Manual Criminal Justice AN INTRODUCTION 14th Editi
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Instructor’s Manual Criminal Justice AN
INTRODUCTION 14th Edition by Frank
Schmalleger Ellen Cohn A+
CHAPTER 1
What Is Criminal Justice?
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
The American experience with crime during the last half century has been especially influential
in shaping the criminal justice system of today. Although crime waves have come and gone,
some events during the past century stand out as especially significant, including a spurt of
widespread organized criminal activity associated with the Prohibition years of the early
twentieth century, the substantial increase in “traditional” crimes during the 1960s and 1970s, the
threat to the American way of life represented by illicit drugs around the same time, the terrorist
attacks of September 11, 2001, and the ongoing threat from radical Islam.
The theme of this book is individual rights versus public order. As this chapter points out, the
personal freedoms guaranteed to law-abiding citizens as well as to criminal suspects by the
Constitution must be closely guarded. At the same time, the urgent social needs of communities
for controlling unacceptable behavior and protecting law-abiding citizens from harm must be
recognized. This theme is represented by two opposing groups: individual rights advocates and
public-order advocates. The fundamental challenge facing the practice of American criminal
justice is in achieving efficient and cost-effective enforcement of the laws while simultaneously
recognizing and supporting the legal rights of suspects and the legitimate personal differences
and prerogatives of individuals.
Even though justice may be an elusive concept, it is important to recognize that criminal justice
is tied closely to notions of social justice, including personal and cultural beliefs about equity and
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fairness. As a goal to be achieved, criminal justice refers to those aspects of social justice that
concern violations of the criminal law. Although community interests in the administration of
criminal justice demand the apprehension and punishment of law violators, criminal justice
ideals extend to the protection of the innocent, the fair treatment of offenders, and fair play by
justice administration agencies.
This chapter briefly describes the process of American criminal justice as a system with three
major components—police, courts, and corrections—all of which can be described as working
together toward a common goal. However, a cooperative systems viewpoint is useful primarily
for the simplification that it provides. A more realistic approach to understanding criminal justice
may be the nonsystem approach. As a nonsystem, the criminal justice process is depicted as a
fragmented activity in which individuals and agencies within the process have interests and goals
that at times coincide but often conflict.
The stages of criminal case processing include investigation and arrest, booking, first appearance
in court, the defendant’s preliminary hearing, the return of an indictment by the grand jury or the
filing of an information by the prosecutor, arraignment of the defendant before the court,
adjudication or trial, sentencing, and corrections. As a field of study, corrections includes jails,
probation, imprisonment, and parole.
The principle of due process, which underlies the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution,
is central to American criminal justice. Due process means procedural fairness and requires that
criminal case processing be conducted with fairness and equity. The ultimate goal of the criminal
justice system in America is achieving crime control through due process. Due process and crime
control have recently been supplemented by a public health model which sees crime and violence
through an epidemiological lens, and which seeks to involve multiple stakeholders in crime
prevention.
Scientific research has become a major element in the increasing professionalization of criminal
justice, and there is a strong call today for the application of evidence-based practices in the
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justice field. Evidence-based practices are crime-fighting strategies that have been scientifically
tested and that are based on social science research.
American society today is a multicultural society, composed of a wide variety of racial and
ethnic heritages, diverse religions, incongruous values, disparate traditions, and distinct
languages. Multiculturalism complicates the practice of American criminal justice because there
is rarely universal agreement in our society about what is right or wrong or about what
constitutes “justice.” As such, multiculturalism presents both challenges and opportunities for
today’s justice practitioners.
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
After reading this chapter, you should be able to:
1. Summarize the history of crime in America and corresponding changes in the American
criminal justice system.
2. Describe the public-order (crime-control) and individual-rights (due-process)
perspectives of criminal justice, concluding with how the criminal justice system balances the
two perspectives.
3. Explain the relationship of criminal justice to general concepts of equity and fairness.
4. Describe the American criminal justice system in terms of its three major components
and the consensus and conflict models.
5. Describe the process of American criminal justice, including the stages of criminal case
processing.
6. Define due process of law, including how the American legal system guarantees due
process.
7. Describe the role of evidence-based practice in contemporary criminal justice.
8. Explain how multiculturalism and diversity present challenges to and opportunities for
the American people
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LECTURE OUTLINE
I. Introduction
• Teaching note: Discuss current events that have affected public attitudes toward the
American criminal justice system. Explain the concept of procedural fairness and discuss its
importance in the American justice system.
• Teaching note: Ask students to discuss how recent events, including both acts of violence
by police and assaults on police, have affected their view of the criminal justice system?
• Teaching note: Present the definition of crime that will be used during the course and ask
students if they can think of additional ways in which it might be defined.
II. A Brief History of Crime in America
• Teaching note: Provide students with a historical perspective of crime in the last half
century. An effective way to highlight the changes is to simply provide a timeline of critical
events (those discussed in this section and those listed in Figure 1-1). Discuss the importance of
these high-profile cases and how they influence public understanding of criminal justice. Ask
students what other high-profile crimes they remember.
• Teaching note: Ask students to discuss why the increased emphasis on individual rights
beginning in the 1960s was associated with an increase in reported crime.
• Teaching note: Ask students to discuss whether they consider crimes committed via
cyberspace to be more or less serious than similar crimes that are not Internet-based.
III. The Theme of This Book
• Teaching note: Highlight the key differences between the individual-rights and public-
order perspectives.
• Teaching note: Ask students whether they see a trend in our society in favor of
individual-rights or public-order interests, Encourage them to present examples to support their
opinions.
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