Criminal Justice

New edition of a text that presents a balanced description of criminal justice agencies, their personnel, and the decision-making process, with a focus upon recent thinking about theory, policy, and practice. In chapters 1 through 4, Samaha (U. of Minnesota) introduces students to the nature of formal and informal decision making, and the sociology, politics, economics, and law of criminal justice. The remaining 12 chapters analyze the nature and operation of the principal public agencies of crime controlthe police, the courts, and corrections. A final chapter contains a brief overview of the structure and process of juvenile justice. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Joel Samaha is Professor of History and Sociology at the University of Minnesota. He teaches Introduction to Criminal Justice, Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, The Supreme Court and the Constitution, and a special joint Sociology/History Department topics course, "Is there a Wartime Exception to the Bill of Rights?" He received his B.A., J.D., and Ph.D. from Northwestern University and studied under the late Sir Geoffrey Elton at Cambridge University, England. Professor Samaha was admitted to the Illinois Bar, briefly practiced law in Chicago, and then taught at UCLA before coming to the University of Minnesota in 1971. At the University of Minnesota, he served as Chair of the Department of Criminal Justice Studies for four years, and has taught both television and radio courses in criminal justice and has co-taught a National Endowment for the Humanities seminar in legal and constitutional history. He was named Distinguished Teacher at the University of Minnesota in 1974. Professor Samaha has written numerous publications, including a book on LAW AND ORDER IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE and articles on the history of criminal justice which have appeared in professional history journals and law reviews. He has also written two other highly successful textbooks with Wadsworth, CRIMINAL PROCEDURE, now in its Seventh Edition, and CRIMINAL LAW, in its Ninth Edition.