NCJ Number
149656
Editor(s)
B Forst
Date Published
1993
Length
340 pages
Annotation
The role of social sciences in the criminal justice system is addressed in four parts: (1) foundations of justice and punishment; (2) the community in the human; (3) offenders and offenses; and (4) the criminal justice system.
Abstract
The first part considers pertinent philosophical, economic, and legal foundations of crime and justice. Chapters explore standard justifications for criminal sanctions, the economic model of crime and justice, and limits of criminal law. The second part examines processes that shape individual moral belief systems and contains chapters on the role of family in individual values; relationships among crime, ethnicity, and the community; and male-female crime rates and factors. The third part discusses specific issues related to offenders and their crimes. Chapters deal with juvenile crime, juvenile delinquency theories, community responses to crime, fear of crime, the effect of the community on domestic assault, and school crime in a multicultural environment. The final part focuses on the three primary components of the criminal justice system (police, prosecution, and courts). Notes, tables, and figures