Addressing topics such as gun control, prison overcrowding, and the death penalty, this book encourages students to think critically about criminal justice policy. Each chapter confronts a timely and contentious issue in the field. The text maintains an awareness of the effect of race and gender on interactions with the criminal justice system, and includes chapters that discuss race and gender directly. In each chapter, the authors consider the ways in which the examined issue impacts the criminal justice system, politics, and policymaking. The authors have organized the book around the three main elements of the criminal justice system (police, courts, and corrections), and the issues they feature are relevant to both informed citizens and future criminal justice professionals.

G. Larry Mays' profile page

Rick Ruddell's profile page

G. Larry Mays is Regents Professor Emeritus of Criminal Justice at New Mexico State University. He served as a police officer in Knoxville, Tennessee for five years in the early 1970s, and he holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Tennessee. Dr. Mays taught at East Tennessee State University and Appalachian State University prior to coming to New Mexico State University in 1981. He has over 100 publications in referred journals, practitioner publications, encyclopedia entries, and book chapters. This book is his twenty-first, including American Courts and the Judicial Process (Oxford University Press). He is also coauthor with L. Thomas Winfree, Jr. of Essentials of Corrections, fifth edition (Wiley Blackwell) and Juvenile Justice, third edition (Wolters Kluwer Publishing Co.). Additionally, he and Rick Ruddell are the coauthors of Do the Time, Do the Crime (Praeger Publishing Co.). Rick Ruddell, the Law Foundation of Saskatchewan Chair in Police Studies, joined the Department of Justice Studies at the University of Regina in 2010. Prior to this appointment he served as Director of Operational Research with the Correctional Service of Canada and held faculty positions at Eastern Kentucky University and the California State University, Chico. A graduate of the Ph.D. program in Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Missouri - St. Louis, Dr. Ruddell's research has focused upon policing, juvenile justice, and corrections. His research has been disseminated in eight books and over 75 peer-reviewed articles, technical reports, book chapters, and articles for professional journals. Dr. Ruddell has also worked with the Saskatchewan Ministry of Justice (Corrections and Policing Division) and during his tenure with the province held a number of front-line, supervisory and managerial positions.