Introduces the concept of crime and addresses key issues such as how we measure criminality, its variety, and the justifications we employ for punishing it. The book also discusses processing institutions: police, prosecutor, defense attorney, courts, sentencing and corrections. The book defines the relationships among these institutions and illustrates the relationships with examples. Materials in the book include cases and statutes, the writings and commentary of legal scholars, articles by social scientists and humanists, newspaper editorials and reports by criminal justice practitioners.