1. Contrast the points of view of individual rights advocates and public-order advocates.

2. Contrast the consensus and conflict models of criminal justice.

3. Briefly outline the steps in the criminal justice process.

4. Contrast the crime control and due process models of criminal justice.

5. What is the difference between criminal justice and criminology? Trace the historical development of the field of criminal justice as an academic discipline.

6. Why is "multiculturalism" important in America?
 

Lecture Questions 2
"Crime Statistics"

1. What are the two main sources of official crime statistics? Contrast the collection and reporting methods of these two systems.

2. What are the Part I or "Index" offenses, and into what categories are these crimes divided?

3. What is the most recent category of criminal offenses federal authorities are required to keep statistics on? Provide some examples of crimes in this category.

4. What do crime statistics show about recent crime trends? Is the crime rate going up or down?

5. How is the term "clearance rate" used? What is the clearance rate for the Index offenses?

6. What is the NIBRS system?
 

Lecture Questions 3
"The `Crime Problem'"

1. How important are the media to the public's perception of crime (or fear of crime)?

2. What is the picture of women as victims of violent crime, according to Schmalleger?

3. How involved in crime are women as offenders?

4. What are the economic costs of crime in America?

5. How important to the crime problem as victims and offenders are the elderly?

6. Is crime spread evenly across all elements of American society? Where does it tend to be concentrated?
 

Lecture Questions 4
"Criminology"

1. What is it exactly that criminologists are interested in?

2. Briefly describe the focus of each of these types of criminology:
    a. biological

    b. psychological

    c. sociological

    d. radical

    e. psychobiology (sociobiology)

3. Contrast the main ideas of the classical and positivist schools of criminology.

4. Briefly assess the importance to criminology of each of the following persons:
    a. Cesare Beccaria

    b. Jeremy Bentham

    c. Cesare Lombroso

    d. Sigmund Freud

    e. Emile Durkheim

    f. Robert Merton

    g. Edwin Sutherland

5. What are the main ideas of each of the following criminological perspectives?
    a. conflict perspective

    b. social ecology

    c. anomie

    d. differential association

    e. neutralization

    f. peacemaking

    g. labeling theory

6. What does the text identify as the leading emergent theories in criminology?
 

Lecture Questions 5
"The Drug Problem"

1. What are the major pieces of federal legislation dealing with drug abuse? Briefly describe the effect of each law.

2. Discuss the concept of five schedules as incorporated into the Controlled Substances Act of 1970.

3. What are the main categories of illegal drugs that bring offenders into the legal system?

4. How are drugs and crime related?

5. What is "narcoterrorism?"

6. Define these different strategies for attacking the drug problem:
    a. strict enforcement

    b. asset forfeiture

    c. interdiction

    d. crop control

    e. education and treatment

    f. legalization or decriminalization

7. What arguments are commonly made in favor of legalizing drugs? What do opponents of legalization say in response?
 
 

1. Where did American policing come from?

2. What was English policing like before the 1800s? What was the "watch and ward?"

3. What were the "new police" established by the Metropolitan Police Act of 1829?

4. Who were the principal law enforcement officials of early America?

5. How did the frontier affect police development?

6. What does the text mean by "scientific police management?"

7. What was the Kansas City Experiment, and what did it mean to police patrol?
 

Lecture Questions 7
"American Policing Today"

1. Briefly describe the general functions of law enforcement at each of these levels of government:
    a. federal

    b. state

    c. county/parish

    d. municipal

2. What are the major federal law enforcement agencies?

3. What functions would be contained within a department of public safety at the state level?

4. What functions does a county sheriff perform?

5. How is a municipal police department organized?

6. Describe the diversity of the private security industry today.

7. What other public law enforcement agencies not already discussed can you think of?
 

Lecture Questions 8
"Issues in Policing"

1. Distinguish among these styles of policing--watchman, service, and legalistic.

2. What is the approach of community policing? What other strategies are said to guide American policing today?

3. Explain the role of discretion in policing. What factors influence the exercise of discretion?

4. What elements make up the so-called "working personality" of the police officer?

5. Where does police corruption come from? What are the levels of police deviance, from least to most serious?

6. What did the Knapp Commission and the Mollen Commission discover in New York City?

7. What are the sources of stress in police work?

8. What legal liability do police have? On what grounds do people most often sue the police?

9. When are police legally authorized to use deadly force?

10. What does "professionalism" mean in police work?

11. What advantages are cited for hiring more educated police officers?

12. How have the roles of women and minorities in police work changed in the past generation?
 

Lecture Questions 9
"Legal Aspects of Policing"

1. What provisions in the Bill of Rights do the police have to deal with most often?

2. Explain what these terms mean:
    a. due process

    b. probable cause

    c. warrant

    d. exclusionary rule

    e. fruit of the poisonous tree

    f. arrest

3. Explain these exceptions to the search warrant rules:
    a. plain view

    b. stop and frisk

    c. search incident to arrest

    d. automobile searches

    e. consent searches

    f. good faith

4. What was the focus of the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001? What are this law's most controversial provisions?

5. What are the Miranda rights? When do they apply?

6. What legal doctrine was established by each of these cases?
    a. Mapp v. Ohio

    b. Chimel v. California

    c. Terry v. Ohio

    d. Atwater v. Lago Vista
 
 

1. What were early legal codes like, in comparison to modern statutes?

2. How did the English common law develop?

3. Distinguish between offenses that are mala in se and mala prohibita.

4. How does the criminal law differ from the civil law?

5. Distinguish between felonies and misdemeanors.

6. What is the relation of the criminal act and the guilty mind?

7. What is the correct meaning of corpus delicti?

8. If the defense puts on a case, what kinds of defenses do they have to choose from?

9. Explain the origins of the insanity defense. What does the new verdict of "guilty but mentally ill" mean?

10. What are some of the innovative defenses that have been used recently? How often are they successful?
 

Lecture Questions 11
"Law and Courts"

1. How are the state courts different from the federal courts?

2. Describe the structure of a typical state court system.

3. Describe the structure of the federal court system.

4. What is the role of the U.S. Supreme Court?
 

Lecture Questions 12
"The Courtroom Work Group"

1. How are judges selected? Contrast the two main methods.

2. How powerful is the district attorney? What do we mean by prosecutorial discretion?

3. Why would someone want to be a prosecuting attorney?

4. What is the importance of the case of Gideon v. Wainwright?

5. What different methods are available for providing counsel for criminal defendants? Why
does most criminal defense involve public defenders?

6. What problems are associated with the attorneys who represent indigent defendants?

7. Who are the important "outsiders" who interact with the courtroom work group?
 

Lecture Questions 13
"The Criminal Trial"

1. Briefly describe what happens at each of these pre-trial proceedings:
    a. the initial appearance

    b. bail (or alternatives)

    c. the grand jury

    d. the preliminary hearing

    e. the arraignment (including the possible pleas)

    f. plea bargaining

2. What do we mean by the "adversarial system?"

3. How does the process of picking the jury work? How do attorneys challenge prospective jurors?

4. Does the defendant have to have a jury trial? Is there another option?

5. What is the burden of proof on the prosecutor in a criminal trial?

6. What is the defendant obligated to prove?

7. What common motions might be filed by attorneys before or after the trial?

8. What are common criticisms of the jury system?
 

Lecture Questions 14
"Juvenile Justice and Juvenile Courts Today"

1. How serious a problem is juvenile crime in America? What problems of young people in America today does the text discuss as having an impact on juvenile crime?

2. Describe the early history of the legal processing of juveniles. What happened in the 1800s to advance the cause of a separate juvenile court?

3. How was the juvenile court different from the adult criminal court?

4. How well did the juvenile court system work in practice?

5. What are the different legal categories of the juveniles processed through the juvenile
court system?

6. Briefly review the effects of these important juvenile justice "due process" cases:
    a. Kent

    b. Gault

    c. Winship

    d. McKeiver

7. Describe the adjudication and disposition hearings.

8. What are the two main types of secure juvenile institutions? What other kinds of placements are commonly used for juveniles?

9. What is the public and political mood for dealing with juvenile offenders today?
 
 

1. What does the text identify as the goals of contemporary sentencing? Briefly explain what each means.

2. How did the model of indeterminate sentencing work?

3. Contrast the indeterminate model with the various models of structured sentencing. What are the structured models trying to do?

4. What is mandatory sentencing? How is it used?

5. Describe the structure of the federal sentencing guidelines.

6. What is the purpose of the "three strikes and you're out" laws?

7. How has the victims' rights movement affected criminal sentencing?

8. What are the basic sentencing options open to the court?

9. Contrast the main arguments for and against the death penalty.

10. What was the importance of the Furman and Gregg cases in regard to the death penalty?

11. What has been the recent history of the death penalty in the United States? Why have the numbers of executions increased in recent years?
 

Lecture Questions 16
"Community Corrections"

1. How did probation develop as a practice?

2. What conditions are usually applied to someone on probation?

3. How did parole develop? What is its purpose?

4. What are the advantages and disadvantages of probation and parole?

5. What do we mean by the term "intermediate sanctions?"

6. Briefly define each of these sentencing options:
    a. split sentencing

    b. shock incarceration

    c. community service

    d. intensive (probation) supervision

    e. electronic monitoring and home confinement

7. What does the future of community corrections look like?
 

Lecture Questions 17
"Prisons and Jails"

1. How were offenders punished before we began to make widespread use of imprisonment?

2. How did the idea of the penitentiary develop? What two contrasting models of the penitentiary developed in the U.S.?

3. How was the reformatory different from the penitentiary?

4. What was the prison like during the era of the industrial prison? What happened to the industrial prison?

5. When did treatment and rehabilitation begin to be emphasized in prison?

6. What imprisonment policy was emphasized during the decade of the 1970s?

7. What terms does Schmalleger apply to our nation's prison policies since 1980?

8. Why have prison populations increased so much in recent years?

9. What are the different security levels found in a typical state prison system?

10. How is the federal prison system different from state systems?

11. How are jails different from prisons? Who operates most jails?

12. How has jail architecture changed in recent years?

13. What do we mean by privately-operated prisons? What are arguments in favor of privatization?
 

Lecture Questions 18
"Prison Life"

1. Explain the process of prisonization. What are the important elements of the inmate code that was said to exist?

2. What do we mean by a prison argot?

3. What is the nature of prison life in a maximum security prison?

4. Why is the number of women in prison so small, in comparison to the number of men? How have these numbers changed in recent years?

5. How are women's prisons different from men's prisons?

6. What are the different styles or types of correctional officers in prison?

7. How has the concept of the legal rights of prisoners changed over the years?

8. What are some of the major issues confronting prison managers today?