The Administration of Justice: An Introduction to the Criminal Justice System in America, Fifth Edition is a comprehensive overview of Criminal Justice that is presented in a clear and understandable format. The text is designed to meet the needs of those students who are seeking to get a broad overview of the American Criminal Justice System as an elective to meet general education requirements for other disciplines, as well as the foundation for those students planning to major in criminal justice studies.

Each chapter begins with a Chapter Overview, Learning Objectives, and Keywords. The keywords are defined within the text material and highlighted in the margins in order to reinforce the important concepts of each chapter. Review and Critical Thinking Questions are included at the end of each chapter to allow the student to test their comprehension of the material that was presented.

The Fifth Edition has added a critical new chapter dealing with sentencing laws and the recently applied Criminal Justice Reform laws that have been put in place by many individual states and the Congress of the United States.