NCJ Number
179488
Date Published
1999
Length
679 pages
Annotation
Intended as a tool to enhance American students' understanding of foreign justice systems, this book upgrades materials on the justice systems profiled in previous editions (England, France, Sweden, Japan, and Russia) and provides two new chapters on Canada and the People's Republic of China.
Abstract
Each chapter is devoted to a single country, and a similar format is followed for each chapter. Each chapter describes the major components of the country's criminal justice system: the police, judiciary, law, corrections, and juvenile justice. An overview of the country's political system is also provided. The history of each criminal justice component is reviewed; the organization and administration are described; the roles of criminal justice practitioners are examined; the legal procedures are explained; and some of the critical issues facing each component of the country's criminal justice system are assessed. The author advises that this book is not an in-depth narrative comparison among the countries. Rather, it surveys these foreign justice systems. The United States is not included, because there are a sufficient number of books available to introduce the reader to the U.S. system. The introductory chapter suggests four concepts that should provide the reader with a strategy for comparing the countries presented in the book and for comparing each country with the United States. The four concepts suggested as points of reference are the nation state, legal system, democracy, and systems theory. A 570-item bibliography and indexes of names and terms