This highly innovative new text covers concepts, critical issues, and real-life dilemmas through an in-depth exploration of fifteen historical and contemporary case studies in crime and justice. This comprehensive yet affordable textbook fascinates students while providing them with the pedagogic depth and breadth needed for an introduction to the criminal justice system. The dramatic narrative of the cases actively engages the reader while the comprehensive content provides extensive coverage of all aspects of the field. Crime and Justice: A Casebook Approach invites students to critically evaluate the evolving meaning and administration of justice within the U.S. through extended examination of the victims perspective, historical reforms, current innovations, and alternative perspectives on justice. Issues of race, class, and gender inequality are considered through multiple cases combined with the legal and policy developments resulting from reform. Current debates within the emerging field of community and restorative justice are viewed in the context of earlier reforms and public policy debate. Students are encouraged throughout the cases to evaluate and re-evaluate their own sense and understanding of justice.