Criminal Justice

Three Stories Analyzed The three stories I chose to write my paper on; are from pages 110 through 138 in Maynard-Moody and Musheno's "Cops, Teachers, Counselors" book. They focus on the street level workers using their discretion to make decisions in their jobs. The stories are titled, "I'm Disabled but want to be an EMT", "Cut the Power", and "Ignoring Orders". In this paper I will argue that street level workers use their discretion in ways that …

…book, "...ironically, rule saturated but not rule bound"(Pg. 10). Rules and procedures are important, but they only provide weak constraints on decisions made by street-level workers. There are not laws or rules for every specific action, therefore the workers must adapt the laws and rules to their situations and use their discretion to decide what should be done. This is what the author's mean in their argument within the three stories chosen for this paper.