Book picks similar to
Introduction to Criminal Justice by Lawrence F. Travis III
criminal-justice
criminology
law
Witness for the Defense: The Accused, the Eyewitness, and the Expert Who Puts Memory on Trial
Elizabeth F. Loftus - 1991
In the next few years I wrote dozens of papers about how memory works and how it fails, but unlike most researchers studying memory, my work kept reaching out into the real world. To what extent, I wondered, could a person's memory be shaped by suggestion? When people witness a serious automobile accident, how accurate is their recollection of the facts? If a witness is questioned by a police officer, will the manner of questioning alter the representation of the memory? Can memories be supplemented with additional, false information?"The "passion" Loftus describes in the lines above led her to a teaching career at the University of Washington and, perhaps more importantly, into hundreds of courtrooms as an expert witness on the fallibility of eyewitness accounts. As she has explained in numerous trials, and as she convincingly argues in this absorbing book, eyewitness accounts can be and often are so distorted that they no longer resemble the truth.
The Social Order of the Underworld: How Prison Gangs Govern the American Penal System
David Skarbek - 2014
Few people think of gangs as sophisticated organizations (often with elaborate written constitutions) that regulate the prison black market, adjudicate conflicts, and strategically balance the competing demands of inmates, gang members, and correctional officers. Yet as David Skarbek argues, gangs form to create order among outlaws, producing alternative governance institutions to facilitate illegal activity. He uses economics to explore the secret world of the convict culture, inmate hierarchy, and prison gang politics, and to explain why prison gangs form, how formal institutions affect them, and why they have a powerful influence over crime even beyond prison walls. The ramifications of his findings extend far beyond the seemingly irrational and often tragic society of captives. They also illuminate how social and political order can emerge in conditions where the traditional institutions of governance do not exist.
Mistrial: An Inside Look at How the Criminal Justice System Works...and Sometimes Doesn't
Mark Geragos - 2013
J. Simpson trial became a television-ratings bonanza. Now it’s all crime, all the time, on TV, from tabloid news to police procedurals on every network. Americans know more about the criminal justice system than ever before. Or do they?In Mistrial, Mark Geragos and Pat Harris argue precisely the opposite: In pursuit of sensationalism, the media shows the public only a small, distorted sample of what really happens in our courtrooms. So, ironically, the more the public thinks it knows, the less informed it really is.Mistrial debunks the myth of impartial American justice and draws the curtain on its ugly realities—from stealth jurors who secretly swing for a conviction to cops who regularly lie on the witness stand to defense attorneys terrified of going to trial. Ultimately, the authors question whether a justice system model drawn up two centuries before blogs, television, and O. J. Simpson is still viable today.In the aftermath of the Casey Anthony trial, the flaws in America’s justice system are more glaring than ever. Geragos and Harris are legal experts and prominent criminal defense attorneys who have worked on everything from celebrity media-circuses to equally compelling cases defending individuals desperate to avoid the spotlight, and Mistrial’s behind-the-scenes peek at their most fascinating cases will enthrall legal eagles and armchair litigators alike—as it blows the lid on what really happens in a courtroom.
Debating the Death Penalty: Should America Have Capital Punishment? the Experts on Both Sides Make Their Best Case
Hugo Bedau - 2004
Few controversies continue to stir as much emotion as this one, andpublic confusion is often the result. This volume brings together seven experts--judges, lawyers, prosecutors, and philosophers--to debate the death penalty in a spirit of open inquiry and civil discussion. Here, as the contributors present their reasons for or against capital punishment, the multiple facets of the issue arerevealed in clear and thought-provoking detail. Is the death penalty a viable deterrent to future crimes? Does the imposition of lesser penalties, such as life imprisonment, truly serve justice in cases of the worst offences? Does the legal system discriminate against poor or minority defendants? Isthe possibility of executing innocent persons sufficient grounds for abolition? In confronting such questions and making their arguments, the contributors marshal an impressive array of evidence, both statistical and from their own experiences working on death penalty cases. The book also includes the text of Governor George Ryan's March 2002 speech in which he explainedwhy he had commuted the sentences of all prisoners on Illinois's death row. By representing the viewpoints of experts who face the vexing questions about capital punishment on a daily basis, Debating the Death Penalty makes a vital contribution to a more nuanced understanding of the moral and legal problems underlying this controversy.
Business Law
Lee Mei Pheng - 2009
The authors' comprehensive experience in legal practice, banking and teaching have enabled them to provide a condensed and easy to understand coverage of business law principles and areas of interest related thereto.
Introduction to Forensic Psychology: Research and Application
Curt R. Bartol - 2004
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Concepts and Case Analysis in the Law of Contracts
Marvin A. Chirelstein - 1990
This Contracts primer is vastly uncluttered - one that picks up the main themes in the first-year Contracts course, together with related cases.
Policing the Crisis: Mugging, the State, and Law and Order
Stuart Hall - 1978
It was introduced into public consciousness by media coverage of muggings in the United States and police anticipation of its appearance in Britain. Its ‘discovery’ in 1972 was followed by a crime control explosion. It received massive media coverage. Judges, politicians, and moralists presented it as an index of the growing tide of violence, of the breakdown of public morality, and of the collapse of law and order. Sentences for petty street crime jumped from six months to twenty years.This book examines the political, economic, and ideological dimensions of mugging—setting the problem of ‘crime’ in its wider historical context. It shows how the particular social definition of mugging constructed by the media and crime control agencies was able to connect with existing social anxieties in the population at large and argues that this has helped to legitimate a more coercive state role in a period of growing political, economic and racial conflict.
The Law Machine
Marcel Berlins - 1986
Revised and updated throughout for this fifth edition, THE LAW MACHINE surveys recent developments in the workings of justice and the outlook for the future. 'Refreshingly free of the patronizing attitude and the humbug with which other books about the legal system are riddled' - THES
Injustice: Life and Death in the Courtrooms of America
Clive Stafford Smith - 2012
This remarkable book reads like a page-turning detective story, with one crucial difference: can we be sure that justice wll be served at the end?In 1986, Kris Maharaj, a British businesman living in Miami, was arrested for the brutal murder of two ex-business associates. His lawyer did not present a strong alibi; Kris was found guilty and sentenced to death in the electric chair.It wasn't until a young lawyer working for nothing, Clive Stafford Smith, took on his case that strong evidence began to emerge that the state of Florida had got the wrong man. So far, so good - except that, as Stafford Smith argues here so compellingly, the American justice system is actually designed to ignore innocence. Twenty-six years later, Maharaj is still in jail.Step by step, Stafford Smith untangles the Maharaj case and the system that makes disasters like this inveitable. His conclusions will act as a wake-up call for those who condone legislaion which threatens basic human rights and, at the same time, the personal story he tells demonstrates that determination can challenge the institutions that surreptitously threaten our freedom.
Abolition Now!: Ten Years of Strategy and Struggle Against the Prison Industrial Complex
The CRIO Publications CollectiveJulia Sudbury - 2008
Critical Resistance is a leading voice in the movement for abolition and the pieces in this collection are powerful tools for both long-time activists and those brand new to the movement for abolition now!”—Angela Y. Davis, author of Are Prisons Obsolete?The number of people in prison in the United States has risen 400 percent in the last twenty years—the world’s highest incarceration rate. Over seven million people currently live under the control of US jail, prison, probation, or parole systems—the vast majority of them people of color and young people. Policing at all levels is increasingly militarized and demands more and more resources.For a decade, Critical Resistance has organized to abolish the reliance on imprisonment, policing, and surveillance, seeing the prison industrial complex (PIC) not as a broken system to be fixed, but a well-oiled machine that must be eliminated entirely.Published in honor of Critical Resistance’s tenth anniversary, Abolition Now! reflects the organization’s themes: Dismantle, Change, and Build. It presents bold strategies to create a stronger movement of people committed to PIC abolition and building stronger, safer, healthier communities, not more elaborate forms of repression.The CR10 Publications Collective is a national grassroots organization with thousands of members and supporters working toward reducing the current prison population, stopping construction of new prisons, and developing alternative public safety models.
How to Catch a Killer: Hunting and Capturing the World's Most Notorious Serial Killers
Katherine Ramsland - 2020
No two stories about the capture of a serial killer are the same. Sometimes, the killers make crucial mistakes; other times, investigators get lucky. And the process of profiling, hunting, and apprehending these predators has changed radically over time, particularly in the field of criminal forensics, which has exploded in the last ten to 15 years. Laser ablation, video spectral analysis, cyber-sleuthing, and even DNA-based genetic genealogy are now crucial tools in solving murders, including the recent capture of the so-called Golden State Killer. This first book in the new Profiles in Crime series tells the history of forensics through the “capture stories” of some of the most notorious serial killers, going back almost a century.
The killers include:
Rodney Alcala, a serial rapist and murderer sometimes called “Dating Game killer” for his appearance on that TV show. No one knows the exact number of his victims.Takahiro Shiraishi, the suicide killer from Zama, Japan, who dismembered nine victims and stored their bodies in his refrigerator.Aileen Wuornos, one of the rare female serial killers. She shot seven men in Florida and was turned in by an accomplice.Jeffrey Dahmer, the “Milwaukee Cannibal,” and Bobby Joe Long, both identified by survivorsTed Bundy and David Berkowitz (“Son of Sam”), who both made mistakesLudwig Tessnow, who killed several children in Germany, and was caught through new methods in forensic investigation that could distinguish human from animal blood
NYPD: Through the Looking Glass: Stories From Inside Americas Largest Police Department
Vic Ferrari - 2018
Retired NYPD detective Vic Ferrari shares his crazy stories from a twenty year-career with America's largest police department. Would you believe an NYPD member would: Hide a gun in his oven only to have it explode when he decided to make a snack? Pay a prostitute with a check? Move a corpse to avoid working overtime? An insightful behind the scenes look into the NYPD that reveals: What goes on inside a busy police station and the characters inside NYPD Precinct nicknames The unofficial NYPD Glossary Everything from Gun battles to practical jokes paints a colorful portrait of a cop's world. Demonstrating a dark sense of humor many police officers have and use as a coping mechanism to deal with the stress of the job. For example: Pouring wood stain in a co-workers Rogaine bottle Smearing fingerprint ink on a toilet seat Fill a car with crickets NYPD: Through The looking Glass provides a taste of what it’s like to be an NYPD police officer with details and insight not found watching Blue Bloods or Law and Order. If you enjoy true crime, Live PD or fascinated with police work, you’ve picked up the right book.
Landmark Judgments That Changed India
Asok Kumar Ganguly - 2015
Of these, it is the judiciary’s task to uphold constitutional values and ensure justice for all. The interpretation and application of constitutional values by the judicial system has had far-reaching impact, often even altering provisions of the Constitution itself. Although our legal system was originally based on the broad principles of the English common law, over the years it has been adapted to Indian traditions and been changed, for the better, by certain landmark verdicts.In Landmark Judgments that Changed India, former Supreme Court judge and eminent jurist Asok Kumar Ganguly analyses certain cases that led to the formation of new laws and changes to the legal system. Discussed in this book are judgments in cases such as Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala that curtailed the power of Parliament to amend the Constitution; Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India and Others that defined personal liberty; and Golaknath v. State of Punjab, where it was ruled that amendments which infringe upon fundamental rights cannot be passed.Of special significance for law students and practitioners, this book is also an ideal guide for anyone interested in the changes made to Indian laws down the years, and the evolution of the judicial system to what it is today.