Processes of Criminal Justice

Professor Robert Garot

Crime does not exist apart from the social processes engaged in by institutional actors in discovering, responding to and processing it.  This course examines those practices as engaged in by:

• the police;
• those who work in criminal courts:  judges, defense and prosecution attorneys, and probation officers;
• federal and district attorneys who prosecute white collar crime;
• juvenile courts and the broader juvenile justice system that deals with youthful offenders;
• jails, prisons, and detention facilities;    
• probation and parole officers who supervise offenders or ex-offenders in the community; and a wide variety of treatment       programs and residential facilities for offenders and ex-offenders.   

This course will examine the routine work of these crime control agents as arried out in specific organizational contexts, which shape and determine the decision-making practices of these agents. The course will touch only peripherally if at all on such concerns as criminals or the causes of crime.

BOOKS AND READINGS

The following materials are required for the course:

Jonathan Rubinstein, City Police (CP)

W. Clinton Terry III, Policing Society (PS)

Milton Heumann, Plea Barqaining (PB)

Kenneth Mann, Defendinq White-Collar Crime: A Portrait of Attorneys at Work. (DWWC)

John Irwin, The Jail: Manaqinq the Underclass in American Society. (TJ)   

John Irwin, Prisons in Turmoil. (PIT)

Reserve Reader (RR)

CLASS TOPICS AND READINGS

Introductory Issues (class 1)

Currie, "Rethinking Criminal Violence." Pp. 4-19 in Confronting Crime. (RR)

Bittner, "Legality and Workmanship." Introduction to Control in the Police Organization (RR)

1.  Police Decision-Making on the Streets (classes 2-6)

(a)  Origins

Rubinstein, "Origins,” Ch. 1 (CP)

Miller, "Cops and Bobbies in the Mid l9th Century,” Ch. 5 (PS)

Bittner, "Non-Negotiable Coercive Force,” Ch. 9 (PS)

(b) Patrol Routines and Practices

Van Maanen, "Learning the Ropes,” Ch. 18 (PS)  

Skolnick, "Suspicion, Dnager, and Isolation,” Ch. 19 (PS)         -

Reiss, "The Police Officer's Lot,” Ch. 1 (PS)

Cumming, Cumming and Edell, "The Policeman as Philosopher, Guide and Friend," Ch. 24 (PS)

Black, "Dispute Settlement by the Police,” Ch. 5 in Manners and Customs of the Police (RR)

Banton, "Social Control, Crime Control, and Order Maintenance,” Ch. 8 (PS)

Wilson, "Types and Styles of Police Organization," and "Police Administration,” Ch. 11 and 12 (PS)

Bittner, "Maintaining Peace on Skid Row,” Ch. 26 (PS)   .

Rubinstein, "Territorial Knowledge and Street Work,” "People and Information,” and "Little Crimes,” Chs. 4, 5 and 8 (CP)

(c) Discrimination

Black, "The Social Organization of Arrest,” Ch. 25 (PS)

Lundman, "Working Traffic Violations,” Ch. 27 (PS)

Rubinstein, "Suspicions,” Ch. 6 (CP)

(d) Force and Violence

Reiss, "Police Brutality-- Answers to Key Questions" (RR)

Rubinstein, "Cops' Rules,” Ch. 7 (CP)

Hunt, "Police Accounts of Normal Force" Urban Life 13:315-341 (1985) (RR)

Van Maanen, "The Asshole." Pp. 221-37 in Manning and Van Maanen (eds.), Policinq (Santa Monica: Goodyear, 1978) (RR)

2. Processinq Common Crime (classes 7-10)

(a) Criminal Courts and Plea Bargaining

Heumann, Chs. 1-3 (PB)

(b) Processes

Sudnow, "Normal Crimes,” (RR)

Heumann, Chs. 4 and 5 (PB)

Feeley, "Establishing the Worth of a Case,” pp. 158-177 in The Process is the Punishment (RR)

Mather, "The Dynamics of Case Disposition." Ch. 5 in Plea Bargaininq or Trial? (RR)

Plea Bargaining (RR)

Maynard, "Modeling Sentencing Decisions,” Ch. 7 in Inside Plea Barqaining (RR)

Mather, "Variations Among Defense Attorneys,” Ch. 7 (PB)

Bargaininq or Trial? (RR)

Heumann, Ch. 7 (PB)     

MID TERM EXAM

3. Variations on Common Crime (classes 12-16)

(a) White Collar Crime

Katz, "Legality and Equality: Plea Bargaining in the Prosecution of White-Collar and Common Crimes." Law and Society Review 13:431-459 (1979) (RR)

Mann, Chs. 1-8, 11 (DWWC)

(b) Delinquents and the Juvenile Justice System

Emerson, "Role Determinants in Juvenile Court." Pp. 621-650 in Daniel Glaser (ed.), Handbook of Criminal Justice. (RR)

Bortner,”The Influence of Social Characteristics: The Issue of Race and The Influence of Juveniles' Sexual Identity and Social Class on Decision-Making,” Chapters 9 and 10 in Inside a Juvenile Court (RR)

4. Incarcerating Institutions (classes 17-19)

Irwin, The Jail

Irwin, Prisons in Turmoil, Chs. 1, 2, 6, 7 and 8

5. Probation, Parole Communitv Supervision, and Treatment (class 20)

McCleary, "How Structural Variables Constrain the Parole Officer's Use of Discretion." Social Problems 23:209-225 (1975) (RR)

Martinson, "What Works? Questions and Answers about Prison Reform." The Public Interest 35:22-54 (1974) (RR)

FINAL EXAM