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.

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

U.S. Criminal Justice Policy: A Contemporary Reader, Second Edition 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.

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.

This critical yet honest appraisal of our criminal justice system addresses its strengths and its flaws—and makes recommendations for improvement. The American Criminal Justice System: How It Works, How It Doesn't, and How to Fix It calls attention to a criminal justice system that needs improvement. Author Gerhard Falk shows that the police themselves often violate the law; that prosecutors send innocent citizens to prison and even to death row; that defense attorneys take on cases they are not prepared to handle; that juries vote guilt or innocence on the basis of emotion, not facts; that judges are often failed attorneys or unscrupulous politicians; and that jails and prisons are too frequently warehouses of the poor. As background for his analysis, Falk discusses the history of the police, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and judges, as well as the history of prisons and "the prison industrial complex." He also offers a devastating analysis of the death penalty and its practitioners. The book ends with recommendations for the improvement of our criminal justice system so that America can truly be, as our Supreme Court proclaims, a land of "Equal Justice under Law."

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.