American Criminal Justice
An Introduction

Provides a comprehensive, readable overview of how criminal justice actually works in the United States, and what makes US procedures distinctive and important.

Frederick T. Davis (Author)

9781108493208, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 25 July 2019

176 pages, 3 b/w illus.
23.5 x 15.7 x 1.4 cm, 0.39 kg

'American Criminal Justice provides an indispensable companion to foreign lawyers who do business in the United States, as well as for comparative academics: both audiences will learn how criminal justice actually works in America.' Antoine Garapon, Secretary General, Institut des Hautes Études sur la Justice, Paris

American criminal justice may be one of the best known - and most influential - systems of criminal justice in the world, but also the least understood: countless films and television series portray American police officers, prosecutors and lawyers, but over 95 percent of criminal matters result in guilty pleas, and trials are becoming vanishingly scarce as people accused of crime choose to strike a deal with increasingly powerful prosecutors. Sentencing 'reform' has led to a burgeoning prison population that is by far the highest among economically advanced countries. Meanwhile, American prosecutors have gained increasing (and largely unchecked) power to apply US criminal laws to worldwide corporations and individuals with little or no connection with the country. American Criminal Justice: An Introduction provides a readable, comprehensive review of the American criminal process behind these and other problems.

1. Introduction
2. The Federal structure: sources of the law
3. Investigation and evidence gathering: the participants
4. Investigation and evidence gathering procedures
5. Arrest and pretrial detention
6. The decision to prosecute, or not
7. Joinder of charges and defendants
8. Venue
9. Assistance of counsel
10. Trial rights and preparation for trial
11. Alternative outcomes
12. Double jeopardy
13. The trial
14. Sentencing
15. Appeals
16. Corporate criminal responsibility
17. Internal corporate investigations
18. Professional responsibility
19. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Criminal justice law [LNFB], Criminal law & procedure [LNF], Comparative law [LAM], Politics & government [JP]