Foundations of Criminal Justice

Foundations of Criminal Justice asks important questions often ignored in the introdution to criminal justice course: Why is our justice system the way it is? How do we decide which actions are crimes? How is policy made? What is justice and is it achieved? Having tackled these concepts and understood the ideas and motivations underlying our justice system, students are better prepared to understand what the police, courts, and corrections do and why--and to think critically about the decisions they will face should they go on to work in the field.

Rather than simply giving students an overview of the elements of the criminal justice system--police, courts, and corrections--Foundations of Criminal Justice delves into the interdisciplinary ideas underlying those elements. With a new chapter on "Issues of Inequaility in the Criminal Justice System," this edition delves even deeper into the larger questions and themes that govern our criminal justice system: Why is our justice system the way it is? How do we decide which actions are crimes? How is policy made? What is justice and is it achieved?The text features a robust pedagological apparatus to guide students in their learning: focusing and review questions appear throughout the text to focus student learning and solidify key concepts; chapter-ending Criminal Justice questions ask students to think critically and apply what they have learned to a real-life issue; and photo essays, which survey the broad range of issues in the chapters to come, open each Part.