A practical and applied introduction to criminal justice Introduction to Criminal Justice: Practice and Process shows you how to think practically about the criminal justice system by offering you a proven, problem-based approach to learning. Bestselling authors Kenneth J. Peak and Tamara D. Madensen draw on their many years of combined practitioner and academic experience to explain the importance of criminal justice and show how key trends, emerging issues, historical background, and practical lessons can be applied in the field. New to the Third Edition: An emphasis on constitutional policing, legitimacy, and procedural justice stresses the importance for police to develop a “guardian” mindset over a “soldier” mindset. New discussions of contemporary criminological theories—such as social structure theories, social process theories, social conflict theories, feminist theories, and environmental criminology theories—provide you with a concise explanation on why people commit crimes and how to prevent them in the modern world. An in-depth view of three particularly challenging problems and policy issues—terrorism, the mentally ill population, and illegal immigration—demonstrate how today’s society and the criminal justice system are affected by these issues and what can be done to address the problems. New examples and case studies of ethical dilemmas illustrate today's climate of distrust, dissension, and dysfunction to encourage you to think critically about what is considered “ethical”. New video interviews with criminal justice professionals offer you career advice, provide you with insights into a variety of career paths, and discuss challenges and misconceptions of each profession.

Known as the Official handbook of the Federal Government. This annual resource provides comprehensive information on the agencies of the legislative, judicial, and executive branches, as well as quasi-official agencies, international organizations in which the United States participates, boards, commissions, and committees. Each agency's description consists of a list of principal officials; a summary statement of the agency's purpose and role in the Federal Government; a brief history of the agency, including its legislative or executive authority; and a description of consumer activities, contracts and grants, employment, and publications.

American Criminal Courts: Legal Process and Social Context is an introductory-level text that offers a comprehensive study of the legal processes that guide criminal courts and the social contexts that introduce variations in the activities of actors inside and outside the court. Specifically the text focuses upon: Legal Processes. U.S. criminal courts are constrained by several legal processes and organizational structures that determine how the courts operate and how laws are applied. This book explores how democratic processes develop the criminal law in the United States, the documents that define law (federal and state constitutions, legal codes, administrative policies), the organizational structure of courts at the federal and state levels, the overlapping authority of the appeals process, and the effect of legal processes such as precedent, jurisdiction, and the underlying legal philosophies of various types of courts. Although most texts on criminal courts do a credible job of describing legal processes, this text looks more deeply into the origins of criminal law, historic turning points in the criminal law, conditions that affect the decision-making of criminal justice practitioners, and the contentious political process that affects how criminal laws are considered. Social Contexts. The criminal courts are staffed by people who represent different perspectives, occupational pressures, and organizational goals. The text includes chapters on actors in the traditional courtroom workgroup (judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys), as well as those outside the court who seek to influence it, including advocacy groups, media, and politicians. It is the interplay between the court legal processes and the social actors in the courtroom that makes the application of the criminal laws so fascinating. By focusing on the tension between the law (legal processes) and the actors inside and outside the courts system (social contexts), this text demonstrates how the courts are a product of "law in action," and it presents the course content in a way that enables students to understand not only the "how" of the U.S. criminal court system but also the "why."

Introduction to Criminal Justice: Systems, Diversity, and Change, Second Edition, offers students a brief, yet comprehensive, introduction to Criminal Justice with up-to-date coverage of all aspects of the criminal justice system in succinct and engaging chapters. Authors Callie Marie Rennison and Mary Dodge weave four true criminal case studies throughout the book, capturing students’ attention with memorable stories that illustrate the real-life pathways and outcomes of criminal behavior and victimization. Designed to show the connectedness of the criminal justice system, each case study brings the chapter concepts to life. To further captivate and inform students, important and timely topics such as ethics, policy, gender, diversity, victimization, and white-collar crime are discussed throughout.

Federal prosecutors have immense power and discretion to decide when to bring criminal charges, what plea bargains to offer, and how to implement the federal government's legal priorities in their districts. While U.S. Attorneys take pains to emphasize their independence, we know relatively little about the extent to which politics colors federal prosecutorial staffing and decision making. The Politics of Federal Prosecution draws upon a wealth of data from 1990s to the present to examine the interplay of political factors and federal prosecution. First, the authors find that congressional and presidential politics affect who becomes federal prosecutors and how long those individuals serve. Second, the book demonstrates that signals of presidential and congressional preferences, along with local priorities, affect key prosecutorial decisions: whether to bring prosecutions, how to approach plea bargaining negotiations, and when to utilize criminal asset forfeiture to cripple criminal activities. In short, the book demonstrates that politics affects the behavior of U.S. Attorneys at nearly every stage of their service.

Several encyclopedias overview the contemporary system of criminal justice in America, but full understanding of current social problems and contemporary strategies to deal with them can come only with clear appreciation of the historical underpinnings of those problems. Thus, this five-volume work surveys the history and philosophy of crime, punishment, and criminal justice institutions in America from colonial times to the present. It covers the whole of the criminal justice system, from crimes, law enforcement and policing, to courts, corrections and human services. Among other things, this encyclopedia: explicates philosophical foundations underpinning our system of justice; charts changing patterns in criminal activity and subsequent effects on legal responses; identifies major periods in the development of our system of criminal justice; and explores in the first four volumes - supplemented by a fifth volume containing annotated primary documents - evolving debates and conflicts on how best to address issues of crime and punishment. Its signed entries in the first four volumes--supplemented by a fifth volume containing annotated primary documents--provide the historical context for students to better understand contemporary criminological debates and the contemporary shape of the U.S. system of law and justice.