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Our book is different
because we have an
emphasis on criminal justice
as a public policy area.
We're very concerned to
think about criminal justice
from a larger perspective;
about decisions made
in a democratic governing
system that are going
to affect the lives of
human beings, they're going
to effect the expenditures
that society makes,
and they're going basically
effect how we fulfill our values
as a society.
We also think about the criminal
justice system as a system
and we present it
as interconnected in
a variety of ways.
And I also think it's
very important to think
about the values of our
democratic governing system
and the tensions that
exist between wanting
to protect liberty
for individuals,
be careful with due process of
law, yet also fulfill the goal
of society to have public safety
so that people's liberty is also
evaluated in terms of thinking,
"How free are we
to live our lives
without being guided
or governed by fear."
Very often people want to see
things in simple terms and one
of the things that I
always say to my students is
that you have no hope of making
anything better unless you truly
understand it.
And in the realm of
criminal justice,
that means having a recognition
of complexity and a recognition
that there are not easy answers.
For instructors, we
give them a number
of tools that they can use.
We give them real life
examples of ethical problems
that are faced by decision
makers in the system.
We focus on some
specific policy issues
in order to eliminate debates.
When you have a larger goal
like making students understand,
it's not sample, it's
not simple choices,
it's not the simple beliefs
they may bring into the room
or that they read
in the newspaper.
In order to convey that, you
need to have a variety of tools
and examples and illustrations
that strike their attention,
that spark their thinking,
and that really let's them see
and grapple with the
complexity of criminal justice
as a policy area and as
an interconnected system.
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