Author Description

Product Description This book views the criminal justice system as a whole composed of many subsystems the police, the prosecutors, the courts, and corrections, including probation and parole. It describes the subsystems of the criminal justice system as the authors know them to be not as they should be. This fifth edition incorporates the latest developments while retaining the basic organization of previous editions. Illustrations have been revised to reflect the latest facts and figures. This Preview Edition is a large-format soft-cover book preliminary to the college-level textbook which will be released in mid-2009 for the Fall term. This book is designed to provide students with basic information on the criminal justice system. The first part of the text places the criminal justice system in proper perspective. Students are first introduced to the nature of law and society in general. The methods for assessing the amount of crime are presented, followed by a brief overview of criminal justice agencies and the criminal justice process. The criminal justice agencies are discussed in the order in which they are usually encountered when an individual goes through the criminal justice process. Sections on the police, the prosecution and defense, the courts, corrections, and probation and parole all follow a pattern: within each of these sections the history, present structure, current functions, and contemporary problems of each major area are thoroughly discussed. A number of pedagogical features have been built into the fifth edition to help students master the material. Each chapter begins with an outline, so that students can quickly see what will be covered, and a statement of purpose, to help students understand exactly what they are supposed to master and why. At the end of each chapter, a summary and a list of key terms will aid students in reviewing material, and a series of discussion questions will help stimulate