This study guide is one of several supplementary materials for a 15-week newspaper course about crime and justice in America. Course objectives are to help students understand the complexity of crime in America, the relationship between crime and the social system, uses and misuses of official statistics, competing philosophies of criminal punishment, and organizational pressures affecting the behavior of criminal justice personnel. Content and concepts include controversial issues in the fields of law, psychology, sociology, and criminology. The study guide integrates the themes of newspaper articles and primary source readings from the accompanying materials. Presentation of learning objectives and discussion of key concepts enable students to pursue the course independently as well as in groups. Divisions in the guide correspond with the six major units in the reader. Each unit in the guide contains a list of appropriate newspaper articles and selections from the reader, learning objectives, overviews of newspaper and reader materials, discussion of key concepts, actual questions, discussion questions, and a bibliography of related books and articles. (Author/AV)