Primer in the Politics of Criminal Justice

A host of new reader-friendly features have been added to the expanded second edition of this concise, lively overview of the politics of criminal justice in the U.S. Seamlessly integrating concepts and findings from the disciplines of political science and criminology, the new edition offers chapters on: ?campaigns and elections ? including summaries of key crime-related issues raised in each presidential election campaign since the 1960s;?chief executives ? including a review of anti-crime policy initiatives in presidential administrations from John F. Kennedy?s to George W. Bush?s;?legislatures ? including a digest of major federal anti-crime legislation enacted since the 1960s;?courts ? including an analysis of the structure and role of the judicial systems and their impact on criminal justice policies;?bureaucracies ? including descriptions of the most important federal criminal justice agencies;?interest groups ? including a guide to the most prominent national criminal justice interest groups; and,?media and public opinion ? including an overview of opinion surveys on the most controversial criminal justice policy issues (e.g., capital punishment and gun control), plus analysis of the role of the media in shaping those opinions.The political system?s responses to the recent rise of Internet-facilitated crime are used as real-world examples of the processes described in each chapter. Each chapter includes a list of key concepts and a set of review questions. A comprehensive bibliography and an index are provided. An instructor?s manual is available.Nancy E. Marion, Ph.D., a professor of political science at the University of Akron, specializes in the politics of crime and criminal justice. In addition to the Primer, Dr. Marion has written five other books, including three on criminal justice-related politics, along with many other publications. Dr. Marion is also a fellow with the Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron.