Harriet Pierpoint

Reconstructing the role of the appropriate adult in England and Wales

The definition of the role of the ‘appropriate adult’ for young suspects in the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 Code of Practice C is ambiguous and contradictory. This article argues that the role has been socially constructed by the legislator, the courts, young people, the police and appropriate adults themselves. Following various recommendations to use volunteers as appropriate adults, this article revisits the nature of the role in light of a case study of a volunteer appropriate adult service. The results demonstrate that, in terms of volunteer practice, the role has been constructed to include elements of due process, welfare and crime prevention, but has to operate within the constraints of crime control and managerialism. Hence, this article concludes that the role of the appropriate adult should be reconstructed building on the volunteers’ welfare tendencies and that, although a number of cultural and practical obstacles would have to be overcome, he or she should be joined by a mandatory legal adviser to ensure that due process is respected.

Quickening the PACE? The use of volunteers as appropriate adults in England and Wales

Under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 Codes of Practice, an ‘appropriate adult’ should accompany a juvenile suspect at the police station in England and Wales, and similar roles exist elsewhere. In the past, there have been various recommendations to use volunteers as appropriate adults or in comparable roles. One of the reasons for this is that it was considered that their use would enhance the availability of appropriate adults and reduce the delays in securing their attendance. Dealing with young suspects expeditiously and detaining them for the shortest time possible is an issue of universal concern, not least because it is the subject of international law. This article explores the extent of delays in obtaining appropriate adults and the reasons behind them. It presents the results of a case study of a volunteer appropriate adult service which found that just over half of volunteers were contacted within two hours of the young suspects arrest and that they then tended to arrive within the two hours required in England and Wales. The article concludes with a number of recommendations for minimising delays.

Crime prevention in rural areas

For those pushing for crime prevention to be taken more seriously, and to be moved from the criminal justice margins to the mainstream, the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act is very good news indeed. It places a statutory obligation upon local partnerships, principally the police and district local authorities, to research local crime problems, consult, coordinate, implement and evaluate crime reduction strategies. However, inevitably with such a hasty piece of legislation, the good news must be tempered by various concerns. The concern we explore here is one regarding the applicability of the model and methodology of crime prevention envisaged in the Crime and Disorder Act to rural areas. We know that crime tends to be of greatest concern in urban areas, where it is typically more concentrated, in extent and impact. However, we also know that crime is rising in rural areas at a more accelerated rate than urban areas (Home Office 1994), that the drug problem is especially acute in some rural areas, and that the isolated circumstances of rural living may exacerbate the impact of crime on victims in rural areas (Anderson 1997). while rural statutory services, especially in such areas as policing, youth and social services, are chronically underfunded. Such information lends support to the Labour Governments move to establish a national framework for crime prevention, but the problem is that this framework has been devised on the basis of a largely urban experience.

Extending and professionalising the role of the appropriate adult

The ‘appropriate adult’ has received relatively little attention from academics and even less from policymakers. That said, when the United Kingdoms Labour government was displaced in 2010, it had just completed, in March 2010, a three-year review of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE), which included proposals for extending, professionalising and further reviewing the appropriate adult scheme. Under the new coalition government, the review of the provision of appropriate adults is continuing. It is, therefore, timely to assess the merits of the existing proposals and consider which further issues should be taken into account by the ongoing review. This article makes this assessment with reference to the existing literature, including the previously unpublished results of a survey of professional appropriate adults and their coordinators. The article argues that a number of appropriate adults support the extension and professionalisation of the role and, in practice, have already extended their role, in a manner akin to Marxs (1988) concept of ‘creep’. However, the main priority for the new government should be to clarify the definition of the role.

Animal Sexual Assault

The chapter begins by discussing academic and legal definitions of animal sexual assault. It argues that, given that in effect animals are wards under our control and that they are unable to offer consent in forms that we can understand, all sexual advances towards animals should be seen as sexual assault. The extent of animal sexual assault is discussed. Studies have found that up to 35 % of adult populations have committed animal sexual assault, although we acknowledge that these findings should be treated cautiously, given their methodological limitations. Next, the literature on why humans engage in sexual activities with animals, including Beirne’s typology with its categories of adolescent sexual experimentation, aggravated cruelty, commercial exploitation and zoophilia, is critically reviewed. The chapter concludes by arguing for the development of reliable empirical research, pro-animal legislation and multi-strategy responses to animal sexual assault.

Book Review: Erika Cudworth, Social Lives with Other Animals: Tales of Sex, Death and Love

capitalism and the shortcomings of ‘economic man’. However, some criticism of the book is justified. The superficial treatment of the structure-agent debate is mentioned above, but the theoretical discussion of how different markets are embedded in each other should be expanded, especially how their interaction is supposed to happen. In addition, the question of price is not entirely satisfactorily dealt with. The last chapter of the book, however, does concede that a sociological theory of money is needed to supplement the sociological study of markets. It also presents other directions for future research. All in all, this is a thorough and theoretically rich introduction to the study of markets and is highly recommended reading for social scientists, economists and the general public.