Criminal Justice in Criminal Justice 3
owing to the advantage this process offers when compared to earlier steps. Hence, this means
that systems have been made bureaucratic or somewhat sequential in a way. In a McDonaldized
environment, everyone is aware of his or her routine tasks ensuring a higher productivity
(Robert, 2007). With the introduction of information technology in criminal justice,
bureaucracies have made to some extent shortened the justice delivery time.
Plea bargaining is one aspect of the current justice system brought about by the
amendments to the federal laws. It is a standardized process providing what is popularly known
as industry “best practices.” When it comes to improving efficiency in the judicial system, plea
bargaining ensures that a criminal case takes the shortest time possible and more importantly
saves on costs and resources. Several benefits can be attributed to a McDonaldized system.
Quantification regarding costs, the predictability of a crime outcome and control are amongst the
well-known advantages (Robert, 2017). With information technology in place, the system is
predefined and tasks simplified.
Maureen Brown in her article, “Nature of Crime: Continuity and Change”, describes the
evolution of computers and the way they have aided in criminal justice. Thus, this entails the
accessibility of information, its storage, and subsequent usage in the process of administering
justice. There has been a gradual growth in hard technology including police tools to combat
crime, telephone usage, and investment in data centers. Massive investments have been made in
technology to aid in predictive policing technology, video recording capabilities on police
vehicles. In addition, security agencies have to assess crime in various spheres using techniques,
such as risk assessment, threat assessment in cases of terror attacks, and vulnerability
assessment. More recently, technological advancement in mitigating crime in major cities has
seen authorities spend in monitoring transactions both on the internet and phone (James &Gary,