STUDY GUIDE FOR EXAM 3 - FALL 2005

"WHAT EVERY AMERICAN SHOULD KNOW ..."      general points

"CORRECTIONS, INC."    general points

POLICE OUTLINE

   Clearance rates and implications - general points 
   History of policing and police forces - general points
   Professionalization of police, police culture, and how this relates to current problems
   Community policing - general points

COURTS OUTLINE

The Wedding Cake Model

   Know the four layers well
   Several million arrests each year - most for petty offenses
   Why legal definitions of crimes are not much help in understanding how the system works
   Publicized cases - why they are important and why they are misleading
   Three factors that separate serious & less serious felonies
   "Doing justice" as sorting out second and third layer felonies
   "Get tough" policies and "dipping into the third layer"
   Third layer, discretion, and discrimination

Court System and Courthouse Culture 

   Huge flood of cases
   Clientele (poor, young, male, etc.)  
   Dual system (adversary vs. bureaucratic) and dividing line (money & class)
   "Normal crimes" and how routine plea bargaining works
   Courthouse culture, "doing justice" and resistance to reform

PRISONS OUTLINE

   Prisons before the binge - what were they like
   As the binge has grown, are most prisoners serious or petty offenders
   The destruction of prisoner society and implications (lock-up, gangs, etc.)
   Long term consequences of the binge
   How the binge is likely to end

PROPOSALS FOR REDUCING CRIME

   What are primary, secondary, and tertiary approaches
   Be able to identify examples of each (more jobs in poor neighborhoods = primary, etc.)

ELLIOTT CURRIE ARTICLE

   What is "the new triumphalism"?
   What are the three "home truths"?
   What has caused the recent declines in crime and violence?
   Why do we have a "window" now (1990s) for social changes that would reduce crime?
   What should criminologists do?

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