Summary of American's Courts and the Criminal Justice System



Summary

“America's Courts and the Criminal Justice System” is penned by Neubauer and Fradella. This is best-selling text and by going through it, a person experience that what is like to a prosecutor, be a judge, a defense attorney etc. A pragmatic feeling of being in the court of law is offered by this fascinating and well-researched text that what it is like to be a part of the American criminal justice system. The authors, all through the text, emphasize not only the essential contribution of the criminal courts but also the importance and impact of court on society as a whole. This paper would cover the summary of first four chapters of this book.

Chapter 1 Court, Crime & Controversy

There is an association exist between courts and other constituents of criminal justice system. Courts, law enforcement and corrections are, though, detached organizational sets, but they are mutually dependent. After the detainment of suspects by law enforcement, cases are processed by the court and defendants are handled by corrections who found culprit by the court. Separate systems of federal and state courts are present in the United States. Cases are heard, within each system, by one or two levels of trial courts and one or two levels of appellate course. There are many actors in the courthouse but some key players include judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and the origin of cases for the court i.e. defendants and victims. Typically, with an arrest, a felony prosecution starts and then it is followed by a number of steps that include: preliminary appearance, bail setting, an initial hearing, and a decision for charging, and ultimately action of grand jury. If these hurdles are survived by a case in the lower court then to a major trial ...