ABSTRACT

This book offers an accessible introduction to comparative criminal justice and examines and reflects on the ways different countries and jurisdictions deal with the main stages in the criminal justice process, from policing to sentencing. This popular bestseller has been fully updated and expanded for the third edition.

This textbook provides the reader with:

  • a comparative perspective on criminal justice and its main components;
  • a knowledge of methodology for comparative research and analysis;
  • an understanding of the emerging concepts in comparative criminal justice, such as security, surveillance, retribution and rehabilitation;
  • a discussion of global trends such as the global drop in crime, the punitive turn, penal populism, privatization, international policing and international criminal tribunals.

The new edition has been fully updated to keep abreast with this growing field of study and research, including increased coverage of the challenge of globalization and its role and influence on criminal justice systems around the world. Topics such as state crime, genocide and the international criminal court have also grown in prominence since the publication of the last edition and are given increased coverage.

This book will be perfect reading for advanced undergraduates and postgraduates taking courses in comparative criminal justice and those who are engaged in the study of global responses to crime. New features such as lists of further reading, study questions and boxed case studies help bring comparative criminal justice alive for students and instructors alike.

chapter 3|16 pages

Comparing crime

Finding patterns, uncovering meaning

chapter 4|23 pages

Crime fighters, social workers, torturers

Comparative policing

chapter 5|19 pages

Global cops?

Transnational and global policing

chapter 6|20 pages

Prosecution and pre-trial justice

chapter 7|22 pages

The day in court

Systems of trial

chapter 8|20 pages

Peers or patriarchs

Judicial decision-makers

chapter 9|25 pages

Sentencing

Punitivity, prison and the death penalty

chapter 10|14 pages

States, state crimes and genocide

chapter 11|20 pages

International criminal justice

Tribunals, statutes and prosecutions

chapter 12|5 pages

Concluding comments