Criminal Justice Today: An Introductory Text for the 21st Century (6th Edition) - Hardcover

Schmalleger, Frank

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0130851485 ISBN 13: 9780130851482

Publisher: Pearson College Div, 2000

Synopsis

THE bestselling four-color book/multimedia package in the field, this introduction to criminal justice provides a realistic description of the American criminal justice system and how it works—police, courts, and corrections. Using a three-pronged thematic approach, it provides an intricately woven picture of contemporary American criminal justice, assumes a forward-looking perspective that recognizes the importance of individual rights, social order, multiculturalism, and high-technology as they affect the day-to-day practice of criminal justice, and gives serious emphasis to terrorism as a crime. Incorporates the most authoritative, reliable, and current information, statistics, and court cases, and provides citations to online criminal justice mega-sources that are constantly updated. Features a variety of issues-oriented, career, and “the future” boxes throughout. An accompanying simulations CD features real-life scenarios based on actual U.S. Supreme Court cases that enable readers to put themselves in the role(s) of police officer, judge, probation officer, legislator, and corrections official. What Is Criminal Justice? The Crime Picture. The Search for Causes. Criminal Law. Policing: History and Structure. Police Management. Policing: Legal Aspects. The Courts. The Courtroom Work Group and the Criminal Trial. Sentencing. Probation, Parole, and Community Corrections. Prisons and Jails. Prison Life. Juvenile Justice. Drugs and Crime. Multinational Criminal Justice. The Future of Criminal Justice. For those in law enforcement, the court system, corrections, juvenile delinquency, probation, parole, and private security.

About this title

About the Author

FRANK SCHMALLEGER, Ph.D. is Director of the Justice Research Association, a private consulting firm and think tank focusing on issues of crime and justice. The Justice Research Association, which is based in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, serves the needs of the nation's civil and criminal justice planners and administrators through workshops, conferences, and grant-writing and program-evaluation support. It can be reached on the Web at http:/cjcentral/jra. Dr. Schmalleger is also founder and codirector of the Criminal Justice Distance Learning Consortium (http:/cjcentral.cjdlc).

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) from Ohio State University with a special emphasis in criminology. From 1976 to 1994, he taught criminal justice courses at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. For the last 16 of those years he chaired the university's Department of Sociology, Social Work, and Criminal Justice. 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 more than a decade. Schmalleger has also taught in the New School for Social Research's online graduate program, helping build the world's first electronic classrooms in support of distance learning through computer telecommunications.

Frank Schmalleger is the author of numerous articles and many books, including the widely used Criminology Today (Prentice Hall, 1999); Criminal Justice: A Brief Introduction (Prentice Hall, 2001); Criminal Law Today (Prentice Hall, 1999), Crime and the Justice System in America: An Encyclopedia (Greenwood Publishing Group, 1997), Trial of the Century: People of the State of California vs. Orenthal James Simpson (Prentice Hall, 1996); Computers in Criminal Justice (Wyndham Hall Press, 1991); Career Paths: A Guide to Jobs in Federal Law Enforcement (Regents/Prentice Hall, 1994); Criminal Justice Ethics (Greenwood Press, 1991); Finding Criminal Justice in the Library (Wyndham Hall Press, 1991); Ethics in Criminal Justice (Wyndham Hall Press, 1990); A History of Corrections (Foundations Press of Notre Dame, 1983); and The Social Basis of Criminal Justice (University Press of America, 1981).

Schmalleger is also founding editor of the journal The Justice Professional. He serves as editor for the Prentice Hall 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: "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."

From the Back Cover

* WebExtras! These hyperlinks, build right into the text, take students to crime and justice-related Web sites. Interspersed throughout every chapter, WebExtras! Include the FBI's home page, a virtual tour of the U.S. Supreme Court, an in-depth history of the Columbine High School shooting, and much more!
* Library Extras! These end-of-chapter Web-based "additional readings" lead students to 100 Web-documents that expand on materials and concepts found in the text.
* Web Quests! Found at the end of each chapter, these fascinating Web-based assignments are designed to teach students how to use the Internet to research topics and to find information in the criminal justice area.
* Author Audio Introductions These chapter-specific audio introductions have been recorded by the author to provide additional insight into the workings of the justice system.

In the sixth edition, Criminal Justice Today's rock-solid academic foundation has been combined with the latest in innovative instructional technology to create a learning package that fulfills the promise of making this book "The Introductory Textbook for the Twenty First Century."

Available supplements include: * Award-winning World Wide Web sites: prenhall/schmalleger and cjtoday
* Student Study Guide
* WebCT and Blackboard courses
* State specific supplements for New York, California, Texas, Illinois, and Florida

From the Inside Flap

Preface

The first edition of this textbook appeared in print a little over ten years ago. At that time, I chose what seemed to be a rather unique subtitle: An Introductory Text for the Twenty-First Century. The subtitle was unusual not only because the new century was still a decade away, but because other introductory criminal justice authors seemed to be writing about the past and not the future. I wanted my subtitle to speak to students and professors. I wanted it to say, "This is a book that, while it owes a legacy to the past, is not bound by it. This is a book that will prepare students of justice for the world of the future—a soon-to-be vital and real world with almost limitless possibilities in which they will live and work."

Since then, of course, much has changed. Criminal Justice Today is now in its sixth edition. The long-awaited new century is here, and the future is on almost everyone's mind.

As I write this preface to the sixth edition, I think of how the first edition of this text was a standard ink-on-paper hardcover book with sparsely placed black-and-white photographs. I reflect on how it has evolved into a multimedia-rich, information-filled, experiential package that brings up-to-the-minute learning opportunities to today's students in printed form, on the Web, via CD-ROM, and through other digital formats. I think of how it makes extensive use of technologically enhanced learning environments, and I hope that it has contributed, at least in some small way, to the growth and continuing maturation of those environments.

The sixth edition of this learning package (for it is no longer merely a book) has become an integral part of our "wired" world—in the best sense of that term. Criminal Justice Today has evolved into a multifaceted learning experience that, I believe, sets the standard far a new generation of educational tools that sweepingly integrate text-based information and electronic media in ways not possible only a short while ago.

Although you can still hold this book in your hands, the printed pages are but a representation of the multitude of learning possibilities that accompany it. The Criminal Justice Today companion web site (prenhall/schmalleger) and the cjtoday home page, for example, add a wealth of constantly updated news, statistics, legal information, and diverse opinions to the core text. The Criminal Justice Today e-mail discussion groups, message boards, and Talk Justice facility make it possible for students and professors to interact with one another—and with others across the nation and around the world who share an interest in criminal justice and in crime prevention.WebCT templates for this textbook, as well as the online teaching possibilities provided by the Criminal Justice Today companion website, allow classes to be taught entirely online, so students can study criminal justice subject matter from virtually anywhere.

While much has changed over six editions, this text remains true to its original purpose. In the preface to the first edition I wrote that the purpose of this book is "to teach criminal justice stunts the fundamental tried-and-true concepts of an evolving discipline, to give them the critical-thinking skills necessary to effectively apply those concepts to the real world, and to apply those concepts and skills to today's problems and to the emerging issues of tomorrow." In Chapter 1 I promised that this book would "describe in detail the criminal justice system, while helping students develop an appreciation for the delicacy of the balancing act now facing it." I pointed out that the fundamental question for the future will be "how to ensure the existence of, and effectively manage, a justice system which is as fair to the individual as it is supportive of the needs of society." Finally, I asked, "Is justice for all a reasonable expectation of today's system of criminal justice?" The sixth edition remains true to these roots, yet has blossomed in ways unanticipated a mere decade earlier.

As it was from the start, Criminal Justice Today is intended for use by students everywhere who are beginning the study of criminal justice. The sixth edition incorporates and supports the best and most contemporary principles guiding the study of our discipline. The educational principles underlying the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences' recent explorations into the accreditation arena (via the ACJS Ad Hoc Committee on Minimum Standards for Criminal Justice Education), for example, are incorporated into this text, as are some of the more prominent state-specific guidelines for criminal justice education. Criminal Justice Today and its various supplements are also written to be consistent with and supportive of the California POST College Transition Program. The College Transition Program allows students to earn basic law enforcement course certification credits during their college studies—reducing the academy training time needed for students seeking law enforcement careers. POST standards, even when not state-specific, add a pragmatic dimension to the study of criminal justice, stressing as they do the development of useful employment-related abilities and critical-thinking skills.

In summary, Criminal Justice Today is intended not as a simple description of what has already taken place in the field (although it contains plenty of descriptions and lots of historical information), but as a visual and thoughtful guide to the study and practice of criminal justice today, a road map through the criminal justice system of the twenty-first century, and a bridge between past and future.

FRANK SCHMALLEGER, PH.D.

Edition details

• Publisher: Pearson College Div
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0130851485
• ISBN 13: 9780130851482
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 6
• Number of pages: 749