There is a glut of information available both in print media and internet digital content, elaborately touching on criminology and the criminal justice system. Criminology deals with the felony committed in society, its punishment, and defense for the offended. The criminal justice system seeks to bring harmony in society, to ensure that individual rights are protected and that the delinquents are awarded due punishment. Albeit being a multifaceted entity, the criminal justice system operates as a single unit to counter social atrocities and reinforce human rights. In my point of view, this bibliography illustrates features entrenched in the criminal justice system concerning society.
Gustafson, K. (2009). “Criminalization of Poverty,” Criminal Law and Criminology and criminal law Journal, Vol. 99, No. 2, 2009. Web.
Criminalization of Poverty article is excerpted from a criminology journal takes a keen consideration at criminal Jurisprudence regarding the welfare system. The author illuminates the tightly interspersed relationship between the criminal justice stem and the welfare system which is supposed to alleviate suffering amongst the poor. Ironically, the welfare system which is supposed to minimize suffering amongst the poor and the needy in the society has become the mechanism through which the legal structures oppress the poor. Through the critical analysis of the author, perturbing issues like criminalization of the welfare system are given elaborate details. Through a systematic depiction, the author maps the processes and steps involved in the criminalization of the welfare systems pointing out elaborate elements in the process such as ‘welfare queens’.
Other issues elicited in this article include goals and strategies of welfare systems which have been entwined to become enforcement tools. The author analyses the conniving schemes through which the poor get oppressed by the welfare system in the name of procedures and governance. After eliciting the evil embedded in the welfare system, he further goes on to examine how the poor are mistreated and consigned into low social status treated more or less like probationers. In summing up, the author suggests for the administrators to transform the procedures in the welfare system to safeguard the rights of the welfare recipients.
Brody, D. C., Acker, J. R., & Logan, W. A. (2000). Criminal Law. Macmillan Publishers.
Criminal Law is a very detailed book that forms a foundation and introduces the students to the principles of law. The authors have given intricate details to the legal doctrine stating categorically the rules as they relate to defense, punishment, and social crime. Details of criminal law are well established through the use of case studies and case analysis so that the students are given adept detail on how each phase of criminal investigation is conducted. Criminal law is one topic that the authors give substantive attention to, bringing into light how crime, punishment, and defense correlate.
This book is recommended for law students who have no prior experience in criminal law. It guides at the same time giving students insight into criminal law through the theoretical practices found in the text. The authors use old and new educational materials and case studies to elaborately introduce students to law. The authors analyze the law through a keen eye were detailing the principles of law and its applicability in the social realm.
John Tierney (2007). “The Crime Mystery,” New York Times, February 16, 2007, 9:34 pm. Web.
This is a newspaper article where the author raises concerns about the crime increase. The author notes that the crime rate has been accelerated due to the economy’s plummets. Backing his information from a committee of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the author analyzes the rate of crime as it skyrockets and compares it to the crime rates in the early ’90s. The author brings to light how the principle of having more policemen in the streets and having many criminals in the courts aided in eliminating crime in the past.
Society has been prone to harm as the economic factors change, owing to lack of jobs. Financial insecurity is on the increase causing people to result to violent ways of making money and earning a living. The author elaborates how economic factors play a major role in creating acrimony in society. When the government fails to invest in economic growth, then it has a mandate of providing security, this is because with poverty comes insecurity.
From the perspective of the author, however, crime does not increase because the police are not doing their work, but the level of crime has gone up due to social-economic factors. The major causes of crime increase according to the author include the increase of immigrants and poor economic performance. Unemployment and poverty are to blame as the article points out. In nutshell, the author believes that there are better ways of combating crime than taking criminals under custody without necessarily establishing why they are committing a crime in the first place.
Clark, D. S. (2007). Encyclopedia of Law and Society: American and Global Perspectives (Three Volume Set) (1st ed.). SAGE Publications, Inc.
This is an extremely detailed book covering myriad topics which expound on how society relates to the law. It is very comprehensive; in that, it analyzes the law from a global perspective. The work in this volume contains details excerpted from 20 countries; the volume was combined with massive help drawn from an advisory board which constituted of sixty-two members. The details illuminated in this book are choreographed chronologically to constitute issues related to political science, sociology, and cultural anthropology, bringing forth the intrinsic relationship between the law and the above subjects.
Through this massive volume, the reader savors detailed information on the diversity of law as seen both in American, African, Australian, and many other countries in context. The interdisciplinary nature of law is wrought out through a descriptive analysis which further expounds on the virtues that law exerts in society. The author gives detailed information on the structures of legal systems, the way they are implemented, and how they adjust to accommodate social changes.
Further, the reference book structures a good basis for understanding the principle of law and criminology. The author diligently makes it a global piece intended for comparative studies so that the scholars get a chance to analyze law both in the American context and the rest of the world as a whole. Through this masterpiece, the origin of law is well-phrased tracking back all the systems of law and their frailties. This is an all-inclusive volume, intended for detailed research in the field of law. It is also an eye-opener for the scholar to understand the ramifications and the machinations of the law system in the global arena.
Sheldon, W. (2001). “A vital Introduction to the History of Criminal Justice,” University of Louisville, Harvard press.
This book covers a wide array of issues that relate to criminal law and also the criminal justice system. Raging from criminology concerning the society, covering issues related to the processes embedded in the justice system. The interplay of the components found in the justice system is elaborated explaining the challenges and the problems that mire the whole justice system. The author elaborately pursues unique topics like policy-making procedures, social evaluation, and the research conducted in the process of implementing criminal laws and structures.
The author tracks the basis of the law in society explaining the philosophy of law and how it affects social governance and interaction. Moreover, he brings out the key indicators which point out that law and order are not at work in society. All the components that constitute the justice system are analyzed in this text and how they relate to each other and how they affect the process of governance.
The other information which is well established in this text is the concept of punishment and how the justice system implements a penal code to ensure that criminals are accorded fair punishment relative to their mistakes. To safeguard the rights of the citizen the justice system creates a medium to ensure that lawbreakers are punished for their woes and that the victimized individuals get compensated for their losses. The author also explains in detail the concept of punishment for the crime committed. He further highlights the relationship between criminal law and defense expounding on the significance of implementing a sound and fair criminal justice system.
Regoli, R. M., & Hewitt, J. D. (2009). Exploring Criminal Justice: The Essentials. Jones & Bartlett Learning.
This book is committed to opening the eyes of society to the procedural activities embedded in the justice system which governs and safeguards their interests.
The students get a hands-on introductory process into the ramifications of the law and how it works to sustain harmony in society. Through case studies, the book opens up the scholar into real-life situations expounding on how cases are handled to ensure that justice is not compromised to bathe the offender and the offended. The interactive nature of the judicial system is not left out, as the author pursues to make it certain that the judicial system is a composite element comprising of many elements pieced together to deliver justice. The significance of each element of the justice system is elaborated, to further illuminate how each operates as an entity.
To add on, in this book the scholar is empowered with information on how the judicial and the legislative systems of the government work to initiate harmony and accord in the society. The US criminal system is analyzed with adept details in this text, the scholar gets a chance to peak at the judicial system concerning other global situations. A comparative study and case studies that involve the American scenario are elaborated to give the scholar a chance to better understand the processes embedded in the criminal system in the American milieu.
This is an extremely engaging text, which helps the first learners to have a clear overview of how the law operates and interacts with the immediate society. The functions, processes, and procedures found in a criminal justice system are well elaborated giving the scholar a good structure on how the legal system is manipulated in the society to ensure that everyone’s rights and freedoms are safeguarded. The loopholes in the judicial system are also explored to help the scholar understand the weaknesses manifested in the US judicial system in comparison to other countries like Canada.
References
Brody, D. C., Acker, J. R., & Logan, W. A. (2000). Criminal Law. Macmillan Publishers.
Clark, D. S. (2007). Encyclopedia of Law and Society: American and Global Perspectives (Three Volume Set) (1st ed.). SAGE Publications, Inc.
Gustafson, K. (2009). “Criminalization of Poverty,” Criminal Law and Criminology and criminal law Journal, Vol. 99, No. 2. Web.
Regoli, R. M., & Hewitt, J. D. (2009). Exploring Criminal Justice: The Essentials. Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Sheldon, W. (2001). “A vital Introduction to the History of Criminal Justice,” University of Louisville, Harvard press.
Tierney, J. (2007). “The Crime Mystery,” New York Times. Web.