West Virginia's Criminal Justice System

West Virginia's Criminal Justice System is a practical examination of crime, process, and policy responses in the "Mountain State." As a federated country, the United States allows each state the freedom to develop individualized criminal justice systems to meet the needs of its citizens. While there are commonalities among the states, there are, at the same time, vast differences. This book gives readers an opportunity to closely evaluate these issues as they are relevant to West Virginia. While the text broadly focuses on the three components of the justice system—law enforcement, courts, and corrections—it also includes chapters on the juvenile justice system as well as victim advocacy and victim services. Other chapters provide insight into current crime trends, homeland security, and drug and alcohol abuse. In addition, each chapter features a spotlight issue related to that topic, such as computer crime, police training, juvenile waiver to adult court, elder abuse, and the possible need for the state to adopt an intermediate appellate court. Finally, key terms, critical thinking and review questions, and additional resources are included to allow the reader to further explore and analyze each topic on their own.

The second edition includes:

• Updates reflecting legislative and administrative changes to many facets of the criminal justice system;
• A new chapter on law enforcement;
• Updated crime statistics and victimization data; and
• Revisions to the corrections chapter, juvenile justice chapter, and the drug problem chapter, reflecting policy changes and updated information.

A set of 174 PowerPoint slides is available upon adoption of this book. Click here to view a set of sample slides. If you are a professor using this book for a class, please email Beth at bhall@cap-press.com to request your slides.

Overall, this book is a good read, offering a rich amount of information that helps readers explore the criminal justice system of a small state around the East Coast … an excellent reference book for educators and students who have an interest in West Virginia."
— Jawjeong Wu, Criminal Justice Review