Improving Criminal Justice Data and Policy

The Welsh criminal justice system: On the jagged edge By R.Jones, R.W.Jones, Cardiff: University of Wales Press. 2022. pp. 292. £24.99 (pbk); £24.99 (ebk). ISBN: 9781786839435; 9781786839442

Criminal justice policy making is a vertical and horizontal political dynamic. The criminal justice researcher who understands the decision-making process within state criminal justice policy-making agencies can influence decisions by providing research to meet policy makers’ needs. This paper provides a schematic view on the criminal justice decision-making process and discusses how researchers can make their work relevant within it. Criminal justice policy research seeks to provide assessment and analysis of crime and provide strategies for its reduction. The pages of criminal justice and criminology journals, reviews, and books are replete with research and policy analysis. One issue that has received less attention, however, is how criminal justice policy planning agencies use criminal justice research in program development and policy making. To receive federal funding, each state maintains a criminal justice policy planning agency. State and local law enforcement agencies, the judiciary, corrections, and non-profit organizations receive funds through these criminal justice planning agencies to support criminal justice initiatives. Criminal justice researchers can make their work more relevant to criminal justice policy makers by understanding the politics, power, and policy dynamics that govern how these agencies operate. Criminal Justice Planning: Values Matter Criminal justice policy and planning are moral-based entities. By this I mean that they operate in an arena that deals with moral questions of right and wrong, what constitutes justice or injustice, as well as the application of individual responsibility, culpability, and blame. The presence of these moral attributes separates the field of criminal justice and Arthur H. Garrison is the director and principal consultant for Garrison Consultants, LLC. He has more than 12 years experience in criminal justice policy making at the state and municipal levels. He has written more than 30 program evaluations, policy reports, and white papers and has published more than 20 articles in various peer reviewed criminal justice journals and law reviews.

This new textbook will provide students of criminology with a better understanding of criminal justice policy and, in doing so, offers a framework for analysing the social, economic and political processes that shape its creation. The book adopts a policy-oriented approach to criminal justice, connecting the study of criminology to the wider study of British government, public administration and politics. Throughout the book the focus is on key debates and competing perspectives on how policy decisions are made. Recognising that contemporary criminal justice policymakers operate in a highly politicised, public arena under the gaze of an ever-increasing variety of groups, organisations and individuals who have a stake in a particular policy issue, the book explores how and why these people seek to influence policymaking. It also recognises that criminal policy differs from other areas of public policy, as policy decisions affect the liberty and freedoms of citizens. Throughout, key ideas and debates are linked to wider sociology, criminology and social policy theory. Key features include: a foreword by Tim Newburn, leading criminologist and author of Criminology (2nd Edition, 2013), a critical and informed analysis of the concepts, ideas and institutional practices that shape criminal justice policy making, an exploration of the relationship between criminal justice and wider social policy, a critical analysis of the debate about how and why behaviour becomes defined as requiring a criminal justice solution, a range of case studies, tasks, seminar questions and suggested further readings to keep the student engaged. This text is perfect for students taking modules in criminology; criminal justice; and social and public policy, as well as those taking courses on criminal and administrative law.

Crime, Justice and Society in Scotland is an edited collection of chapters from leading experts that builds and expands upon the success of the 2010 publication Criminal Justice in Scotland to offer a comprehensive and critical overview of Scottish criminal justice and its relation to wider social inequalities and social justice. This new volume considers criminal justice in the context of the Scottish politics and the recent referendum on independence and it includes a discussion of the complex relationships between criminal justice and devolution, nationalism and nation building. There are new chapters on research and policy, sectarianism, gangs, victims and justice, organised crime and crimes of the powerful in Scotland, as well as chapters reflecting on the use of electronic monitoring, desistance and practice, and major changes in the structure of Scottish policing. Comprehensive and topical, this book is essential reading for academics and students in the fields of criminal justice, criminology, law, social science and social policy. It will also be of interest to practitioners, researchers, policymakers, civil servants and politicians.

Arguably, the relationship between the mass media and the criminal justice system is one of the more important, especially regrading the formation of criminal justice policies and general decision-making in the system.1 Criminal justice policy and decision making are both systematic and individual case level phenomena (Doppelt, 1990). That is, criminal justice policy is ultimately determined by both ad hoc decisions made by criminal justice personnel and offenders regarding individual crimes and cases and by system-wide decisions that affect entire classes of offenses and cases.2 In the area of media and criminal justice, two questions arise. The first, "What is the relationship between the media and criminal justice decision making?," has not been answered with any clarity and leads to a second question, "Despite a significant amount of research and interest, why isn't the relationship better understood?" This essay discusses underlying methodological problems that make deciphering the media and criminal justice relationship inherently difficult. Some of these problems are common issues found throughout the social sciences. However, they are exacerbated in the media-criminal justice area. Other problems are unique to the media-criminal justice relationship and arise due to the existence of unusual media relationships with criminal justice policy and decision-making.

Over the past twenty-five years, parallel increases in the severity of U.S. criminal justice and welfare policies have had devastating consequences for poor women and their families. Feminist criminologists argue that sharp restrictions in welfare provisions and dramatic increases in the number of women sentenced to prison do not constitute a war on drugs, crime, and poverty so much as a war on women. Other observers suggest that these trends are indicative of a larger policy regime that organizes penal-welfare responses for the purpose of governing social marginality. Embedded in both accounts are assumptions about coordination within and across state systems, as well as how larger policy mandates are implemented at the local level. The present study relies on ethnographic data collected from a state prison for women to examine whether and to what extent welfare and criminal justice policies were coordinated during the drug and poverty wars of the past decade. Findings reveal that drug war policies did indeed transform punishment practices on the feminine side of the penal system, but such transformations were ultimately premised on changes to institutional interpretive structures that altered the ways state actors conceptualized gender, crime, and women's needs. Central to this interpretive reconfiguration were institutionalized links between the welfare and criminal justice systems and state actors strategic appropriation of dependency discourse associated with welfare reform. [End Page 386]

This paper considers the growing appeals to the idea of “community” in criminal justice policy and the involvement of actual “communities” in criminal justice initiatives. It draws on a completed two year research study of a number of community-based crime prevention initiatives in the South East of England. The paper considers the nature of “community” to which appeals are made in criminal justice discourse and policies, the contribution of “community” to the practices of social order and the nature of “community representation” and participation in crime prevention initiatives. It is argued that appeals to “community” in crime prevention, and crime control more generally, embody shifts in what constitutes the legitimate responsibilities of individuals, collectivities and the state. This has a number of implications, the first of which is a redrawing of the cost of policing and security services. Additionally, there is an associated shift in blame for failure. Finally, actual “community” involvement in crime control gives rise to new structures and forms of local governance that evoke key questions about the regulation of social relations, the nature of conflict resolution, citizenship, democracy and social justice.

As the baby boom population continues to grow older, there are more and more elderly offenders entering the criminal justice system or growing old behind bars. In this comprehensive review and analysis, Aday addresses the challenges and issues that local, state, and federal corrections systems must face in handling this special group. Integrating practical approaches and theoretical concepts, the author covers the medical, gerontological, psychological and social aspects of aging in place in prison. This important book reviews the current state of our prisons, crime patterns among the elderly, problems associated with long-term inmates, the treatment of older women prisoners, and the possibility of an elderly justice system. Beginning with a careful consideration of the nature and causes of crime committed by the elderly, Aday addresses recent trends in correctional systems that must address problems of overcrowding, violence, health care, and rising costs. Focusing on the health needs of a greying prison population, the author also discusses correctional programs that have been implemented to deal with the problems associated with older offenders and prisoners. The book also details older inmate experiences alongside a synthesis of the historical literature to provide a balanced overview of the problems from a variety of perspectives. Implications and recommendations for social and criminal justice policy are offered, making this a valuable resource for criminal justice professionals, health providers, policy makers, social workers, and students.

Violence, Criminalization & Punitive Excess

The book consists of the keynote papers delivered at the 2012 WG Hart Workshop on Globalisation, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice organised by the Queen Mary Criminal Justice Centre. The volume addresses from a cross-disciplinary perspective the multifarious relationship between globalisation on the one hand, and criminal law and justice on the other hand. At a time when economic, political and cultural systems across different jurisdictions are increasingly becoming or are perceived to be parts of a coherent global whole, it appears that the study of crime and criminal justice policies and practices can no longer be restricted within the boundaries of individual nation-states or even particular transnational regions. But in which specific fields, to what extent, and in what ways does globalisation influence crime and criminal justice in disparate jurisdictions? Which are the factors that facilitate or prevent such influence at a domestic and/or regional level? And how does or should scholarly inquiry explore these themes? These are all key questions which are addressed by the contributors to the volume. In addition to contributions focusing on theoretical and comparative dimensions of globalisation in criminal law and justice, the volume includes sections focusing on the role of evidence in the development of criminal justice policy, the development of European criminal law and its relationship with national and transnational legal orders, and the influence of globalisation on the interplay between criminal and administrative law.

Fighting crime colourblind? A broader look at selective criminal justice policy, beyond the ethnic profiling discussion By rephrasing and reshaping specific criminal justice and security policies, the Dutch government has been struggling for a while in trying to find its course on how to address crime problems in its multicultural society in a politically correct – non discriminatory – way. In this article we focus on government selectivity by examining the development of criminal justice policy in the Netherlands. To what extent does the government take a stand in favor of or against special – and therefore selective – attention for people with a minority background?

This article reviews the current trends and impact of mass incarceration on communities of color, with a focus on criminal justice policy and practice contributors to racial disparity. The impact of these disproportionate incarceration rates on public safety, offenders, and communities are discussed. Recommendations for criminal justice and other policy reforms to reduce unwarranted racial disparities are offered.

This article examines community safety policy. In many countries community safety has become a replacement discourse for situational crime prevention, although in some countries such as the UK, it too is threatened with replacement by the narrower concerns of crime reduction. Community safety represents the apparent merging of the concerns of criminal justice and social policy, specifically over questions of social inclusion and exclusion. Focusing in the main upon UK policy, but also drawing upon experience elsewhere, this article scrutinises the policy of community safety, arguing that while it offers an inclusionary vision of crime control, its practice may be something rather different. More specifically, and in common with the trajectory of much advanced liberal social policy, in practice community safety may have an exclusionary effect. Thus, while community safety may represent the convergence of social and criminal justice policies, it does so on neo‐liberal rather than welfare liberal terms. It also means that community safety has a closer connection to policies of punitive sovereignty – particularly sentencing policies of mass incarceration – than might often be assumed.

A central goal of this book is to contribute to efforts to improve criminal justice policy and to do so by showing how the systematic use of evaluation research can lead to less bad policy and more good policy. The ultimate aim is to help place criminal justice policy on a more rational footing, one where it has a chance of providing the accountability and the effectiveness that the public expects of it. At present, and as detailed in subsequent chapters, too many criminal justice policies are ill founded, ineffective, or inefficient, or they lack sufficient evidence to support them. Put differently, we have too much irrational criminal justice policy. I argue that increased reliance on the evaluation hierarchy in all parts of the criminal justice system and in the development and assessment of policy provides one critical platform for correcting this situation and fulfilling the public's desire for effective government.

Research suggests that some social and criminal justice policies can affect the crime rate. This article considers the major criminal justice and social policy issues related to urban crime, such as drugs, domestic violence, property values, and the underground economy. Family disruption, drugs, limited economic opportunities, and unoccupied and unsupervised youth are all found to be associated with urban crime. The article concludes that major reductions in crime are likely to result only from increased economic and social opportunities for families and youth, particularly for young males. Intensive programs directed at families and at‐risk youth are more likely to lower crime than are programs directed at people already heavily involved in illegal activities. It costs less to keep young people in education and training programs than to imprison them, and such programs are more likely to produce productive and well‐adjusted adults.