Ccj5456b – Administration of Justice
Dr. Robert Ford

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Instructor Contact: 

Instructor	Dr. Robert Ford
Office	Daytona Campus, Building 140 Room 200b
Office Hours	Tuesday 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. Wednesday 1:00 to 6:00 p.m. Thursday 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. Other times by appointment You can contact me anytime by email.
Phone	386-254-4412
Class E-mail	reford@mail.ucf.edu
E-mail	refmcf@bellsouth.net
Homepage	www.daytona.ucf.edu/bford

 

 

 

Course Description:

Course Description: Administration of Justice provides an overview and analysis of the American justice system.  Course initiates with a review of the legal and philosophical underpinnings of the justice system.  An understanding of the formal legal structure only provides a limited vision of the system.  The system as practiced often varies dramatically from the system as proposed in the legal literature.  Course lectures and readings will address patterns of practice and factors contributing to the tension between legal and practical structures.

Each system element, police, courts, juvenile justice and, corrections, will be defined in terms of structure and function. A brief history of the development of elements of the system will foster an understanding of factors shaping justice in America. A brief overview of crime and arrestees will be provided for workload context for system operations.  Special topics such as the death penalty, the incarceration boom and sentencing structures are analyzed.

The Justice System serves as a matrix for a series of opposing ideologies and functions. This mixture of oppositional goals and multiplicity of functions has led to the development of extensive informal processes within the justice system. Informal practices within the system in a number of cases conflict with the directions specified in the enabling statutes. Considerable discussion addresses the dynamic tension that often flourishes between the informal and formal justice system.