Trojan Horses: The Rise of Out-of-Court Justice

Abstract

The rise of out-of-court justice over recent years is perhaps the most significant way in which increasing numbers of people have become trapped in the penal net. Over the course of its 13 years in power, the New Labour administration created a whole range of new penalties such as Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs), Parenting Orders, Dispersal Orders and Penalty Notices for Disorder (PNDs) in order to tackle problem behaviour which does not come under the remit of the criminal law. According to one former Prime Minister, the ‘the usual process of the criminal law’ was ‘hopelessly inadequate’ in this respect (Blair, 2006a). These new penalties thus deliberately dispense with due process: they are all civil penalties, applied using the civil standards of proof and procedure, yet they all carry criminal sanctions. Consequently, they act as a form of back-door criminalisation - the ASBO in particular has been described as the Trojan horse of the civil law (Rutherford, 1998, p. 13). It is demonstrated here that these penalties have resulted in the increased criminalisation of some of the most vulnerable members of society.KeywordsAntisocial BehaviourCriminal Justice SystemTrojan HorseCriminal SanctionSocial LandlordThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.