Drawing on Foucauldian theory and 'social harm' paradigms, Michael Naughton offers a radical redefinition of miscarriages of justice from a critical perspective. This book uncovers the limits of the entire criminal justice process and challenges the dominant perception that miscarriages of justices are rare and exceptional cases of wrongful imprisonment.

Can punishments ever meaningfully be proportioned in severity to the seriousness of the crimes for which they are imposed? A great deal of attention has been paid to the general justification of punishment, but the thorny practical questions have received significantly less. Serious analysis has seldom delved into what makes crimes more or less serious, what makes punishments more or less severe, and how links are to be made between them. In Of One-eyed and Toothless Miscreants, Michael Tonry has gathered together a distinguished cast of contributors to offer among the first sustained efforts to specify with precision how proportionality can be understood in relation to the implementation of punishment. Each chapter examines scholarly and lay thinking about punishment of people convicted of crimes with particular emphasis on "making the punishment fit the crime." The contributors challenge the most prevalent current theories and emphasize the need for a shift away from the politicized emotionalism of recent decades. They argue that theories that coincided with mass incarceration and rampant injustice to countless individuals are evolving in ways that better countenance moving toward more humane and thoughtful approaches. Written by many of the leading thinkers on punishment, this volume dissects previously undeveloped issues related to considerations of deserved punishment and provides new ways to understand both the severities of punishment and the seriousness of crime.

This book addresses the idea that victims remain contested and controversial participants of justice in the twenty-first century adversarial criminal trial. Victims are increasingly participating in all phases of the criminal trial, with new substantive and procedural rights, many of which may be enforced against the state or defendant. This movement to substantive rights has been contentious, and evidences a contested terrain between lawyers, defendants, policy-makers and even victims themselves. Bringing together substantial source materials from law and policy, this book sets out the rights and powers of the victim throughout the phases of the modern adversarial criminal trial. It examines the role of the victim in pre-trial processes, alternative pathways and restorative intervention, the jury trial, sentencing, appeal and parole. Preventative detention, victim registers, criminal injuries compensation and victim assistance, restitution and reparations, and extra-curial rights and declarations are examined to set out the rights of victims as they impact upon and constitute aspects of the modern criminal trial process. The adversarial criminal trial is also assessed in the context of the increased rights of victims in international law and procedure, and with reference to policy transfer between civil and common law jurisdictions. This timely and comprehensive book will be of great interest to scholars of criminology, criminal law and socio-legal studies.

This edited volume presents nine new state-of-the-science chapters covering topics relevant to psychology and law, from established and emerging researchers in the field. Relevant to researchers, clinical practitioners, and policy makers, topics include discussions of rape and sexual assault, eyewitness identification, body-worn cameras, forensic gait analysis, evaluations and assessments, veteran's experiences, therapeutic animals and wrongful convictions.

This book explores the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) communities as victims, offenders and staff within the criminal justice system. It draws on both emerging and existing LGBT research and campaigns to identify and explore issues relevant to the criminal justice system, including: agencies of the criminal justice system, victimisation, domestic violence and abuse, transgender experiences, LGBT people as offenders, international perspectives and the personal experiences of LGBT people. Charlotte Knight and Kath Wilson trace the legislative journey toward equal treatment before and after the Wolfenden Report. They consider why, for example, lesbians are over represented on death row in the US, how the prosecution characterises them and what part homophobia might play in offending and in sentencing. They raise important questions about the causes of, and responses to, same-sex domestic violence and abuse and how the system delivers justice to trans people. Sodomy laws and the treatment of LGBT people worldwide are also considered and models of good practice are offered. Their insights will be of interest to practitioners, policy makers and scholars of the criminal justice system, particularly those concerned with the rights of LGBT communities.

Young people, crime and delinquency are words that are commonly linked in public perception and young people are often blamed for social ills. Their deviancy and threat to social control has been held to be a social fact from Plato to today. This book subjects that 'fact' to critical examination through consideration of youth justice systems in six different countries, drawing on sociological and criminological analysis as well as expert practitioner opinion. This book's comparative, cultural approach allows for consideration of the impact of new and emergent systems of communication and discourse and considers how these may impact future constructions of delinquency at a local and global level. Understanding changing constructions of delinquency, the systems and responses we already have and their strengths and weaknesses enables critique about what we do and what we know, and allows us to imagine how it might be otherwise.

Corrections: Exploring Crime, Punishment, and Justice in America provides a thorough introduction to the topic of corrections in America. In addition to providing complete coverage of the history and structure of corrections, it offers a balanced account of the issues facing the field so that readers can arrive at informed opinions regarding the process and current state of corrections in America. The 3e introduces new content and fully updated information on America's correctional system in a lively, colorful, readable textbook. Both instructors and students benefit from the inclusion of pedagogical tools and visual elements that help clarify the material.

This book brings together a collection of emergent research that moves the debate on desistance beyond a general consideration of individual and social structural influences. The authors examine empirical developments which have implications for policy surrounding resettlement and re-offending, but also for punishment practices. Presenting thought-provoking theoretical advances and critiques, the editors challenge and enrich traditional understandings of desistance. A wide range of chapters explore how some criminal justice interventions hinder the desistance process, but also how alternative approaches may be more helpful in promoting and supporting desistance. Thorough and diverse, this book will be of great interest to scholars of criminology and criminal justice, social policy, sociology and psychology, and of special interest to researchers and practitioners working with (ex-)offenders.

George Floyd's murder in Minneapolis triggered abolitionist shockwaves. Calls to defund the police found receptive ears around the world. Shortly after, Sarah Everard's murder by a serving police officer sparked a national abolitionist movement in Britain. But to abolish the police, prisons and borders, we must confront the legacy of Empire. Abolition Revolution is a guide to abolitionist politics in Britain, drawing out rich histories of resistance from rebellion in the colonies to grassroots responses to carceral systems today. The authors argue that abolition is key to reconceptualising revolution for our times - linking it with materialist feminisms, anti-capitalist class struggle, internationalist solidarity and anti-colonialism. Perfect for reading groups and activist meetings, this is an invaluable book for those new to abolitionist politics - whilst simultaneously telling a passionate and authoritative story about the need for abolition and revolution in Britain and globally.

This book offers a unique examination of how violence is situationally induced and reproduced for those inmates living with HIV in a US State prison system. Imprisonment is the only space where Americans have a constitutional right to healthcare but findings from this research suggest that accessing this care and associated welfare benefits requires some degree of violence. This book documents how HIV-positive inmates went about achieving agency through harm to their bodies and social standing to improve their health and wellbeing, in prison and upon re-entry to the community. It focusses on ethnographic research which was carried out in seven penal facilities in New England and comprises of accounts from inmates, prison staff, healthcare providers, ex-offenders, and community social workers. This book speaks to academics interested in prisons, violence, health, and ethnographic research, and to policy makers.

The principle revealed in Death by Installments is that the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment does not guarantee protection to black men who kill whites. Reading the carefully researched and well-told story of Willie Francis offers a four-decade-old view of both the society's commitment to this principle, and the Supreme Court's unwillingness then and now to challenge it. Derrick Bell, Harvard Law School ... not just a good' but a splendidly written, expertly researched, grippingly told, and passionately presented tome that can proudly take its place alongside Anthony Lewis' Gideon's Trumpet. Henry J. Abraham, University of Virginia The case of Willie Francis has been scrutinized and reexamined over the past several decades, and it is still not clear whether he was guilty of the crime for which he was executed in Louisiana forty years ago. Miller and Bowman's book recounts the ordeal of this teenaged black youth who was sent a second time to the electric chair a year after repeated attempts to supply enough current to kill him failed. His tragic story raises disturbing questions not only about capital punishment itself but about the humanity of our methods of carrying out executions and our capacity as a nation to uphold fundamental rights guaranteed by our Constitution. Miller and Bowman describe Francis' experiences from the time of his arrest, and they review the legal struggles within the Supreme Court that followed the botched execution attempt. In considering Eighth Amendment provisions against cruel and unusual punishment, the Court held that Willie Francis' previous subjection to electrical current did not make his subsequent electrocution any more cruel in the constitutional sense than any other electrocution. The authors examine the far-reaching implications of this stand in light of the many similar--but unpublicized--incidents of prolonged, agonizing executions by electrocution, gas, and even lethal injection. They contend that the Court has never faced the issue squarely and that its failure to set limits on the inflicting of pain in the Willie Francis case renders the Eighth Amendment guarantee meaningless.

This book explores how an audience of men serving sentences in an English prison responded to viewing five contemporary British prison films. It examines how media representations of prison vary in style and content, how film can influence public attitudes, and how this affects people in prison. The book explains the ways in which film acts as a power resource, presenting an ideological vision of criminal justice. The audience used these films to map the social terrain of prison, including issues of power and resistance; race and racism; corruption and the illicit economy; and staff-prisoner relationships, themes which are explored in the films screened. The authors argue that media consumption is one of the ways in which people in prison construct and maintain an ideal of the prisoner culture and what it is to be a 'prisoner'. The book also reveals the ways in which audience members' media choices and readings are part of the ongoing process of constructing their self-identity. This book illuminates the complex ways in which media consumption is an integral part of social power, cultural formation and identity construction. Recognising and engaging with audiencehood offers one potential route for supporting more progressive penal practice. This book speaks to those interested in prisons, crime, media and culture, and film studies.

In-cell television is now a permanent feature of prisons in England and Wales, and a key part of the experience of modern incarceration. This sociological exploration of prisoners' use of television offers an engaging and thought provoking insight into the domestic and everyday lives of people in prison - with television close at hand. Victoria Knight explores how television contributes to imprisonment by normalising the prison cell. In doing so it legitimates this space to hold prisoners for long periods of time, typically without structured activity. As a consequence, television's place in the modern prison has also come to represent an unanticipated resource in the package of care for prisoners. This book uncovers the complex and rich emotive responses to prison life. Dimensions of boredom, anger, frustration, pleasure and happiness appear through the rich narratives of both prisoners and staff, indicating the ways institutions and individuals deal with their emotions. It also offers an insight into the unfolding future of the digital world in prisons and begins to consider how the prisoner can benefit from engagement with digital technologies. It will be of great interest to practitioners and scholars of prisons and penology, as well as those interested in the impact of television on society.

This book analyses the impact of Integrated Offender Management (IOM) on contemporary policing and separates the rhetoric from the reality. Drawing on a qualitative study within an English police force over two years, this book examines the experiences of prolific offenders, subject to IOM, and sheds light on the culture and practice of the police and staff from other criminal justice agencies, working within the scheme. While IOM has been judged to have had initial successes in reducing the criminal activities of prolific offenders, this book tests the validity of such claims, and considers the apparent disjuncture between policy statements made about the workings of IOM and how IOM policing operations are realized on the ground. It makes a unique contribution to research on police culture and practice, and multi-agency working in the criminal justice system. An accessible and compelling read, this book will appeal to policy makers, as well as students and scholars of criminology, sociology policing, and politics.

This edited collection encourages philosophical exploration of the nature, aims, contradictions, promises and problems of the practice of education within prisons around the world. Such exploration is particularly necessary given the complex operational barriers to education, and higher education in particular, within prison-based teaching and learning. These operational barriers are matched by cultural and polemical barriers, such as the criticism of diverting resources to and spending money on prisoner education when the cost of some education seems prohibitive for people outside prison. More so than in other education contexts, prison education may fall short of higher ideals because it is shot through with both practical and moral-political problems and challenges, especially in the age of global late capitalism, high technology and mass incarceration or securitization. This book includes insights and issues around a wide range of areas including: ethics, religion, sociology, justice, identity and political and moral philosophy.

Despite great effort and some improvements, criminal justice today still seems like an oxymoron. There are some very good reasons for this feeling: catastrophic failures abound and marginal improvements appear revolutionary. This book addresses the idea of justice in order to guide society toward a more effective justice system. Specifically, the authors argue that justice and love are one and the same thing. They trace impoverished and accomplished thinking in criminological and justice discourses and show that the historic ills that have plagued humanity tend to evaporate when justice and love are understood to be synonyms.

This book descibes in detail the development of substantive criminal law during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The author examines the forces which shaped criminal jurisprudence throughout the course of this period, paying particular attention to the activities of legislators and reformers, to parallel developments in the study of punishment and human psychology, to general social and political changes and to the growth of an organised police force and its reliance upon formal rules of proceedure and evidence.

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 licence. This book is the first academic study of the post-mortem practice of gibbeting ('hanging in chains'), since the nineteenth century. Gibbeting involved placing the executed body of a malefactor in an iron cage and suspending it from a tall post. A body might remain in the gibbet for many decades, while it gradually fell to pieces. Hanging in chains was a very different sort of post-mortem punishment from anatomical dissection, although the two were equal alternatives in the eyes of the law. Where dissection obliterated and de-individualised the body, hanging in chains made it monumental and rooted it in the landscape, adding to personal notoriety. Focusing particularly on the period 1752-1832, this book provides a summary of the historical evidence, the factual history of gibbetting which explores the locations of gibbets, the material technologies involved in hanging in chains, and the actual process from erection to eventual collapse. It also considers the meanings, effects and legacy of this gruesome practice.

This book, the second of two volumes edited by Kemshall and McCartan, focuses on responses to sexual offending, and how risk is used by policy makers, stakeholders, academics and practitioners to both construct and respond to unknown and known sex offenders within the contexts of criminal justice, health and social policy. The chapters provide an oversight of contemporary policies, practices and debates within the area to help both professionals and researchers. The collection focuses on emerging areas (crime linkage, predictive policing, sexual offending across borders, desistence, and public health approaches), as well as more traditional topics (multi-agency working, risk assessment, sex offender policies, and treatment). The authors examine how professionals can use multi-agency approaches to prevent sexual violence, and assessing the impact of desistance on framing sex offender management. A bold and engaging volume, this edited collection will be of great importance to scholars and practitioners working reframing traditional approaches to sex offender management in a contemporary fashion.

An extensive survey of the pros and cons, evolution, and current issues surrounding one of the hottest topics in today's social debates. Death Penalty on Trial: A Handbook with Cases, Laws, and Documents sifts through the rhetoric, politics, and emotion that characterize one of the most highly discussed, yet least understood issues facing the United States today. Placing the death penalty in a historical perspective with an emphasis on the last 50 years, this case-driven volume explains the legal theory that has perpetuated it and the judicial reasoning, both pro and con, behind such landmark Supreme Court cases as Furman v. Georgia and The United States of America v. Alan Quinones. From the first Massachusetts Bay Colony execution and the inventions of the electric chair and gas chamber to DNA testing of inmates, readers will learn how and why capital punishment continues to be so controversial. Entries on critical events; issues such as race, age, and evidence of innocence; and individuals like Velma Barfield, the first woman executed after the reinstatement of the death penalty Chronology of the most important events in the legal history of capital punishment, including Atkins v. Virginia, a case involving the execution of people with mental disabilities

Where are the police going? Originally published in 1974, Peter Evans argues that their traditional relationship with the public was being dangerously threatened, a situation neither the police themselves nor the public wanted to see worsen. In his analysis of the pressures and influences that were leading many policemen to question their role in society, Mr Evans looks first at the immense problems created for the police by increasingly violent and sophisticated crime, protest and terrorism. The attitudes of the police, he says, are in keeping with their nature. They are a minority, a semi-closed community, with astonishing records of long-serving families, giving police forces something of a tribal flavour. They have their own slang. Like miners, dockers or railwaymen, their jobs were established in Victorian times and are now faced with a rapid technological change - for the police, a 'revolution'. Yet there is one important difference: the police must remain manpower intensive, otherwise precious contact with the public is lost. They must also remain craftsmen, not become merely technicians. Mr Evans concludes that successive governments are to blame for not giving the police the sort of backing they deserve - finance, for example, and not merely pious expressions of support. This failure has widened the gap between police and public because of shortage of men, has left London in particular dangerously under-patrolled, and has contributed towards those pressures that tempt some officers to err. There is nothing wrong with the traditions of the police, although some policemen sometimes do not live up to them. The police need more resources and more opportunity to apply these traditions, so that the unique character of British policing is not lost. The author felt there was both time and need for reform in the decade before 1984. Today it can be read in its historical context.