his book addresses the impact that information technology has had on the criminal justice field and the technological challenges currently facing the field. The book examines criminal justice and its information technology issues in ways that transcend a focus on studying just one application or agency experience.



How has information technology changed the way we monitor criminal behavior? How has it changed the way we examine patterns of criminal behavior? How have criminal justice organizations adapted to using information technology? What is the future of information in criminal justice?

There have been many technical, analytical, legal, and organizational issues related to advances in computer and information technology over the past several decades. Given the substantial investments that federal, state, and local criminal justice agencies are making in information technology, they now consider it an integral component of understanding how our criminal justice system works.

Information Technology and the Criminal Justice System suggests that information technology in criminal justice will continue to challenge us to think about how we turn information into knowledge, who can use that knowledge, and for what purposes. In this text, editor April Pattavina synthesizes the growing body of research in information technology and criminal justice. Contributors examine what has been learned from past experiences, what the current state of IT is in various components of the criminal justice system, and what challenges lie ahead.