A01=Gerhard Falk
Author_Gerhard Falk
Category=LNFB
Court of Appeals
Crime
Criminal Court
Defending the Poor
Defending Violent Criminals
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Failure of the Death Penalty
FBI
Grand and Petit Juries
History of
Incarcerating the Innocent
Jails
Jury Selection
Jury Trials
Juvenile Court
Origin of
Parole
Police
Product details
- ISBN 9780313383472
- Weight: 510g
- Dimensions: 156 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 11 Mar 2010
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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This critical yet honest appraisal of our criminal justice system addresses its strengths and its flaws—and makes recommendations for improvement.
The American Criminal Justice System: How It Works, How It Doesn't, and How to Fix It calls attention to a criminal justice system that needs improvement. Author Gerhard Falk shows that the police themselves often violate the law; that prosecutors send innocent citizens to prison and even to death row; that defense attorneys take on cases they are not prepared to handle; that juries vote guilt or innocence on the basis of emotion, not facts; that judges are often failed attorneys or unscrupulous politicians; and that jails and prisons are too frequently warehouses of the poor.
As background for his analysis, Falk discusses the history of the police, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and judges, as well as the history of prisons and "the prison industrial complex." He also offers a devastating analysis of the death penalty and its practitioners. The book ends with recommendations for the improvement of our criminal justice system so that America can truly be, as our Supreme Court proclaims, a land of "Equal Justice under Law."
Gerhard Falk, PhD, is professor of sociology at the State University of New York, College at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY.
