Policies and Practices

Rather than providing students with “the answers,” Making Sense of Criminal Justice: Policies and Practices, Third Edition, challenges them to think critically about how the criminal justice system deals with challenging situations – like the use of force by the police – and offers a framework for lively classroom discussions and debates. G. Larry Mays and Rick Ruddell

• Encourages students to think critically about controversial issues like the death penalty and gun control
• Examines the confluence of the criminal justice system, politics, and policy making
• Engages students with an approachable writing style
• Invites upper-level students to apply their pre-existing knowledge of police, courts, and corrections to specific points of interest
• Stand-alone chapters allow professors to tailor the chapter order according to their needs

New to this Edition:

•  Offers an expanded focus on evidence-based practices
• A new Chapter 3, Understanding Criminal Justice Policy, provides more in-depth coverage of several policies and policy-analysis tools than the previous edition
• Chapter 5, Police and the Use of Force, covers several of the high-profile cases involving the shooting of racial minorities (particularly African Americans) by the police in several locations
• Chapter 9, Gender and Justice, expands on issues of violence against women, including responding to sexual assaults on campus and untested sexual-assault kits
• Chapter 15, Security Versus Liberty in the 21st Century, considers questions of privacy versus the expanded use of surveillance techniques by governments at all levels
• Provides revised and expanded Critical Review Questions for each chapter
• Includes five suggested writing assignments for each chapter

Authors:  G. Larry Mays and Rick Ruddell
Edition:  3rd Edition
ISBN:  9780190679279
Publisher:  Oxford University Press