Courts: A Text/Reader

by Cassia C. Spohn

Courts: A Text/Reader provides the best of both worlds― authored text sections with carefully selected accompanying readings that illustrate the questions and controversies legal scholars and court researchers are investigating in the 21st century. The articles, from leading journals in criminology and criminal justice, reflect both classic studies of the criminal court system and state-of-the-art research, and often have a policy perspective that makes them more applied, less theoretical, and more interesting to both undergraduate and graduate students.

Genres: School

664 pages, Paperback

First published October 20, 2008

About the author

Cassia Spohn is Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Arizona State University. She has published extensively on prosecutors' charging decisions in sexual assault cases; the effect of race, ethnicity, and gender on sentencing decisions; sentencing of drug offenders; and the deterrent effect of imprisonment. She is currently conducting a National Institute of Justice-funded study of police and prosecutorial decision making in sexual assault cases in Los Angeles.

Reviews

[Bob]

Granted it gives you knowledge of the court system, the various personnel who work in this system and a history of how cases are decided; however, many of the articles in the book are repetitive, dry and somewhat boring. Yes, I know that the authors may be lawyers and/or law professors, but, come on. Learn to use an economy of words; please don't write the way the stereotypical lawyer speaks: speaking just to hear the sound of their own voice. Also, did anyone edit this book? I found numerous typographical and grammatical errors.

[Maureen]

Great School book