Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Oxford Centre for Criminology, this edited collection of essays seeks to explore the changing contours of criminal justice over the past half century and to consider possible shifts over the next few decades. The question of how social science disciplines develop and change does not invite any easy answer, with the task made all the more difficult given the highly politicised nature of some subjects and the volatile, evolving status of its institutions and practices. A case in point is criminal justice: at once fairly parochial, much criminal justice scholarship is now global in its reach and subject areas that are now accepted as central to its study - victims, restorative justice, security, privatization, terrorism, citizenship and migration (to name just a few) - were topics unknown to the discipline half a century ago. Indeed, most criminologists would have once stoutly denied that they had anything to do with it. Likewise, some central topics of past criminological attention, like probation, have largely receded from academic attention and some central criminal justice institutions, like Borstal and corporal punishment, have, at least in Europe, been abolished. Although the rapidity and radical nature of this change make it quite impossible to predict what criminal justice will look like in fifty years' time, reflection on such developments may assist in understanding how it arrived at its current form and hint at what the future holds. The contributors to this volume have been invited to reflect on the impact Oxford criminology has had on the discipline, providing a unique and critical discussion about the current state of criminal justice around the world and the origins and future implications of contemporary practice. All are leading internationally-renowned criminologists whose work has defined and often re-defined our understanding of criminal justice policy and literature.

Just a decade ago security had little claim to criminological attention. Today a combination of disciplinary paradigm shifts, policy changes, and world political events have pushed security to the forefront of the criminological agenda. Distinctions between public safety and private protection, policing and security services, national and international security are being eroded. Post-9/11 the pursuit of security has been hotly debated not least because countering terrorism raises the stakes and licenses extraordinary measures. Security has become a central plank of public policy, a topical political issue, and lucrative focus of private venture but it is not without costs, problems, and paradoxes. As security governs our lives, governing security become a priority. This book provides a brief, authoritative introduction to the history of security from Hobbes to the present day and a timely guide to contemporary security politics and dilemmas. It argues that the pursuit of security poses a significant challenge for criminal justice practices and values. It defends security as public good and suggests a framework of principles by which it might better be governed. Engaging with major academic debates in criminology, law, international relations, politics, and sociology, this book stands at the vanguard of interdisciplinary writing on security.

This book explores how the Victorians perceived and explained female crime, and how they responded to it - both in penal theory and prison practice. In Victorian England women made up a far larger proportion of those known to be involved in crime than they do today; the nature of female criminality attracted considerable attention and preoccupied those trying to provide for women within the penal system. Lucia Zedner's rigorously researched study examines the extent to which gender-based ideologies influenced attitudes to female criminality. She charts the shift from the moral analyses dominant in the mid-nineteenth century to the interpretation of criminality as biological or psychological disorder prevalent later. Using a wide variety of sources - including prison regulations, diaries, letters, punishment books, grievances and appeals, Dr Zedner explores both penological theory and the realities of prison life. This is a rich and scholarly study, which reveals much about the relationship between responses to female criminality and prevailing social values and concerns.

Just a decade ago security had little claim to criminological attention. Today a combination of disciplinary paradigm shifts, policy changes, and world political events have pushed security to the forefront of the criminological agenda. Distinctions between public safety and private protection, policing and security services, national and international security are being eroded. Post-9/11 the pursuit of security has been hotly debated not least because countering terrorism raises the stakes and licenses extraordinary measures. Security has become a central plank of public policy, a topical political issue, and lucrative focus of private venture but it is not without costs, problems, and paradoxes. As security governs our lives, governing security become a priority. This book provides a brief, authoritative introduction to the history of security from Hobbes to the present day and a timely guide to contemporary security politics and dilemmas. It argues that the pursuit of security poses a significant challenge for criminal justice practices and values. It defends security as public good and suggests a framework of principles by which it might better be governed. Engaging with major academic debates in criminology, law, international relations, politics, and sociology, this book stands at the vanguard of interdisciplinary writing on security.

In recent years, many breaches of immigration law have been criminalised. Foreign nationals are now routinely identified in court and in prison as subjects for deportation. Police at the border and within the territory refer foreign suspects to immigration authorities for expulsion. Within the immigration system, new institutions and practices rely on criminal justice logic and methods. In these examples, it is not the state that controls the national border: instead, it is often privately contracted companies. This collection of essays explores the growing use of the private sector and private actors in border control and its implications for our understanding of state sovereignty and citizenship. Privatising Border Control is an important empirical and theoretical contribution to the growing, interdisciplinary body of scholarship on border control. It also contributes to the academic inquiry into the growing privatisation of policing and punishment. These domains, once regarded as central to the state's police power and its monopoly on violence, are increasingly outsourced to private providers. With contributions from scholars across a range of jurisdictions and disciplines, including Criminology, Law, and Political Science, Privatising Border Control provides a novel and comparative account of contemporary border control policy and practice. This is a must-read for academics, practitioners, and policymakers interested in immigration law and the growing use of the private sector and private actors in border control.

This book arises from a three-year study of Preventive Justice directed by Professor Andrew Ashworth and Professor Lucia Zedner at the University of Oxford. The study seeks to develop an account of the principles and values that should guide and limit the state's use of preventive techniques that involve coercion against the individual. States today are increasingly using criminal law or criminal law-like tools to try to prevent or reduce the risk of anticipated future harm. Such measures include criminalizing conduct at an early stage in order to allow authorities to intervene; incapacitating suspected future wrongdoers; and imposing extended sentences or indefinate on past wrongdoers on the basis of their predicted future conduct - all in the name of public protection and security. The chief justification for the state's use of coercion is protecting the public from harm. Although the rationales and justifications of state punishment have been explored extensively, the scope, limits and principles of preventive justice have attracted little doctrinal or conceptual analysis. This book re-assesses the foundations for the range of coercive measures that states now take in the name of prevention and public protection, focussing particularly on coercive measures involving deprivation of liberty. It examines whether these measures are justified, whether they distort the proper boundaries between criminal and civil law, or whether they signal a larger change in the architecture of security. In so doing, it sets out to establish a framework for what we call 'Preventive Justice'.

Child Victims explores the range and extent of crimes committed against children and assesses their impact. The testimony of over two hundred children gives voice, for the first time, to their experiences, their views, and their needs. It examines how children attain the status of `victims' in the criminal justice system. Drawing on recent research findings, the authors examine each stage of the legal process that a child encounters, from the initial reporting of the offence, through police investigation, to the trial itself. They contrast the specialist response to victims of child sexual abuse with the experience of children who are victims of other crimes, thrust into an adult system which takes little account of their needs. Child Victims concludes by examining the role of support services and agencies dealing with child victims, and makes a number of key recommendations for future policy.

This book arises from a three-year study of Preventive Justice directed by Professor Andrew Ashworth and Professor Lucia Zedner at the University of Oxford. The study seeks to develop an account of the principles and values that should guide and limit the state's use of preventive techniques that involve coercion against the individual. States today are increasingly using criminal law or criminal law-like tools to try to prevent or reduce the risk of anticipated future harm. Such measures include criminalizing conduct at an early stage in order to allow authorities to intervene; incapacitating suspected future wrongdoers; and imposing extended sentences or indefinate on past wrongdoers on the basis of their predicted future conduct - all in the name of public protection and security. The chief justification for the state's use of coercion is protecting the public from harm. Although the rationales and justifications of state punishment have been explored extensively, the scope, limits and principles of preventive justice have attracted little doctrinal or conceptual analysis. This book re-assesses the foundations for the range of coercive measures that states now take in the name of prevention and public protection, focussing particularly on coercive measures involving deprivation of liberty. It examines whether these measures are justified, whether they distort the proper boundaries between criminal and civil law, or whether they signal a larger change in the architecture of security. In so doing, it sets out to establish a framework for what we call 'Preventive Justice'.

Following in the tradition of the Clarendon Law Series, Criminal Justice is an extended essay on the core concepts, structures, and processes of the criminal justice system. The book prefers theoretical reflection above detailed description and favours provocative questions over simple answers. Its primary aim is to stimulate students of criminal justice to think critically about what they have learned. Criminal Justice challenges conventional understanding of crime, criminal justice and punishment by revealing their meanings to be open to multiple interpretations. It explores the historical contingency and cultural specificity of the institutions and practices of criminal justice. And it considers the many, often conflicting, roles fulfilled by the various players in the criminal process. In so doing, it reveals criminal justice to be more diverse and its purposes more contested than conventional accounts allow. The book concludes by examining radical changes in crime control and the pursuit of security and considering their import for criminal justice as we know it.