Just published and already adopted at Penn State, Wright State University, and Western Michigan University!

Courts: A Text/Reader provides the best of both worlds- authored text sections with carefully selected accompanying readings that illustrate the questions and controversies legal scholars and court researchers are investigating in the 21st century. The articles, from leading journals in criminology and criminal justice, reflect both classic studies of the criminal court system and state-of-the-art research, and often have a policy perspective that makes them more applied, less theoretical, and more interesting to both undergraduate and graduate students.

Key Features

• Begins with an introductory chapter that presents a succinct overview of the U.S. criminal court system and its processes, and briefly describes the organization and content of the book
• Features "How to Read a Research Article"-a perfect introduction to understanding how real-world research is organized and delivered in the journal literature-which precedes and is tied to the first reading in the book
• Includes a "mini-chapter" for each section, with figures and tables that present basic concepts and provide a background for the readings that follow
• Introduces students to cutting-edge research and classic studies of the criminal court system by leading scholars in the field in carefully selected, edited research articles
• Provides key terms, Web resources, and thought-provoking discussion questions for each section, along with questions for each reading