NCJ Number
198789
Date Published
2003
Length
380 pages
Annotation
This book provides an introductory survey of the history of criminal justice and deals with ways in which human beings and their societies have dealt with the serious issues of crime and its punishment, stimulating the reader to analyze historical events and raise issues from both a historical and a contemporary perspective.
Abstract
The knowledge of history offers a special sort of orientation for the leaders of tomorrow. In this edition on the history of criminal justice, focus is placed not only on the American experience, but on European and British developments as an antecedent to our national experience and as a parallel evolution of ideas and practices influencing American criminal justice. Also included is the treatment of ancient and medieval history to illustrate not only the antiquity of the issue of crime and punishment, but provide an overview of the earliest developments. The book begins by giving attention to the nature of crime itself, the general trends in law enforcement, and the various approaches to punishment. There is the need to appreciate the complexities of the human being and the influences that motivate individual behavior and appreciate the reactions of law-abiding individuals and societies to crime and its punishment. Index