NCJ Number
190346
Date Published
1999
Length
855 pages
Annotation
This book provides an overview of the criminal justice process in the United States.
Abstract
A criminal justice process is that series of procedures through which the substantive criminal law is enforced. Part One describes some general features of the criminal justice process and the law that governs that process. There is no single criminal justice process, but many different processes and no one set of procedures is truly representative of the process as applied throughout the country. Parts Two to Five consider each of the major steps in the process. They do so largely following the chronological sequence of the process. Part Two treats the major legal issues presented in the detection and investigation of crime (basically police practices). Part Three considers a variety of issues regarding the commencement of formal proceedings through the filing of charges. Part Four examines various steps in the process of adjudicating those charges. Part Five considers appellate and collateral review of the judicial decisions rendered throughout the process. Major chapter headings include the nature and scope of the 14th amendment due process; the right to counsel; electronic eavesdropping; the defense of entrapment; police interrogation and confessions; line-ups; grand jury investigations; and the scope of exclusionary rules. Table of cases, table of articles, and index