In this important book, two knowledgeable and perceptive observers offer a damning indictment of British criminal justice. McConville and Marsh repeatedly skewer the pious pronouncements of panglossian judges with down-to-earth views of the assembly line. They describe a world of state-induced guilty pleas in which defendants are subjected to extraordinary pressure to 'freely' and 'voluntarily' bring about their own convictions, and they explain how this world came into being. These authors tell it like it is.' - Albert W. Alschuler,The University of Chicago, US'McConville and Marsh mount a powerful attack on the institutions of criminal justice: they examine a range of practices known as 'plea-bargaining' in the broader context of policing and the work of the CPS, defence solicitors and the Bar. Their detailed and historically-grounded study challenges the role of the courts in developing and refining the procedural framework for the guilty plea discount, and raises questions about the claim of the judiciary to be guardians of the right to a fair trial. A disturbing book for criminal justice.' - Andrew Ashworth, University of Oxford, UK 'This is no ordinary esoteric lawyers textbook. It is a hard hitting, trenchant analysis of a system that has been seriously eroded and undermined over the course of my 46 years of practice in the criminal justice arena. Basic principles and protections have been ditched or watered down to accommodate the exigencies of political and economic dogma. Every citizen who stands by the need for due process, and the rule of law as mainstays of any democratic system, must read this carefully researched and well argued work.' - Michael Mansfield QC 'A timely and sobering account of the realities of criminal justice. McConville and Marsh provide an important and informed critique of the manner in which the 'adversary ideal' and the principles on which the fairness of the criminal justice system is traditionally understood to rest are routinely and systematically undermined in practice.' - Sarah Summers, The University of Zurich, Switzerland This provocative and powerful book provides a critical review of Britain's criminal justice process through its practices, culture and traditions, revealing a landscape in ruins under the dominance of State-induced Guilty Pleas. Against a backdrop of a dysfunctional criminal justice system, the authors bring an avalanche of legal and empirical material to question the legitimacy of the relationship between judges, lawyers, politicians and defendants in modern Britain. Examining existing legal structures and court practices through the lens of what used to be called plea bargaining the authors provide a graphic picture of why case disposals through enforced guilty pleas promote injustice, feed discrimination and skew the judicial function. This is the most comprehensive examination to date of case disposition methods in England, Wales and Scotland., underpinned by a new socio-legal theory on the criminal process. Criminal Judges is sure to provoke debate on the forces which drive the criminal justice process and will therefore be of great interest to all those concerned about the future of criminal justice policies and practices. It will appeal to academics, researchers, policy advisors and practitioners of criminal law. Contents: 1. Criminal Justice: System, Process and Legitimacy 2. Helping the Police with their Inquiries 3. State-Induced Guilty Pleas and Legitimacy 4. Lowering the Bar 5. Institutional Distress: the State 6. Institutional Distress: the Defence 7. Scotland: Coercion and Discourse 8. Conclusion Bibliography Index

Originally published in 1991, The Case for the Prosecution examines the entire process of arrest through to conviction.

Originally published in 1991, The Case for the Prosecution examines the entire process of arrest through to conviction.

From the early 80s community policing has been held up as a new commitment to the ideals of service and the rejection of coercive policing styles. The idea was to encourage a partnership between the public and police in which community needs would be met by officers on local beats. Today, Government ministers and senior police officers depict Neighbourhood Watch, the centrepiece of the scheme, as a great success. However, Watching Police, Watching Communities reveals that most schemes are dormant or dead. The authors trace the causes of scheme failure to the lack of commitment to community policing by police forces. Most importantly, they find a police rank-and-file culture which celebrates aggression, machismo and the assertion of authority especially against areas occupied by ethnic minorities and other disadvantaged groups.

After the major street riots in Britain in the early 1980s, the demands for more accountable and sensitive styles of policing were answered with a promise to embrace community policing ideals. The centrepiece of this commitment was Neighbourhood Watch. Official claims now portray it as an outstanding success in preventing crime, with over 90,000 schemes established across the country. However, "Watching Police, Watching Communities" sets out to test the validity of such claims and ultimately reveals them to be myths. Basing their research on extensive interviews with police and the public, Mike McConville and Dan Shepherd show that the public have little commitment to Neighbourhood Watch. Whilst crime and the fear of crime have special significance for old people and women, in general social issues such as employment, education and housing count for more. This lack of public commitment is matched by that of the police. There are only a small minority of officers who are dedicated to community beat work.

The political, economic and social transformations that have taken place in China over the last half-century have had a major impact upon the formal methods, institutions and mechanisms used to deal with alleged criminal infractions. This path-breaking book, based upon the largest and most systematic empirical inquiry ever undertaken in China, analyzes the extent to which changes to the formal legal structure have resulted in changes to the law in practice. With unprecedented access to prosecution case files, observation of live trials and interviews with judges, prosecutors and defence lawyers, the book paints a uniquely detailed picture of China's criminal justice system as it operates in everyday cases. Among the major themes explored are: bail; detention; torture; confessions; the role of police, prosecutors and judges; the work of defence lawyers; pre-trial and trial practice; and sentencing practices, including the death penalty. The book shows, through volumes of quantitative data and the voices of judges, prosecutors and defence lawyers, how the party-state continues to influence and control both the process and outcome of criminal trials through an elaborate system of audit and sanction, the result of which is a system of aggregate rather than individual justice. With a wealth of original empirical data, this book will be of significant interest to academics and postgraduate students in the general area of Chinese Studies, human rights, criminal justice and comparative criminal justice. Policy makers, politicians and development agencies will also find it invaluable. With contributions from: Satnam Choongh, Pinky Choy Dick Wan, Eric Chui Wing Hong, Ian Dobinson and Carol Jones

The political, economic and social transformations that have taken place in China over the last half-century have had a major impact upon the formal methods, institutions and mechanisms used to deal with alleged criminal infractions. This path-breaking book, based upon the largest and most systematic empirical inquiry ever undertaken in China, analyzes the extent to which changes to the formal legal structure have resulted in changes to the law in practice. With unprecedented access to prosecution case files, observation of live trials and interviews with judges, prosecutors and defence lawyers, the book paints a uniquely detailed picture of China's criminal justice system as it operates in everyday cases. Among the major themes explored are: bail; detention; torture; confessions; the role of police, prosecutors and judges; the work of defence lawyers; pre-trial and trial practice; and sentencing practices, including the death penalty. The book shows, through volumes of quantitative data and the voices of judges, prosecutors and defence lawyers, how the party-state continues to influence and control both the process and outcome of criminal trials through an elaborate system of audit and sanction, the result of which is a system of aggregate rather than individual justice. With a wealth of original empirical data, this book will be of significant interest to academics and postgraduate students in the general area of Chinese Studies, human rights, criminal justice and comparative criminal justice. Policy makers, politicians and development agencies will also find it invaluable. With contributions from: Satnam Choongh, Pinky Choy Dick Wan, Eric Chui Wing Hong, Ian Dobinson and Carol Jones

Comparative Perspectives on Criminal Justice in China is highly recommended. The editors have assembled the leading Western and Chinese scholars in the field to examine the administration of criminal justice in China, showing both how far the system has come and the challenges that lie ahead. This is an important and timely book. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand or has to deal with the Chinese criminal justice system.' - Klaus Muhlhahn, Freie Universitat Berlin, Germany'This highly informative and engaging volume on the Chinese criminal justice system today provides a window into the vagaries of law and its operation in the People's Republic. McConville and Pils bring together an impressive array of scholars whose studies span the criminal process. From initial police investigation, through to prosecution and sentencing of defendants, we see how dominant values in the Chinese state and its structures of power make the practice of criminal justice today still intensely political.' - Susan Trevaskes, Griffith University, Australia Comparative Perspectives on Criminal Justice in China is an anthology of chapters on the contemporary criminal justice system in mainland China, bringing together the work of recognised scholars from China and around the world. The book addresses issues at various stages of the criminal justice process (investigation and prosecution of crime and criminal trial) as well as problems pertaining to criminal defence and to parallel systems of punishment. All of the contributions discuss the criminal justice system in the context of China's legal reforms. Several of the contributions urge the conclusion that the criminal process and related processes remain marred by overwhelming powers of the police and Party-State, and a chapter discussing China's 2012 revision of its Criminal Procedure Law argues that the revision is unlikely to bring significant improvement. This diverse comparative study will appeal to academics in Chinese law, society and politics, members of the human rights NGO and diplomatic communities as well as legal professionals interested in China. Contributors include: I. Belkin, S. Biddulph, G. Chen, W. Chen, Y.-J. Chen, J.A. Cohen, I. Dobinson, Z. Guo, J. He, R. He, H. Fu, J. Jiang, R. Lan, S.B. Lubman, J. Ma, M. McConville, S.A. Mosher, E. Nesossi, E. Pils, J.D. Rosenzweig, F. Sapio, T. Stutsman, B. Teng, W. Zuo

Introduces students to legalistic, theoretical, empirical, comparative and cross-disciplinary research methods, grounded in working examples. Drawing on actual research projects, Research Methods for Law discusses how legal research as process impacts on research as product. The author team has a broad range of teaching and research experience in law, criminal justice and socio-legal studies, and give examples from real-life research products to illustrate the theory. New for this edition: a new chapter on inter- and cross-disciplinary research - essential reading for international students and students with a non-law first degree undertaking research in the areas of law, criminology, psychology and sociology; research ethics has been expanded to a full chapter that includes current plagiarism and imperfect disclosure; existing chapters have been brought up-to-date with the newest thinking in legal research.

This book is a study of the social transformation of criminal justice, its institutions, its method of case disposition and the source of its legitimacy. Focused upon the apprehension, investigation and adjudication of indicted cases in New York City's main trial tribunal in the nineteenth century - the Court of General Sessions - it traces the historical underpinnings of a lawyering culture which, in the first half of the nineteenth century, celebrated trial by jury as the fairest and most reliable method of case disposition and then at the middle of the century dramatically gave birth to plea bargaining, which thereafter became the dominant method of case disposition in the United States. The book demonstrates that the nature of criminal prosecutions in everyday indicted cases was transformed, from disputes between private parties resolved through a public determination of the facts and law to a private determination of the issues between the state and the individual, marked by greater police involvement in the processing of defendants and public prosecutorial discretion. As this occurred, the structural purpose of criminal courts changed - from individual to aggregate justice - as did the method and manner of their dispositions - from trials to guilty pleas. Contemporaneously, a new criminology emerged, with its origins in European jurisprudence, which was to transform the way in which crime was viewed as a social and political problem. The book, therefore, sheds light on the relationship of the method of case disposition to the means of securing social control of an underclass, in the context of the legitimation of a new social order in which the local state sought to define groups of people as well as actual offending in criminogenic terms. "At a moment when France is poised to adopt plea bargaining, McConville and Mirsky offer the best historical account of its emergence in mid-nineteenth century America, based upon exhaustive analysis of archival data. Their interpretation of the reasons for the dramatic shift from jury trials to negotiated justice offers no comfort for contemporary apologists of plea bargaining as more "professional." The combination of new data and critical reflection on accepted theories make this essential reading for anyone interested in criminal justice policy." Rick Abel, Connell Professor of Law, UCLA Law School "A fascinating account which traces the origins of plea-bargaining in the politicisation of criminal justice, linking developments in day-to-day practices of the criminal process with macro-changes in political economy, notably the structures of local governance. This is a classic socio-legal study and should be read by anyone interested in criminology, criminal justice, modern history or social theory". Nicola Lacey, Professor of Criminal Law and Legal Theory, London School of Economics.

The Handbook of Criminal Justice Process is a new and authoritative account of the criminal justice system in England and Wales that engages with the central issues common to any major criminal justice system. Compiling the thoughts and opinions of leading figures in this field of law, this volume provides comprehensive coverage of all the key areas of the system presenting a sequential account from investigation through to final appeal.

Taken together, the chapters provide for the first time, a description of a dynamic and developing criminal justice system at work. This new work is essential reading for all those studying elements of criminal justice and criminology.

Criminal cases are commonly seen as a fight between adversaries of equal strength: the intrusive power of the State versus skilled defence lawyers advocating their clients' cause. The reality, according to this major new study, is rather different. The provision of defence counsel is often rudimentary and unsatisfactory. Based upon one of the largest studies of legal professional practice ever undertaken, involving nearly fifty solicitors' firms, this book offers a critical examination of the practices and organisation of defence lawyers in Britain from the moment of initial contact with clients through to the routine preparation and representation of defendants in both Magistrates' and Crown Courts, the authors show how defence lawyers discharge their obligations to clients. For the first time, this study reveals the role of paralegals and unqualified staff in providing defence assistance, and highlights how their inexperience and assumption of their client's guilt can critically undermine defendants' rights. The deficiencies highlighted by their research leads the authors to question the effectiveness of recent liberal and managerial reforms, with their excessive reliance on market-led considerations. The authors propose a cultural transformation in criminal defence work, a reassertion of the defendants' rights within an adversarial system, and offer constructive suggestions for improving defence services. Extensively researched and documented, this study is a major contribution to current debates about the criminal justice system, and as such will be required reading for all lawyers, scholars and professionals interested in the administration of justice.