Law, Social Science, and the Criminal Courts

Law, Social Science, and the Criminal Courts PDF Author: Alisa Smith
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 408

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Book Description
This book fills a gap in the field of criminal justice and law and society. Unlike any other available undergraduate text, this book integrates legal cases and empirical research on social science questions confronted by the criminal courts. In other words, it examines how social science impacts criminal law and procedure. The book is organized around the criminal court process beginning with issues related to pretrial proceedings and ending with issues concerning sentencing. Specifically, the book provides an introduction to the history of social science used by the courts and the types of social science admitted as evidence in the courts. The chapters that follow provide seminal legal cases and empirical, social science research on a variety of topics ranging from pretrial publicity and racial profiling to Megan's Law and the death penalty. Smith introduces students to the "law in action" by demonstrating how social science influences the courts and the courts influence society. Moreover, students are given the opportunity to critically review court opinions and social science studies that test some of the assumptions relied on by the courts in rendering their decisions. Sociology of law, law and society, and criminal justice students will find this book interesting, raise questions about the influence of law on society and whether empirical research helps or hinders grounded judicial decision-making. The teacher's manual accompanying the book provides a wealth of information about Internet-based resources, student activities, and videos to encourage student discussion and identify relevant current events.

Law, Social Science, and the Criminal Courts

Law, Social Science, and the Criminal Courts PDF Author: Alisa Smith
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 408

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book fills a gap in the field of criminal justice and law and society. Unlike any other available undergraduate text, this book integrates legal cases and empirical research on social science questions confronted by the criminal courts. In other words, it examines how social science impacts criminal law and procedure. The book is organized around the criminal court process beginning with issues related to pretrial proceedings and ending with issues concerning sentencing. Specifically, the book provides an introduction to the history of social science used by the courts and the types of social science admitted as evidence in the courts. The chapters that follow provide seminal legal cases and empirical, social science research on a variety of topics ranging from pretrial publicity and racial profiling to Megan's Law and the death penalty. Smith introduces students to the "law in action" by demonstrating how social science influences the courts and the courts influence society. Moreover, students are given the opportunity to critically review court opinions and social science studies that test some of the assumptions relied on by the courts in rendering their decisions. Sociology of law, law and society, and criminal justice students will find this book interesting, raise questions about the influence of law on society and whether empirical research helps or hinders grounded judicial decision-making. The teacher's manual accompanying the book provides a wealth of information about Internet-based resources, student activities, and videos to encourage student discussion and identify relevant current events.

American Criminal Courts

American Criminal Courts PDF Author: Casey Welch
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 145572811X
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 615

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Book Description
American Criminal Courts: Legal Process and Social Context provides a complete picture of both the theory and day-to-day reality of criminal courts in the United States. The book begins by exploring how democratic processes affect criminal law, the documents that define law, the organizational structure of courts at the federal and state levels, the overlapping authority of the appeals process, and the effect of legal processes such as precedent, jurisdiction, and the underlying philosophies of various types of courts. In practice, criminal courts are staffed by people who represent different perspectives, occupational pressures, and organizational goals. Thus, this book includes chapters on actors in the traditional courtroom workgroup (judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys, etc.) as well as those outside the court who seek to influence it, including advocacy groups, the media, and politicians. It is the interplay between the court's legal processes and the social actors in the courtroom that makes the application of criminal law fascinating. By focusing on the tension between the law and the actors inside of it, American Criminal Courts: Legal Process and Social Context demonstrates how the courts are a product of "law in action" and presents content in a way that enables you to understand not only the "how" of the U.S. criminal court system, but also the "why." Clearly explains both the principles underlying the development of criminal law and the practical reality of the court system in action A complete picture of the criminal justice continuum, including prosecution, defense, judges, juries, sentencing, and pre-trial and appeals processes Feature boxes look at how courts are portrayed in the media; identify landmark due-process cases; illustrate the pros and cons of the courts’ discretionary decision-making; examine procedures and the goals of justice; and highlight the various types of careers available within the criminal courts

Privilege and Punishment

Privilege and Punishment PDF Author: Matthew Clair
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 069123387X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
How the attorney-client relationship favors the privileged in criminal court—and denies justice to the poor and to working-class people of color The number of Americans arrested, brought to court, and incarcerated has skyrocketed in recent decades. Criminal defendants come from all races and economic walks of life, but they experience punishment in vastly different ways. Privilege and Punishment examines how racial and class inequalities are embedded in the attorney-client relationship, providing a devastating portrait of inequality and injustice within and beyond the criminal courts. Matthew Clair conducted extensive fieldwork in the Boston court system, attending criminal hearings and interviewing defendants, lawyers, judges, police officers, and probation officers. In this eye-opening book, he uncovers how privilege and inequality play out in criminal court interactions. When disadvantaged defendants try to learn their legal rights and advocate for themselves, lawyers and judges often silence, coerce, and punish them. Privileged defendants, who are more likely to trust their defense attorneys, delegate authority to their lawyers, defer to judges, and are rewarded for their compliance. Clair shows how attempts to exercise legal rights often backfire on the poor and on working-class people of color, and how effective legal representation alone is no guarantee of justice. Superbly written and powerfully argued, Privilege and Punishment draws needed attention to the injustices that are perpetuated by the attorney-client relationship in today’s criminal courts, and describes the reforms needed to correct them.

The Lower Criminal Courts

The Lower Criminal Courts PDF Author: Alisa Smith
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000006905
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
This book explores misdemeanor courts in the United States by focusing on the processing of misdemeanor crimes and the resultant consequences of conviction, such as loss of employment and housing, the imposition of significant fines, and loss of liberty—all amounting to the criminalization of poverty that happens in many U.S. misdemeanor courts. A major concern is the lack of due process employed in lower courts. Although the seminal case of Gideon v. Wainwright required the appointment of counsel to individuals too poor to hire counsel in felony cases, it was not until 1967, when the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice found a crisis in the lower courts, that the Supreme Court extended the right to counsel to some (though not all) prosecutions of misdemeanor offenses. The first step to improving our understanding of the lower courts is a concerted effort by scholars to focus on the processing and outcomes of misdemeanor cases. This collection begins to fill the void by providing a comprehensive review of the scholarly work on the lower courts in the United States. Collecting analysis from key academics engaged in work in this area today, the book reviews the varying specialized lower criminal courts, including specialty courts that have emerged in just the last couple of decades, along with discussions of the history, legal challenges, operation, primary actors (judges, prosecutors, defense counsel, and defendants), and current research on these courts. The book explores the profound consequences misdemeanor processing has for defendants and discusses the future of the lower criminal courts and offers best practices to improve them. The Lower Criminal Courts is essential for scholars and undergraduate and graduate students in criminology, sociology, justice studies, pre-law/legal studies, political science, and social work, and it is also useful as a resource providing legal practitioners with important information, highlighting the significance of consequences of misdemeanor arrests, detentions, and adjudications.

Crime, Law and Social Science

Crime, Law and Social Science PDF Author: Jerome Michael
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 9780367136178
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 468

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Book Description
Originally published in 1933. This book came out of the seminal 'Michael‐Adler report' of a survey carried out to determine whether there was sufficient need for an institute of criminology and criminal justice in the United States and planning such institute. After responses from social scientists and criminal justice practitioners to the report, this book led to criminology's establishment as a discipline in its own right. This work presented the state of knowledge in the area at the time and the research methods being used and its place within scientific research. It focuses on the problems of identifying issues within criminal law and how to further investigation and research into them. The authors present their conclusions on the place of law within social sciences and also comment on psychology and sociology, where criminology at this time was based academically.

Social Science in Law

Social Science in Law PDF Author: John Monahan
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 634

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Book Description


The Law and Practice of the International Criminal Court

The Law and Practice of the International Criminal Court PDF Author: Carsten Stahn
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0198705166
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 1441

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Book Description
The International Criminal Court has significantly grown in importance and impact over the decade of its existence. This book assesses its impact, providing a comprehensive overview of its practice. It shows how the Court has contributed to major developments in international criminal law, and identifies the ways in which it is in need of reform.

International Practices of Criminal Justice

International Practices of Criminal Justice PDF Author: Mikkel Jarle Christensen
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351384627
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 482

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Book Description
International Practices of Criminal Justice: Social and Legal Perspectives examines the practitioners, practices, and institutions that are transforming the relationship between criminal justice and international governance. The book links two dimensions of international criminal justice, by analyzing the fields of international criminal law and international police cooperation. Although often thought of separately, each of these fields presents criminal justice as a governance method for resolving international challenges and crises. By focusing on examples from international criminal tribunals, transitional justice, transnational crime, and transnational policing and prosecution, the contributors to this collection all examine how criminal justice is unmoored from the state, while also attending to the struggles and challenges that emerge when criminal justice is used as a form of international action. International Practices of Criminal Justice: Social and Legal Perspectives breaks new ground in criminology, international legal studies and the sociology of law, and will be of interest to students, scholars, and practitioners across a wide array of fields in criminal justice, international law, and international governance.

Criminology

Criminology PDF Author: Tim Newburn
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317244257
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 1863

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Book Description
Comprehensive and accessible, Tim Newburn’s bestselling Criminology provides an introduction to the fundamental themes, concepts, theories, methods and events that underpin the subject and form the basis for all undergraduate degree courses and modules in Criminology and Criminal Justice. This third edition includes: A new chapter on politics, reflecting the ever increasing coverage of political influence and decision making on criminology courses New and updated crime data and analysis of trends, plus new content on recent events such as the Volkswagen scandal, the latest developments on historic child abuse, as well as extended coverage throughout of the English riots A fully revised and updated companion website, including exam, review and multiple choice questions, a live Twitter feed from the author providing links to media and academic coverage of events related to the concepts covered in the book, together with links to a dedicated textbook Facebook page Fully updated to reflect recent developments in the field and extensively illustrated, this authoritative text, written by a leading criminologist and experienced lecturer, is essential reading for all students of Criminology and related fields.

Children, Social Science, and the Law

Children, Social Science, and the Law PDF Author: Bette L. Bottoms
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521664066
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 516

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Book Description
This important book broadens our conceptualization of the topic of children and law, addressing a wide-ranging set of issues in need of attention. The authors confront many difficult questions such as: Are the rights that our nation's laws ascribe to children commensurate with their capabilities and needs? How should laws governing the punishment of crime acknowledge developmental differences between adult and juvenile offenders? Throughout the book, the authors consider (a) current laws and policies relating to children; (b) how social science research can test assumptions behind child-relevant laws and policies; (c) ways that courts can become more receptive to social science recommendations; and (d) challenges faced in the 21st century as our society continues its struggle to accommodate children's concerns within our legal system. With its unique integration of psychological research, social policy, and legal analysis, the volume is an important resource for any professional concerned with children and the law.