Kevin J. Brown

The Reintegration of Sex Offenders: Barriers and Opportunities for Employment

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.

Examining the introduction of legislation in Ireland to tackle juvenile anti-social behaviour.

In July 2006, the Irish Parliament passed legislation aimed at tackling anti-social behaviour following a perceived increase in the problem. The new provisions are based on existing law and practice in England and Wales. However, the legislation includes a framework for dealing with juveniles that differs in a number of respects from that which exists in England and Wales. This article examines how the Irish legislation proposes to treat juveniles engaged in antisocial behaviour and contrasts this with the English approach.

Older victims of crime: Vulnerability, resilience and access to procedural justice

This article provides the first comprehensive examination of the phenomenon of unequal access to procedural justice for older victims of crime. It analyses quantitative and qualitative data exploring the interactions of older people with the criminal justice system of Northern Ireland. It identifies that older victims of crime are less likely to have a successful crime outcome (known as ‘detection’ or ‘clear-up’ in other jurisdictions) to their case when compared to other adults. The results provide evidence of a system failing to adequately take into account additional vulnerabilities that disproportionately impact on older victims’ ability to engage with the justice process. There is an analysis of the relationships between vulnerability, resilience and access to justice. The current conceptual understanding of vulnerability as applied to older people within the justice system is challenged. The findings are relevant for researchers and policy-makers in the United Kingdom, Ireland and further afield concerned with the treatment of older and vulnerable victims by the justice system.

The Developing Habitus of the Anti‐Social Behaviour Practitioner: From Expansion in Years of Plenty to Surviving the Age of Austerity

Specialist anti�?social behaviour units are common within social housing providers, with many established in response to the policies of the New Labour governments of 1997–2010. These units now find themselves operating in a different political and financial environment. Following the English riots of 2011, the Coalition government, whilst imposing budgetary cuts across the public sector, called on social housing providers to intensify their role in tackling disorder. This article explores the habitus or working cultures within anti�?social behaviour units post�?New Labour. It does so through empirical research conducted in the aftermath of the English riots. The research finds that practitioners view their work as a core function of social housing provision. They have developed an understanding of human behaviour, which crosses the criminal and social policy fields with a wide skillset to match. A number of factors including national policy, community expectations, and multi�?partnership engagement influence their dynamic working culture.

Criminal Law: Text, Case and Materials, by Jonathan Herring, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2012, 5th edition [Review]

the argumentation favoured by lawyers. The methods he employs in legal theory classes attempt to get students to develop not only a questioning approach to their thinking about the law and problems to which the law may be applied, but also insights into the creativity involved in their own questioning processes. So does the book work? For a reader like me, who likes concrete explanations and evidence of learning taking place the book was very mixed. I found some chapters very stimulating and am confident that there are insights here which I could incorporate into my own teaching in my students’ interests. The more speculative and theoretical chapters left me having learnt less. However, readers differ, and those who enjoy a deeper theoretical analysis of the subject will gain far more from those sections. Ultimately, the book suffers from the fact that it is a text about moving beyond text. The evident excitement of the workshops which led to its writing is not necessarily captured in the artefact which we read. This, in a way, endorses the central argument of the book. Those parts which spring most fully from the page are the maps in Chapters 9 and 12. They illuminate the text they illustrate and exemplify the point being made.