Review by Choice Review
This revised three-volume work builds on the original encyclopedic treatment of criminal justice issues in the US, released by Salem Press in 2005 with the title Criminal Justice, then edited by Phyllis B. Gerstenfeld (CH, Feb'06, 43-3148). New material includes such topics as the media's treatment of the public perception of crime and justice. The set is structured by the six Cs, or core issues, in criminal justice: crime (and criminals), including topics reflecting abuses and white-collar and other forms of crime; codes, which explores frameworks of law and legislation; constitutions, covering the impact of foundational documents on modern criminal justice; cops, addressing law enforcement and policing; courts at local, state, and federal levels and the judicial decisions and consequences of trial procedures regarding perpetrators and their victims; and corrections, which analyzes sentencing, prison and parole systems, incarceration, and capital punishment. Entries include those from contributors familiar with systems of justice in US borderlands with Canada and Mexico and the role of deportation and extradition, among other topics of international law. The set's more than 600 alphabetically arranged, signed entries (on issues ranging from child abduction by parents, hate crimes, and indecent exposure to jaywalking, murder, and homicide, etc.) conform to the same layout and give sufficient background information plus a definition, the significance of the crime or related matters, a brief bibliography, and cross-references to other entries that may be of interest. The third volume contains a glossary, data on crime trends, pertinent Supreme Court rulings, famous trials, a time line, several indexes, and a lengthy general list of references. This basic resource will be useful to beginning students and public library patrons who are curious about the parameters of criminal justice. Summing Up: Recommended. High school through beginning undergraduates; general readers. --Julia M. Gelfand, University of California, Irvine
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review