"This book examines the main ethical questions that confront the criminal justice system - legislature, law enforcement, courts, and corrections - and those who work within that system, especially police officers, prosecutors, defense lawyers, judges, juries, and prison officers. John Kleinig sets the issues in the context of a liberal democratic society and its ethical and legislative underpinnings, and illustrates them with a wide and international range of real-life case studies. Topics covered include discretion, capital punishment, terrorism, restorative justice, and re-entry. Kleinig's discussion is both philosophically acute and grounded in institutional realities, and will enable students to engage productively with the ethical questions which they encounter both now and in the future - whether as criminal justice professionals or as reflective citizens."--BOOK JACKET.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- pt. I. Criminalization -- 1. Civil society : its institutions and major players -- 2. Crime and the limits of criminalization -- 3. Constraints on governmental agents -- pt. II. Policing -- 4. Tensions within the police role -- 5. The burdens of discretion -- 6. Coercion and deception -- pt. III. Courts -- 7. Prosecutors : seeking justice through truth? -- 8. Defense lawyers : zealous advocacy? -- 9. The impartial judge? -- 10. Juries : the lamp of liberty? -- pt. IV. Corrections -- 11. Punishment and its alternatives -- 12. Imprisonment and its alternatives -- 13. The role of correctional officers -- 14. Reentry and collateral consequences -- Selected further reading -- Index.