Author Description

The following narrative overview of the criminal process has been designed to acquaint the student with the broad scope of criminal procedure and to place the various steps in context. Most American jurisdictions follow similar procedures when dealing with allegations of criminality, from investigation to final case disposition. The reader should be aware that not all jurisdictions follow identical procedures in all cases and that there are individual differences even within a single state. The overview presented below is intended to be generally representative of procedure as practiced in the United States.