Martin Wasik

Computer misuse and misconduct in public office

A number of recent prosecutions against police officers for misuse of confidential material are considered. They show that the Crown Prosecution Service is relying in more serious cases on the offence of misconduct in public office rather than prosecuting the specialist computer misuse offences. This article considers reasons for that approach, and its implications.

Protecting vulnerable groups after Soham and Bichard: Is IT the solution, or part of the problem?

Abstract Increasing reliance is being placed on IT systems in criminal justice, to deliver ‘joined-up’ justice and to monitor offenders. With the modern emphasis on managing risk of offending, we have seen the creation of various offender registers. Yet there are real concerns. A number of recent government IT projects in criminal justice have been over-ambitious. Initial enthusiasm for setting up systems is not always matched by the finance, staffing and administration necessary to maintain them. Of most concern in the development of these databases, however, is the slide away from basic principles of allegation and proof. Registers and record checks effectively ignore what was once a clear distinction between caution and conviction. Enhanced checks now include access to soft ‘intelligence’ information about a person, which has not been tested in court or otherwise. Access to this material is being made available, not just to criminal justice professionals, but to the wider public.

Keeping it in the family

business.utulsa.edu Ben Holman, assistant professor of professional practice in accounting, started at The University of Tulsa in 2016. He currently teaches courses in accounting for the MBA program and undergraduate accounting. Prior to TU, Holman had 18 years of experience in the international oil and gas industry, including an expatriate assignment in South America. Most recently, Holman served as CFO, CAO and controller of Apco Oil and Gas International, Inc. and director of international accounting at WPX Energy. Holman earned a BSBA with a major in accounting and a BS with a major in Spanish from TU in 1997, and a Master of Accountancy from TU in 2016. He is a certified public accountant who brings his international business and financial reporting experience to the classroom. Faculty Spotlight

Who Knows Best? A Question About How Criminal Policy Change Takes Place

In defining the tasks of criminology, Sutherland pointed to an examination of ‘the processes of making laws, of breaking laws, and of reacting toward the breaking of laws’ (Sutherland et al., 1992, p. 3). This ‘still hard-to-beat definition of the field’ (Loader and Sparks, 2011, p. 13) shows that the question of crime, and the responses to it, also encompasses the issue of how policy and practice decisions about crime are made. The examination of the how question is significant, because the way that policy and practice decisions are made shapes the content of those decisions and, in turn, the scope and limits of criminal justice. The how question becomes particularly important when policy and legislative initiatives are of a strategic nature; namely, when they attempt to bring change or significant development in the operation and scope of criminal justice, in order to increase its efficiency, effectiveness and public legitimacy. Examination of the how question, therefore, is central to the study of the procedural legitimacy of strategic policy initiatives. The suspended sentence in English law is a simple but useful example. The Criminal Justice Act 1991, consistent with the government’s general policy objective at that time of securing proportionality and ‘desert’ in sentencing, restricted the power to pass a suspended sentence to ‘exceptional circumstances’ only.