The eighth edition of Criminal Justice provides students with a thoroughly researched, clearly written, and affordable text. While explaining how the criminal justice system functions, this text also considers the interrelationships of the various parts of the system and how changes in one area may have an impact on other areas. All legal citations, including cases and statutes, have been checked to determine whether they have been altered or overruled by subsequent legislation or court decisions. All criminal data reports have been updated according to the Uniform Crime Reports 2005. Along with recent scholarly research in the social sciences, this eighth edition retains the practice of using recent current events from popular sources to illustrate what is happening in criminal justice.