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Rule of law has vanished in America’s criminal justice system. Prosecutors decide whom to punish; most accused never face a jury; policing is inconsistent; plea bargaining is rampant; and draconian sentencing fills prisons with mostly minority defendants. A leading criminal law scholar looks to history for the roots of these problems—and solutions.
In the second edition of this popular book, the author has thoroughly updated his analysis of the history of American criminal justice, exploring the tension between popular passions and the rule of law. Surveying the topic from the colonial era to the present day, Walker examines changing patterns in criminal activity, the institutional development of the system of criminal justice, and the major issues concerning the administration of justice. Comprehensive and concise, this book is the best single volume treatment of American criminal justice.
Examines the most prominent criminal justice policies, finding that they fall short of achieving the effectiveness that policymakers have advocated.
Now in an expanded paperback edition, Innocence Project attorney M. Chris Fabricant presents an insider’s journey into the heart of a broken, racist system of justice and the role junk science plays in maintaining the status quo. "Fierce and absorbing . . . Fabricant chronicles the battles he and his colleagues have fought to unravel a century of fraudulent experts and the bad court decisions that allowed them to thrive." —Washington Post From CSI to Forensic Files to the celebrated reputation of the FBI crime lab, forensic scientists have long been mythologized in American popular culture as infallible crime solvers. Juries put their faith in "expert witnesses" and innocent people have been executed as a result. Innocent people are still on death row today, condemned by junk science. In 2012, the Innocence Project began searching for prisoners convicted by junk science, and three men, each convicted of capital murder, became M. Chris Fabricant's clients. Junk Science and the American Criminal Justice System chronicles the fights to overturn their wrongful convictions and to end the use of the "science" that destroyed their lives. Weaving together courtroom battles from Mississippi to Texas to New York City and beyond, Fabricant takes the reader on a journey into the heart of a broken, racist system of justice and the role forensic science plays in maintaining the status quo. At turns gripping, enraging, illuminating, and moving, Junk Science is a meticulously researched insider's perspective of the American criminal justice system. Previously untold stories of wrongful executions, corrupt prosecutors, and quackery masquerading as science animate Fabricant’s true crime narrative. The paperback edition features a brand-new index as well as an updated introduction and final chapter chronicling the Innocence Project’s continued fight against junk science in courtrooms across America.
Provides a comprehensive, readable overview of how criminal justice actually works in the United States, and what makes US procedures distinctive and important.
First published a decade ago, No Equal Justice is the seminal work on race- and class-based double standards in criminal justice. Hailed as a ''shocking and necessary book'' by The Economist, it has become the standard reference point for anyone trying to understand the fundamental inequalities in the American legal system. The book, written by constitutional law scholar and civil liberties advocate David Cole, was named the best nonfiction book of 1999 by the Boston Book Review and the best book on an issue of national policy by the American Political Science Association. No Equal Justice examines subjects ranging from police behavior and jury selection to sentencing, and argues that our system does not merely fail to live up to the promise of equality, but actively requires double standards to operate. Such disparities, Cole argues, allow the privileged to enjoy constitutional protections from police power without paying the costs associated with extending those protections across the board to minorities and the poor. For this new, tenth-anniversary paperback edition, Cole has completely updated and revised the book, reflecting the substantial changes and developments that have occurred since first publication.
Native Americans are disproportionately represented as offenders in the U.S. criminal justice system. However, until recently there was little investigation into the reasons. Furthermore, there has been little acknowledgment of the positive contributions of Native Americans to the criminal justice system- in rehabilitating offenders, aiding victims, and supporting service providers. This book offers a valuable and contemporary overview of how the American criminal justice system impacts Native Americans on both sides of the law. Contributors- many of whom are Native Americans- rank among the top scholars in their fields. Some of the chapters treat broad subjects, including crime, police, courts, victimization, corrections, and jurisdiction. Others delve into more specific topics, including hate crimes against Native Americans, state-corporate crimes against Native Americans, tribal peacemaking, and cultural stresses of police officers. Separate chapters are devoted to women and juveniles.
"This text focuses on the modern aspects of the history of criminal justice, from 1900 to the present. A unique thematic approach, rather than a chronological approach, sets this book apart from comparable books on the subject, with chapters organized around themes such as policing, courts, due process, and prison and punishment. Making connections between history and contemporary criminal justice systems, structures, and processes, this text offers the latest in historical scholarship, made relevant to the needs of current and future practitioners in the field."--P. [4] of cover.
The Impact of Regulatory Law on American Criminal Justice is designed to provide the reader with an overview of American criminal justice from the perspective of regulatory law enforcement. Government's responsibility to defend the life and property of its citizens from victimization is accomplished through a code of criminal law enforced by a criminal justice system. In addition to laws that protect citizens, the government also enacts laws that criminalize certain behaviors that are deemed to be inconsistent with the best interests of society. These are called regulatory laws, and their effect on the criminal justice system and society are the main focus of the book. Each of the book's three sections addresses one aspect of the overall problem. The first looks at the underlying motivations to enact regulatory laws, particularly those dealing with drugs, prostitution and firearms and the evolution of their enforcement over time. The effect of regulatory law enforcement on each part of the criminal justice system, the police, courts and corrections is examined in the second section of the book. The final section provides insight into the societal outcomes associated with the enforcement of regulatory laws. The book reveals a number of unanticipated consequences resulting from regulatory laws. Most notable is the criminal justice system's lack of resources to effectively enforce and process violations of law. Police do not have enough officers to fully enforce all laws. Yet, they make more arrests than the courts can adequately adjudicate. The judicial process is so overwhelmed that it must rely on plea negotiations in order to circumvent the lengthy trial process thereby reducing criminal charges and/or terms of incarceration. Also, more people are convicted than the correctional facilities can house. Even so, America incarcerates a higher proportion of its population than any other country. Other criminal justice consequences of regulatory law include police corruption, overcrowded prisons and the domination by prison gangs as well as high rates of recidivism. Societal costs of incarceration are numerous and have had a particularly profound effect on minorities and disadvantaged communities in terms of poverty, lost human potential, contagious diseases both in and out of prison, 1.5 million children of current inmates and the perpetuation of a social underclass. The Teacher's Manual is available electronically on a CD or via email. Please contact Beth Hall at [email protected] to request a copy. PowerPoint slides are available upon adoption. Sample slides from the full, 171-slide presentation are available to view here. Email [email protected] for more information.