Modern Leadership Theories in Criminal Justice

In a criminal justice organization, leadership is essential to the success of the goals of the organization. There are several types of leadership styles within the entirety of police administration. Many types of managerial styles are no longer used in a police setting. Styles like the scientific theory, which considered beat cops to be more of an instrument and that they were only motivated by money, and the human relations theory, which was considered to informal because it was to hands off. In modern policing, there are three main theories that are in use. The three theories used by criminal justice administrators are the trait theory, style theory, and situational leadership.

Trait theory was very popular in the early 1900's. Until the 1950's, it was the key factor in deciding who would become leaders in a criminal justice organization. This theory was based on the assumption that good leaders possess certain traits that poor leaders do not. Those who developed the theory believe that good leaders could be determined by a two step process. The first step was to study the good leaders and compare and contrast their actions and decisions to those who were considered poor leaders. The second step was to identify those who possessed the traits of good leaders and promote them to managerial positions.

The trait theory has lost much of its support since the late 1950's. This is partly because of the assumption that leadership cannot be something that it is learned. A more important reason for the trait theory's downfall was the development of new, more sophisticated approaches to studying leadership. Also, when it comes to identifying new leaders, it was hard to measure or test the traits and abilities of new leaders. Although the trait theory has pretty much been nonexistent since the fifties, there are still leaders in criminal justice administration that were appointed in this time period and still believe in trait theory.