"McJustice": On the McDonaldization of criminal justice

    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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