CoursesCriminal Justice Reform: A Systems Approach
CRIM 2020-001

Criminal Justice Reform: A Systems Approach

Thursdays, 3:30 pm-6:29 pm
America’s criminal justice system, which affects every community in the United States, is often criticized for being biased, overly punitive, ineffective at reducing crime, and resistant to change. This course will review the various components of the criminal justice system, identify the structural challenges to the widespread implementation of reforms or improvements to the system, and provide students with a conceptual framework for dialogue and structural/cultural change that can improve the legitimacy and effectiveness of our criminal justice agencies and enhance the delivery of justice for all.

The “systems approach” has been used, improved, and refined over time to improve safety and reduce errors in a variety of complex, high-risk industries, including health care, aviation, and manufacturing, among others. Such an approach targets the system for improvement rather than specific individuals within the system, and seeks to provide an environment that maximizes each participant’s ability to act safely and in a way that achieves the goals of the system. It prizes a non-punitive culture of disclosure to identify errors, gathers and applies data to understand the causes of the error, and tests systems changes to prevent future errors. This focus on system improvement, rather than on individual punishment or blame, unites all participants around objective criteria and allows each participant to do his or her job more efficiently, accurately and safely.

While the challenge of preventing errors in well-meaning complex systems is neither new nor unique to criminal law, the need for error reduction in the criminal justice system is clear. This document advocates for the application of a systems approach to reducing errors in the criminal justice system, generating reform in a fashion that will unify well-intentioned but professionally adversarial participants around an objective shared by all: the integrity of investigations, prosecutions, and adjudications, and the elimination of known and currently unknown errors that undermine the fair administration of justice. It then sets forth requirements for the successful application of a systems approach, and a model for interaction among researchers, reformers, and practitioners in the criminal justice system – including prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, and law enforcement officials – that will allow for more rigorous analyses of the criminal justice system and the design, testing, dissemination and implementation of successful best practices that will improve the fair administration of justice.

Related Content

Other Courses of Interest

HIST 1110 Section 001, CRN 28952

Hamilton's America: US History 1776-1804

Instructor(s)

  • Sarah L. H. Gronningsater

Semester

Spring 2025

In this course, students will learn about the political, constitutional, and social history of the United States from 1776 (the year the colonies declared their independence from Great Britain) to 1800 (the year Thomas Jefferson won the presidency in a heated partisan election for the presidency). Alexander Hamilton, an influential American statesman during this time, will be our guide to the many events and transformations that occurred during these years. The course is not, however, a biographical course about Hamilton. Topics covered include: the politics of independence, the Revolutionary War, the development of state and national republics, the creation of the U.S. Constitution, the role of ordinary people in the politics of the time period, the problem of slavery in the new nation, Native American power and loss, diplomatic affairs, and the rise of partisan politics.

Learn More
PSCI/GSWS 4680

Feminist Political Theory

Instructor(s)

  • Katerina Traut

Semester

Spring 2025

In what ways has Western Political Theory constructed, excluded, and denigrated gendered and sexualized political subjects? In what ways have these subjects resisted these politics, and organized for their freedom and sovereignty? This course will explore feminist political theories of the body, reproduction, and empire through a variety of theoretical styles and methodological approaches.

Learn More