Bringing criminal law to life. Criminal Law Today, Fifth Edition, brings criminal law to life by relating it to real stories from today's headlines. The text's approach is strongly influenced by the belief that the law has always been, and remains, a vital policy-making tool. As a topic for study and discussion, the nature and life of the law is more important today than ever before. The text highlights the challenges that face the law as it continues to adapt to the needs of a complex and rapidly changing society and features a balanced text/casebook approach that provides a lively introduction to criminal law. Effective in-text learning tools give students the resources they need to master the material presented in the text. MyCJLab was designed to meet the needs of today's instructors and students. MyCJLab provides instructors with a rich and flexible set of course materials, along with course management tools that make it easy to deliver all or a portion of your course online. MyCJLab provides students with a personalized interactive learning environment, where they can learn at their own pace and measure their progress.

For courses in Criminal Law. Bringing criminal law to life. Criminal Law Today, 6/e, brings criminal law to life by relating it to real stories from today's headlines. The text's approach is strongly influenced by the belief that the law has always been, and remains, a vital policy-making tool. As a topic for study and discussion, the nature and life of the law is more important today than ever before. The text highlights the challenges that face the law as it continues to adapt to the needs of a complex and rapidly changing society and features a balanced text/casebook approach that provides a lively introduction to criminal law. Effective in-text learning tools give students the resources they need to master the material presented in the text. To give your students the most accurate picture of criminal law today, the material on law and crime is updatedthroughout the Sixth Edition. New cases and stories drawn from recent real-life events are included to draw readers into the material and help them contextualize how theory translates into practice. Criminal Law Today, 6/e, is also available via REVEL(TM), an interactive learning environment that enables students to read, practice, and study in one continuous experience. Learn more.

This is the eBook of the printed book and may not include any media, website access codes, or print supplements that may come packaged with the bound book. Once again, Schmalleger is the most current and popular text on the market and continues to lead as the gold-standard among criminal justice texts today! Criminal Justice Today: An Introductory Text for the 21st Century, 13e continues to lead as the gold-standard for criminal justice texts. Best-selling, student- and instructor-preferred, and time-tested–Schmalleger is the most current and popular text on the market. This textbook guides criminal justice students in the struggle to find a satisfying balance between freedom and security. True to its origins, the thirteenth edition focuses on the crime picture in America and on the three traditional elements of the criminal justice system: police, courts, and corrections. This edition continues to question the viability of our freedoms in a world that has grown increasingly more dangerous. Students are asked to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the American justice system as it struggles to adapt to an increasingly multicultural society and to a society in which the rights of a few can threaten the safety of many.

Bringing criminal law to life. Criminal Law Today, Fifth Edition, brings criminal law to life by relating it to real stories from today’s headlines. The text’s approach is strongly influenced by the belief that the law has always been, and remains, a vital policy-making tool. As a topic for study and discussion, the nature and life of the law is more important today than ever before. The text highlights the challenges that face the law as it continues to adapt to the needs of a complex and rapidly changing society and features a balanced text/casebook approach that provides a lively introduction to criminal law. Effective in-text learning tools give students the resources they need to master the material presented in the text.

Timely and topical, Current Legal Issues in Criminal Justice is a collection of in-depth essays on "hot-button" issues. The contributors--renowned scholars who have taught criminal justice and written extensively on legal issues--approach their material from both legal and sociological perspectives in order to give students a more nuanced understanding of each topic. Short, framing introductions preface each article and put the material in context, and critical-thinking questions follow each chapter. Written in accessible and jargonfree--but not "dumbed-down"--language, this text investigates such relevant topics as gun control, racial profiling, private prisons, medical marijuana, surveillance technology, juvenile waiver laws, inmate litigation, drug testing, the death penalty, sex offender registration, and confessions and interrogations law.

A law professor and former prosecutor reveals how inconsistent ideas about violence, enshrined in law, are at the root of the problems that plague our entire criminal justice system—from mass incarceration to police brutality. We take for granted that some crimes are violent and others aren’t. But how do we decide what counts as a violent act? David Alan Sklansky argues that legal notions about violence—its definition, causes, and moral significance—are functions of political choices, not eternal truths. And these choices are central to failures of our criminal justice system. The common distinction between violent and nonviolent acts, for example, played virtually no role in criminal law before the latter half of the twentieth century. Yet to this day, with more crimes than ever called “violent,” this distinction determines how we judge the seriousness of an offense, as well as the perpetrator’s debt and danger to society. Similarly, criminal law today treats violence as a pathology of individual character. But in other areas of law, including the procedural law that covers police conduct, the situational context of violence carries more weight. The result of these inconsistencies, and of society’s unique fear of violence since the 1960s, has been an application of law that reinforces inequities of race and class, undermining law’s legitimacy. A Pattern of Violence shows that novel legal philosophies of violence have motivated mass incarceration, blunted efforts to hold police accountable, constrained responses to sexual assault and domestic abuse, pushed juvenile offenders into adult prisons, encouraged toleration of prison violence, and limited responses to mass shootings. Reforming legal notions of violence is therefore an essential step toward justice.

For courses in criminal law. A timely, real-world perspective on criminal law Criminal Law Today brings criminal law to life by relating it to the stories of today's headlines. Viewing law as a vital policymaking tool, Schmalleger explores the challenges of continually adapting the law to a complex, rapidly changing society. By providing real-world context, he helps students grasp the fundamental nature of law, general legal principles, and how the law functions in American society today. Now with revised learning objectives, the 7th edition includes a wide range of new cases, news stories, legal topics, and graphics providing contemporary examples of criminal law in action. Extend learning beyond the classroom Pearson eText is an easy-to-use digital textbook. It lets students customize how they study and learn with enhanced search and the ability to create flashcards, highlight, and add notes all in one place. The mobile app lets students learn wherever life takes them, offline or online. Learn more about Pearson eText.