|
|
Books > Law > Laws of other jurisdictions & general law > Criminal law
Essentials of Medicolegal Death Investigation uses a unique
approach by combining medical issues, injury patterns, and
investigative procedures to provide the reader with the basic
fundamentals for a death investigation. The text introduces the
reader to death investigation, common causes of death, and very
specific types of death, including blunt-force injuries, gunshot
wounds, and toxicology deaths. Each section includes case studies
with written and visual descriptions. Written by a well-known and
experienced medicolegal death investigator, the book fills a void
in medicolegal literature for both students and professionals
alike.
John Rebus stands accused: on trial for a crime that could put him
behind bars for the rest of his life. Although it's not the first
time the legendary detective has taken the law into his own hands,
it might be the last. What drove a good man to cross the line? Or
have times changed, and the rules with them? Detective Inspector
Siobhan Clarke faces Edinburgh's most explosive case in years, as a
corrupt cop goes missing after claiming to harbour secrets that
could sink the city's police force. But in this investigation, it
seems all roads lead to Rebus - and Clarke's twin loyalties to the
public and the police will be tested to their limit. A reckoning is
coming - and John Rebus may be hearing the call for last orders...
This edited volume seeks to reassess the old and to analyse and
develop novel approaches to the notion of proportionality in
criminal matters and the new security architecture. The discourse
is not limited to conventional constitutional constellations and
standard problems of sentencing in traditional criminal
proceedings. Rather, the book offers an interdisciplinary and
cross-jurisdictional exploration of highly topical,
proportionality-related issues pertinent to penal theory and legal
philosophy, criminalisation policies, security and anti-terrorism
strategies, alternative types of justice delivery, and
supranational enforcement as well as human rights and international
criminal and humanitarian law. In today's global risk society, with
its numerous visible and invisible enemies of the state and the
individual, balancing freedom and security has become nothing less
than an attempt at untying a Gordian knot. Against this background,
the proportionality of measures of crime prevention and repression
is unquestionably an issue of utmost importance, which basic
research and legal policy in rule-of-law based systems are urgently
called to address. The timely and fascinating contributions in this
book, covering jurisdictions from both the common law and the civil
law as well as hybrid and international jurisdictions, will appeal
to academics, researchers, policy advisers and practitioners
working in the areas of national and international criminal law,
comparative criminal justice/criminology and legal philosophy as
well as constitutional and security law.
This book presents the first detailed study of 'indirect
criminalisation' (the legal treatment of antisocial behaviour
through civil preventative measures such as the ASBO) in England
and Wales. Since the late 20th century many Western jurisdictions
introduced a range of civil preventive measures in order to prevent
and deal with various types of criminality. Although the stated
objective of these interventions is the prevention of crime, their
implementation can result in the imposition of restrictions akin to
criminal punishment leading to the indirect criminalisation of
certain kinds of behaviour. Through the adoption of an
interdisciplinary approach which combines criminal law theory and
empirical criminology, this book engages with the phenomenon of
indirect criminalisation using the legal framework on anti-social
behaviour in England and Wales as a case study. It engages with
central questions within legal theory: - what are the normative
challenges posed by indirect criminalisation and mechanisms for
distinguishing criminal from non-criminal rules? - how can such
questions be tested and applied empirically? - has the ASBO's
successor been operating as de facto criminal measure?
Many liberals consider closed-circuit television (CCTV)
surveillance in public places - particularly when it is as
extensive as it is in England - to be an infringement of important
privacy-based rights. An influential report by the House of Lords
in 2009 took this view. However, there has been little public or
academic discussion and analysis of the underlying principles and
ethical issues. What rights of privacy or anonymity do people have
when in public spaces abroad? What is the rationale of these
rights? In what respect does CCTV surveillance compromise them? To
what extent does the State's interest in crime prevention warrant
encroachment upon such privacy/anonymity rights? This book offers
the first extended, systematic treatment of these issues. It
develops a theory concerning the normative basis of the entitlement
to privacy/anonymity in public space - a theory based on notions of
liberty and dignity. It examines in depth how CCTV surveillance
might compromise these entitlements, drawing on everyday
conventions of non-attendance among people in the public domain,
and it considers whether and to what extent crime-control concerns
might justify overriding these entitlements. The conclusion is that
they might do so only in certain restrictively-defined situations,
and the book therefore ends with a proposal for a scheme of
regulation which might be appropriate for CCTV.
Criminal proceedings, it is often now said, ought to be conducted
with integrity. But what, exactly, does it mean for criminal
process to have, or to lack, 'integrity'? Is integrity in this
sense merely an aspirational normative ideal, with possibly diffuse
influence on conceptions of professional responsibility? Or is it
also a juridical concept with robust institutional purchase and
enforceable practical consequences in criminal litigation? The 16
new essays contained in this collection, written by prominent legal
scholars and criminologists from Australia, Hong Kong, the UK and
the USA, engage systematically with - and seek to generate further
debate about - the theoretical and practical significance of
'integrity' at all stages of the criminal process. Reflecting the
flexibility and scope of a putative 'integrity principle', the
essays range widely over many of the most hotly contested issues in
contemporary criminal justice theory, policy and practice,
including: the ethics of police investigations, charging practice
and discretionary enforcement; prosecutorial independence, policy
and operational decision-making; plea bargaining; the perils of
witness coaching and accomplice testimony; expert evidence;
doctrines of admissibility and abuse of process; lay participation
in criminal adjudication; the role of remorse in criminal trials;
the ethics of appellate judgment writing; innocence projects; and
state compensation for miscarriages of justice.
A systematic and historical treatment of the civil and criminal
procedure of Cicero's time. At the same time, the author examines
the legal difficulties and contradictions found in Cicero's
writings on procedure. With a subject index and index to passages
found in Cicero's works. Of value to the student of Roman Law,
ciminal and military procedure and law, and the history of European
courts.
Despite 15 years of reform efforts, the incarceration rate in the
United States remains at an unprecedented high level. This book
provides the first comprehensive survey of these reforms and
explains why they have proven to be ineffective. After many decades
of stability, the imprisonment rate in the United States quintupled
between 1973 and 2003. Since then, nearly all states have adopted
multiple reforms intended to reduce imprisonment, but the U.S.
imprisonment rate has only decreased by a paltry two percent. Why
are American sentencing reforms since 2000 been largely
ineffective? Are tough mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent
drug offenders the primary reason our prisons are always full? This
book offers a fascinating assessment of the wave of sentencing
reforms adopted by dozens of states as well as changes at the
federal level since 2000, identifying common themes among seemingly
disparate changes in sentencing policy and highlighting recent
reform efforts that have been more successful and may point the way
forward for the nation as a whole. In The Failed Promise of
Sentencing Reform, author Michael O'Hear exposes the myths that
American prison sentencing reforms enacted in the 21st century have
failed to have the expected effect because U.S. prisons are filled
to capacity with nonviolent drug offenders as a result of the "war
on drugs," and because of new laws that took away the discretion of
judges and corrections officials. O'Hear then makes a convincing
case for the real reason sentencing reforms have come up short:
because they exclude violent and sexual offenders, and because they
rely on the discretion of officials who still have every incentive
to be highly risk-averse. He also highlights how overlooking the
well-being of offenders and their families in our consideration of
sentencing reform has undermined efforts to effect real change.
Clearly identifies the real reasons that the wave of post-2000
sentencing reform has had minimal impact on reducing national
imprisonment rates Explains why reforms must target the excessive
sentences imposed on violent and sexual offenders, even though the
members of these offender groups are considered "justifiably
punished" by long prison terms in the public eye Enables readers to
understand why increased consideration for the well-being of
offenders and their families is likely a prerequisite to the
acceptance of more fundamental changes to the U.S. sentencing
system
Winner, 2019 Outstanding Book Award, given by the American Society
of Criminology's Division of Policing Section The first in-depth
history and analysis of a much-abused policing policy No policing
tactic has been more controversial than "stop and frisk," whereby
police officers stop, question and frisk ordinary citizens, who
they may view as potential suspects, on the streets. As Michael
White and Hank Fradella show in Stop and Frisk, the first
authoritative history and analysis of this tactic, there is a
disconnect between our everyday understanding and the historical
and legal foundations for this policing strategy. First ruled
constitutional in 1968, stop and frisk would go on to become a
central tactic of modern day policing, particularly by the New York
City Police Department. By 2011 the NYPD recorded 685,000
'stop-question-and-frisk' interactions with citizens; yet, in 2013,
a landmark decision ruled that the police had over- and mis-used
this tactic. Stop and Frisk tells the story of how and why this
happened, and offers ways that police departments can better serve
their citizens. They also offer a convincing argument that stop and
frisk did not contribute as greatly to the drop in New York's crime
rates as many proponents, like former NYPD Police Commissioner Ray
Kelly and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, have argued. While much of the
book focuses on the NYPD's use of stop and frisk, examples are also
shown from police departments around the country, including
Philadelphia, Baltimore, Chicago, Newark and Detroit. White and
Fradella argue that not only does stop and frisk have a legal place
in 21st-century policing but also that it can be judiciously used
to help deter crime in a way that respects the rights and needs of
citizens. They also offer insight into the history of racial
injustice that has all too often been a feature of American
policing's history and propose concrete strategies that every
police department can follow to improve the way they police. A
hard-hitting yet nuanced analysis, Stop and Frisk shows how the
tactic can be a just act of policing and, in turn, shows how to
police in the best interest of citizens.
The Ouija board jury incident of 1994 is one of the most
disconcerting in English legal history, possibly (says the author)
'the nadir of reported juror misbehaviour in the 20th-century'.
But, as Professor Jeremy Gans shows, in an era of soundbites it has
been distorted by the media whilst even eminent lawyers have
sometimes got the story wrong. In this first full-length treatment
he emphasises the known facts, the constitutional dilemma of
investigating even bizarre jury misbehaviour and how the trial
involved one of the most serious murder cases of the decade in
which two people were shot in cold blood. Stephen Young's
conviction after a re-trial is still claimed to be a miscarriage of
justice by some people, as to which Gans puts forward his own
ingenious solution. But quite apart from analysing the facts of R v
Young, this book is a tour de force on jury misbehaviour in which
the author also examines the implications for example of winks and
nods, research by jurors, speaking or listening out of turn, going
to sleep during the hearing or falling in love with one of the
advocates. Amusing at first sight, such events involve deep
questions of law, practice and democratic involvement in the
Criminal Justice process. Far from being a mere anecdote, the case
of the Ouija board jurors, the misconceptions about it and the
issues it leads to deserve close study by anyone who is even
remotely interested in jury trial. The first full length treatment
of an iconic case. Dispels the myths that have built-up around it.
Looks at other instances of jury misbehaviour. Shows how the courts
and Parliament have wrestled with problems of this kind. A
first-rate analysis of a baffling double murder.
Free Market Criminal Justice offers a critique of the ideology
behind the US criminal justice system. It argues that the
distinctive ideology shaping American criminal processes is a
commitment to a set of values in institutional design as divided
into two categories - "democracy" and "markets". Here, democracy
describes the ideas and practices of politically responsive,
popularly accountable governance. Markets refers to norms, premises
and mechanisms of private ordering in contrast to public
management; competition between private agents acting for
self-interest. Arguing against recent attempts to re-invigorate
democratic processes in criminal justice, this book claims that
there are significant downsides to a criminal justice system that
favors democratic processes over legal regulation. The commitment
to democracy has undermined the rule of law in American criminal
justice resulting in mass incarceration and wrongful convictions,
particularly as institutional democracy goes hand in hand with the
development of market-inspired mechanisms. This book concludes with
proposals for reforms to rebuild the rule of law in the criminal
process.
Dr. Lee P. Brown, one of America's most significant and respected
law enforcement practitioners, has harnessed his thirty years of
experiences in police work and authored Policing in the 21st
Century: Community Policing. Written for students, members of the
police community, academicians, elected officials and members of
the public, this work comes from the perspective of an individual
who devoted his life to law enforcement. Dr. Brown began his career
as a beat patrolmen who through hard work, diligence and continued
education became the senior law enforcement official in three of
this nation's largest cities. The book is about Community Policing,
the policing style for America in the Twenty-First Century. It not
only describes the concept in great detail, but it also illuminates
how it evolved, and how it is being implemented in various
communities throughout America. There is no other law enforcement
official or academician who is as capable as Dr. Brown of
masterfully presenting the concept of Community Policing, which he
pioneered. As a philosophy, Community Policing encourages law
enforcement officials, and the people they are sworn to serve, to
cooperatively address issues such as crime, community growth, and
societal development. It calls for mutual respect and understanding
between the police and the community. The book is written from the
perspective of someone whose peers identify as the "father" of
Community Policing, and who personally implemented it in Police
Departments under his command. It is a thoroughly amazing book that
has been heralded as a "must read" for anyone who has an interest
in law enforcement. Elected officials, academicians, leaders of the
nation's police agencies and members of the public will be
captivated by Dr. Brown's literary contribution.
How often is the defense of insanity or temporary insanity for
accused criminals valid-or is it ever legitimate? This unique work
presents multidisciplinary viewpoints that explain, support, and
critique the insanity defense as it stands. What is the role of
"the insanity defense" as a legal excuse? How does U.S. law handle
criminal trials where the defendant pleads insanity, and how does
our legal system's treatment differ from those of other countries
or cultures? How are insanity defenses used, and how successful are
these defenses for the accused? What are the costs of incarceration
versus psychiatric treatment and confinement? This book presents a
range of expert viewpoints on the insanity defense, exposing common
myths; investigating its effectiveness and place in our legal
system through history, case studies, and comparative analysis; and
supplying perspectives from the disciplines of psychology,
psychiatry, sociology, and neuroscience. The content also addresses
the ramifications of declaring citizens insane or incapacitated and
examines trials that involved pleas of insanity and temporary
insanity. Presents multidisciplinary coverage of this important
topic-one that is typically polarizing for members of the general
public Includes discussions of new advances in neuroscience that
have revived debates regarding free will, culpability, and
punishment Illustrates points with widely publicized and televised
trials that have recently increased public awareness of the
insanity defense as well as heated debates over its justification
|
|