Chapter 1: Thinking about Criminal Justice Policy: Progress, Process Players and Politics
The chapter 1 of the book “U.S. Criminal Justice Policy: A Contemporary Reader” is “Thinking about Criminal Justice Policy: Progress, Process Players and Politics”. The main essence of this chapter is the exploration of relationship between public policy and criminology. In this chapter the author argues that no matter the policy relevance has occupied the criminology since its start, still the different policies of contemporary criminal justice are developed without adding the benefit of criminological expertise. The main reason behind this problem is that the reality of policy making process is overriding the empirical evidences. In this chapter the author has described this process as one of the difficult process which incorporates different actors. As per the author, this process involves the functioning of different political and social pressure in order to make some efforts for crime. The author has emphasized on the growing importance of real world for the proper research on the policy process which can be helpful in enhancing the policy process of criminal justice (Brown, 2010).
In the first chapter, the author has also described the section of public policy in which he described the term policy and public policy. After describing the public policy, the author has described the criminology and the policy making process in which he has argued that it is the outcome of a process having critical importance for criminologists. Later on, the policy making process has been analyzed in this chapter by describing the steps in policy making procedure (Ismaili, 2011). The author ahs described six major steps in policy making procedure in this chapter. Thus, the first chapter of this book was mainly about the thinking of criminal justice policy, its processes and major players. Thus this is a very effective chapter describing the thinking of criminal justice policy. The author has very briefly described each and every aspect of policy development in this chapter.
Chapter 2: The Significance of Race in Contemporary Urban Policing Policy
The chapter 2 of the book “U.S. Criminal Justice Policy: A Contemporary Reader” is “The significance of race in contemporary urban policing policy”. In this chapter the author has described the problems of developing a policing policy. As per the author, the main problem associate with the development of policing policy is the complex network of law and enforcement in United States. The law and enforcement in United States is difficult and its functioning is complex. As per the author, the law and structure of United States is mainly based on the competing structures and the U.S. policing are based on different local, federal and states levels. The author in this chapter has described different specialized units of U.S. policing including the immigration enforcement officers, park police, drug enforcement agents, forest rangers, and border patrols. The author has described that it has its existence in various demographic and geographic areas including the national, international, rural, urban and suburban ...