Criminology and Criminal Justice recent issues

The 2003 Licensing Act's impact on crime and disorder: An evaluation

Hough, M., Hunter, G. — 2008-07-31

The Licensing Act 2003, coming into force in November 2005 in England and Wales, abolished set licensing hours for pubs and clubs. The aim was to liberalize a rigid system while reducing the problems of drinking and disorder associated with a standard closing time. This article summarizes the results of an evaluation funded by the Home Office. Despite widespread concern that the legislation would lead to `24-hour drinking' and an increase in associated problems, the experience of the first year shows very little change. The scale of change in licensing hours was variable but modest: while the majority of pubs extended their hours, most of these extensions were short. Thus the average national increase in opening hours was small. Alcohol consumption showed a slight fall. There was no obvious impact on violent crime and disorder, according to a range of measures, including crime statistics, victim surveys and medical statistics. These results are not particularly consistent with findings in other jurisdictions which have relaxed controls over opening hours of pubs and clubs.

Prison privatization: In search of a business-like atmosphere?

Shefer, G., Liebling, A. — 2008-07-31

This article explores one interesting finding emerging from early findings of studies comparing private and public prisons in the UK: the relationship between prisoners and staff. These relationships appear to be better in some private prisons than in the public sector, at least during the early years of privatization. After presenting these findings, the authors provide three possible explanations for the positively evaluated prisoner—staff relationships in many private prisons during these early years: first, an intentional focus on relaxed and less formal regimes; second, the distinct balance of power which is the outcome of more powerless and inexperienced staff working in private prisons; and third, the legacy of a punitive atmosphere which still persists in some public sector prisons. While these findings do not constitute an argument in favour of privatization, they provide an opportunity to be less romantic about public sector values and practices, and more circumspect about the dangers of imprisonment more generally.

The Children's Fund and the prevention of crime and anti-social behaviour

Mason, P., Prior, D. — 2008-07-31

Early intervention prevention programmes form a significant element in the UK's complex and sometimes contradictory youth justice system. This article focuses on one such national programme in England, the Children's Fund, which has combined a broad aim of tackling children's social exclusion with a specific objective of reducing youth crime and anti-social behaviour, influenced by the Youth Justice Board's risk factors paradigm. In order to understand how these aims have been pursued in practice, the article discusses findings from a `Theory of Change' evaluation of a range of preventative initiatives developed through a single Children's Fund programme located in a large English city. The article discusses the implications of this kind of programme for the development of socially inclusive interventions with children and young people thought to be `at risk' of involvement in crime and anti-social behaviour, but also draws attention to uncertainties and tensions in the relationship between risk-based crime prevention interventions and initiatives addressing broader aspects of young people's social exclusion. The advantages of the Theory of Change approach to the evaluation of complex initiatives are also briefly considered.

Criminal convictions among children and young adults: Changes over time

Soothill, K., Ackerley, E., Francis, B. — 2008-07-31

This study focuses on court conviction rates—that is, the numbers and proportion of the population in England and Wales who are convicted of a crime between the ages of 10—25. Data on over 47,000 male and 10,000 female offenders for six specific birth cohorts (those born in 1953, 1958, 1963, 1968, 1973 and 1978) were extracted from the Offenders Index. We related convictions in three age groups (10—15, 16—20, 21—25) to population estimates for these age groups. Striking differences in the conviction rates over time were observed for both males and females. There is a remarkable decline among the 10—15 age group for more recent cohorts which echoes the increasing use of court diversionary procedures in this age group. There is no corresponding increase in conviction rates for the later age groups. These figures suggest that efforts in the 1980s and early 1990s to divert offenders away from court convictions have been successful, and that such diversionary schemes need to be encouraged.

Gender and probation in the Second World War: Reflections on a changing occupational culture

Worrall, A. — 2008-07-31

An autobiographical novel by Julia Steel recounts a year in the life of a probation officer working in London in 1945. The unpublished manuscript, written in the mid-1950s, provides a rare contemporary glimpse into the lives and social regulation of a group of families living on a housing estate at the end of the Second World War. Steel herself was a wartime graduate of the Cromwell Road Home Office Training Centre. This article sets primary source material, including lecture notes from Steel's training course, in the context of both contemporary and recent academic and professional literature. Following the centenary year of the Probation Service in England and Wales, it aims to contribute some new insights into the history of (women) probation officers and their daily work. It argues that Steel's manuscript and lecture notes can be interpreted within an analysis of state intervention in the lives of working-class families that places professional women in a tutelary and disciplinary relationship with mothers and daughters. It concludes by demonstrating the relevance of such an analysis to our understanding of the gendered nature of work in the Probation Service in England and Wales.

Determining the impact of intoxication in a desert-based sentencing framework

Dingwall, G., Koffman, L. — 2008-07-31

Research has consistently found a significant correlation between alcohol consumption and offending. Although this finding does not prove any direct causal link, many offenders subsequently claim that the fact that they had been drinking should mitigate their sentence. As the argument advanced by offenders is framed in retributive terms—culpability is reduced because of intoxication—this article aims to analyse the impact, if any, that intoxication should have under a desert model.

Book Review: T.L. Leap Dishonest Dollars: The Dynamics of White-Collar Crime New York: Cornell University Press, 2007. 243 pp. {pound}15.09 ISBN--13: 978--0--8014--4520--0

Croall, H. — 2008-07-31

Book Review: Alan Wright Organised Crime Cullompton, Devon: Willan, 2006. 237 pp. {pound}18.99 ISBN--10: 1-- 84392--140--5; ISBN--13:978--1--84392--140--0

Hornsby, R. — 2008-07-31

Book Review: Lol Burke From Probation to the National Offender Management Service: Issues of Contestability, Culture and Community Involvement Issues in Community and Criminal Justice Monograph 6, Napo, 2005. 50 pp. {pound}10 ISBN 0--901617--21--0

Hudson, K. — 2008-07-31

Recidivism in the Republic of Ireland

O'Donnell, I., Baumer, E. P., Hughes, N. — 2008-04-18

As prison populations increase, the need for successful reintegration of ex-prisoners becomes more pressing. The challenge of what has become known as `re-entry' has stimulated an extensive body of research, much of it concentrated in a small number of jurisdictions and concerned with levels and predictors of recidivism. The limited geographic breadth of the research effort has hindered our capacity to consider theoretically relevant questions, such as whether particular societal conditions thought to be conducive to successful prisoner reintegration (e.g. high levels of social capital and informal social control) in fact translate into lower levels of recidivism. In this article we expand the reach of existing research by exploring levels and patterns of recidivism in uncharted territory—the Republic of Ireland—and by drawing out the implications of the patterns observed there for comparative analysis.

Partners in crime: A study of the relationship between female offenders and their co-defendants

Jones, S. — 2008-04-18

Criminologists have paid relatively little attention to the relationships between male and female co-offenders. Most of the published research has been published in the USA and relates to the street-level drugs economy. In this project, 50 sentenced adult women were interviewed in an English prison about their criminal involvement with co-defendants. The picture that emerged revealed the widespread use of devices by males ranging from various forms of manipulation to direct physical coercion in order to ensure female compliance with their criminal activities. These findings stand in contrast to statements in some of the more recent literature, which seek to emphasize women's agency in their offending behaviour. The implications of these findings for the criminal liability and sentencing of women are discussed.

Restorative justice--the perplexing concept: Conceptual fault-lines and power battles within the restorative justice movement

Gavrielides, T. — 2008-04-18

Although the fast-growing literature on restorative justice is extensive, and in some regards repetitive, there is still no consensus as to the nature and extent of applicability of the restorative notion. This article claims that the restorative movement is experiencing a tension between normative abolitionist and pragmatic visions of restorative justice. It proceeds to identify six conceptual fault-lines that characterize this tension. These do not only refer to various definitional positions, but also disagreements that negatively affect both the theoretical and practical development of restorative justice. These tensions also encourage a power-interest battle between different stakeholders within the restorative movement including practitioners, theoreticians, researchers and policy makers. To approach these controversies, there needs to be an acknowledgment of the multidimensional nature of the conceptual problem of restorative justice and the impact it has on its application. The article attempts to get to grips with this problem, and provide a common ground for the future development of restorative justice.

Police effectiveness and police trustworthiness in Ghana: An empirical appraisal

Tankebe, J. — 2008-04-18

Although police researchers have often assumed that perceptions of police effectiveness enhance police legitimacy, there has been very little empirical support for this assumption. Employing the legitimacy scale developed by Sunshine and Tyler, this study sought to fill this gap in our criminological knowledge using data from a representative public survey in Accra, Ghana (N= 374). The article reports a lack of reliability, in the Ghanaian context, for the overall Sunshine—Tyler scale, and therefore focuses attention on a sub-scale labelled `perceptions of police trustworthiness'. The findings show that though perceptions of police effectiveness exercise a direct impact on perceived police trustworthiness, the relationship is stronger if the police are also perceived to be procedurally fair. The findings are significant as they show that building public trust in the police requires democratic reforms that simultaneously improve the capacity of the police to achieve both substantive effectiveness and procedural fairness.

Seeing private security like a state

O'Connor, D., Lippert, R., Spencer, D., Smylie, L. — 2008-04-18

Based on a systematic and detailed statutory analysis of 58 jurisdictions in Canada and the United States, this article constructs a modal typology of state regulation of contract private security. State regulation of private security has been neglected despite the fact it has grown across North American jurisdictions in the past two decades. Moving beyond rudimentary regulatory models and focusing on the contract security sector exclusively, five key dimensions of state regulation of private security are identified: governing-at-a-distance, character, identity, training, and information. Whether and how these dimensions relate to management protocols at the security agency level are then examined by combining these results with an analysis of an international survey of contract security managers within these jurisdictions. In turn, each dimension is found to relate to security agency management protocols. Implications for understanding state regulation and future research on private security governance are elaborated.

Book Review: Michael Naughton: Re-Thinking Miscarriages of Justice: Beyond the Tip of the Iceberg Palgrave MacMillan, 2007. 248 pp. {pound}48.00 ISBN--10: 0230019064; ISBN--13: 978--0230019065

Eady, D. — 2008-04-18

Book Review: Frances Heidensohn (ed.): Gender and Justice: New Concepts and Approaches Devon: Willan Publishing, 2006. 320 pp. {pound}45.00 ISBN 9781843922001 (hbk); {pound}22.00 ISBN 9781843921998 (pbk)

Graca, S. — 2008-04-18

Book Review: A. Barton, K. Corteen, D. Scott and D. Whyte (eds): Expanding the Criminological Imagination: Critical Readings in Criminology Willan: Devon, 2007. 226 pp. {pound}19.99 ISBN 1--84392--157--X; 978--1--84392--157--8

Mounce, R. — 2008-04-18

Book Review: Stephen Boxford: Schools and the Problem of Crime Devon: Willan, 2006. 274 pp. {pound}42.00 ISBN 978--1--84392--178--3 (hbk)

Noaks, L. — 2008-04-18

The killing of children by children as a symptom of national crisis: Reactions in Britain and Japan

Smith, D., Sueda, K. — 2008-01-21

In this article, we describe and analyse the public and political responses to two notorious cases of the killing of children by children, one in Merseyside, England and one in Kobe, Japan. We discuss the ways in which the cases were presented as symptomatic of wider social problems, and how in both Britain and Japan they acted as a catalyst for changes in the juvenile criminal justice system. The article describes and attempts to explain both similarities and differences in the reactions to the killings in Britain and Japan, arguing that while the differences may be more obvious the similarities may be more instructive, and setting the description in the context of penological arguments about globalization and the emergence of a postmodern penality. We conclude that neither country is as unique in its responses to juvenile crime as is sometimes claimed, and that despite `postmodern' anxieties and scepticism in both countries, a `modernist' welfare approach to the reintegration of the killers remained feasible in both Britain and Japan.

Taking care of business: Public police as commercial security vendors

Ayling, J., Shearing, C. — 2008-01-21

The article examines practices in `user-pays' policing. It locates these practices historically as well established, with a lineage that stretches back to the beginnings of the police in Britain and earlier. The article identifies different forms of user-pays policing, the various practices they include and the regulatory issues raised by them. Consideration of the tension between a conception of policing as a public service and charging for police services suggests that user-pays policing can be, and often is, compatible with public interests and the provision of public goods. A case study of events policing within an Australian Police agency explains this further. The article concludes with a consideration of the risks that may be associated with user-pays policing and of possible future directions for police participation in the market-place as security vendors.

Vehicles of desistance?: The impact of electronically monitored curfew orders

Hucklesby, A. — 2008-01-21

Electronic monitoring has become an integral part of the criminal justice process in England and Wales. Since the first trials in the 1980s the range of applications of electronic monitoring and the number of offenders subject to it have increased. Knowledge about the impact of electronic monitoring on offenders is limited and crucial questions about its effect on offending and desistance remain unanswered. This article addresses these questions by reviewing evidence from a study that interviewed offenders subject to electronically monitored curfew orders. It suggests that for some offenders curfew orders reduce offending and contribute to desistance by addressing levels of social capital in two ways. First, by decreasing levels of anti-social capital by reducing offenders' links with situations, people, places and networks correlated with their offending. Second, by improving levels of pro-social capital by encouraging offenders to connect or re-connect with influences linked with desistance such as family and employment. Curfew orders can also have negative impacts on pro-social capital particularly by disrupting employment and family ties and responsibilities. This article concludes that curfew orders have the potential to play a positive and distinctive role in supporting desistance and complement work undertaken as part of the new community order.

Community penalties and Home Office research: On the way back to `nothing works'?

Raynor, P. — 2008-01-21

This article discusses recent research on community penalties in the UK, and in particular the contribution of the Home Office Research, Development and Statistics division (of which the relevant section is now known as RDS-NOMS following its recent relocation as part of the National Offender Management Service). Current statements of methodological preference are discussed in the light of the history of evaluative research in this field, and it is suggested that a perceived need for information management may be leading to an unhelpful narrowing of methodological choices. This approach risks neglecting features of community sentences which require investigation, and at worst could encourage a drift back towards a belief that `nothing works'.

Evaluating offending behaviour programmes: Does only randomization glister?

Hollin, C. R. — 2008-01-21

Despite considerable investment there has been a marked reluctance by the Home Office to publish the evaluations of the various Pathfinder Programmes. Arguably, this reluctance stems from the `official' view that the commissioned researchers conducted the wrong type of research, specifically in not using randomized control trials (RCTs). The utility of RCTs is considered here with particular reference to the evaluation of the Offending Behaviour Pathfinder Programmes. It is argued that the Home Office `Reconviction Scale', favouring RCTs, is seriously flawed and is used to present a misleading view of the extant research. An overview of the wider literature shows that RCTs are not uniformly agreed to be the single design of choice in evaluating complex interventions such as offending behaviour programmes. The trend in disciplines such as the clinical sciences, with a history steeped in RCTs, is to utilize a range of research designs, both quantitative and qualitative, to evaluate complex interventions.

Book Review: Shani D'Cruze, Sandra Walklate and Samantha Pegg Murder: Social and Historical Approaches to Understanding Murder and Murderers Cullompton: Willan, 2006. 178 pp. ISBN 101843921693

Brookman, F. — 2008-01-21

Book Review: Adam Crawford and Tom Burden Integrating Victims in Restorative Youth Justice Researching Criminal Justice Series Bristol: Policy Press, 2005. 102 pp. {pound}14.99 ISBN 101861347855

McIntosh, B. — 2008-01-21

Book Review: Adam Edwards and Peter Gill (eds) Transnational Organised Crime: Perspectives on Global Security London: Routledge, 2006. 290 pp. {pound}75.00 ISBN 0415300959 (hbk)

Hornsby, R. — 2008-01-21

Book Review: Sandra Walklate Imagining the Victim of Crime Open University Press, 2007. 224 pp. {pound}18.99 ISBN 100335217273 (pbk)

Robinson, A. L. — 2008-01-21

Introduction

Hughes, G., Rowe, M. — 2007-10-17

Neighbourhood policing and community safety: Researching the instabilities of the local governance of crime, disorder and security in contemporary UK

Hughes, G., Rowe, M. — 2007-10-17

`Community' continues to be at the heart of political and policy discourses surrounding policing, security and community safety. While recognizing that there are powerful retrogressive and repressive elements to such contemporary debates, it is argued here that this is an unstable and contestable policy terrain and that there are opportunities to develop notions of community that offer more progressive possibilities. This article examines policy developments relating to Neighbourhood Policing and Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships in Britain to explore these issues. The latter developments emphasize that community engagement and co-production are centrally important. However, it is clear that there are dangers that already identified tensions will persist. The need to meet performance targets will continue to detract from community-oriented work, unless the two coincide. Additionally cultural and institutional factors are likely to prove inimical to efforts to respond effectively to community needs. None of this ought to be taken as an argument in favour of jettisoning the idea of community, but it does mean that the participation of publics needs to be couched in broad, inclusive and often conflictual terms and understood that such efforts offer only limited guarantees in terms of establishing progressive agendas for community safety and neighbourhood policing.

`Protean times?': Exploring the relationships between policing, community and 'race' in rural England

Garland, J., Chakraborti, N. — 2007-10-17

Rural villages are often portrayed as problem-free, idyllic environments characterized by neighbourliness and cultural homogeneity. Drawing upon the growing body of research into issues of rural racism, this article challenges these prevailing notions by highlighting some of the problems associated with the increasing ethnic diversity of rural populations. The article begins by addressing the symbolic importance given to the English countryside by many of its white inhabitants, and assesses how this is related to romanticized feelings of national identity, `localism' and narrow invocations of village `communities'. It is argued that village space is not neutral but is instead racialized and contested, and that it is feelings of insecurity among white rural populations, exacerbated by the presence of a markedly different `other', that results in the marginalization of minority ethnic groups from mainstream community activities. It is also suggested that these groups are often subjected to racist victimization, which can go unrecognized by local agencies. This clearly has implications for policing diversity in the rural, and the article explores ways in which the public police (and other rural agencies) could begin to develop a more nuanced understanding of the diversification of rural space and the `othering' of outsider populations.

Policing marginal spaces: Controlling Gypsies and Travellers

James, Z. — 2007-10-17

Community policing initiatives that aim to address diversity are increasingly required to engage with Gypsies and Travellers. In this article the policing of Gypsies and Travellers is outlined through analysis of empirical research in the south-west of England. The research shows that the police work with multiple public and private agencies to control the movement and settlement of Gypsies and Travellers, but the engagement of Gypsies and Travellers in community policing initiatives is limited. The police primarily engage with Gypsies and Travellers through enforcement practice. Gypsies and Travellers are shown here to respond to their experiences of policing in a number of ways that attempt to place them beyond the gaze of formal agencies. In conclusion the article questions the degree to which policing agencies can reach Gypsies and Travellers via community policing approaches.

Policing diversity in the digital age: Maintaining order in virtual communities

Wall, D. S., Williams, M. — 2007-10-17

Members of `terrestrial' communities are migrating in ever-increasing numbers to a new `Third Space' that manifests outside traditional geographical physical boundaries. This online space consists of purely social relations where interaction and community are performed at-a-distance. The diversifying populations of these virtual villages, towns and cities now constitute very real communities. Online non-gaming spaces such as Ebay, Active Worlds and Secondlife, for example, deliberately utilize the discourse of community in an attempt to instil a sense of communal space and shared responsibility among their members. While the majority subscribe to the rhetoric of `netizenship' others find alternative means to participate online. The avocations of these few have resulted in the endemic deviance/crime problem that exists online. As a result, online communities have developed their own distinct history of control and regulation.

This article explores the ways that online social spaces maintain orderly `communities'. It contrasts `proximal' (online) forms of governing online behaviour, such as online reputation management systems, `virtual' police services and vigilante groups that employ `online shaming', with `distal' (offline) forms such as offline policing and criminal justice processes. The central theme of the article is a critical account of how these, often contradicting, nodes of governance interact.

`Invisible minorities': Challenging community and neighbourhood models of policing

Moran, L. J. — 2007-10-17

This article explores challenges that non-normative sexualities, in particular `lesbian' and `gay' generate for `community' and `neighbourhood' models and practices of policing. It pursues this objective by way of a series of reflections arising out of a number of encounters with lesbians and gay men, the police, policy makers and activists all of whom have been involved in an ongoing project of generating debate, building policies and changing the day-to-day operation of policing in England and Wales. These encounters occurred over a five-year period in several different geographical and institutional locations. The article concludes with a critique of two themes that connect these incidents: the use of the `minority model' lesbian and gay community and the use of `stranger danger' as the model of homophobic violence to explain that community's distinctive experience of violence.

The politics of police reform: Ten years after the Royal Commission into the New South Wales Police Service

Chan, J., Dixon, D. — 2007-10-17

In 1997, the Wood Royal Commission into the New South Wales Police Service concluded that a state of `systemic and entrenched corruption' existed in the police organization. Major reforms were introduced in the wake of the Commission, including the appointment of a new Police Commissioner, organizational restructuring, a complete revamp of recruit education, as well as increased monitoring and accountability. The magnitude and scope of the Commission's reform programme was bold and ambitious by international standards. This article takes stock of the impact of the Commission 10 years after the publication of its Final Report. Drawing on interviews with key informants, official reports and other documentary sources, the article analyses the activities of the Commission, the intentions of its recommendations and the implementation and consequences of reform. The lessons of the NSW experience are salutary not only for understanding the vagaries of police reform, they also demonstrate the complex relationship between police organizations and the volatile political environments in which they increasingly need to operate.

Book Review: Jennifer Wood and Clifford Shearing Imagining Security Cullompton, UK: Willan Publishing, 2007. 192 pp. ISBN 13: 978 1 84392 075 5 (pbk); ISBN 10: 1 84392 074 3 (hbk)

Simon, J. — 2007-10-17