields Criminologists’ activities include collecting and analyzing data of committed crimes to study the nature of crimes and criminals and identify factors that influence criminals’ motives.
• Criminal Justice System Development The sweeping changes impacted all elements of civil litigation and gave criminal justice professionals a stimulus to be more assertive in their cases.
• California’s Criminal Justice Realignment The existing experience of reducing the number of prisons in California is of some interest to researchers. The articles attempt to study a number of humanitarian problems of the detention of citizens of California.
• Criminal Justice System Deterring Illicit Drug Use The authors describe the history of the appearance of synthetic drugs in the illegal market and mention the difficulties that forensic chemists have faced in identifying the compounds of illicit substances. M, Stogner, J.
• The Influence of Wealth and History of the Criminal Justice System The history of the U.S.criminal justice system spans approximately four hundred years, with early beginnings that prioritized the protection of citizens, punishment of criminals, and maintenance of social order. Perhaps the earliest form of criminal […]
• Criminal Justice & Security: Measuring Crime Statistics NIBRS is a part of UCR; it has been in place since 1989, and its aim is to ensure the collection of detailed crime reports from law enforcement agencies.
• Hypothesis Testing in Criminal Justice and Criminology Two populations that are linked via a dependent variable must be assessed on the subject of dependency to determine a proper test to ensure the validity of the results.
• The Modern Criminal Justice System: Discriminatory Practices It is stated that “the experiences of poor and minority defendants within the criminal justice system often differ substantially from that model due to several factors, each of which contributes to the overrepresentation of such […]
• Statistics in Criminal Justice and Criminology The author’s primary argument refers to the importance of averages and data distribution types for criminology researchers and practitioners. To conclude, the information provided in the chapter is essential for understanding the measures of central […]
• Statistics for Criminology and Criminal Justice The first part of the chapter introduces the three univariate data distribution displays that are frequently used in statistics, such as frequencies, proportions, and percentages.
• Deterrence: Reflections on the Economics of Criminal Justice Therefore, deterrence is meant to ensure that punishments are so harsh that members of the public will fear committing a crime that will lead them to the same punishment.
• Media and Gender Stereotypes Against Females in Professional Roles Within the Criminal Justice The first and a half of the second episode were chosen as the pilot episode often reflects the essence of the entire show.
• Impacts of the Overlaps Between Communication and Criminal Justice for Police-Suspect Interactions The underlying concern raised by the interaction between Floyd and Chauvin as well as the other three police officers is that a breakdown of communication before and during the arrest led to the escalation.
• Criminal Justice Inequality in Conflict Theory Other examples of inequality in terms of criminal justice are international corporations’ frauds and embezzlements on a grand scale by politicians that remain even unnoticeable while ordinary people are sentenced to imprisonment for less serious […]
• Management of Criminal Justice Agencies Conflict of interests is bound to arise every time the needs of a healthy worker collide with the properties of a formal organization.
• The Federal Grand Jury in the Criminal Justice System For instance, the President of the United States of America may not directly request for the formation of a grand jury but can do so by directing the Attorney General to constitute a grand jury.
• Criminal Justice Agency Accountability and Liability The Act has set the “minimum pay for employees and the overtime pay has to be between 22 to 25% of the standard pay”.
• US Criminal Justice System Analysis It might be assumed, therefore, that the prison had minimum security; however, the guards were heavily armored and conducted regular raids to control the contraband, which is a characteristic of a high-security prison.
• Criminal Justice: The Ban-the-Box Law This essay discusses the criminal justice laws of the United States on the hiring of ex-convicts and whether felons should exercise their civil rights of voting or not.
• Criminal Justice Career An individual who wants to work in the criminal justice sphere should be ready to overcome different challenges and contribute to the increased efficiency of the legal system.
• The Effects of the Criminal Justice System Wilson and Kelling say, “Social psychologists and police officers tend to agree that if a window in a building is broken and is left unrepaired, all the rest of the windows will soon be broken”.
• Criminal Justice System: Child Abuse During the consideration of cases as part of a grand jury, citizens perform some functions of the preliminary investigation bodies.
• Criminal Justice Standards for the Defense Function In court, defenders can find evidence through discovery, speak with witnesses of the crime, and file pretrial motions.
• Criminal Justice & Criminology Research Methods In most cases, operationalizing study variables ensures that a sample representing the entire population is chosen and an appropriate unit of analysis is applied.
• Building a Career in Criminal Justice The duty of a correctional officer is to oversee and keep watch of the arrested criminals during their terms in jail.
• The Impact of Performance Appraisals on Job Satisfaction of Criminal Justice Personnel Of greater attention in the paper is the exploration of the levels of performance management in criminal justice departments and the impact on the levels of job satisfaction among employees working in these departments.
• The Pitfalls of Criminal Justice Budget Cuts: An Administrator’s Perspective Today, in the United States, the diminishing crime rates have created an erroneous perception among state legislatures, key public policy figures, and mainstream commentators that crime and the administration of the criminal justice system are […]
• Policing Duties: Criminal Justice Similarly, the police officers are required to evaluate the crime scene based on the evidence received from the witnesses, victims, and the offenders.
• Criminal Justice Research: Homicide It also gains capacity with the regulations and reaction of crime from the society and the government. In homicide research, the characteristics and methods of qualitative research are evident.
• Communication Within the Criminal Justice System: Probation Organisation An important thing to note here is that the sender and the recipient must be sharing the meaning of the symbols used in communicating; otherwise the meaning of the message will be lost on the […]
• Criminal Justice: Racial Prejudice and Racial Discrimination Souryal takes the reader through the racial prejudice and racial discrimination issues ranging from the temperament of racism, the fundamental premise of unfairness, the racial biasness and the causes of racial unfairness to ethical practices […]
• Criminal Justice Ethics: Kant’s and Bentham’s Views The following is an essay on criminal justice based on the case of Lieutenant Lotem that has presented moral as well as ethical dilemma on the issue of administrative justice.
• “Ethics in Criminal Justice: In Search of the Truth” by Souryal The principle of leading a simple life to achieve mental happiness is in line with the stoicism school of thought which stressed that pleasure and pain are not relevant in attaining the happiness of an […]
• New Technology & Criminal Justice From an information perspective, it is clear that new technologies, such as the use of iris recognition solutions, can assist in the effective and efficient management of correctional systems since these facilities are predominantly information-centric […]
• Significant Issues in Criminal Justice The society established ways of dealing with these groups of people through the implementation of the rule of law to ensure they account for all their actions.
• Criminology: Modern Criminal Justice The criminal justice system is the institution or the criterion that is used to keep all people that are subject to the law in check.
• Criminal Justice Professionals: What They Should Know Considering the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, it is possible to state the information about the adoption history of the documents the criminal justice professionals should know.
• Neuroscience and Criminal Justice The viewpoint of several neuroscientists is that expressive biology of behavior will be accessible in the future and is probably to integrate both neuroscientific and genetic understanding.
• Criminal Justice: Prosecution & Judicial Proceedings To corroborate scientific, circumstantial and witness evidences, the prosecution needs to examine financial transactions of Roberts to prove that he was truly trafficking dangerous drugs according to the third count of charges.
• Criminal Justice: Cases of Offenders in Trafficking Secondly, if in the opinion of the court, a defendant is seen to endanger the lives of others or will interfere with the evidence if granted bail, then the court will not grant bail.
• Essentials of Criminal Justice It is imperative to mention that the prominence of wrongful convictions in a topic that is frequently discussed by scholars and has led to many disagreements.
• Ethical Observations of Criminal Justice System As the police officer pays for the picked items, the shopkeeper gives the officer a package of free items and a shopping voucher worth $100 as a present for his family and an appreciation note […]
• Criminal Justice Ethics: Ethical Observations There are three parties involved in the situation: the victim, the offender, and the company. At the same time, the involvement of Police Officers to the case and the necessity to carry out their daily […]
• Criminal Justice Policies and Theories Given the fact that PRPs and DPs are the variants of rehabilitation programs, their correlation is understandable, but their targets determine their differences.
• Response Paper on Book “Criminal Justice Management” They believe that the negative implications of the criminal world, on the whole, are transmitted to the activity of criminal justice workers that creates an unfavorable association of the latter in the mind of the […]
• Bribery as a Critical Criminal Justice Violation In the overviewed case, the abuse of criminal justice is evident since it is prohibited for the public officials, who are engaged in the investigation, to peer in the confidential affairs of the clients as […]
• An Ethical System in Criminal Justice To my firm belief, utilitarian ethical system is more advantageous than the systems proposed by libertarianism and determinism since it accepts human nature and puts the general safety above the individual good.
• Need for Policy Reform in the Criminal Justice System They also exposed the deficiencies and shortfalls of the criminal justice system, which has long been a source of disagreement between the Democrats and the Republicans, making any changes to the policy unlikely.
• Criminal Law: Media and Its Influence on Criminal Justice Policy Seeing that the opinion of public affects the way, in which the criminal justice policy evolves, it can be assumed that media, which affect people’s viewpoints to a considerable degree, shaping it in accordance with […]
• Public Opinion and Criminal Justice Policy Despite the fact that the criminal justice policy is shaped by the bills passed by the Congress, the significance of public opinion on the subject matter is very high.
• Jury System in Different Criminal Justice Contexts The first argument to support the idea that the jury system should be spread widely in the world countries is that the jury system is the key to the unbiased and effective court decision-making that […]
• An Application of the Criminal Justice System When police have reasonable grounds to believe that William Bloutt and Bertha Bloutt committed the robbery, they have the power, not the obligation, to put them under arrest.
• Criminal Justice: Over Institutional Organization This is further worsened by the fact that the number of offenders to be monitored after being released is often higher than the number of officers tasked with the responsibility of following up on them.
• Learning Theory Implications on Criminal Justice Practices This will be helpful to them because the civilians have different styles of learning and implementing the rule of law. Understanding the crime learning theories is very important and their impacts determine the destiny of […]
• Criminal Justice Workplace Observation Leadership rests in the top management of the prisons who are the decision-makers and lead the prison to attain its objectives.
• Deterrence in Criminal Justice Practices The concept of deterrence is the foundation of criminal justice systems in a majority of democratic nations. In my opinion, law enforcement is the second area where the implications of deterrence have more impacts.
• Administration of Criminal Justice – Elements of Planned Change Administrators According to Merino, the effects of the implementation of change or change initiating in the criminal justice system extend far beyond the desired change.
• Research Process and Terminology: Criminal Justice In addition, it is necessary to edit the research question/hypothesis after reviewing the literature and determining variables; select the research method; sampling methods and control of variables should be thoroughly explained as well; description of […]
• Suicide in People With a Criminal Justice History The main questions raised in the study included suicide risk for the Danish population over the past three decades and possible relation of the results with the social and health problems of the suicides.
• Criminal Justice System: “Lucky” by Alice Sebold The book “Lucky” by Alice Sebold unfolds the rape ordeal that the author went through at the age of 18 years as well as the aftermath of the heinous act on her personal life.
• Positive and Negative of Evidence-Based Criminal Justice Policymaking Evidence-based practice in the criminal justice sector has concentrated on policies that deal with the administration of these sectors based on the correctional process of the incarcerated persons.
• Achieving Real Justice: Funding Criminal Justice Reform The article sums up the problems that have enhanced the tribulations of the state’s criminal justice department and point out strategies that have been adapted to solve these challenges. The citizens of California have not […]
• The Criminal Justice System in the US The statutes of Texas require the criminal justice system to carry out an inquest into the causes of deaths that occur mysteriously to ascertain the cause of death.
• Impact of Diversity on Criminal Justice Police on the other hand think the high crime rates of Blacks and Hispanics only reflects the differences in the crime rates and not the biased justice system.
• Ethical Issues in Criminal Justice According to legal ethics, lawyer has ethical duty of ensuring that client’s information is confidential and thus should always advocate for the interests of the client.
• A Criminal Justice Approach to Suppressing Terrorism The threat of terrorism substituted communism as the rationale which was used for justifying the state of emergency in America prior to 1990s.
• Web Research in Criminal Justice For those desiring a career that upholds the current social system in preventing crime, ensuring that the rule of law prevails and provides a system of rehabilitation for those who have broken the law, the […]
• Expected Changes in the Criminal Justice Field Over the Next 50 Years A comfortable conjecture towards development in the criminal justice field will be the use of these social networking sites as an interaction tool with the communities served, for sharing critical information and collecting tips.
• Cultural and Racial Prejudices in the Criminal Justice System Simultaneously, whiteness continues to play one of the key roles in the development of cultural and racial prejudices in the criminal justice system.
• Criminal Justice Leadership: Strategies and Practice They have to execute good leadership and management in order to provide reforms and change and to affect the kind of justice that the community needs.
• Leadership Issue in the Criminal Justice Field The main concerns about the issue of violations are: whether they are common phenomena in the criminal justice field, the reason that propagates them, and the possibility of their prevention with consideration whether they might […]
• Changes Introduced to the Inquisitorial Criminal Justice in Italy The inquisitorial system was pioneered by the Roman Catholic Church in the medieval era, where the church used this system in its religious courts for prosecution of offenders and to reform the former system which […]
• Impact of Globalization and Neoliberalism on Crime and Criminal Justice Globalization entails the conception of principles, perpetuated by both governments and organizations that have altered the way nations perceive the obligation for a criminal justice system and the ability of the governments to control crime […]
• Contemporary Criminology and Criminal Justice Theory The model of a political society in which law restrains and guides the implementation of power by rulers dates from the early stages of systematic thought in the Western world.
• Criminal Justice and DNA: “Genetic Fingerprinting” DNA is one of the popular methods used by criminologists today, DNA technique is also known as “genetic fingerprinting”.the name given the procedure by Cellmark Diagnostics, a Maryland company that certified the technique used in […]
• Racial Discrimination in the US Criminal Justice System This report argues that when one studies the proportion of blacks in the Cincinnati community and the number of times that they have been stopped for traffic violations, one finds that there is a large […]
• Searches in the Criminal Justice System The reasoning behind this lies in the mobility of vehicles which can enable the owners of the vehicles to tamper with the probable evidence should a warrant be necessary to conduct a search of the […]
• The Criminal Justice Funnel and Globalization There are several cases in the initial stages of the criminal process which are then eliminated as the process continues to the top.
• The History and Transformation of Criminal Justice System The State Police seeks the help of the local police divisions for the search of the criminals and arrest of them to announce sentence according to the Code of |Criminal Procedure applied and observed by […]
• How Is the Criminal Justice System Portrayed in the News? In the case it is underrepresented, it means that the news has not been depicted in full and in a truthful manner and in accordance with the wishes of the American people.
• Criminal Justice Reform in the Black Community A progressive change of the United States’ drug policy is a fundamental step in the restoration of the criminal justice system.
• Key Social Issues Affecting Criminal Justice Professionals The absence of a decline in this percentage suggests that the criminal justice system has not been effective in addressing this issue. The criminal justice system has failed to decrease crime rates due to the […]
• California’s Criminal Justice System, Problems and Solutions The attention is focused on the fact that even though the system is designed to lower the recidivism rate and help inmates in the future, rehabilitate, it is still ineffective.
• Communication Databases and Criminal Justice System It will also expound on the positive and negative contributions of the databases due to the advancement in technology. Advancement in technology also poses immense challenges to members of the society.
• Budget Reduction in Criminal Justice Administrations The mission of the police is to maintain law and order among the citizens. The main positive effect of this training is the ability of some members to provide security to the rest of the […]
• Criminal Justice System in the United States Evolution The emergence of English common law in the period of the reign of Henry II had the biggest impact on the development of the criminal justice system in the United States.
• Leadership and Management as Applied to Criminal Justice Organizations The differences between them are significant and crucial to understanding for executives to be able to reach the goals of a company.
• Integrity and Its Place in Criminal Justice System It is plausible to say that Integrity is truthfulness; the truthfulness of one’s character. The integrity of a professional is not something that is personally his.
• Criminal Justice Centralization and Decentralization This assignment briefly examines the issue of centralization and decentralization, overviewing the negative consequences of the attorney’s office funded by the state, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of the commission’s recommendations.
• The Effects of Poverty Within Criminal Justice The approach used in this study is deductive since the reasoning in the study proceeds from the general principle regarding the fact that poverty has a role to play in the administering of fairness in […]
• Ethics Theories in the Criminal Justice Field The gratuity that the public extend to officers and doormen within the criminal justice system has the capacity to spiral and develop a culture of exchange.
• Criminal Justice System: Crime Scene Investigation A gas store employee, who was present in the time of the event, nodded to be the witness of the crime.
• Criminal Justice Agency Records, Content & Secondary Data Analysis In this case, there is the need to ensure that the specifics of the statistics are very clear from the start.
• Criminal Justice Experimentation: Threats to Validity Therefore it is becoming more and more evident that the threats to validity play a major role in the research and experimental designs.
• Criminal Justice System: Halloween Party Accident But from the general point of view of the criminal justice system the main culprits were Tom Randell and Kelly Greene and it is obvious that they should be charged and prosecuted in the eyes […]
• Criminal Justice System in Australia There have been fears that the criminal justice system in Australia is not as strong as it should be considering there have been lapses when dealing with gender, social class, and even racial matters.
• Management in Criminal Justice and Related Areas One way of overcoming this is that the leaders need to properly hear out and understand the staff members and also listen to them.
• The Criminal Justice Ethics Principles
• Problem Analysis in the Criminal Justice System
• Criminal Justice for Physically Injured Crime Victims
• Washington County Court Services
• Effects of Technology in Criminal Justice Systems
• Research Methods in Criminal Justice and Criminology
• Criminal Justice: Race, Age, and Gender Factors
• Criminal Justice Agency Organizational Behavior
• Determination of Professionalism in Criminal Justice Organizations
• Forensic Science in the Criminal Justice System
• Ethics in Criminal Justice
• Criminal Justice System Representation in Media
• Applied Research in Criminal Justice Profession
• Diversity Training for Criminal Justice Employees
• Criminal Justice Employees’ Rights and Laws
• Administration of Criminal Justice Agencies
• Policy and Criminal Justice
• Criminal Justice Administration and Police Functions
• Crime and Criminal Justice News
• Women Working in the Criminal Justice System
• Criminal Justice System and Inequilty in America
• Criminal Justice Systems: Saudi Arabia, Germany and the US
• Restorative Justice in the Criminal Justice Process
• Gang Violence: Criminal Justice Research
• Women and Minorities Recruits in Criminal Justice
• Criminal Justice Process in the US
• Military Trials: The Criminal Justice Procedures Violations
• Criminal Justice Administration Issues
• Johnnie Cochran’s Leadership in the Criminal Justice
• Criminal Justice System: Racial Policy Change
• Leadership Issues in the Criminal Justice System
• Criminal Justice System Enforcement Issues
• Key Criminal Justice Issues
• Criminal Justice From the Historical Perspective
• US Criminal Justice System, Theories and Methods
• Criminal Justice in the Film “Gideon’s Trumpet”
• Criminal Justice Policy in Action
• Ethics in Criminal Justice: Moral Aspects
• Ethics, Media and Criminal Justice
• Psychology in Criminal Justice
• Domestic Violence in International Criminal Justice
• Criminal Justice Systems in the US, the UK, Norway
• Media Influence on Criminal Justice and Community
• Criminal Justice Process and Investigation Changes
• Psychologist’s Roles in Criminal Justice System
• Criminal Justice: Discipline, Liability and Labor Relations
• Criminal Justice Policy Formulation Participants
• Criminal Justice in Fisher vs. University of Texas
• Bureaucracy and Criminal Justice Policies
• International Criminal Justice and Atrocity
• Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Trends
• Criminal Justice From a Global Perspective
• Antiterrorism Response Unit in Criminal Justice
• Criminal Justice Administration
• US Criminal Justice Information System
• Technologies in Canadian Criminal Justice System
• The Criminal Justice System Network
• The Criminal Justice System Effective Communication
• Criminal Justice in Canada
• Criminal Justice Workplace Management
• Organizational Behavior Concepts in the Criminal Justice
• Criminal Justice Trends Evaluation
• Mental Health Issues in the Criminal Justice System
• Criminal Justice System. Deterrence and Incarceration
• Forensic Psychology Guidelines for Criminal Justice
• Death Penalty Role in the Criminal Justice System
• Criminal Justice System Role in Curbing Crime Rates
• People With Disabilities and Abuse of People With Disabilities and Criminal Justice
• Politicization of Criminal Justice & its Influence on Penal Policy: A Critical Discussion
• The Death Penalty in the US Criminal Justice System
• Social and Criminal Justice Responses to Sex Work
• Foster Care in the Criminal Justice System
• Death Penalty: Every For and Against
• Racism in U.S. Criminal Justice System
• The Many Faces of Criminal Justice: What Concerns Students Face Most Often
• Techniques for Influencing Criminal Justice System Change
• Criminal Justice Department
• Young Offenders and the Criminal Justice System
• Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement
• A Short Guide to the Criminal Justice System
• Delphi Survey Method in the Criminal Justice System
• Criminal Justice
• What Does the Future Hold for the Criminal Justice System?
• How Does the Criminal Justice System Respond to White Collar and Corporate Crime?
• What Makes the Criminal Justice System So Slow?
• Does the Criminal Justice System Work?
• How Are Computers Essential in Criminal Justice Field?
• Are Individual Mental Health Issues Treated Fairly by the Criminal Justice System?
• What Should the Criminal Justice System Do With Drug Abusers?
• How Might Crime Data Be Used as either Predictor for Crime or Used by Criminal Justice Professionals?
• Does the Criminal Justice System Depend on the Disparities of the People That It Serves?
• How Does Criminal Justice System Work and How Does It Have Problems?
• Are Males and Females Treated Differently in the Criminal Justice System?
• How Did the Current Criminal Justice System in the US Evolve?
• Does the Criminal Justice System Extend More Rights to Criminal Defendants?
• How Does Society Shape the Experiences of the Criminal Justice?
• Are Youth Offenders Responsive to Changing Sanctions?
• How Does the Australian Criminal Justice System Respond to Domestic Violence?
• Does the Criminal Justice System Have a Gendered Response Towards Filicide When It Comes to Punishing the Offender?
• How Does the Criminal Justice System Respond to Illicit Drugs?
• Should the Criminal Justice System Be the Primary Solution to Drug Problems in Australia?
• How Does Our Criminal Justice System Reflect the U.S. Constitution?
• Should the Death Penalty Be Used in the Criminal Justice System?
• How Does Television Depict the Criminal Justice System?
• Should the Texas Criminal Justice System Be Legal?
• How Does the Criminal Justice System Deals With Sex Offenders?
• What Are Effective Writing Principles for Criminal Justice Professionals in Their Respective Communications?
• How Does the Criminal Justice System Respond to Organized Crime Within Our Society?
• What Are the Major Components of the Criminal Justice System?
• How Can the Past Assist the Modern Criminal Justice System?
• What Are the Three Most Challenging Issues of Criminal Justice?
• Why Are Confidentiality and Ethics Important in Investigating the Legal Concerns of the Criminal Justice and Criminology?
• Domestic Violence Paper Topics
• Computer Forensics Essay Topics
• Drug Trafficking Research Topics
• Crime Prevention Research Topics
• Forensic Psychology Research Topics
• Criminal Procedure Titles
• Human Rights Essay Ideas
• Mass Incarceration Essay Topics
• Chicago (A-D)
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Criminal justice research topics.

This collection provides overviews of   nearly 100 key criminal justice research topics comprising traditional criminology and its more modern interdisciplinary outgrowths. These topics are divided into six thematic parts:

• Criminology
• Correlates of Crime
• Criminology Theories
• Crime Research
• Types of Crime
• Criminal Justice System

Criminology and Criminal Justice Research Topics

Research topics in criminology:.

• Criminology as Social Science .
• Criminology and Public Policy .
• History of Criminology .

Research Topics in Crime and Victimization:

• Age and Crime .
• Aggression and Crime .
• Citizenship and Crime .
• Education and Crime .
• Employment and Crime .
• Families and Crime .
• Gender and Crime .
• Guns and Crime .
• Immigration and Crime .
• Intelligence and Crime .
• Mental Illness and Crime .
• Neighborhoods and Crime .
• Peers and Crime .
• Race and Crime .
• Religion and Crime .
• Social Class and Crime .
• Victimization .
• Weather and Crime .

Research Topics in Criminology Theories:

• Biological Theori es.
• Classical Criminology .
• Convict Criminology .
• Criminal Justice Theories .
• Critical Criminology .
• Cultural Criminology .
• Cultural Transmission Theory .
• Deterrence and Rational Choice Theory .
• Feminist Criminology .
• Labeling and Symbolic Interaction Theories .
• Life Course Criminology .
• Psychological Theories of Crime .
• Routine Activities Theory .
• Self-Control Theory .
• Social Construction of Crime .
• Social Control Theory .
• Social Disorganization Theory .
• Social Learning Theory .
• Strain Theories .
• Theoretical Integration.

Research Topics in Criminology Research and Measurement:

• Citation and Content Analysis .
• Crime Classification Systems .
• Crime Mapping .
• Crime Reports and Statistics .
• Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) and Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) .
• Edge Ethnography .
• Experimental Criminology .
• Fieldwork in Criminology .
• Program Evaluation .
• Quantitative Criminology .

Research Topics in Types of Crime:

• Campus Crime .
• Child Abuse .
• Cybercrime .
• Domestic Violence .
• Elder Abuse .
• Environmental Crime .
• Hate Crime .
• Human Trafficking .
• Identity Theft .
• Juvenile Delinquency .
• Organizational Crime .
• Prostitution .
• Sex Offenses .
• Terrorism .
• Theft and Shoplifting .
• White-Collar Crime .
• Wildlife Crime .

Research Topics in Criminal Justice System:

• Capital Punishment .
• Community Corrections .
• Crime Prevention .
• Criminal Courts .
• Criminal Justice Ethics .
• Criminal Law .
• Criminal Specialization .
• Drug Courts .
• Drugs and the Criminal Justice System .
• Felon Disenfranchisement .
• Forensic Science .
• Juvenile Court .
• Juvenile Justice .
• Mass Media, Crime, and Justice .
• Offender Classification .
• Offender Reentry .
• Police–Community Relations .
• Prison System .
• Problem-Solving Courts .
• Public Health and Criminal Justice .
• Racial Profiling .
• Restorative Justice .
• Sentencing .
• The Police .
• Victim Services .
• Wrongful Convictions .
• Youth Gangs .

Because just listing suggestions for criminal justice research topics will be of limited value we have included short topical overviews and suggestions for narrowing those topics and divided them into 6 parts as in the list above. If you’re interested in some topic in the list follow the links below for more information.

Example   criminal justice research papers   on these topics have been designed to serve as sources of model papers for most criminological topics. These research papers were written by several well-known discipline figures and emerging younger scholars who provide authoritative overviews coupled with insightful discussion that will quickly familiarize researchers and students alike with fundamental and detailed information for each criminal justice topic.

This collection begins by defining the discipline of criminology and observing its historical development (Part I: Criminology ). The various social (e.g., poverty, neighborhood, and peer/family influences), personal (e.g., intelligence, mental illness), and demographic (e.g., age, race, gender, and immigration) realities that cause, confound, and mitigate crime and crime control are featured in   Part II: Correlates of Crime . The research papers in this section consider each correlate’s impact, both independently and in a broader social ecological context. The sociological origins of theoretical criminology are observed across several research papers that stress classical, environmental, and cultural influences on crime and highlight peer group, social support, and learning processes. Examination of these criminological theory research papers quickly confirms the aforementioned interdisciplinary nature of the field, with research papers presenting biological, psychological, and biosocial explanations and solutions for crime (Part III: Criminology Theories ).

Part IV: Criminology Research provides example research papers on various quantitative and qualitative designs and techniques employed in criminology research. Comparison of the purposes and application of these research methods across various criminal justice topics illustrates the role of criminologists as social scientists engaged in research enterprises wherein single studies fluctuate in focus along a pure–applied research continuum. This section also addresses the measurement of crimes with attention to major crime reporting and recording systems.

Having established a theoretical–methodological symmetry as the scientific foundation of criminology, and increasingly the field of criminal justice,   Part V: Types of Crime   considers a wide range of criminal offenses. Each research paper in this section thoroughly defines its focal offense and considers the related theories that frame practices and policies used to address various leading violent, property, and morality crimes. These research papers also present and critically evaluate the varying level of empirical evidence, that is, research confirmation, for competing theoretical explanations and criminal justice system response alternatives that are conventionally identified as best practices.

Ostensibly, an accurate and thorough social science knowledge base stands to render social betterment in terms of reduced crime and victimization through the development of research–based practices. This science–practitioner relationship is featured, advocated, and critiqued in the research papers of the final section,   Part VI: Criminal Justice System . Here, the central components of criminal justice research paper topics (law enforcement, courts, and corrections) are presented from a criminology–criminal justice outlook that increasingly purports to leverage theory and research (in particular, program evaluation results) toward realizing criminal justice and related social policy objectives. Beyond the main system, several research papers consider the role and effectiveness of several popular justice system and wrap-around component initiatives (e.g., specialty courts, restorative justice, and victim services).

See also: Domestic Violence Research Topics and School Violence Research Topics .

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Criminal Justice Reform Is More than Fixing Sentencing

Experts explain how we got here and solutions that will benefit everyone.

• Changing Incentives
• Cutting Jail & Prison Populations

A single criminal conviction bars a person for life from calling a bingo game in New York State. Before you chuckle at this gratuitous prohibition, take a second to appreciate the wider context: this is one of 27,000 (!) rules nationwide barring people with criminal records from obtaining a professional license. Conviction of a crime excludes people from holding jobs from real estate appraiser to massage therapist.

In our work to end mass incarceration, the Brennan Center has focused on the length of prison sentences. As our studies have shown, 39 percent of those in prison are there without a current public safety rationale. But the reach of our criminal justice system — its inefficiencies and its unfairness — extends far beyond the time an individual is incarcerated.

We all have a stake, for example, in making sure that a person leaving prison can reintegrate into society. Instead, we throw up barriers. Getting a job, even one that does not require a professional license, becomes extremely challenging. Studies show that a criminal conviction reduces the likelihood of getting a job callback by 50 percent for a white applicant and nearly two-thirds for a black applicant. These long odds have serious consequences. Finding work is the keystone to getting housing, becoming a contributing family member, and living an independent life.

Since many people are convicted of crimes when young, the negative effects reverberate for decades. The annual reduction in income that accompanies a criminal conviction rises from $7,000 initially to over $20,000 later in life.

Today crime is rising. Public safety must be a paramount goal. When violence cascades, it affects and hurts poor and marginalized communities most. As Alvin Bragg, the new Manhattan district attorney, put it so well, “The two goals of justice and safety are not opposed to each other. They are inextricably linked.” 

Progress toward criminal justice reform was made possible, in part, by the fact that crime rates were falling for decades. Now, rising crime again creates the conditions where demagogic politics and unwise policies can recur — with potentially crushing social, economic, and racial consequences. So we need to think anew, to make sure that the reaction to rising crime does not provoke a policy response that produces neither safety nor fairness.  

A year ago, the Brennan Center set out to broaden the national discussion about criminal justice reform. Since then, through our Punitive Excess series , we have published 25 essays by diverse authors ranging from scholars to formerly incarcerated people. The ill-considered collateral consequences of criminal conviction is just one of many topics, which also include perverse financial incentives in the system, inhumane prison conditions, racism, the treatment of child offenders, and more. 

It is a trove of analysis and scholarship that deserves your attention. Today we published the concluding essay , which surveys the damage from heavy-handed tactics and offers alternatives that empower communities. We also released a new video exploring the problems caused by excessive punishment. I hope you will read, view, and share widely. 

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The for-profit bail bond industry is an overlooked but significant factor in pushback against attempts to reform or end the cash bail system.

DeSantis’s Suspension of Orlando-Area Prosecutor Is Counterproductive Justice Policy

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From police to parole, black and white Americans differ widely in their views of criminal justice system

Black Americans are far more likely than whites to say the nation’s criminal justice system is racially biased and that its treatment of minorities is a serious national problem.

In a recent Pew Research Center survey , around nine-in-ten black adults (87%) said blacks are generally treated less fairly by the criminal justice system than whites, a view shared by a much smaller majority of white adults (61%). And in a survey shortly before last year’s midterm elections , 79% of blacks – compared with 32% of whites – said the way racial and ethnic minorities are treated by the criminal justice system is a very big problem in the United States today.

Racial differences in views of the criminal justice system are not limited to the perceived fairness of the system as a whole. Black and white adults also differ across a range of other criminal justice-related questions asked by the Center in recent years, on subjects ranging from crime and policing to the use of computer algorithms in parole decisions.

Here’s an overview of these racial differences:

Black adults in the U.S. consistently express more concern than white adults about crime.

In last year’s preelection survey, three-quarters of blacks – compared with fewer than half of whites (46%) – said violent crime is a very big problem in the country today. And while 82% of blacks said gun violence is a very big problem in the U.S., just 47% of whites said the same.

Blacks are also more likely than whites to see crime as a serious problem locally . In an early 2018 survey , black adults were roughly twice as likely as whites to say crime is a major problem in their local community (38% vs. 17%).

That’s consistent with a survey conducted in early 2017 , when blacks were about twice as likely as whites to say their local community is not too or not at all safe from crime (34% vs. 15%). Black adults were also more likely than whites to say they worry a lot about having their home broken into (28% vs. 13%) or being the victim of a violent crime (20% vs. 8%). However, similar shares in both groups (22% of blacks and 18% of whites) said they actually had been the victim of a violent crime.

Some of the most pronounced differences between blacks and whites emerge on questions related to police officers and the work they do.

A survey conducted in mid-2017 asked Americans to rate police officers and other groups of people on a “feeling thermometer” from 0 to 100, where 0 represents the coldest, most negative rating and 100 represents the warmest and most positive. Black adults gave police officers a mean rating of 47; whites gave officers a mean rating of 72.

Blacks are also more likely than whites to have specific criticisms about the way officers do their jobs, particularly when it comes to police interactions with their community.

In the Center’s survey earlier this year , 84% of black adults said that, in dealing with police, blacks are generally treated less fairly than whites. A much smaller share of whites – though still a 63% majority – said the same. Blacks were also about five times as likely as whites to say they’d been unfairly stopped by police because of their race or ethnicity (44% vs. 9%), with black men especially likely to say this (59%).

Stark racial differences about key aspects of policing also emerged in a 2016 survey . Blacks were much less likely than whites to say that police in their community do an excellent or good job using the right amount of force in each situation (33% vs. 75%), treating racial and ethnic groups equally (35% vs. 75%) and holding officers accountable when misconduct occurs (31% vs. 70%). Blacks were also substantially less likely than whites to say their local police do an excellent or good job at protecting people from crime (48% vs. 78%).

Notably, black-white differences in views of policing exist among officers themselves. In a survey of nearly 8,000 sworn officers conducted in the fall of 2016, black officers were about twice as likely as white officers (57% vs. 27%) to say that high-profile deaths of black people during encounters with police were signs of a broader problem, not isolated incidents. And roughly seven-in-ten black officers (69%) – compared with around a quarter of white officers (27%) – said the protests that followed many of these incidents were motivated some or a great deal by a genuine desire to hold police accountable for their actions, rather than by long-standing bias against the police. (Several other questions in the survey also showed stark differences in the views of black and white officers.)

The death penalty

A narrow majority of Americans (54%) support the death penalty for people convicted of murder, according to a spring 2018 survey . But only around a third of blacks (36%) support capital punishment for this crime, compared with nearly six-in-ten whites (59%).

Racial divisions extend to other questions related to the use of capital punishment. In a 2015 survey , 77% of blacks said minorities are more likely than whites to be sentenced to death for committing similar crimes. Whites were divided on this question: 46% said minorities are disproportionately sentenced to death, while the same percentage saw no racial disparities.

Blacks were also more likely than whites to say capital punishment is not a crime deterrent (75% vs. 60%) and were less likely to say the death penalty is morally justified (46% vs. 69%). However, about seven-in-ten in both groups said they saw some risk in putting an innocent person to death (74% of blacks vs. 70% of whites).

Parole decisions

Certain aspects of the criminal justice system have changed in recent decades. One example: Some states now use criminal risk assessments to assist with parole decisions. These assessments involve collecting data about people who are up for parole, comparing that data with data about other people who have been convicted of crimes, and then assigning inmates a score to help decide whether they should be released from prison or not.

A 2018 survey asked Americans whether they felt the use of criminal risk assessments in parole decisions was an acceptable use of algorithmic decision-making. A 61% majority of black adults said using these assessments is unfair to people in parole hearings, compared with 49% of white adults.

Voting rights for ex-felons

States differ widely when it comes to allowing people with past felony convictions to vote. In 12 states, people with certain felony convictions can lose the right to vote indefinitely unless other criteria – such as receiving a pardon from the governor – are met, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures . In Maine and Vermont, by contrast, those with felony convictions never lose the right to vote, even while they are incarcerated. Twenty-two states fall somewhere between these positions, rescinding voting rights only during incarceration and for a period afterward, such as when former inmates are on parole.

In a fall 2018 survey , 69% of Americans favored allowing people convicted of felonies to vote after serving their sentences. Black adults were much more likely than white adults to somewhat or strongly favor this approach (83% vs. 68%).

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Welcome to the library guide for Criminal Justice. Throughout this guide you'll find links to books, databases and other resources related to criminal justice. Questions? Feel free to contact us by using the links and information on this page.

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• Criminal Justice Database This link opens in a new window Criminal Justice Database is a comprehensive database supporting research on crime, its causes and impacts, legal and social implications, as well as litigation and crime trends. As well as U.S. and international scholarly journals, it includes correctional and law enforcement trade publications, dissertations, crime reports, crime blogs and other material relevant for researchers or those preparing for careers in criminal justice, law enforcement and related fields.
• Gale Criminal Justice This link opens in a new window Gale Criminal Justice informs the research process for researchers who are studying law, law enforcement, or terrorism, training for paralegal service, preparing for a career in homeland security, delving into forensic science, investigating crime scenes, developing policy, going to court, writing sociological reports, and much more. Gale Criminal Justice makes research easy by bringing together information from more than 250 journals.
• National Criminal Justice Reference Service This link opens in a new window NCJRS is a federally funded resource offering justice and substance abuse information. NCJRS hosts one of the largest criminal and juvenile justice libraries and databases in the world, the NCJRS Abstracts Database. The collection, with holdings from the early 1970s to the present, contains more than 225,000 publications, reports, articles, and audiovisual products from the United States and around the world. These resources include statistics, research findings, program descriptions, congressional hearing transcripts, and training materials.
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• Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new window A large database with broad subject coverage, containing many full-text articles from over 8,000 peer-reviewed journals.
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MDRC Center for Criminal Justice Research

Mission and Project Portfolio

MDRC’s Center for Criminal Justice Research is committed to conducting research that advances evidence-based, equitable, and accessible solutions to some of the most pressing challenges facing criminal legal systems across the United States. To achieve these ends, it adopts rigorous research methods to identify and implement effective solutions to systemic problems. It partners with state and local criminal justice agencies, policymakers, and community-based organizations to assess innovative policies and programs that seek to reduce unnecessary incarceration, support public safety, address racial and economic inequities, and diminish the system’s role in perpetuating poverty. This document summarizes the Center’s existing work and future directions for that work.

Pretrial Justice

The Center’s research seeks to document the negative impacts of status-quo practice during the pretrial period, including overreliance on financial conditions of release (money bail) and pretrial detention, overcrowded jails, and untested alternatives such as pretrial monitoring. The Center aims to provide practitioners and policymakers with reliable evidence and to offer research-supported alternatives that may mitigate these negative effects.

The Center’s Pretrial Justice Collaborative project has recently released three studies of nonfinancial release conditions, including a study of supervision intensity that used a regression discontinuity design and a randomized controlled trial of remote versus in-person supervision . These studies, along with results of an analysis of electronic monitoring , all support an overall finding that more intensive supervision does not improve pretrial outcomes, especially when used without taking into account a person’s needs or risk of failing to appear in court or committing new crimes.

The Center was also recently engaged by the New York City Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice (MOCJ) to assist in the development of an intensive case management model intended to serve the city’s pretrial-supervision clients with the most service needs. In this role, the Center is providing technical assistance by conducting random assignment learning cycles in close collaboration with MOCJ and the two participating supervision providers ( the Center for Alternative Sentencing and Employment Services in Manhattan and the New York City Criminal Justice Agency in Queens). It is helping the providers with random assignment, documenting new services the providers are pilot testing, analyzing data to assess the effects of these services, and guiding MOCJ and the supervision providers as they reflect on the results and determine how best to adapt and strengthen the service model going forward.

Finally, the Center has two new reports focused on racial equity in pretrial systems. The first is a multisite, descriptive analysis examining where racial disparities are likely to emerge across pretrial decision points in seven jurisdictions. In one of these jurisdictions, the Center also conducted a more detailed analysis and interviews with stakeholders to explore how disadvantages may accumulate over multiple decision points in the pretrial process and lead to longer sentences for Black and Latino defendants. The second is a mixed-methods study of the effects of New Jersey’s 2017 Criminal Justice Reforms on racial equity in pretrial outcomes and the experiences of people who have come into contact with the court system following these reforms.

Fines and Fees Justice

The use of fines and fees (also known as legal financial obligations, or LFOs) to fund public services, including police and court operations, has created equity and efficiency issues in jurisdictions across the country. The Jefferson County Equitable Fines and Fees project was developed in 2021 in partnership with judges from the Tenth Judicial Circuit Court of Alabama and the advocacy organization Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice. The project involves exploratory, quantitative analysis of a longitudinal data set of more than 7,000 cases where fines and fees are owed. Early findings suggest that LFOs are largely uncollectible and are creating debt burdens that disproportionately affect Black and low-income individuals and communities in Alabama.

This area is also one where MDRC is drawing on its in-house expertise in cost-benefit analysis . MDRC is partnering with North Carolina’s Indigent Defense Services agency to analyze the cost-effectiveness of the state’s public defender fee system and inform the development of efforts to improve it.

Prearrest Diversion and Alternatives to Incarceration

In the past year and a half, the Center has launched two federal projects in these areas: Tucson Mental Health Diversion (TMHD) , funded by the National Institute of Justice, and an evaluation of Manhattan’s Felony Alternative to Incarceration (ATI) Court , funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance. The TMHD project is a retrospective study that will assess the implementation, impacts, and costs of Tucson, Arizona’s approach to 911 response, which diverts people experiencing mental health crises away from the criminal legal system before an arrest occurs and instead provides them with mental health support.

While TMHD focuses on prearrest diversion, Manhattan’s Felony ATI Court gets involved later in the criminal legal process, following arrest and arraignment. The program aims to reduce the use of incarceration for people charged with felonies and to prevent new arrests through a comprehensive, collaborative approach that integrates programs and services with court supervision and monitoring. It is the first specialty court model that serves people facing felony charges and does not limit eligibility to those who exhibit specific clinical needs (as is the case in drug or mental health courts). Importantly, the program also does not exclude participants who face violent charges or those with prior convictions that might make them ineligible for other specialty courts. In collaboration with the New York State Office of Court Administration and the Center for Justice Innovation , the MDRC Center for Criminal Justice Research will assess the effects of this program on case resolutions, sentencing, incarceration, and new arrests, and will conduct an implementation study of a peer navigator program for individuals with substance use disorders.

Both the TMHD and Manhattan Felony ATI Court projects are currently in the design phase; for both, the Center hopes to execute nonexperimental impact evaluations.

Citizens Returning to the Community After Incarceration

Since 2019, MDRC has partnered with the Los Angeles County Justice Cares and Opportunity Division to conduct implementation and nonexperimental impact studies of five different supportive-service programs for individuals returning to the community from jail or prison. These programs provide a range of services, from peer navigation of social services and transitional housing to gender-responsive reentry services and supportive and sectoral employment programs. MDRC’s recently published, mixed-methods study of one of these programs suggests that peer navigation is a promising model that should be studied further.

Additionally, MDRC is completing a mixed-methods study of the Returning Citizens Stimulus Project , which provided cash transfers to people who had just been released from incarceration as the COVID-19 pandemic hit. A 2021 survey of participants showed that they used that money to meet basic needs and prepare for employment. A forthcoming evaluation brief will explore the relationship between participation in the program and criminal justice outcomes.

Future Directions

MDRC’s Center for Criminal Justice Research is committed to engaging with topics that are of critical importance to practitioners and policymakers. Examples of current priorities for expanding current areas of inquiry or developing new work include:

• Rigorous research regarding the effects of different conditions of pretrial release, including financial and nonfinancial release conditions, with a focus on findings relevant to jurisdictions across the country
• Cost-benefit studies of programs and policies in the criminal legal system, and simulations of potential alternatives in terms of effectiveness and cost
• Nonenforcement strategies for preventing violent crime in communities with fewer resources
• Court processes beyond pretrial decision-making, with a specific interest in prosecution, defense, and judicial decision-making across decision points
• Corrections, with a focus on the impact of higher education on the outcomes of returning citizens

In all these areas, the Center aims to develop strong research-practice partnerships, with an eye toward translating rigorous research evidence into sustainable program or policy changes. 

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Criminal and juvenile justice clinic—significant achievements for 2023-24.

The Criminal and Juvenile Justice Clinic (CJJC) provides zealous representation to indigent children and adults who are accused or have been convicted of delinquency or crime. The CJJC is a national leader in expanding the concept of legal representation for children and young adults to include their social, psychological, and educational needs. The CJJC also engages in impact work to effect systemic change. In 2023-24, Professor Herschella Conyers directed the CJJC and Professor Erica Zunkel was a CJJC faculty member.

Juvenile Trial and Not Guilty Verdict

In February 2024, Professors Conyers and Zunkel and CJJC students tried a long-running clinic case in Cook County juvenile court. After a four-day trial, the judge concluded that the State had not proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt and found our client not delinquent (the equivalent of not guilty in juvenile court). The charges were very serious, and the not delinquent result has been life-changing for our client and his family. Our client no longer has a felony case hanging over his head, and his juvenile record has been completely expunged.

CJJC students spent the year diligently preparing for trial, organizing and mastering discovery, and conducting investigative tasks. Their contributions were critical and wide-ranging. Students helped draft direct and cross examinations, the opening statement, the closing argument, and pre-trial motions, and they also appeared in court. Prior to trial, CJJC student Jordan Cohen, ’24 , successfully argued against one of the State’s motions in limine. During trial, three CJJC students— Zoe Belford, ’24 , Laura Breckenridge, ’24 , and Caleb Jeffreys, ’24 —conducted direct examinations of key defense witnesses. Caleb shared his thoughts on representing our client at trial here . Maggie Wells, ’24 , and Ajoke Adetula, ’25, were also key members of the trial team and assisted with every aspect of trial preparation.

This trial victory built on the excellent work of previous generations of CJJC students who reviewed discovery, litigated and argued pre-trial motions, retained critical defense experts, conducted investigative work, and completed other important tasks.

Cook County Criminal Cases

The CJJC continued work on several pretrial felony cases at the 26th and California Criminal Courthouse and took on a new case.

In one case, the CJJC negotiated a diversionary disposition under Illinois’s expanded First Time Weapons Offense Program (FTWOP) for a client with no criminal history and a personal background of profound trauma. After nearly a year of our client’s participation in the program, CJJC student Juliana Steward, ’24 , argued that our client’s supervision should be ended early, and the underlying charges dismissed, so that the case would no longer interfere with her employment and career advancement. CJJC students Laura Breckenridge, ‘24 , and Nicholas Smith, ’24 , researched and drafted a persuasive motion to suppress evidence in the 2022-23 school year, which was instrumental in persuading prosecutors to offer participation in the FTWOP.

In another case, the CJJC collaborated with Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation (PBMR), a restorative justice non-profit organization based in the Back of the Yards neighborhood, to represent a nineteen-year-old young man who is actively involved with PBMR. Under the supervision of Professor Zunkel, the CJJC student team, consisting of Matt Maxson, ’24 , Sebastian Torero, ’24 , Ajoke Adetula, ’25 , and Jessica Ritchie, ’25 , reviewed and catalogued discovery; researched, drafted, and argued a motion for release under Illinois’s new Pretrial Fairness Act; researched and drafted a motion to suppress evidence; prepared an impactful mitigation video; and assisted with plea negotiations. Our client ultimately pled guilty pursuant to a favorable plea agreement. Under the supervision of Professor Zunkel, Sebastian Torero, ’24 represented our client at his pretrial release hearing and the plea and sentencing hearing.

Excessive Sentences Project

In 2023, Professor Zunkel launched the Excessive Sentences Project (ESP) to ameliorate unjust and excessive sentences and combat mass incarceration in Illinois and the federal system. This project builds on Professor Zunkel’s groundbreaking sentence reduction work in the Federal Criminal Justice Clinic (FCJC). The ESP’s work took multiple forms: (1) litigating federal post-conviction sentence reduction motions, with a specific focus on clients who are serving lengthy mandatory minimum sentences that would be drastically lower today; and (2) broader advocacy for the increased use of second look mechanisms.

The federal sentence reduction statute permits a judge to reduce an individual’s sentence for “extraordinary and compelling” reasons. On November 1, 2023, the Sentencing Commission’s updated policy statement went into effect, which permits sentence reductions for family circumstances, abuse in prison, medical reasons, when an individual’s sentence is “unusually long,” or any other “extraordinary and compelling” reason. Professor Zunkel and her client, Dwayne White, previously testified in favor of expanding the grounds for a sentence reduction. In 2018, Congress reformed the sentence reduction statute so that people in federal prisons can bring sentence reduction motions to judges, rather than waiting for the Bureau of Prisons to grant relief.

The CJJC litigated numerous sentence reduction motions over the course of the year. Building on eleven prior successful motions for sentence reductions, including eight early releases for individuals convicted in connection with the government’s Illinois stash house reverse sting operations, Professor Zunkel and Nathaniel Berry, ’24 , filed another sentence reduction motion for a stash house client, which was granted in February 2024. As a result, our client was released from prison ten years early from his twenty-five-year mandatory minimum sentence. In addition, Professor Zunkel and Juliana Steward, ‘24 , in collaboration with Professor Alison Siegler and a team of FCJC students, filed a sentence reduction motion for a stash house client who is serving a thirty-five-year sentence and is one of just two people still imprisoned for the Illinois stash house operations. Our motion is currently pending. Professor Zunkel’s successful stash house sentence reduction litigation was featured in a recent episode of the Drugs on the Docket podcast.

Professor Zunkel, Nathaniel Berry, ’24 , Nicholas Smith, ’24 , Maggie Wells, ’24 , Christiana Burnett, ’25 , and Julianne Kelleher, ’25 also filed several sentence reduction motions under the Sentencing Commission’s updated policy statement for clients who received life or defacto life sentences that would be drastically lower today based on “once-in-a generation” legal changes that Congress did not make retroactive. Students spent countless hours scouring our clients’ case records, reaching out to our clients and their families and friends to verify release plans, conducting legal research, and drafting the motions. These motions are currently pending.

In addition to representing clients, Professor Zunkel and CJJC students advocated more broadly for expanding post-conviction second looks. Professor Zunkel and CJJC student Nathaniel Berry, ’24 authored an op-ed in USA Today on the importance of the Sentencing Commission’s new “unusually long sentences” ground for a sentence reduction. The piece highlighted CJJC client Dion Walker, who is serving a mandatory life sentence for drug trafficking that he could not receive today. In September 2023, Professor Zunkel, Nathaniel Berry, ’24 , and Maggie Wells, ’24 presented with FAMM General Counsel Mary Price and Professor Alison Guernsey (Director, University of Iowa Law School Federal Criminal Defense Clinic) at the Second Look Network’s conference about the Sentencing Commission’s updated policy statement and second looks in the federal system. Professor Zunkel also spoke at the Midwest Clinical Conference and FAMM’s Second Chances Convening about the Sentencing Commission’s updated policy statement.

In recognition of her sentence reduction work, Professor Zunkel received the Excellence in Pro Bono Service Award from the United States Northern District of Illinois District Court and the Federal Bar Association.

CJJC Students

Sixteen students participated in the CJJC in the 2023-24 academic year. Of the eleven third-year students in the CJJC, seven argued in court behalf of our clients under Professor Conyers’ and/or Professor Zunkel’s supervision pursuant to Illinois Supreme Court Rule 711. Maggie Wells, ’24 won the Mandel Award for outstanding contributions to the clinical program. Over the course of her time in the CJJC, Maggie worked on the CJJC’s juvenile trial case, the Excessive Sentences Project, and one of the CJJC’s pretrial criminal cases. Our CJJC graduating students have bright futures: five students are going on to federal clerkships, two are working in public interest positions, and several are going to law firms.