Law

Law

Law

Introduction

Since the criminal court can be viewed as a large-scale organization, some of the same approaches used to understand hospitals and schools may be appropriate in explaining the adjudication and sentencing of felony cases. Three theoretical models for understanding organizations the Rational Actor Model, the victimized actor model, and the Bureaucratic Politics Model are used in analyzing 1976 data from a metropolitan court. The three models offer differing perspectives on adjudication in the criminal courts. Each model distinguishes different features of court operations as relevant in the overall understanding of felony adjudication.

The Rational Actor Model

The Rational Actor Model, used to ...