Criminal Justice

Description

New and updated features of this title

Expansion on a wide range of issues

• UPDATED: Discussions of crimes pervasive in the US have been updated or revised. Topics include white-collar and corporate crime, cybercrimes, mass shootings and terrorism cases.
• UPDATED: New incidents or developments with repercussions for the US justice system have been added, including the Equifax^® data breach, the national opioid crisis, the new National Consensus Policy on the Use of Force, New Jersey’s new racial impact law, and the status of prison overcrowding.
• NEW: New diagrams show inmates with and without serious mental illness (Ch. 12) and the locations of juvenile detention facilities across the US (Ch. 13).

Practical guidance

• EXPANDED: Evidence-Based Justice Reinvestment boxes in many chapters highlight effective evidence-based practices for the wise use of criminal justice resources. A new box is in Chapter 4.
• EXPANDED: CJ Careers boxes describe a variety of criminal justice careers in a Q&A format. A new box is in Chapter 5.

Hallmark features of this title

Themes in criminal justice today

• Freedom or Safety? You Decide boxes in each chapter draw on the theme of individual rights vs. public order. Each box includes critical-thinking questions.
• Multiculturalism and Diversity boxes weigh the impact of US multiculturalism on the justice system.
• Ethics and Professionalism boxes consider moral and ethical standards that criminal justice professionals are held to.

A focus on current events

• CJ News boxes in each chapter present media stories illustrating concepts.
• CJ Issues boxes address critical issues facing the justice system, such as mass imprisonment and excessive use of force by the police.
• Full-color diagrams, illustrations, timelines and photographs throughout the text provide an inviting, highly visual experience.

About our author

Frank Schmalleger, PhD, is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, where he taught criminal justice courses for 20 years and chaired the university’s Department of Sociology, Social Work, and Criminal Justice for 16 of those years. In 1991 the university awarded him the title of Distinguished Professor, and the university named him Professor Emeritus in 2001.

Dr. Schmalleger holds degrees from the University of Notre Dame and Ohio State University, having earned both a master’s degree (1970) and a doctorate in sociology (1974) with a special emphasis in criminology from Ohio State University.

As an adjunct professor at Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri, Schmalleger helped develop the university’s graduate program in security administration and loss prevention. He taught courses in that curriculum for over a decade. Schmalleger has also taught in the online graduate program of the New School for Social Research, helping to build the world’s first electronic classrooms. Schmalleger is the creator of a number of award-winning websites, including one that supports this textbook.

Frank Schmalleger is the author of numerous articles and many books, including the widely used Criminal Justice Today (Pearson, 2019); Criminology Today (Pearson, 2019); Criminal Law Today (Pearson, 2016); and The Definitive Guide to Criminal Justice and Criminology on the World Wide Web (Pearson, 2009).

Schmalleger is also the founding editor of the journal Criminal Justice Studies. He has served as editor of the Pearson series Criminal Justice in the Twenty-First Century and as imprint adviser for Greenwood Publishing Group’s criminal justice reference series.

Schmalleger’s philosophy of both teaching and writing can be summed up in these words: “In order to communicate knowledge, we must first catch, then hold, a person’s interest – be it student, colleague, or policymaker. Our writing, our speaking, and our teaching must be relevant to the problems facing people today, and they must in some way help solve those problems.”

PART 1: CRIME IN AMERICA
1. What Is Criminal Justice?
2. The Crime Picture
3. Criminal Law

PART 2: POLICING
4. Policing: Purpose and Organization
5. Policing: Legal Aspects
6. Policing: Issues and Challenges

PART 3: ADJUDICATION
7. The Courts
8. The Courtroom Work Group and the Criminal Trial
9. Sentencing

PART 4: CORRECTIONS
10. Probation, Parole, and Reentry
11. Prisons and Jails
12. Prison Life

PART 5: THE JUVENILE JUSTICE SYSTEM
13. Juvenile Justice

For introductory courses in criminal justice.
The gold standard for criminal justice texts
Criminal Justice: A Brief Introduction examines crime in the US with a focus on police, courts, and corrections. Students contemplate the fine line separating freedom from security, and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the American justice system. A wealth of Internet resources along with author tweets (@schmalleger) build on central ideas in the text, while keeping pace with changes in a continually changing field. Emphasizing the need for systemic change, the 13th edition includes revised coverage of large-scale crimes pervasive in the US, as well as policing issues and challenges, sentencing guidelines, and state laws redefining the age of criminal responsibility.
Criminal Justice: A Brief Introduction, 13th Edition, is also available via Revel^TM, an interactive learning environment that enables students to read, practice, and study in one continuous experience.

For introductory courses in criminal justice.

The gold standard for criminal justice texts
Criminal Justice: A Brief Introduction examines crime in the US with a focus on police, courts, and corrections. Students contemplate the fine line separating freedom from security, and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the American justice system. A wealth of Internet resources along with author tweets (@schmalleger) build on central ideas in the text, while keeping pace with changes in a continually changing field. Emphasizing the need for systemic change, the 13th edition includes revised coverage of large-scale crimes pervasive in the US, as well as policing issues and challenges, sentencing guidelines, and state laws redefining the age of criminal responsibility.

Criminal Justice: A Brief Introduction, 13th Edition, is also available via Revel^™, an interactive learning environment that enables students to read, practice, and study in one continuous experience. Learn more.