When calls for reforming criminal justice arise, they frequently target particular—rather than systems-level—problems. This approach can be effective when only a few such problems exist. But it risks worsening rather than improving crime and justice by ignoring many other problems, including system-level issues that undermine efforts to promote safety and justice and to do so cost-efficiently. At the same time, this approach can contribute to continued investment in micro-level changes that ultimately achieve little or fail, in part because they do not address systemic problems. By contrast, systemic change—focused on changes throughout criminal justice and on criminal justice as a system—holds the potential to escape from this Sisyphean vicious cycle and to create greater public safety and justice at less cost.

当改革刑事司法的呼声出现时，他们经常针对特定的——而不是系统层面的——问题。当只有少数此类问题存在时，此方法可能很有效。但它有可能因忽视许多其他问题而恶化而不是改善犯罪和司法，包括破坏促进安全和司法以及以成本效益方式这样做的努力的系统级问题。与此同时，这种方法可能有助于持续投资于最终收效甚微或失败的微观层面的变革，部分原因是它们没有解决系统性问题。相比之下，系统性变革——专注于整个刑事司法和刑事司法作为一个系统的变革——有可能摆脱这种西西弗斯恶性循环，并以更低的成本创造更大的公共安全和正义。