Suchergebnisse

The internet is a rapidly expanding communication medium. It has generated considerable anxiety in relation to what is perceived as the easy availability of pornography and other sexually explicit material. There is a considerable amount of police‐based internet activity which constructs crime in particular ways. This article explores the way in which crime is constructed on the internet through police pages and goes on to highlight some of the questions which this raises for criminology.

Abstract: Mike Nellis's recent article, 'Probation values for the 1990s' (Nellis 1995) is considered to be flawed in that the articulation of anti‐custodialism, restorative justice and community safety locates the probation service as the beneficiary from the rejection of the humanitarian values which underpin probation practice. This response to Mike Nellis suggests that it is those humanitarian values which ensure 'clients' are perceived and treated as 'ends' rather than as a 'means' of transforming the probation service into an agent of penal reform.

AbstractThe criminal justice system remains largely untouched by over a decade of scrutiny and restructuring of public services by consecutive Conservative administrations. This is despite the system's lack of accountability, absence of clear objectives, prolific unfettered spending patterns, and discrepancies in its treatment of suspects and offenders at all stages of the prosecution process as witnessed by regular and embarrassing "mishaps".This paper explains the apparent contradictions in the New Right's social policy agenda showing how the overtly Thatcheritepolicies of "law and order" with its own brand of moral authoritarianism continues to immunize and protect the professional players on the criminal justice stage from the policies of scrutiny and consequent change. Ironically, it is argued, criminal justice and penal policy is one area of social policy where the machinery of appraisal, audit and management by objectives would be highly beneficial.Paul Wilding provided stimulating and helpful comments on the first draft of this paper and Howard Parker helped me to keep the contradictions of the system as the theme of the paper.

Abstract: The United Nations Third Survey of Crime and Criminal Justice (United Nations 1987) contains data on global criminal justice expenditure. The data show that between 1982 and 1986 there was a trend of increased expenditure on criminal justice. At the same time crime rates increased. This paper examines criminal justice expenditure in different parts of the system, in an attempt to discover whether there are patterns to global criminal justice expenditure. The author concludes that criminal justice expenditure is more concerned with political and ideological objectives than with feasible criminal justice outcomes.

The author argues that Service enthusiasm for 'alternatives to custody' has done nothing to challenge the centrality of custody in criminal justice but has promoted the expectation that we have the technical expertise to provide viable social discipline. Now that the state has economic reason to seek its own 'alternative to custody' strategy, will the Probation Service be able to survive with its values intact?

AbstractIncreases in the women's prison population in the UK, in line with many other industrialised countries, is occurring at an alarming rate and yet the types of offences for which women are imprisoned and the lengths of sentences they receive suggest that most present little risk to society. However, the personal and social costs to these women and their families of being imprisoned, and the economic costs to society, can be immense. Through an analysis of official statistics, this article explores some possible explanations for the growth in female imprisonment set within the framework of effective practice with a particular emphasis on the actuarial approach to managing offenders.

Abstract: The research on which this article is based examines public attitudes towards the reintegration of sex offenders into the community. Data were gathered using a variety of methods: an online, predominantly qualitative questionnaire, a postal questionnaire, predominantly quantitative, and meetings with community groups, such as residents' associations. The postal questionnaire was sent to employers (for distribution to staff) and mailed to 5,000 households in the north‐west of England; a total of 979 people responded to both the online and postal questionnaires. This study is one of the largest surveys in the UK on what people think about the reintegration of sex offenders into the community post‐conviction. The research findings indicate that people are not as punitive towards sex offenders as is assumed. However, feelings of insecurity in terms of the way sex offenders are managed in the community were expressed with a belief in the veracity of community notification strategies. Concern was also expressed in relation to how the community reintegration of sex offenders takes place.

Abstract: The process of reintegration of offenders after release from prison, or during a community sentence, is a key aim of criminal justice policy. This article provides details from recent research that investigated the barriers and opportunities to employment for sex offenders. The authors describe the barriers that are faced by sex offenders and the anxieties that employers experience when employing sex offenders. The authors conclude that the approach taken by the State is less than reintegrative and serves to increase the barriers and reduce the opportunities for employment for sex offenders.