Criminal justice agencies have the means to increase their efficiency and to bring a larger proportion of the population under their surveillance and control. Current despair over the inability to control crime masks the growing reality that government has been steadily increasing its net of control over citizens. In the next 20 or 40 years, this form of control over citizens will increase, but simultaneous bureaucratic and legal control mechanisms will prevent such control from becoming tyrannous. For example, improved police effectiveness through the use of information systems and strategies such as sting operations will be counterbalanced by the development of parole and sentencing guidelines and other measures resulting from more bureaucracy and greater specialization, which permit fewer discretionary actions by justice agencies. Over a longer period, given the possibility of a 'no-growth' economy and a decline in the social and economic system that supports traditional civil liberties, there is a threat that an efficient criminal justice system would support tyrannous government. In the future, tyranny can be avoided by the conscious policy of limiting the full potential of control over citizens by the criminal justice system. Thus, the somber prediction of Robert Heilbroner, which holds that the end of capitalist economy will be brought on by shrinking resources and the consequent rise of authoritarian regimes of the left and the right, is rejected. Eighty-seven references are provided. (Author abstract modified).