Criminal Justice

Written by three nationally recognized experts in the field, Criminal Courts: A Contemporary Perspective explores all the fundamental topics (court structure, courtroom actors, and the trial and appeals process) as well as other ground-breaking topics, such as specialty courts and comparative court systems. This bestseller provides you with a foundation for understanding key concepts by reviewing the judicial function, the role and purpose of law, sources of law, the various types of law, and the American court system's structure and operations. You will build on this foundation by learning about participants in the system and the pretrial, trial, and post-trial processes. Packed with contemporary examples and new pedagogical tools, the Fourth Edition has been thoroughly revised with the most up-to-date content and resources to give you a more comprehensive understanding of the criminal courts system.

Are you an unsuspecting "victim" of the "CSI effect"? Master the ins and outs of the criminal justice system and succeed in your course with ESSENTIALS OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE, Tenth Edition. With its cutting-edge high-profile cases, detailed career information and resources, integrated learning objectives, and unique myth-busting theme, this eye-opening text and its supporting resources will help you excel in this course and beyond. The MindTap that accompanies this text guides you through your course and includes video cases, career scenarios, visual summaries, and interactive labs that allow you to explore investigative techniques.

The second edition of Fundamentals of Criminology: New Dimensions delivers a comprehensive and comprehensible introduction to the discipline of criminology. As the title implies, it covers the fundamentals of criminology, including the major theories of crime causation, classic and current empirical tests of those theories, and the strengths and weaknesses and policy implications of each. It also explores victimology, describes types of crime, and provides current crime rates, trends over time, and theoretical explanations, as well as exploring connections between criminology and criminal justice policy and a number of lingering issues for both disciplines. What sets this book apart from the many other fine criminology textbooks out there is its inclusion of some new dimensions for the discipline. The new dimensions in this edition include an updated list of facts about crime, expanded theories of victimization, the new definition of rape from the FBI, rape and sexual assault on campus, the misuse of prescription drugs, and, perhaps most exciting, an entirely new chapter on crime in specific contexts and emerging criminologies. In combination with the fundamentals, these new dimensions are designed to provide readers with the richest, most complete understanding of what crime is, how much of it there is, what causes it, and what do to about it, as well as the ability and desire to pose important questions for the future of both criminology and criminal justice.

Get access to an interactive eBook* when you buy the paperback! (Print paperback version only, ISBN 978-1-5063-1577-5) Introduction to Criminal Justice: A Balanced Approach provides students with engaging, comprehensive, and up-to-date coverage of all aspects of the criminal justice system. Esteemed authors Brian K. Payne, Willard M. Oliver, and Nancy E. Marion explore criminal justice from a student-cantered perspective by presenting research-driven material in an accessible, clear, and succinct writing style. Two unique chapters on Perspectives on Crime and Criminal Justice Research and Crime Typologies provide students with the foundational knowledge that they need to be critical thinkers and active participants within their chosen field. Students are encouraged to imagine themselves in specific criminal justice situations and decide how they would respond to the situation with a balanced and effective solution. By exploring criminal justice from a balanced perspective with an issues-oriented approach, students will understand how decision-making is critical to the criminal justice process. In particular, students will come to appreciate how their own future careers will be shaped by the decisions they make.

Law and Society offers a contemporary overview of the structure and function of legal institutions, along with a lively discussion of criminal and civil law and their impact on society. Author Matthew Lippman draws on insights from over thirty years of teaching to develop an interdisciplinary approach that introduces readers to both the influence of law on society and the influence of society on the law. Distinctive coverage of diversity, inequality, civil liberties, and globalism provides an incisive look at the intersection of theory and practice. The highly anticipated Third Edition includes updated discussions of issues facing today's society, including inequality, international human rights, privacy and surveillance, and social control.