Law

The series Criminalization is a set of volumes arising from an interdisciplinary investigation into criminalization, focussing on the principles and goals that should guide decisions about what kinds of conduct are to be criminalized, and the forms that criminalization should take. Developing a normative theory of criminalization, the six volumes in this series aim to tackle the key questions at the heart of issue: By reference to what principles and goals should legislations decide what to criminalize? How should criminal wrongs be classified and differentiated? And how should law enforcement officials apply the law's specification of offences? This book is the first book in this series examining the scope and boundaries of the criminal law. Investigations into the scope of the criminal law have often focused on the harm principle, the principle that conduct can be justifiably criminalized only if it is harmful, or other master principles that might determine the proper scope of the criminal law. These chapters aim to make significant advances in the development of a broader range of ideas that might inform criminalization decisions. A range of issues are discussed, including the significance for criminalization of ideas of moral wrongdoing and of using a person as a means, the distinction between criminal law and other forms of legal regulation, the role of new technology in our understanding of the evolving scope of the criminal law, and the role of criminal justice officials in decision-making about criminalization. The chapters draw on legal and philosophical sources, and also on history, sociology, and social psychology in their investigations.

In America today, there are between 250 and 300 million firearms in private hands, amounting to one weapon for every American. Two in five American homes house guns. On the one hand, most gun owners are law-abiding citizens who believe they have a constitutional right to bear arms. On the other, a great many people believe gun control to be our best chance at reducing violent crime. While few — whether gun owner or anti-gun advocate — dispute the need to keep guns out of the wrong hands, the most important question has too often been dodged: What gun control options does the most heavily armed democracy in the world have? Can gun control really work? The last decade has seen several watersheds in the debate, none more important than the 1993 Brady Bill. That bill, this book argues, was the culmination of a strategy in place since the 1930s to permit widespread private ownership of guns while curtailing illegal use. But where do we go from here? While the Brady background check is easily circumvented, any further attempts to extend gun control — for instance, through comprehensive licensing of all gun owners and registration of all guns — would pose monumental administrative burdens. The book moves beyond easy slogans and broad-brush ideology to examine the on-the-ground practicalities of gun control, from mandatory safety locks to outright prohibition and disarmament. Casting aside ideology and abstractions, the book cautions against the belief that there exists some gun control solution which, had we the political will to seize it, would substantially reduce violent crime.

This book is the first major published work to present a comprehensive assessment of the impact of CCTV on the police in Britain. Drawing extensively upon empirical research, the volume examines how the police in Britain first became involved in public area surveillance, and how they have since attempted to use CCTV technology to prevent, respond to, and investigate crime. In addition, the volume also provides a detailed analysis of the legality of CCTV surveillance in light of recent changes to the Data Protection Act and the incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights. Challenging many existing accounts of the relationship between the police and new surveillance technologies, the book breaks new ground in policing and surveillance theory, and argues that it is time for a major reassessment of both our understanding of how the police respond to technological change, and of the role played by such technologies in our society.

A number of jurisdictions, including England and Wales after their adoption of the 1991 Criminal Justice Act, require that sentences be ‘proportionate’ to the severity of the crime. This book discusses how sentences may be scaled proportionately to the gravity of the crime. Topics dealt with include how the idea of a penal censure justifies proportionate sentences; how a penalty scale should be ‘anchored’ to reduce overall punishment levels; how non-custodial penalties should be graded and used; and how political pressures impinge on sentencing policies.

In managing the growing number of refugees arriving in the industrialised world, beginning at the end of the 1970s, States have devised increasingly restrictive policies. The objectives of these measures have been to restrict access to the territory or, at least, to asylum procedures. Thus, while international co-operation in the refugee field traditionally focused on protection and assistance, the last two decades have been characterised by the emergence of transnational policies aimed at containing refugee flows, primarily on the European continent. The convoluted refugee routes — often described as ‘secondary’ or ‘irregular’ movements of refugees between countries of origin and their final destination — have been among States' major preoccupations. To combat what they often perceive to be proof of the fraudulent or manifestly unfounded nature of asylum claims, European States have passed legislation or agreed on international instruments designed to allocate and even evade responsibility for the examination of asylum applications. Even bolder solutions have been advocated more recently, such as the outsourcing of asylum procedures through regional or offshore schemes. This book presents a critical legal analysis of the mechanisms and arrangements devised by States to tackle secondary movements of refugees, and offers innovative solutions to the protection crisis afflicting the global refugee regime. After providing a breakdown of the various legal tools used by States to combat secondary refugee movements, it argues that, while the legality of these various arrangements is in doubt, the most appropriate way to address these protection failures is to strengthen and develop adequate international accountability mechanisms.

Community policing seems always in vogue, yet its essential qualities remain elusive. There has been a rush to evaluate community policing before commentators have got to grips with what community police officers do which is distinctive. This book demonstrates, in detail, how community police officers go about such matters as gathering crime-relevant information from people in the local community, how they apply informal social control to public disorder situations, and how they ‘play’ the police organization itself in order to obtain resources they need and to secure their own advancement. However, such a brief is not sufficient in itself. The point is to use such a discussion of working practices to assess the conceptual apparatus which has been developed to understand community policing, and to evaluate the potential of community policing to achieve the objectives which policy-makers have set for it. That is the agenda of this book.

The extreme interrogation tactics permitted after the 9/11 attacks illustrate that the level of fear in society can influence interrogation law. Confessions of Guilt tells the story of how, over the centuries, law moved from indifference about extreme pressure to concern over the slightest pressure, and back again. Five movements from one extreme to the other can be detected in Anglo-American law. The book argues that the movements are largely caused by the level of threat felt in society. One of the movements occurred when American cities became dense, dangerous places in the late nineteenth century and judges became more accepting of high-pressure police interrogation. The trend would culminate in the “third degree,” the use of extreme police coercion to obtain confessions. Not openly tolerated by courts, the third degree remained in the shadows and would largely disappear by the 1940s. A quarter-century later, the Supreme Court turned to Miranda rules that required warnings of the right to remain silent and the right to counsel. As crime rates once again skyrocketed, the courts continued to permit high-pressure tactics despite Miranda. Confessions law has thus lurched back toward a crime-control focus. The interrogation of terrorism suspects is only the most visible manifestation of that change.

Despite plentiful discussion at various times, the personal victim has traditionally been afforded almost no formal role in the criminal justice process. Victims' rights have always met with stout opposition from both judges and the Lord Chancellor, who have guarded defendants' rights; the maintenance of professionally-controlled and emotionally unencumbered trials; and the doctrine that crime is at heart an offence against society, State, or Sovereign. This book provides a detailed account of how this opposition was overcome, and of the progressive redefinition of victims of crime, culminating in 2003 in proposals for awarding near-rights to victims of crime. Based upon extensive observation, primary papers, and interviews, the book examines changes in the forms of criminal justice policy-making within the New Labour Government, observing how they shaped political representations and activities centred on victims of crime. The book reveals how the issues of new managerialism, restorative justice, human rights, race and racism (after the death of Stephen Lawrence), and the treatment of rape victims after the trial of Ralston Edwards came to form a critical mass that required ordering and reconstruction. This book unpicks and explains the resultant battery of proposals and the policy manoeuvre contained in the Domestic Violence, Crime, and Victims Bill of 2003. This Bill proposed the imposition of statutory duties on criminal justice agencies and the granting of access to an Ombudsman, as well as a National Victims' Advisory Panel.

This volume aims to provoke reflection on the English conception and treatment of prisoners' rights, through juxtaposition with the conception of prisoners' rights in Germany. First, the German and English understandings of prisoners' legal status are examined; secondly these understandings are placed against the background of broader social, political, and legal factors; and thirdly, the methodological problems of comparative law are addressed. English and German approaches to prisoners' rights present illuminating contrasts. In England, despite significant judicial activity in the development of a jurisprudence of prisoners' rights, protection of prisoners' rights remains partial and equivocal. Many aspects of prison life are left within the realm of executive discretion. This equivocal commitment to rights in England is juxtaposed with Germany's highly articulated rights culture and its ambitious system of prisoners' rights protection under the Prison Act 1976. The German Prison Act sets out foundational principles of prison administration, affords prisoners positive rights, defines the limitations of prisoners' constitutional rights, and provides prisoners with recourse to a Prison Court. Moreover, these rights and principles have been developed and refined in a substantial body of prison law jurisprudence over the last thirty years.

Courting violence analyses how the courts handle cases of physical violence. It examines how lawyers and judges go about questioning defendants, witnesses and victims; how testimony and physical evidence is used; what victims, witnesses and defendants think of the trial process; and the views of lay and professional participants about violent offences. The book is based on original fieldwork at criminal trials and interviews with those involved. It is known that courtroom language, and the handling of evidence, influences the outcome of cases, and that those unfamiliar with the courts may feel bewildered and intimidated by courtroom language and procedures. The book examines the workings of such processes in cases of physical violence, with careful attention to assumptions made by lawyers, judges, and others as they relate to gender, social class, ethnicity, and people exhibiting patterns of behaviour, such as young men who drink heavily in groups. Key findings examine lay participants' understanding of courtroom procedure and language, satisfaction with their ability to participate competently, and willingness to assist the courts again. The book profiles the frustrations caused by the restricted role granted lay participants in trials, and reports problems concerning the experience of minority ethnic groups. Other themes include resource problems; the potential to improve proceedings by technological means; the role of the police, expert witnesses and interpreters; and variations in approaches to the judicial role. Understandings of violence are treated as contingent and legally reified, and victimisation as a negotiated process. The book uses data to show readers the contemporary practice of criminal trials in the crown courts, highlight some of the most contentious and sensitive problems in criminal justice, and to suggest improvements. It functions both as an overview of the work of the courts and as an insight into how society deals with serious crime.