Hundreds of thousands of the inmates who populate the nation's jails and prison systems today are identified as mentally ill. Many experts point to the... deinstitutionalization of mental hospitals in the 1960s, which led to more patients living on their own, as the reason for this high rate of incarceration. But this explanation does not justify why our society has chosen to treat these people with punitive measures.In Crime, Punishment, and Mental Illness, Patricia E. Erickson and Steven K. Erickson explore how societal beliefs about free will and moral responsibility have shaped current policies and they identify the differences among the goals, ethos, and actions of the legal and health care systems. Drawing on high-profile cases, the authors provide a critical analysis of topics, including legal standards for competency, insanity versus mental illness, sex offenders, psychologically disturbed juveniles, the injury and death rates of mentally ill prisoners due to the inappropriate use of force, the high level of suicide, and the release of mentally ill individuals from jails and prisons who have received little or no treatment.

The Third Edition of Crime: Readings features the latest theoretical and empirical works on crime, maintaining an ideal balance between major... theoretical explanations of crime and crime control and each respective theoretical treatment while tying in policy issues. Updated and revised, the readings in this edition have been carefully pruned by the editors for maximum impact, providing undergraduate students with an accessible introduction to major issues in the field while eliminating excessive technical, methodological details that might hamper comprehension. This anthology includes both traditional yet still vital theories used by scholars of crime and newer explanations for law-violating behavior. Covering a realm of diverse criminological literature, the editors include a variety of readings that reflect the range of perspectives about the causes of criminal behavior and how best such behavior should be addressed.New to the Third EditionLinks criminological theories with the latest empirical research: The book features even more discussion of the ties between theory and actual policy in the Part introductions and in several new articles.Highlights recent developments in the field: The editors address a number of new issues related to crime control and also place greater emphasis on critical criminology, psychological, and biological approaches. Recognizes the growing importance of comparative criminology: This edition includes a number of articles by criminologists from outside of North America, providing a more comprehensive and global perspective. Keeps readers up-to-date in the literature: The sections on the history of criminology, research methods, and correlates of crime incorporate recent publications, and the section on enduring and changing patterns now includes entries on gangs, sex offenders, cyber crime, and terrorism.Inspires students to think critically about the theory and research of crime: Revised discussion and essay questions maximize student reflection on the concepts covered and include web-based data to give students practical experience working with criminological research.Companion Web SiteHomework assignments and data exercises have been moved to a companion Web site at www.sagepub.com/crimereadings3study.Intended AudienceThis is an excellent text for undergraduate courses such as Introduction to Criminology and Criminological Theory in the fields of criminal justice, sociology, law and society, and social work.

Crime Reconstruction, Second Edition is a working guide to the interpretation of physical evidence, designed for forensic generalists and those with... multiple forensic specialties. It was developed to aid these forensic reconstructionists with the formulation of hypotheses and conclusions that stay within the known limits of forensic evidence. Crime Reconstruction begins with chapters on the history and ethics of crime reconstruction and then shifts to the more applied subjects of general reconstruction methods and practice standards. It concludes with chapters on courtroom conduct and evidence admissibility to prepare forensic reconstructionists for what awaits them when they take the witness stand. This new edition expands on the collaboration of forensic expertise brought together in the first edition with six all-new chapters and three new appendices. In addition, an Instructor's Manual and other teaching materials are also available when adopted as a course text. Crime Reconstruction is a watershed collaborative effort by internationally known, qualified and respected forensic science practitioners with generations of case experience. Forensic pioneers such as John D. DeHaan, John I. Thornton, and W. Jerry Chisum contribute chapters on arson reconstruction, trace evidence interpretation, advanced bloodstain interpretation, and reconstructionist ethics. Other chapters cover the subjects of shooting incident reconstruction, interpreting digital evidence, staged crime scenes, and examiner bias. Rarely have so many forensic giants collaborated, and never before have the natural limits of physical evidence been made so clear. This volume will once again serve as a valuable resource for forensic science practitioners, instructors and students alike. * Updates to the majority of chapters, to comply with the NAS Report.* Six new chapters on Forensic Science, Crime Scene Investigation, Wound Pattern Analysis, Forensic Report Writing, Sexual Assault Reconstruction, and Reconstruction Court Presentation and Testimony.* Updated with key terms, chapter summaries, discussion questions, and a comprehensive glossary; ideal for those teaching forensic science and crime reconstruction subjects at the college level.* Provides clear practice standards and ethical guidelines for the practicing forensic scientist.

In the first half of the twentieth century, Americans' intense concern with sex crimes against children led to a wave of public discussion, legislative... action, and criminal prosecution. Stephen Robertson provides the first large-scale, long-term study of how American criminal courts dealt with the prosecution of sexual violence. Robertson describes how the nineteenth-century approach to childhood as a single phase of innocence began to shift at the end of the century to include several stages of childhood development, prompting reformers to create legal categories such as statutory rape and carnal abuse to protect children. However, while ordinary New Yorkers' involvement in the prosecution of those offenses reshaped their understandings of who was a child and produced a new concern to establish the age of their sexual partners, their beliefs in childhood innocence and in a concept of sexuality centered on sexual intercourse remained unchanged. As a result, families' use of the law and jurors' decisions ultimately diminished the protection the new laws offered to children. Robertson's study, based on the previously unexamined files of the New York County district attorney's office, reveals the importance of child sexuality and sex crimes in twentieth-century American culture.

This analysis of the philosophical foundations of international criminal law focuses on the moral, legal, and political questions that arise when... individuals who commit collective crimes, such as crimes against humanity, are held accountable by international criminal tribunals. These tribunals challenge one of the most sacred prerogatives of states--sovereignty--and breaches to this sovereignty can only be justified in limited circumstances. The book should appeal to students of international law, political philosophy, international relations, and human rights theory.

The story of the rise of the human rights movement by the renowned international attorney, in a newly revised and expanded edition.For centuries it... seemed an impossible dream that international institutions could ever tell nation-states how to treat their own citizens. But after a century in which 160 million lives have been wasted by war, genocide, and torture, the worldwide human rights movement is gaining popular and political strength.In a book that has been called "an epic work" by The Times (London), Geoffrey Robertson, one of the world's leading human rights lawyers, weaves together disparate strands of history, philosophy, international law, and politics to show how an identification of the crime against humanity, first defined at Nuremberg, has become the key that unlocks the closed door of state sovereignty, enabling the international community to bring tyrants and torturers to heel.This newly revised and expanded edition features additional chapters on Iraq and Guantánamo, and incorporates insights from the author's experience since 2002 as a UN appeals judge for the Special Court on war crimes in Sierra Leone. Robertson also brings us up to date on the trials against Slobodan Milosevic and Saddam Hussein and the International Criminal Court at Darfur.

Uncover the truth under all the BS In the daily battle for our hearts and minds--not to mention our hard-earned cash--the truth is usually the first... casualty. It's time we learned how to see through the rhetoric, faulty reasoning, and misinformation that we're subjected to from morning to night by talk-radio hosts, op-ed columnists, advertisers, self-help gurus, business "thinkers," and, of course, politicians. And no one is better equipped to show us how than award-winning philosopher Jamie Whyte. In Crimes Against Logic Whyte take us on a fast-paced, ruthlessly funny romp through the mulligan stew of can, folderol, and bogus logic served up in the media, at the office, and even in your own home. Applying his laserlike wit to dozens of timely examples, Whyte cuts through the haze of facts, figures, and double-talk and gets at the real truth behind what they're telling us. "An incisive philosopher."--Sunday Telegraph (20031129)

In this powerful indictment of George W. Bush's White House, environmental attorney Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., charges that the administration has taken... corporate favoritism to unprecedented heights -- threatening our health, our national security, and our democracy. Kennedy lifts the veil on how the administration, in order to enrich its corporate paymasters, has eviscerated the laws that protect our nation's air, water, public lands, and wildlife. He describes the White House doling out lavish subsidies and tax breaks to energy barons while allowing the corporations to profit by poisoning the public and eliminating security at the more than 15,000 nuclear and chemical facilities that are prime targets for terrorist attacks. He shows how right-wing White House ideologues have taken the "conserve" out of conservatism and trampled the free-market democracy in favor of a kind of corporate-crony capitalism that is as antithetical to democracy, efficiency, and prosperity in America as it is in Nigeria. Crimes Against Nature is a book for both Democrats and Republicans, people like the traditionally conservative farmers and fishermen whom Kennedy represents in lawsuits against polluters. "Without exception," he writes, "these people see the current administration as the greatest threat not just to their livelihoods but to their values, their sense of community, and their idea of what it means to be American."

Crimes against Nature reveals the hidden history behind three of the nation's first parklands: the Adirondacks, Yellowstone, and the Grand Canyon.... Focusing on conservation's impact on local inhabitants, Karl Jacoby traces the effect of criminalizing such traditional practices as hunting, fishing, foraging, and timber cutting in the newly created parks. Jacoby reassesses the nature of these "crimes" and provides a rich portrait of rural people and their relationship with the natural world in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The transplanted, inherently modern detective genre serves as an especially effective lens for exposing the fissures and divergences of modernity in... post-1968 Mexico and revolutionary Cuba. Combining in-depth critical analyses with the theoretical insights of current literary and cultural theory and Latin American postmodern studies, Crimes against the State, Crimes against Persons shows how the Cuban novela negra examines the Revolution through an incisive chronicle of life under a decaying regime, and how the Mexican neopoliciaco reveals the oppressive politics of modernization and globalization in Latin America. International in scope, comparative in approach, Braham’s study presents a unique inquiry into the ethical and aesthetic complexities that Latin American authors face in adapting genre detective fiction—a modern, metropolitan model—to radically diverse creative and ideological programs. Considering the work of writers such as Leonardo Padura Fuentes and Paco Ignacio Taibo II, as well as such English-language influences as G. K. Chesterton and Chester Himes, Braham also addresses Marxist critiques of the culture industry and emergent Latin American concepts of postmodernity.

Designed to compel readers to examine and analyze the various criminal justice functions and communicate that analysis effectively, this collection... of case summaries enables readers to become familiar with the major different types of crimes and how the criminal justice system deals with them. The cases featured include those involving homicide, robbery, manslaughter, sex crimes, kidnapping, assault, arson, possession of stolen property and larceny, burglary, bribery, falsifying business records, coercion, conspiracy, drugs, and juvenile crime. For those in criminal justice, probation and parole related areas.

Bridging the gap between practical crime scene investigation and scientific theory, Crime Scene Forensics: A Scientific Method Approach maintains that... crime scene investigations are intensely intellectual exercises that marry scientific and investigative processes. Success in this field requires experience, creative thinking, logic, and the correct application of the science and the scientific method. Emphasizing the necessary thought processes for applying science to the investigation, this text covers: The general scene investigation process, including definitions and philosophy as well as hands-on considerations Archiving the crime scene through photography, sketching, and video Managing the crime scene investigation—the glue that holds the investigation together Searching the crime scene—the logical byproduct of archiving and management Impression/pattern evidence, including fingerprints, bloodstains, footwear impressions, and tire track impressions The biological crime scene and recognizing, collecting, and preserving biological evidence, including forensic entomology and evidence found at bioweapon scenes The fundamental principles of evidence as expressed by the Principle of Divisible Matter and the Locard Exchange Principle: every touch leaves a trace Trace evidence, including glass, paint, and soil Shooting incident scenes, with discussion of bullet paths and gunshot residue The final section examines fire scenes, quality assurance issues, and methods for collecting and preserving various evidence types not covered in other chapters. The delicate balance among logic, science, and investigative activity must be understood in order to successfully work a crime scene. Enhanced by more than 200 color images, this volume provides investigators and students with the tools to grasp these critical concepts, paving an expeditious path to the truth.

Taking a systematic approach, Crime Scene Investigation and Reconstruction, 3e outlines techniques that will help investigators answer the critical... what, who, when questions of crime scene investigations. With a focus on crime scene processing, the book includes the latest on database technologies, digital cameras, DNA analyses and computer-aided crime scene reconstructions.  Each chapter includes introductions and summaries that demystify the technical aspects of the field. This edition includes a separate chapter on crime scene reconstruction, the latest on search and seizure laws and updated photographs that show efficient and effective crime scene investigation methods.

Crime Scene Investigation: Criminalistics, and the Law is a new title that is the first to include not only crime scene investigation and... criminalistics, but also the laws that govern them. It focuses on how the crime scene should be investigated, searched, and processed for evidence, but also includes an emphasis on the legal admissibility of these procedures. This book discusses the forensic value of physical evidence and the role of forensic science and criminalistics in evaluating this evidence and presenting it in court. It's heavy on informative content that is reinforced by the many valuable and illustrative photographs, exhibits, and actual cases. Timely and familiar cases are used to help students better understand the importance of proper crime scene investigation. Included are the United States Supreme Court cases that deal with fire scene and death scene investigations, and a wealth of other recent state and federal cases that deal with crime scene search and seizure, forensic experts and testing, whether there is "implied" consent to search a crime scene, what constitutes an "exigency" at a crime scene, chain of custody, scientific testing, admissibility of crime scene evidence, the admissibility of blood splatter analysis, fingerprints, and DNAWith learning tools such as key terms, definitions, relevant Internet references, and end of chapter summaries, this book will leave the reader with a complete education regarding crime scene investigation.

Crime Scene Investigation offers an innovative approach to learning about crime scene investigation, taking the reader from the first response on the... crime scene to documenting crime scene evidence and preparing evidence for courtroom presentation. It includes topics not normally covered in other texts, such as forensic anthropology and pathology, arson and explosives, and the electronic crime scene. Numerous photographs and illustrations complement text material, and chapter-by-chapter fictional narrative also provides the reader with a qualitative dimension of the crime scene experience. The text is further enhanced by the contributions of such recognized forensic scholars as William Bass and Arthur Bohannon.Dozens of photographs and illustrations supplement the text.Includes key terms, discussion questions and a glossary.A chapter-by-chapter fictional narrative provides a colorful look at a crime scene investigation.