Learning Objectives for American System of Criminal Justice, 13th Edition
CHAPTER 1
Crime and Justice in America.
After covering the material in this chapter, students should:
Understand how public policies on crime are formed
Recognize how the crime control and due process models of criminal justice help us understand the system
Be able to explain: “What Is a Crime?”
Describe the major types of crime in the United States
Analyze how much crime there is and understand how it is measured
CHAPTER 2
Victimization and Criminal Behavior.
After covering the material in this chapter, students should:
Understand who becomes the victims of crime
Recognize the impacts of crime on society
Identify the justice system’s responses to the needs of crime victims
Understand the theories put forward to explain criminal behavior
Analyze crime causation theories and apply them to different groups of offenders
CHAPTER 3
The Criminal Justice System.
After covering the material in this chapter, students should:
Understand the goals of the criminal justice system
Recognize the different responsibilities of federal and state criminal justice operations
Analyze criminal justice from a system perspective
Identify the authority and relationships of the main criminal justice agencies, and understand the steps in the decision-making process
Understand the criminal justice “wedding cake” concept
Recognize the possible causes of racial disparities in criminal justice
CHAPTER 4
Criminal Justice and the Rule of Law.
After covering the material in this chapter, students should:
Recognize the bases and sources of American criminal law
Understand how substantive criminal law defines a crime and the legal responsibility of the accused
Understand how procedural criminal law defines the rights of the accused and the processes for dealing with a case
Recognize the U.S. Supreme Court’s role in interpreting the criminal justice amendments to the Constitution
CHAPTER 5
Police
After covering the material in this chapter, students should:
Understand how policing evolved in the United States
Recognize the main types of police agencies
Comprehend the functions of the police
Understand how the police are organized
Analyze influences on police policy and styles of policing
Understand how police officers balance actions, decision making, and discretion
Recognize the importance of connections between the police and the community
CHAPTER 6
Police Officers and Law Enforcement Operations.
After covering the material in this chapter, students should:
Identify why people become police officers and how they learn to do their jobs
Understand the elements of the police officer’s “working personality”
Recognize factors that affect police response
Understand the main functions of police patrol, investigation, and special operations units
Analyze patrol strategies that police departments employ
CHAPTER 7
Twenty-First Century Challenges in Policing.
After covering the material in this chapter, students should:
Recognize the ways police can abuse their power and the challenges of controlling the abuse
Identify the methods that can be used to make police more accountable to citizens
Understand the new technologies that assist police investigations and how these technologies affect citizens’ rights
Identify the issues and problems that emerge from law enforcement agencies’ increased attention to homeland security
Understand the policing and related activities undertaken by private-sector security management
CHAPTER 8
Police and Constitutional Law.
After covering the material in this chapter, students should:
Know the extent of police officers’ authority to stop and search people and their vehicles
Understand when and how police officers seek warrants in order to conduct searches and make arrests
Know whether police officers can look in people’s windows or their backyards to see if evidence of a crime exists there
Analyze the situations in which police officers can conduct searches without obtaining a warrant
Understand the purpose of the privilege against compelled self-incrimination
Understand the exclusionary rule and the situations in which it applies
CHAPTER 9
Courts and Pretrial Processes.
After covering the material in this chapter, students should:
Recognize the structure of the American court system
Analyze the qualities that we desire in a judge
Identify the ways that American judges are selected
Understand the pretrial process in criminal cases
Recognize how the bail system operates
Understand the context of pretrial detention
CHAPTER 10
Prosecution and Defense.
After covering the material in this chapter, students should:
Understand the roles of the prosecuting attorney
Analyze the process by which criminal charges are filed, and what role the prosecutor’s discretion plays in that process
Identify those with whom the prosecutor interacts in decision making
Understand the day-to-day reality of criminal defense work in the United States
Know how counsel is provided for defendants who cannot afford a private attorney
Understand the defense attorney’s role in the system and the nature of the attorney–client relationship
CHAPTER 11
Determination of Guilt: Plea Bargaining and Trials.
After covering the material in this chapter, students should:
Understand the courtroom workgroup and how it functions
Recognize how and why plea bargaining occurs
Identify the stages of a criminal trial
Know how juries are chosen
Understand the basis for an appeal of a conviction
CHAPTER 12
Punishment and Sentencing.
After completing the material in this chapter, students should:
Recognize the goals of punishment
Identify the types of sentences judges can impose
Understand what really happens in sentencing
Analyze whether the system treats wrongdoers equally
CHAPTER 13
Corrections.
After covering the material in this chapter, students should:
Understand how the American system of corrections has developed
Understand the roles federal, state, and local governments play in corrections
Be familiar with the law of corrections and how it is applied to offenders and correctional personnel
Discuss the direction of community corrections
Be able to explain why the prison population has more than doubled in the last ten years
CHAPTER 14
Community Corrections: Probation and Intermediate Sanctions.
After covering the material in this chapter, students should:
Understand the philosophical assumptions that underlie community corrections
Understand how probation evolved, and how probation sentences are implemented today
Be familiar with the types of intermediate sanctions and how they are administered
Recognize the key issues facing community corrections at the beginning of the twenty-first century
CHAPTER 15
Incarceration and Prison Society.
After covering the material in this chapter, students should:
Understand the three models of corrections that have predominated since the 1940s
Understand how a prison is organized
Understand how a prison is governed
Understand the role of correctional officers in a prison
Discuss what it is like to be in prison
Understand the special needs and problems of incarcerated women
Learn about programs and services that are available to prisoners
Understand the nature of prison violence
CHAPTER 16
Reentry into the Community.
After covering the material in this chapter, students should:
Understand the nature of the “reentry problem”
Learn about the origins of parole and the way it operates today
Comprehend the mechanisms for the release of felons to the community
Understand the problems parolees face during their reentry
Understand how ex-offenders are supervised in the community
Learn how civil disabilities block successful reentry
CHAPTER 17
Juvenile Justice.
After covering the material in this chapter, students should:
Recognize the extent of youth crime in the United States
Understand how the juvenile justice system developed and the assumptions on which it was based
Identify what determines the jurisdiction of the juvenile justice system
Understand how the juvenile justice system operates
Analyze some of the problems facing the American system of juvenile justice