ABSTRACT
Criminal justice is an integral part of our society and social living. There are a number of instruments of social control in any society, of which the law and criminal justice process are only one. Many different approaches have been used to study criminal justice. This chapter examines five of these: disciplinary, comparison, process, thematic, and systems analyses of criminal justice. It discusses the purpose of identifying the principal material factors in the criminal justice system's environment: raw materials and the means of production. Criminal justice scholars are more likely to study official decisions to arrest, levy charges, or impose sentences, and then apply a theory to explain what they have found. The criminal justice system is rife with value conflicts, political and social controversy, and inefficient organization. The justice system must achieve balance between competing values of federalism and uniformity, vengeance and assistance, and differing political persuasions, as well as between individual actors and social regularity.
