Title

"McJustice": On the McDonaldization of criminal justice

Authors

Authors

R. M. Bohm

Comments

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Abbreviated Journal Title

Justice Q.

Keywords

criminal justice; McDonaldization; irrationality of rationality; bureaucracy; efficiency; catculability; predictability; control; PUBLIC-POLICY; PENOLOGY; COMMON; Criminology & Penology

Abstract

This essay examines the "McDonaldization" of criminal justice or "McJustice." In doing so, it provides another useful way of understanding the development and operation of criminal justice in the United States. The McDonaldization of various social institutions has succeeded because it provides advantages over other, usually older, methods of doing business. It has made McDonaldized social institutions bureaucratic and rational in a Weberian sense and, thus, more efficient, calculable, predictable, and controlling over people (often by nonhuman technologies). The principal problem with McDonaldized institutions, and another characteristic of the process, is irrationality or, as Ritzer calls it, the "irrationality of rationality." A primary purpose of this essay is to expose some of the irrationatities of "McJustice" and to suggest some possible responses to them.

Journal Title

Justice Quarterly

Volume

23

Issue/Number

1

Publication Date

1-1-2006

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

127

Last Page

146

WOS Identifier

WOS:000236866300005

ISSN

0741-8825

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