Western movies are full of images of swaggering outlaws brought to justice by valiant lawmen shooting them down in daring gunfights before riding off into the sunset. In reality these mostly invented or anecdotal tales would not have happened that way. Real lawmen did not simply walk away from a gunfight they had to face the legal system and justify shooting a civilian in the line of duty. Providing a more realistic view of criminal justice in the Old West, this history focuses on how criminals came into conflict with the law and how the law responded. The process is described in detail, from the occurrence of common crimes of the day such as train robbery and cattle theft to the methods of apprehending criminals to their adjudication and punishment by incarceration, flogging or hanging."