The text describes planning in general and managerial planning in particular and examines alternative theories of planning. It reviews the brief history of criminal justice planning at the system level and at the individual agency level and notes current efforts to improve the system and to have an impact on crime. One chapter discusses staffing and organization for criminal justice planning units and agencies, with particular attention to the roles of planners. Additional sections deal with specific problems and applications of planning theories to the criminal justice field. The key planning processes are highlighted: setting goals and identifying problems, forecasting, and generating and testing alternatives. The text describes alternative sources of criminal justice data, modes of data collection, and types of analytical models, with their attendant prerequisites, costs, and payoffs. It addresses important subfields of planning (fiscal, manpower, and strategic-policy planning), giving examples of alternative planning techniques for each. Figures, tables, an index, and chapter notes are supplied. (Author summary modified)