Modernisation and cultural change under New Labour: views of solicitors, clerks, magistrates, barristers and judges

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Whitehead
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
Justice System ◽  
New Labour ◽  
Specific Domain ◽  
North East ◽  
Criminal Justice Professionals ◽  
Critical Change

There is a paucity of empirical research on solicitors, court clerks, magistrates, barristers and judges conducted within the criminal justice system in England and Wales. Even though the research conducted for this chapter is now several years old, it is included and retained because of the valuable insights provided into the era of modernisation. Importantly, it provides insights into what criminal justice professionals perceived of probation during a period of critical change under new labour. Accordingly, this chapter constitutes a slice of criminal justice history, in North-East England, that can be accessed and utilised by other criminal justice researchers. In doing so it is intended to compensate for empirical paucity in this specific domain of interest.

Neglecting Nonhuman Animals: A Content Analysis of Introductory Criminal Justice and Criminology Textbooks

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Jen Girgen
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Reporting System ◽  
Environmental Problem ◽  
Nonhuman Animal ◽  
Animal Abuse ◽  
Nonhuman Animals ◽  
Criminal Justice Professionals

Abstract As illustrated by the fact that all states now have felony anti-cruelty laws and the FBI has begun tracking some forms of nonhuman animal abuse in its National Incident-Based Reporting System, there is growing recognition by lawmakers and criminal justice professionals that the abuse of animals should be taken seriously and properly addressed by the criminal justice system. This article assesses 19 popular introductory criminal justice and criminology textbooks to determine whether these texts share this sentiment by giving attention to this offense. Results indicate that animal abuse is given no, or only minimal, attention in most of these textbooks, and when it is included, it tends to be framed more as an environmental problem than one of violence or morality. The article concludes with a call to textbook authors and publishers to better include animal abuse within their texts and offers suggestions for how to accomplish this.

scholarly journals Standardization and the Production of Justice in Summary Criminal Courts: A Post-Human Analysis

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (6) ◽  
pp. 774-793 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucy Welsh ◽  
Matt Howard
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Case Management ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Unintended Consequence ◽  
Legal Issue ◽  
Professional Judgment ◽  
Analytic Framework ◽  
Criminal Courts

Since the 1980s, successive governments have become increasingly distrustful of professional judgment in those services which remain funded by the state, including the criminal justice system. Against this background, governments sought to increase efficiency in summary criminal courts. One way that this seems to have occurred is via the use of standardized forms in case progression. During 2013, Welsh conducted empirical research in which the reliance placed on standardized case management forms became apparent. We argue, drawing on post-humanist vocabularies to inform our analytic framework, that such documents may have shifted the temporality of summary criminal justice, which has the (perhaps unintended) consequence of (further) marginalizing defendant participation and limiting the types of legal issue that are litigated. These documents and processes, therefore, participate in the development of a particularized, and temporally situated, form of ‘justice’.

Reactance and Recidivism: Implications for Probation Policy and Research

1987 ◽  
Vol 64 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1047-1050
Author(s):  
Kevin I. Minor
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Psychological Reactance ◽  
Reactance Theory ◽  
Compliant Behavior ◽  
Psychological Reactance Theory

Psychological reactance theory and the criminal justice system make opposing predictions regarding the effects of restriction of freedom on compliant behavior. This paper applies reactance theory to the problem of probation recidivism. Theoretical linkages are discussed in terms of implications for probation policy, and possibilities for empirical research are suggested.

scholarly journals Living with hate relationships: Familiar encounters, enduring racisms and geographies of entrapment

2021 ◽  
pp. 026377582110498
Author(s):  
John Clayton ◽  
Catherine Donovan ◽  
Stephen J Macdonald
Keyword(s):  
Domestic Violence ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Low Level ◽  
North East

This paper utilises the concept of ‘hate relationships’ in conversation with the literature on geographies of encounter to explore experiences of racism for those entrapped by racist encounters with those who are familiar. In so doing, we attend to the uneven and harmful risks involved in some forms of everyday urban encounter. We draw upon case notes collated by a hate advocacy service in North East England, UK, to illustrate the cumulative damaging force of enduring hate relationships. By drawing parallels with work on domestic violence, we suggest hate relationships evident in our data exhibit distinct temporalities of routinisation, whereby harmful ‘low level’ violence, often under the radar of the criminal justice system, gains force through repeated neighbourhood-based encounters. In so doing, we also highlight both the situated and relational spatialities at work; localised encounters marked by familiarity, racialised territoriality and experiences of fear and immobility, but also relations of entrenched disadvantage and institutional failures that sustain harm. Concerted acts of resistance look to confront and/or escape these relationships, but as forms of resolution, where additional burdens are placed on victim/survivors, these are constrained by the same violent conditions through which such relationships are allowed to take shape.

Probation and criminal justice, 1997–2015: from New Labour to the Coalition government

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Whitehead
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Justice System ◽  
New Labour ◽  
Coalition Government ◽  
Penal Policy ◽  
Essential Component ◽  
Community Rehabilitation ◽  
The Creation

This chapter excavates substantive developments in probation, criminal justice, and penal policy, from the election of new labour in 1997 to the end of coalition government in 2015. New labour modernised and the coalition government transformed the criminal justice system, an essential component of public service reform. The latter constituted a series of political incursions that culminated in a rehabilitation revolution. By October 2014 a large proportion of probation work had been privatised through the creation of 21 Community Rehabilitation Companies. Payment by Results is an important signifier of substantive ideological and material changes throughout the system of justice in England and Wales.

scholarly journals What Hinders Victims from Reporting Sexual Violence: A Qualitative Study with Police Officers, Prosecutors, and Judges in Hungary

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Katalin Parti ◽  
Robin A. Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Open Communication ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Trauma Informed ◽  
Mental Care ◽  
Criminal Justice Professionals

While rape historically remains underreported all over the globe, and criminal justice factors contribute to this problem, we investigate unique circumstances that might influence reporting inclinations by Hungarian victims of sexual violence. Among other possible factors, victim-blaming, institutional desensitization, and a lack of trust in the criminal justice system and in the community are discussed. The in-depth interviews (n = 22) with law enforcement and criminal justice professionals conducted in 2018 in Hungary reveal roots of underreporting in the complexities of the criminal justice system: there is a failure to prioritize victims’ needs—mental care services, physical and privacy protection—and a focus instead on solely providing legal justice. The further deficits that can be found among professionals’ attitudes and behaviors in the courtroom are products of the following: a lack of standardized protocols in addressing the needs of victims; a dearth of technical and evidence-based knowledge and training; a lack of supervision and trauma-informed services to practitioners; high caseloads; a focus on the goal of high conviction rates; not providing open communication toward victims; and a shortage of standardized protocols in dealing with victims.

scholarly journals Policing Male Rape and Sexual Assault

2008 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip N. S. Rumney
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Sexual Assault ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Gender Bias ◽  
Adult Male ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Male Rape ◽  
Sexual Offences ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Criminal Justice Professionals

This article examines an issue that has been largely ignored in the growing literature on the treatment of sexual offences within the criminal justice system, i.e. the treatment of adult male rape and sexual assault complainants by the police. This analysis is based upon a series of interviews with men who have reported their experiences of rape and sexual assault. It considers issues of victim care and satisfaction with the performance of the police, along with other criminal justice professionals. These experiences are placed in a broader research context that indicates some of the features of men's treatment by the police, along with recurrent themes that are also seen in the treatment of female complainants. Finally, this article critically considers claims that the criminal justice's treatment of male and female rape is influenced by gender bias.

Cognitive Theory and Plea-Bargaining

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca K. Helm
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Policy Change ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Cognitive Theory ◽  
Plea Bargaining ◽  
Heuristics And Biases ◽  
System A

Convictions in the criminal justice system now overwhelmingly occur by guilty plea. This is largely due to the “plea-bargaining” system in which the charge and sentence defendants receive as a result of pleading guilty is frequently much less severe than the charge and sentence that they would receive if convicted at trial. In this context, defendants must make complex decisions about whether to plead guilty or go to trial. This article draws on cognitive theory and empirical research to identify three potential weaknesses in the current plea system: (a) incentives offered to plead are likely to override considerations of factual guilt or innocence in a way that may be psychologically coercive; (b) groups that are cognitively disposed to pleading guilty when innocent are being offered insufficient protection; and (c) heuristics and biases are likely to influence plea decisions. Potential policy change to reduce these problems, informed by cognitive theory and decision-making research, then follow.

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