It is a common occurrence for teachers of criminal law in Australia to have their students ask: “I have found lots of materials on the situation in England and in America. Isn’t there anything useful written about Australia?” Sadly, the answer is all too frequently “no”, if the student is looking for material outside of bland appellate case analysis or correctional criminology.

Despite frequently being at the centre of political controversy and public attention, debate on the nature and direction of the Australian criminal justice system is still largely carried out at the low level of anecdote, impression and pre-existing prejudice.

Issues in Criminal Justice Administration is one of a few books published in the past several years which offer some hope for the development of a body of literature on the criminal justice system in Australia providing both theoretical discourse and empirical study and analysis.