Politics Of Criminal Justice Research Articles

Race, Party, and Representation in Criminal Justice Politics

What explains racial inequalities in law enforcement and criminal justice policy? I argue that political representation plays a key role. Most explanations of representation focus on partisanship or use a left-right scale to measure the effectiveness of representation. However, liberal cities like Berkeley, San Francisco, Minneapolis, and Seattle have racial disparities in policing that dwarf those found in Ferguson, the nation’s exemplar of unequal policing. Divisions by party and divisions by race interact to produce serious problems of representation on issues related to crime, policing, and violence. Black and white Democrats do not hold similar views; for both historical and electoral reasons, white Democrats have typically determined the party’s policy stances. As a result, black Americans face substantial barriers to obtaining representation on criminal justice issues (and beyond) through a partisan political system. Researchers should analyze parties as coalitions rather than homogeneous groups.

Dangerous Politics: Risk, Vulnerability, and Penal Policy (Clarendon Studies in Criminology) H. Annison. Oxford: Oxford University Press (2015) 288pp. £65.00hb ISBN 9780198728603

Dangerous Politics: Risk, Vulnerability, and Penal Policy (Clarendon Studies in Criminology) H. Annison. Oxford: Oxford University Press (2015) 288pp. £65.00hb ISBN 9780198728603

Prosecuting Soviet genocide: comparing the politics of criminal justice in the Baltic states

ABSTRACTThis study compares the politics of post-Soviet retrospective criminal justice processes in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania after 1991. Taking an institutionalist approach, it pays particular attention to the interactions between judicial and non-judicial institutions in the search for truth and justice, and analyses how the nature of this interaction determines processes of historical narrative framing and remembering in the public domain. The study, thus, not only provides a comparative discussion of legal frameworks and legal practices in all three states, but also links this with a critical examination of the investigatory infrastructure put up by state legislators to enhance prosecutorial capacity and efficiency. Its main contention is that such an analysis of the institutional context of investigations and trials is essential in order to better understand how judicial procedures and resulting truths translate into public historical discourses and collective memory.

The Changing Political Landscape for Elected Prosecutors

For years the only serious question about district attorney elections was whether they were pernicious or merely a charade. One view was that running for reelection turned prosecutors into politicians, and that politics demanded that prosecutors appear tough, unforgiving, and staunchly pro-police. The rival view was that prosecutorial elections were meaningless, because incumbents hardly ever lost, and campaigns focused on personalities, not on policies. Recently, though, a surprising number of district attorneys have won office by promising some combination of less aggressive charging, more vigilance against wrongful convictions, and greater scrutiny of the police. This essay examines these results and draws three tentative lessons. First, claims about the inexorable logic of criminal justice politics should be greeted with skepticism. Second, there is room for guarded optimism about electoral democracy as a tool for reforming prosecutors’ offices, but voters need better tools for evaluating how those offices are performing. Third, as reformers increase their focus on prosecutorial elections, there is a danger worth bearing in mind: the risk that prosecutorial decision-making will become inappropriately politicized, especially when elections focus on the handling or the outcome of particular cases.

The relationship between perceptions of prison and support for the death penalty versus life without parole

According to Bowers' ‘spuriousness theory,’ people only support the death penalty because they believe that the currently available alternative punishments are insufficiently harsh or meaningful. I test his theory by estimating the relationship between Americans' perceptions of prisons and their support for the death penalty using data drawn from a national, random sample of the US population. I find that people who perceive prison environments to be insufficiently harsh are also more likely to support the death penalty and less likely to support the alternative punishment of life imprisonment without parole. The relationship between people's perceptions of prison and their support for the death penalty is robust even controlling for their symbolic beliefs and demographic characteristics. I discuss the implications of these findings for theories of public opinion about punishment, capital sentencing, and the politics of criminal justice in the USA.

Minority parties and the changing politics of criminal justice

Over the past 15 years the political landscape of the United Kingdom has changed beyond recognition. Since the 2010 general election, the United Kingdom has a coalition government which includes Liberal Democrats. Following devolution, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales have all experienced coalition government. Currently the Scottish National Party is in government in Edinburgh whilst the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Fein form a government in Belfast. On the day of writing (27 November), the Alliance Party, the Democratic Unionist Party, the Green Party, Plaid Cymru, Respect, the Scottish Nationalist Party, Sinn Fein and the Social Democratic and Labour Party hold Westminster seats, along with three independent MPs. The Westminster ‘first past the post’ voting system means that two parties with considerable popular support in the 2010 general election – the British National Party (with 564,331 votes) and the UK Independence Party (with 919,546 votes) – are excluded. Both are represented in the Eu...

Political Systems and Criminal Justice: The Prisoners' Dilemma After the Coalition

In this article, building on an argument sketched in my The Prisoners' Dilemma (2008), I explore the ways in which the institutional structure of political systems shapes the politics of criminal justice. In particular, I set out an argument as to why coalition politics might be thought, other things being equal, to facilitate stability and moderation in criminal justice policy. In the second part of the article, I examine some recent case studies in the impact of coalition politics on criminal justice policy-making, and show how a close analysis of the move to proportional representation in New Zealand and Scotland, and the unusual period of coalition government at Westminster, refines our understanding of the ways in which institutional arrangements such as the electoral system, the party system and the dynamics of bargaining under conditions of coalition government affect the environment for criminal justice policy-making. In the final section, I engage in some predictions about the likely fate of penal moderation under coalition politics in England and Wales.

Still Just Rhetoric? Judicial Discretion and Due Process

Judicial discretion is crucial in determining whether, in practice, those accused of crimes experience the protection of due process safeguards during the trial process. In this article, two examples of evidential rules and their judicial interpretation are examined. They are assessed in the context of the common critique that discretion is utilised primarily to the effect of denying due process protections in practice. This analysis takes place in the particular context of the punitive turn in the politics of criminal justice. A detailed examination of the interpretation of s114(1)(d) and s101(1)(d) in conjunction with s101(3) of the Criminal Justice Act 2003, regulating the admission of hearsay and bad character evidence, is carried out in order to gain insight into the modern role of judicial discretion. Conclusions are drawn by proposing some theoretical models of the relationship between statutory content, the interpretation of those provisions and the effects of these on the experience of defendants in criminal trials.

The Politics of Crime, Punishment, and Social Order in East Asia

Recent scholarship on crime, law, and society in China and Japan has addressed the politics of globalization and legal reform in both countries, but political context is not self-revealing. The literature on China has focused too often on the role of the police in an authoritarian state without sufficiently taking into account the changing balance of power among judicial actors, which may be more important for understanding the shape and direction of Chinese legal reform. In contrast, the literature in Japan has recently begun to grapple with the new politicization of criminal justice but could do more to show how these concerns are intimately connected to deeper unease about the country's future. In suggesting new ways of analyzing the politics of criminal justice in China and Japan, this article also argues for increased attention to the social consequences of crime's increasing political saliency, including patterns of marginalization and constructions of deviancy.

Humanising Imprisonment: A European project?

This paper focuses on the continued significance of human rights in the movement to develop a more comprehensive European framework to improve prison conditions. It identifies the immediate factors that underlie the movement as the successful implementation of the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment and Punishment; the growing number of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights applying the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms to prison matters; the expansion of the number of member states of the Council of Europe; and the increased political interest at European level in penological matters. Attention is also paid to the wider ideological role that a concern for human rights plays in European criminal justice politics. The paper illustrates the reform movement by focussing on recent recommendations of the Council of Europe on various aspects of imprisonment, including the new European Prison Rules. The possible emergence of an international instrument of treaty status that would deal directly with substantive conditions of imprisonment is noted and its potential impact considered. An argument is made for the systemisation of European prison law and for further reform initiatives.

Forum: The Role of the Victim in Plea Bargaining Rubrique spéciale sur le rôle de la victime dans les négociations de plaidoyer

Editor's introduction This forum aims to promote one of our journal's primary functions: to bring together scholars and practitioners working in the criminal justice system. It addresses one of the most vexing issues in criminal justice: the role of the victim. The movement promoting victims' rights has gained considerable ground in recent decades--in Canada as well as in other common law jurisdictions (see Roach 1999; Sebba 1996). Victims now have considerably more input into the criminal process than they had 20 years ago. In the area of sentencing, since 1988 crime victims in Canada have had the right to submit a victim impact statement at sentencing; more recent amendments to the Criminal Code have expanded still further the rights of the victim in this regard. The contributors to this forum address the role of the victim in plea negotiations, a much misunderstood element of the criminal justice system. Victim advocates have long argued that crime victims should have some input into these discussions. Simon Verdun-Jones and Adamira Tijerino, academics from the School of Criminology at Simon Fraser University, review the experience with respect to victim input, both here and in the United States. They examine a number of different models to provide victims with more voice in these discussions. Their article is followed by commentaries contributed by three experienced and distinguished criminal justice practitioners: Judge Donna Hackett of the Ontario Court of Justice; Nevina Crisante, Counsel for the Ontario Victim Services Secretariat; and Allen Edgar, Director of the Centre for Judicial Research and Education in Toronto. The journal is grateful to these individuals for taking the time from their busy schedules to read and respond to the Verdun-Jones and Tijerino article. Julian V. Roberts Editor, Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice References Roach, Kent 1999 Due Process and Victims' Rights: The New Law and Politics of Criminal Justice. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Sebba, Leslie 1996 Third Parties: Victims and the Criminal Justice System. Columbus: Ohio State University Press. Rubrique speciale sur le role de la victime dans les negociations de plaidoyer Introduction du redacteur en chef Ce forum s'est donne pour objectif de faire la promotion de l'une des fonctions principales de la Revue : rassembler les chercheurs et les praticiens oauvrant au sein du systeme de justice penale. C'est ainsi que, sous cette rubrique speciale, nous voulons approfondir l'une des questions des plus delicates dans le domaine de la justice penale, soit le role de la victime. …

Book Review: Due Process and Victims' Rights: The New Law and Politics of Criminal Justice, by Kent Roach

Book Review: Due Process and Victims' Rights: The New Law and Politics of Criminal Justice, by Kent Roach

Social Exclusion and the Politics of Criminal Justice: A Tale of Two Administrations

This article deals with the relationship between the emerging criminal justice and social policies of the 1997 Labour government. It analyses the legacy inherited from the previous Conservative administrations and explores the extent to which policy making in the one area is now influenced by activity in the other. The authors suggest that the objects of criminal justice policy are most likely to be achieved when understood and developed within a social policy context. They conclude, however, that in a number of important aspects, the current government seems more likely to pursue social policy objectives by invoking the instruments of criminal justice.

Due Process and Victims' Rights: The New Law and Politics of Criminal Justice

Due Process and Victims' Rights: The New Law and Politics of Criminal Justice

The New Politics of Criminal Justice

The New Politics of Criminal Justice

Plea Bargainings: Ethics and Politics

This article argues for a re‐orientation of the debates concerning plea bargaining in the light of a process of re‐legitimation currently under way in which professional codes of ethics are given new importance. In the new rhetoric, plea bargaining is claimed to be in line with rather than contrary to traditional adversarial principles. The focus of this paper is to argue for a re‐affirmation of deep‐seated principles which contextualize professional ethics in the wider domain of the politics of criminal justice.

Liberal Democracy and the Politics of Criminal Justice in Australia

Liberal democratic states like Australia manage criminal justice issues in ways which reflect an inbuilt tension between liberal and democratic values. Liberal democracies are responsive both to liberal claims and to democratic claims. As a result, policy debates and strategies can oscillate between (on the one hand) liberal sensitivity to individual rights and opposition to enhanced state capacity and (on the other hand) democratically legitimised community norms and collective values. Four crime‐related policy debates — about the creation and operation of the National Crime Authority, about strategies for combating drug‐related crime, about gun control legislation and about identity systems to counter money laundering, tax evasion and public benefit fraud — illustrate the characteristic liberal democratic mode of politics in operation. The spectrum of policy responses to crime issues within liberal democratic political systems corresponds to an analogous spectrum within criminology which encompasses individualistic and structuralist conceptions of the nature and causes of crime.

The Politics of British Policing in the Thatcher/Major State

The politics of British policing from 1979 to 1997 was guided by ideology and political practicality. Margaret Thatcher and John Major were libertarians committed to the reduction of the British state, but in classical libertarian fashion, these considerations did not apply to criminal justice agencies, which were needed to cope with rising crime in a growing and increasingly deregulated economy. The chief theme of practical criminal justice politics was the sustained effort of the Home Office to gain greater de facto control over policing without increased de jure accountability. This was achieved by laws and by administrative measures. The Tories also imposed a distinctive libertarian style on policing through their micro‐ideology of managerialism, designed to get the police to conceive themselves as economical service providers and the public as customers.

Reporting Crime: The Media Politics of Criminal Justice.

Every day we watch, read, and hear stories about crime and justice. This book reveals how policy-makers, criminal justice professionals, pressure groups, and the police compete in self-promoting struggles to shape their own images and the policy agenda. In a series of case studies, the authors pose a number of important questions. Does coverage of crime statistics promote fear of crime, or is the debate about the figures really about something else? By focusing on fear of crime hhave we therefore underplayed public fear of authority? Does the coverage of sexual crime encourage voyeurism? And finally, is television's growing obsession with showing us stories of real crime more about entertaining the audience than about helping the police with their enquiries?

Reporting Crime: The Media Politics of Criminal Justice

Reporting Crime: The Media Politics of Criminal Justice