Keith Bottomley

Crime and Punishment: Interpreting the Data

How much criticism? how many criminals? how many victims? police work and criminal statistics the criminal process - from suspicion to conviction sentencing trends and statistics of imprisonment juvenile justice in the United Kingdom crime statistics in context evaluating criminal justice by numbers.

Safeguarding the rights of suspects in police custody

Reporting findings from research on the impact of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE), this paper assesses the effectiveness of rights provided for suspects in police custody which were intended to counterbalance increased police powers. It discusses (1) the involvement in the detention and questioning process of parents, social workers, and legal advisers; (2) the procedures which regulate the detention and questioning of suspects before charge; and (3) the effectiveness of sanctions and supervision. It concludes that these safeguards have had a significant, although variable, impact. Factors that have limited this impact are assessed. Claims that suspects’ rights are excessively hampering the detection of crime are criticized.

Introduction: Labour's crime policy in context

Abstract There is a tendency to construe both ‘crime’ and ‘crime policy’ in very narrow terms. Hence, crime policy is often regarded as being mainly about the prevention, through penal measures, of an unrepresentative range of offences. A progressive crime policy would be informed by a broader conception of crime, would include ‘social’ methods of crime reduction, and would pursue a wider range of goals including: doing justice, protecting the welfare of offenders, empowering victims, and reducing imprisonment and criminalisation. The Conservatives in office disseminated a narrow conception of the crime problem, which they addressed through a narrow ‘tough sentencing’ policy. In assessing Labours crime policy we ask, not whether it is achieving more efficiently the goals pursued by the Conservatives, but whether it is developing a broader and more progressive vision of crime and crime policy. Labours core concerns in this field‐ embodied in the Crime and Disorder Act 1998‐ are to prevent offending by yo...