NCJ Number
157132
Date Published
1996
Length
294 pages
Annotation
This introductory survey of criminal justice history can be used as a supplementary text in undergraduate criminal justice courses; the text emphasizes the importance of understanding the complexities of human beings and influences that motivate individual behavior.
Abstract
Underlying human psychology is important not only in analyzing crime and those who commit criminal acts but also in understanding the reactions of law-abiding citizens and societies to crime and punishment. The text enables students to look at the historical development of societies and economic systems from a historical perspective. Chapters cover criminal justice in ancient times, medieval crime and punishment before the Lateran Council of 1215, the Renaissance era, criminal justice and the English Constitution, criminal justice during the period of the North American colonial frontier, criminal justice during the Enlightenment and the American Revolution, prisons, law enforcement, penology and corrections, criminal justice professionalism, and civil liberties and criminal justice in the 20th Century. References, endnotes, and photographs