Criminal Justice Policy provides a thematic overview of criminal justice policy and its relationship to the American criminal justice system. Scholars, practitioners, and politicians continually debate the value of these policies in their evaluations of the current system. As the nature of this subject involves a host of issues (including politics, public sentiment, research, and practice), the authors expertly highlight these concerns on criminal justice policy and address the implications for the overall system and society at large. This text is organized into three parts: Foundations of criminal justice policy focuses on the role of politics, best practices, and street level bureaucracy in criminal justice policy. Criminal justice policy in action provides an analysis of fifteen different policy issues in criminal justice, such as immigration, drugs, mental health and capital punishment. Each section begins with a basic summary of the policy, accompanied by a brief synopsis of the framing issues. This brief, but informative summary, draws students’ attention to essential concepts and ideas, provides a roadmap for what they can expect to learn, and ensures continuity throughout the text. The text concludes with a discussion about the future directions of criminal justice policy.

Criminal Justice Policy Issues provides students with information that helps them better understand the complexities of American criminal justice system and its agencies. The text features timely and thought-provoking readings that deal with the philosophical, historical, functional, developmental, current, and future issues that influence the criminal justice system. Section I provides readers with an introduction to key policies and practices within the criminal justice system. In Section II, students learn about challenges related to law enforcement, including police service and liability insurance, the use of body cameras, nonverbal communication in law enforcement, the militarization of the police, and more. Section III speaks to the courts and judicial system, featuring articles that examine judges, litigants, and the design of the courts; Stand Your Ground laws; the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010; the death penalty; and bio-criminology. The final section features readings about corrections with discussion of mass incarceration and its relationship with the War on Drugs, the effects of mass incarceration on communities of color, border security, punishment, corrections in sustainable communities, and career paths in criminal justice. Criminal Justice Policy Issues is an ideal collection for undergraduate and graduate-level courses in criminal justice. Noel Out is an associate professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. He holds a Ph.D. in criminology from Florida State University and M.A. from Texas Woman's University. Dr. Otu's criminology and criminal justice research has been published in Law Enforcement Executive Forum, Salus Journal, Journal of Social Sciences Research, and The Police Journal, among others. He has published numerous book chapters and encyclopedia entries in the field of criminal justice and criminology.

Examines the most prominent criminal justice policies, finding that they fall short of achieving the effectiveness that policymakers have advocated.

This current collection of essays on contemporary U.S. criminal justice policy is a timely response to the significant recent growth of policy-oriented research in the fields of criminology and criminal justice. "U.S. Criminal Justice Policy: A Contemporary Reader" addresses how criminal justice policy issues are framed, identifies participants in the policy process, discusses how policy is made, and considers the constraints and opportunities found in the policy process. Findings are linked to broader institutional, cultural and global criminal justice trends, and are used to determine what recent research reveals about crime policy and democratic governance. The main goal of this book is to encourage readers to engage in a dialogue about criminal justice policy, and to think about the potential for criminal justice reform.

This new textbook will provide students of criminology with a better understanding of criminal justice policy and, in doing so, offers a framework for analysing the social, economic and political processes that shape its creation. The book adopts a policy-oriented approach to criminal justice, connecting the study of criminology to the wider study of British government, public administration and politics. Throughout the book the focus is on key debates and competing perspectives on how policy decisions are made. Recognising that contemporary criminal justice policymakers operate in a highly politicised, public arena under the gaze of an ever-increasing variety of groups, organisations and individuals who have a stake in a particular policy issue, the book explores how and why these people seek to influence policymaking. It also recognises that criminal policy differs from other areas of public policy, as policy decisions affect the liberty and freedoms of citizens. Throughout, key ideas and debates are linked to wider sociology, criminology and social policy theory. Key features include: a foreword by Tim Newburn, leading criminologist and author of Criminology (2nd Edition, 2013), a critical and informed analysis of the concepts, ideas and institutional practices that shape criminal justice policy making, an exploration of the relationship between criminal justice and wider social policy, a critical analysis of the debate about how and why behaviour becomes defined as requiring a criminal justice solution, a range of case studies, tasks, seminar questions and suggested further readings to keep the student engaged. This text is perfect for students taking modules in criminology; criminal justice; and social and public policy, as well as those taking courses on criminal and administrative law.

Unlike other textbooks on the subject, Criminal Justice Policy and Planning: Planned Change, Fifth Edition, presents a comprehensive and structured account of the process of administering planned change in the criminal justice system. Welsh and Harris detail a simple yet sophisticated seven-stage model, which offers students and practitioners a full account of program and policy development from beginning to end. The authors thoughtfully discuss the steps: analyzing a problem; setting goals and objectives; designing the program or policy; action planning; implementing and monitoring; evaluating outcomes; and reassessing and reviewing. Within these steps, students focus on performing essential procedures, such as conducting a systems analysis, specifying an impact model, identifying target populations, making cost projections, collecting monitoring data, and performing evaluations. In reviewing these steps and procedures, students can develop a full appreciation for the challenges inherent in the process and understand the tools that they require to meet those challenges. To provide for a greater understanding of the material, the text uses a wide array of real-life case studies and examples of programs and policies. Examples include policies such as Restorative Justice, Justice Reinvestment, Stop-and-Frisk, and the Brady Act, and programs such as drug courts, community-based violence prevention, and halfway houses. By examining the successes and failures of various innovations, the authors demonstrate both the ability of rational planning to make successful improvements and the tendency of unplanned change to result in undesirable outcomes. The result is a powerful argument for the use of logic, deliberation, and collaboration in criminal justice innovations.

Advancing Criminology and Criminal Justice Policy is a definitive sourcebook that is comprised of contributions from some of the most recognized experts in criminology and criminal justice policy. The book is essential reading for students taking upper level courses and seminars on crime, public policy and crime prevention, as well as for policy makers within the criminal justice sphere. There has been a growing recognition of the importance of evidence-based criminal justice policies from criminologists, policymakers, and practitioners. Yet, despite governmental and professional association efforts to promote the role of criminological research in criminal justice policy, political ideologies, fear, and the media heavily influence criminal justice policies and practices. Bridging the gap between research and policy, this book provides the best-available research evidence, identifies strategies for informing policy and offers direct policy recommendations for a number of pressing contemporary issues in criminal justice, including: Delinquency, intervention programs and community crime prevention, Problem-oriented policing and the science of hot-spot policing, Sentencing and drug courts, Community corrections, incarceration and rehabilitation, Mental illness, gender, aging and indigenous communities.