Petty Crimes

Petty Crimes
Author: Gary Soto
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Total Pages: 180
Release: 1998
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 9780152016586

A hard-hitting short story collection takes a hard look at teens and preteens on the edge.

Punishment Without Crime

Punishment Without Crime
Author: Alexandra Natapoff
Publisher: Basic Books
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2018-12-31
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0465093809

A revelatory account of the misdemeanor machine that unjustly brands millions of Americans as criminals. Punishment Without Crime offers an urgent new interpretation of inequality and injustice in America by examining the paradigmatic American offense: the lowly misdemeanor. Based on extensive original research, legal scholar Alexandra Natapoff reveals the inner workings of a massive petty offense system that produces over 13 million cases each year. People arrested for minor crimes are swept through courts where defendants often lack lawyers, judges process cases in mere minutes, and nearly everyone pleads guilty. This misdemeanor machine starts punishing people long before they are convicted; it punishes the innocent; and it punishes conduct that never should have been a crime. As a result, vast numbers of Americans -- most of them poor and people of color -- are stigmatized as criminals, impoverished through fines and fees, and stripped of drivers' licenses, jobs, and housing. For too long, misdemeanors have been ignored. But they are crucial to understanding our punitive criminal system and our widening economic and racial divides. A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2018

The Street-Law Handbook

The Street-Law Handbook
Author: Neeraja Viswanathan
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2008-12-26
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1596919299

Can you be arrested for wearing a thong if you're ugly? Unknowingly renting a house to drug dealers? Becoming too familiar with your Halloween pumpkin? The Street Law Handbook answers these questions and more, as lawyer Neeraja Viswanathan cracks the tough nut of small-time law enforcement and lays the rules bare. Exactly how much pot do you need to have in your possession to warrant a felony conviction? What merits a strip search and exactly how much is an officer allowed to inspect? Can you really have sex in a cab? If you've ever felt the desire to act impulsively but weren't sure of the consequences, this is the book to consult. Combining straightforward legal information, hilarious true tales of small-time crimes and handy legal definitions that will, if nothing else, make you a smarter Law & Order viewer, The Street Law Handbook is a fun and informative layman's guide that puts the ease in legalese.

Fixing Broken Windows

Fixing Broken Windows
Author: George L. Kelling
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 340
Release: 1997
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0684837382

Cites successful examples of community-based policing.

Illusion of Order

Illusion of Order
Author: Bernard E. Harcourt
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 310
Release: 2005-02-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780674038318

This is the first book to challenge the broken-windows theory of crime, which argues that permitting minor misdemeanors, such as loitering and vagrancy, to go unpunished only encourages more serious crime. The theory has revolutionized policing in the United States and abroad, with its emphasis on policies that crack down on disorderly conduct and aggressively enforce misdemeanor laws. The problem, argues Bernard Harcourt, is that although the broken-windows theory has been around for nearly thirty years, it has never been empirically verified. Indeed, existing data suggest that it is false. Conceptually, it rests on unexamined categories of law abiders and disorderly people and of order and disorder, which have no intrinsic reality, independent of the techniques of punishment that we implement in our society. How did the new order-maintenance approach to criminal justice--a theory without solid empirical support, a theory that is conceptually flawed and results in aggressive detentions of tens of thousands of our fellow citizens--come to be one of the leading criminal justice theories embraced by progressive reformers, policymakers, and academics throughout the world? This book explores the reasons why. It also presents a new, more thoughtful vision of criminal justice.

Criminal Procedure

Criminal Procedure
Author: James R. Acker
Publisher: Jones & Bartlett Learning
Total Pages: 1342
Release: 2004
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9780763731694

This essential resource provides students with an introduction to the rules and principles of criminal procedure law. This text uses a case study approach to help students develop the analytical skills necessary to understand the origins, context, and evolutions of the law; concentrates on US Supreme Court decisions interpreting both state and federal constitutions; and introduces students to the reference materials and strategies used for basic legal research.

Ghettoside

Ghettoside
Author: Jill Leovy
Publisher: One World/Ballantine
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2015
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0385529988

"Discusses the hundreds of murders that occur in Los Angeles each year, and focuses on the story of the dedicated group of detectives who pursued justice at any cost in the killing of Bryant Tennelle"--Publisher's description.

Inside Adjudicative Criminal Procedure

Inside Adjudicative Criminal Procedure
Author: Julian A. Cook
Publisher: Aspen Publishing
Total Pages: 216
Release: 2016-03-22
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1454877332

Inside Adjudicative Criminal Procedure: What Matters and Why is ideal for students who take Adjudicative Criminal Procedure and criminal trial practice courses and clinics, as well as for students who are considering a career in criminal litigation. The book discusses all the topics that are typically discussed in the aforementioned courses, including bail, grand jury and prosecutorial decision-making, discovery, speedy trial, jury selection, trial by jury, right to counsel, double jeopardy, guilty pleas and plea bargaining, sentencing, and post-verdict trials and strategies. Each chapter describes the most critical legal concepts, and contains succinct discussions of relevant case law and statutes. The material is presented in an organized, aesthetically pleasant format which facilitates student reading and comprehension. The book, whose authors are former federal and state prosecutors with extensive professional and academic experience in adjudicative criminal procedure, is a great study aid to supplement the principal text used in any of the aforementioned courses. The book can also be used as a principal text in practice-related courses. Features: Concise description of essential principles and pertinent cases and statutes. Easy to understand content presentation. Aesthetically pleasing format which facilitates student learning. Summary of essential principles at the end of each chapter. Connections section at the end of each chapter which link chapter topics with other chapters in the book.