"INTERNET LAW BOOK REVIEWS", Provided by Rob Jerrard LLB LLM (London)
Ashgate Publishing 2007 Gower Publishing
Copyright Rob Jerrard ©
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Fraud and Corruption in
Public Services
A Guide to Risk and Prevention
Edition: HB
Author: Peter Jones
ISBN: 0566085666
Publishers: Gower Publishing
Ltd
Price: £62.50
Publication Date: July 2004
Publisher’s Title
Information
Fraud and Corruption in
Public Services: A Guide to Risk and Prevention provides public sector
practitioners in auditing and financial management with a practical approach to
combating and minimizing fraud and corruption.
The book directly addresses the implications of fraud and corruption and
suggests specific courses of action to be taken to combat such malpractices.
The text is illustrated by detailed and realistic case studies, flow charts and
control questionnaires, with appendices included for specific high-risk
activities such as major contracts, means-tested benefits and financial
accounting.
Although aimed at public sector organizations, the techniques and situations
are applicable to any large organization in either the public or private
sector. Wider issues concerning the special responsibilities and problems of
the public sector are addressed, including the changes arising from corporate
governance and the challenges of ensuring impartiality and accountability
within the new public sector environment.
Fraud and Corruption in Public Services: A Guide to Risk and Prevention is
vital reading for auditors, senior managers, audit committee members and other
decision-makers throughout the public sector and in any large organization
facing change.
Reviews to date
'In a world where fraud and corruption are increasingly the most significant
internal and external threat facing public sector managers and auditors, Peter
Jones has written the hands-on manual that they should always have on their
desks. He sets the scene on contemporary fraud and corruption in public
services from a practitioner perspective before detailing the procedures,
checks and controls that ought to be both in place and operational. The fact
that they are often not is why fraud and corruption are on the increase - and why
this book is timely, relevant and practical.'
Professor Alan Doig, University of Teesside, UK
'It is a practical Guide, with much advice on how to construct fraud prevention
procedures, and detailed advice on using risk and systems-based auditing.' Fraud
Watch Online, 2004.
'Aimed mainly at the public sector (where wider issues of accountability are
often involved) the book can be used by any large organisation and makes vital
reading for senior managers, auditors, committee members and other decision-makers.'
Supply Management, August 2004
'In conclusion, while the title of the book may not initially attract itself to
a wide audience of security professionals, it has considerable potential to
inform managers far beyond just issues of public sector fraud. A book well
worth reading, again and again.'
Professional Security, December 2004
Contents
Using this book; Characteristics of fraud and corruption; The public sector;
Using risk and systems-based auditing; Capital projects and major contracts;
Information technology and management; Expenditure; Income; Transfer payments -
benefits, claims, grants and rebates; The main accounting and reporting
function. Appendices: Appendix 1 Selected statutes, regulations and key
extracts; Appendix 2 Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA);
Appendix 3 General (non-surveillance) considerations in fraud investigations;
Appendix 4 WACI - a documented audit; Appendix 5 Objectives and controls grids;
Appendix 6 Capital works contract checklist; Appendix 7 Final contractor's
account audit - arithmetical checks; Appendix 8 Key contract counter-fraud and
system evaluation issues; Appendix 9 Extracts from the Data Protection Act
1998; Appendix 10 Outline structure for a corporate IT security and data
protection policy; Appendix 11 Checklist of key case papers and control
features for means-tested benefits and grants; Appendix 12 Some basic
comparisons between private and public sector accounts; Appendix 13 Financial
and accounting glossary; Appendix 14 Selected cases by theme of perpetration;
Bibliography; Index.
The Author
Peter Jones has wide experience of public sector bodies, having worked for the
Bank of England, the National Audit Office, the Audit Commission, and as head
of an Internal Audit department. His expertise is in financial systems and in
the prevention of fraud and corruption. He lectures at the Liverpool Business
School, Liverpool John Moores University and is a Director of IACS Ltd. A
graduate from the London School of Economics, he is a Chartered Public Finance
Accountant, Member of the Chartered Management Institute and Certified Fraud
Examiner.
Peter is also the author of Statistical Sampling and Risk Analysis in Auditing
(Gower, 1999) and co-author with Jonathan Bates of Public Sector Auditing Second
edition (Chapman & Hall, 1994) and Business Planning in the Health Service
(International Thomson, 1996).
Review
Peter Jones’ hardcover book
contains 9 chapters, 14 appendices and is 268 pages long. It is not a law book
on fraud and corruption but an accountancy and management manual. As such it
has not been made obsolete by the recent statute, the Fraud Act 2006, in force
since 2007.
The 9 chapters are as
follows:-
1. Characteristics
of fraud and corruption.
2. The public
sector.
3. Using risk and
system-based auditing.
4. Capital projects
and major contracts.
5. Information
technology and management.
6. Expenditure.
7. Income.
8. Transfer
Payments- benefits, claims, grants and rebates.
9. The main
accounting and reporting functions.
Corruption, a contemporary
issue, is introduced by Peter Jones thus:
"Corruption in a public services body may not be seen as
such in the private sector. Who would call a father corrupt for favouring the
employment of, or awarding of contracts to his son or daughter in the context
of a family business? Such behaviour is generally an acceptable custom in
society. The critical difference is one of ownership. The owner, or major
shareholder with a controlling interest, is acting on his or her behalf and in
his or her own interest. The public servant is acting on behalf of the
taxpayers or their elected representatives."
The above sentences are
pertinent to today’s speeches (31st January 2008) in the House of
Commons.
In Chapter 2, on the public
sector, Peter Jones discusses corporate governance, especially important as we
are reminded in a recent survey of UK companies’ attitudes to corporate
governance. The UK newspapers stated that UK companies pay lip service to
corporate governance, although The Times in Cyprus had news that corporate governance
enhances asset value. http://www.financialmirror.com/more_news.php?id=9794&nt=Politics).
Corporate governance was not
statutory previous to the Companies Act 2006. It was voluntary, in the Cadbury
Code, the City Takeover Code and the Combined Code. In the UK, there have been
codes of good practice for senior management since the Cadbury Code of 1993,
followed by the Greenbury Code in 1995, then the Combined Code in 1998, and the
revised Combined Code in 2003 after the Higgs Report of 2003. The Higgs Report
related to the separation of the roles of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.
The recommendation in the Higgs Report was that those two roles should be
separated in order to eradicate nepotism in companies. There is also the OECD
Corporate Governance Principles and the ICGN Statement on Global Corporate
Governance Principles which provide widely accepted standards for
corporate governance in many countries. These codes only affect those
companies listed on the UK Stock Exchange.
All UK companies, listed and private are governed by the Companies Act
2006 and directors of all companies have fiduciary duties of loyalty and good
faith. Listed companies, under a more
stringent regime, which used to include the City Code of Takeovers and
Mergers. Directors’ duties are in
sections 170 to 181 of the new Companies Act 2006 which came into force on 1
October 2007.
It would be safe to
conclude that UK businesses have only been paying lip service to corporate
governance guidelines and that its codification in the Companies Act 2006 is
timely and necessary. Peter Jones gives three basic principles of corporate
governance- openness; integrity and accountability. The lackadaisical
attitude as reported in recent news on UK corporate governance is worrying, to
say the least and is all the more reason for decision-makers to study Peter
Jones’ book.
Sally Ramage
Domestic Violence
Edition: HB
Author: Mangai Natarajan
ISBN: 0 7546 2588 5
Publishers: Ashgate
Price: £140
Publication Date: April 2007
Publisher’s Title
Information
Domestic Violence is not just
a public health and criminal justice problem, it is also an issue of universal
human rights that needs immediate and vigorous attention. How we measure the
prevalence of Domestic Violence, what we identify as the risk factors, which
theories seem to provide most help in understanding and responding to Domestic
Violence, which preventive and treatment programs seem most effective and the
respective roles of the health and criminal justice systems, are all questions
of vital importance in society's response to the problem.
Contents
Series preface; Introduction; Has DV Increased or is it Increasingly Being
Reported?: Patriarchal terrorism and common couple violence: 2 forms of
violence against women, Michael P. Johnson; A multidimensional definition of
partner abuse: development and preliminary validation of the composite abuse
scale, Kelsey Hegarty, Mary Sheehan and Cynthia Schonfield; Domestic violence
against women of Japanese descent in Los Angeles: 2 method of estimating
prevalence, Mieko Yoshihama; Societal change and change in family violence from
1975–1985 as revealed by 2 national surveys, Murray A. Strauss and Richard J.
Gelles; Reasons for reporting and not reporting domestic violence to the
police, Richard B. Felson, Steven F. Messner, Anthony W. Hoskin and Glenn
Deane; Estimating the incidence and prevalence of violence against women:
national data systems and sources, Richard J. Gelles. Have the Major Factors
Been Identified that Determine/Precipitate DV?: Risk factors for femicide in
abusive relationships: results from a multisite case control study, Jacquelyne
C. Campbell, Daniel Webster, Jane Koziol-McLain, Carolyn Block, Doris Campbell,
Mary Ann Curry, Faye Gary, Nancy Glass, Judith McFarlane, Carolyn Sachs,
Phyllis Sharps, Yvonne Ulrich, Susan A. Wilt, Jennifer Manganello, Xiao Xu,
Janet Schollenberger, Victoria Frye and Kathryn Laughon; Risk factors for
injury to women from domestic violence, Demetrios N. Kyriacou, Deidre Anglin,
Ellen Taliaferro, Susan Stone, Toni Tubb, Judith A. Linden, Robert Muelleman,
Erik Barton and Jess F. Krauss; Alcohol-related intimate partner violence among
white, black and hispanic couples in the United States, Raul Caetano, John
Schafer and Carol B. Cunradi; The relationship between heart rate reactivity,
emotionally aggressive behavior and general violence in batterers, John M.
Gottman, Neil S. Jacobson, Regina H. Rushe, Joanna Wu Shortt, Julia Babcock,
Jaslean J. La Taillade and Jennifer Waltz; Current perspectives on men who
batter women - implications for intervention and treatment to stop violence
against women: comment on Gottman et al, Lenore E.A. Walker; Relationship
dynamics, emotion state, and domestic violence: a stress and masculinities
perspective, Debra Umberson, Kristin L. Anderson, Kristi Williams and Meichu D.
Chen; Husbands' and wives' marital adjustment, verbal aggression, and physical
aggression as longitudinal predictors of physical aggression in early marriage,
Julie A. Schumacher and Kenneth E. Leonard. How Well are the Main Theories of
DV Supported by Empirical Evidence?: Psychology and violence against women,
Lenore E.A. Walker; Power versus feminist theories of wife abuse, Rhonda L.
Lenton; The control motive in intimate partner violence, Richard B. Felson and
Steven F. Messner; Gender, status and domestic violence: an integration of
feminist and family violence approaches, Kristin L. Anderson; Letting out the
secret: violence in lesbian relationships, Lettie L. Lockhart, Barbara W.
White, Vicki Causby and Alicia Isaac; A social learning theory model of marital
violence, Sharon Wofford Mihalic and Delbert Elliott; Domestic violence among
immigrants from India: what we need to know - and what we should do, Mangai
Natarajan. What Measures have been Taken to Control DV and What Works?: The
specific deterrent effects of arrest for domestic assault, Lawrence W. Sherman
and Richard A. Berk; Hype or hope?: the importation of pro-arrest policies and
batterers' programmes from North America to Britain as key measures for
preventing violence against women in the home, Rebecca Morley and Audrey
Mullender; Evaluating criminal justice interventions for domestic violence,
R.Emerson Dobash and Russell P. Dobash; Police response to domestic violence,
Carolyn Hoyle and Andrew Sanders; Women police stations as a dispute processing
system: the Tamil Nadu experience in dealing with dowry-related domestic
violence cases, Mangai Natarajan; The critical path of women affected by family
violence in Latin America: case studies from 10 countries, Montserrat Sagot;
Effectiveness of hotline, advocacy, counseling, and shelter services for
victims of domestic violence: a statewide evaluation, Larry Bennett, Stephanie
Riger, Paul Schewe, April Howard and Sharon Wasco; One size fits all? A
gender-neutral approach to a gender-specific problem: contrasting batterer
treatment programs for male and female offenders, Susan L. Miller, Carol
Gregory and LeeAnn Iovanni. Is DV Better Dealt With as a Public Health or a
Criminal Justice Problem?: A 5-year follow-up study of 117 battered women, Bo
Bergman and Bo Brismar; Intimate partner homicide in Chicago over 29 years,
Carolyn Rebecca Block and Antigone Christakos; Name index.
About the Editor
Dr Mangai Natarajan is Professor in the Department of Sociology at John Jay
College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, USA, where she
runs the BA degree program in International Criminal Justice. She has published
widely on woman police, on drug trafficking and on a variety of other
criminological topics.
Review
This volume is a hardback collection and reproduction of 30 previously published research articles from primarily American journals on
issues of domestic violence together with a short introductory editorial by
Natarajan. The essays are divided into five
Parts, the 'Five Big Questions', which form the titles of each section
and which somewhat dismissively reduce the term 'domestic violence' to the
almost slang 'dv' which unintentionally rather diminishes the significance of
this serious problem. These are (as reproduced from the text) 1) Has dv
increased or is it increasingly being reported? 2) Have the major factors been
identified that determine/precipitate dv? 3) How well are the main theories of
dv supported by empirical evidence? 4) What measures have been taken to control
dv and what works? 5) Is dv dealt with as a public health or criminal justice
problem? One might also take issue with the fact that the first two are in fact
'closed' questions appearing to demand a simple yes or no response rather than
generating informed discourse, something which is often regarded as
inappropriate to qualitative social science research. The last question
attracts just two contributions, whereas the other 28 articles are fairly
evenly divided amongst the preceding four parts giving the impression perhaps
that this final section was something of an afterthought or that the issue is
of less importance. No explanation or context is given for this in the editor's
introductory synopsis – is it because it is a difficult or new area in which to
undertake research? Or did these chapters not quite fit coherently within the
other main themes? There is also a very short conclusion in the introductory
section to this lengthy collection which, again perhaps gives a false
impression that this is simply a collation of material albeit the 30 essays
were selected from 600 reviewed by the author. Natarajan identifies from the
studies reviewed two main areas that require further work and investigation -
domestic violence in immigrant communities and within same sex relationships.
Such extensive reading, knowledge and expertise suggest that there is much more
that the author could have contributed in addition to this and the brief
summaries of each paper.
The collection is
international featuring a wide range of some 20 journals primarily covering the
disciplines of psychology, criminology, sociology, victimology and, to a
limited extent, law. The selected
contributions have a predominantly North American bias, but more interestingly
work undertaken in Central America and Tamil Nadu, India is featured. There is
some reference to research conducted in the UK in Part 4, highlighting three
consecutive papers including the Dobash's Scottish study in 2000 of violent men
in Lothian, and Morley and Mullender's study of the importation of pro-arrest
policies from the US - although both these chapters do draw very heavily on
American research and comparisons. The final UK contribution is Hoyle and
Sanders' work also published in 2000 about victim's perceptions of police
intervention. This publication therefore provides a useful reference point and
summary of the leading research studies conducted in the last twenty years or
so and of course it is convenient that they are collated in one single volume.
For those undertaking sociological, including socio-legal, research into
aspects of domestic violence the empirical models used and methodologies
adopted will be of interest and relevance for comparison and contrast. Equally,
for those teaching courses on understandings of domestic violence or
undertaking postgraduate research this book no doubt has a role in facilitating
necessarily essential wider reading and academic research.
Kim Stevenson
Crime, Drugs and Social
Theory, A Phenomenological Approach
Edition: 1st
Author: Chris Allen
ISBN: 978-0-7546-4742-3
Publishers: Ashgate
Price: £50
Publication Date: 2007
Publisher's Title Information
Do criminal cultures generate drug use? Crime, Drugs and
Social Theory critiques conventional academic and policy thinking concerning
the relationship between urban deprivation, crime and drug use. Chris Allen
outlines an innovative constructionist phenomenological perspective to explore
these relationships in a new light. He discusses how people living in deprived
urban areas develop 'natural attitudes' towards activities, such as crime and
drug use, that are prevalent in the social worlds they inhabit, and shows that
this produces forms of articulation such as 'I don’t know why I take drugs', 'I
just take them' and 'drugs come naturally to me'. He then draws on his
constructionist phenomenology to help understand the ‘natural attitude’ towards
crime and drugs that emerge from conditions of urban deprivation, as well as
the non-reasoned forms of articulation that emerge from this attitude. The book
argues that understanding the conditions in which drug users deviate from their
‘natural attitude’ can help effective intervention in the lives of drug users.
Contents
Introduction: on the question of being and crime; Crime, drugs and social
research; Crime, drugs and social theory; Being and crime (and drugs); 'Natural
attitudes' towards recreational crime and drugs; Becoming a problematic drug
user; Criminological consequences of 'becoming' a problematic drug user;
Confrontations with the 'soiled self'; Conclusions; Bibliography; Index.
Reviews to date
'This is a fine book, which demonstrably contests the main theses of the key
players in the '’drugs debate". The dominant policy and academic theses,
whilst different, are both, according to the author, misplaced, as they fail to
appreciate the habitus of the user themselves. In particular, the author’s
critique of the academic community research into this area as being located
within the discipline rather than the everyday lives of the users themselves is
powerful.’
Professor Dave Cowan, University of Bristol, UK
'This is a very important and extremely well constructed study. Chris Allen
utilises a thorough investigation of the field and in-depth interviews with
some of the UK's most vulnerable citizens to identify the complex and nuanced
factors influencing drug use and crime in the UK. In giving a voice to subjects
often silenced or assumed in contemporary debates, this book presents a
powerful indictment of both current policy and academic investigation, and
provides an epistemology that offers a more constructive way forward in
addressing the causal factors and manifestations of social exclusion.'
John Flint, CRESR, Sheffield Hallam University, UK
The Author
Chris Allen is Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology at
Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. Chris is the author of 30 articles in
peer-reviewed social science journals since 1997 as well as 22 research
reports, 20 articles in the national and professional media and 2 commercially
published books
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Transformations of Policing
Edition:
1st
Series:
The Edinburgh Centre for Law and Society
Author:
Alistair Henry & David J Smith
ISBN:
0754625346
Publishers:
Ashgate
Price
£55
Publication Date: 2007
Publisher’s Title
Information
'People and Police in London' is still the largest and
most detailed study of a police force and its relations with the public that
has yet been undertaken in Britain. The
twenty-three years since its publication has seen a constantly-accelerating
rate of change in the legal framework of policing, in the arrangements for
democratic accountability of the police, in the technologies involved in crime
and policing, in management structures and methods in the police service, in
financial control systems imposed by central government and in methods of
assessing police performance. Over the
same period, crime control has moved from the bottom to the top of the
political agenda, leading to increasing pressure on the police to be seen to be
effective.
Transformations of Policing returns to the central issues discussed in 1983 and
considers whether the main conclusions need to be revised in the light of what
has happened since. It also reviews areas of debate and research that have
emerged more recently and highlights areas of turbulence that are creating
fundamentally different patterns from before and raising genuinely new
questions.
Contents
Preface and acknowledgements; Looking back on Police
and People in London, Alistair Henry; The trajectory of 'private policing', Les
Johnston; Police ethnography in the house of serious and organized crime, James
Sheptycki; Policing ethnic minorities, Alistair Henry; Public order: then and
now, P.A.J. Waddington; 'Reassurance policing: feeling is believing', Adam
Crawford; The architecture of policing: towards a new theoretical model of the
role of constraint-based compliance in policing, Richard Jones; Policing
London: 20 years on, Mike Hough; Managing the police through a time of change,
Peter Neyroud; The future of policing in Britain, Tim Newburn; Policing our
future, Clifford Shearing; New challenges to police legitimacy, David J. Smith;
Index
Reviews
to date
‘Twenty five years ago Police and People in London
was a major landmark in British police research, the most extensive empirical
study of a force to be conducted in this country. This collection of essays from distinguished scholars from around
the world assesses the changes since then.
It provides provocative and informative interpretations, evidence and
argument, and will be of interest and value to anyone seeking to understand
contemporary policing.’
Robert Reiner, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
The
Editors
David J. Smith is Honorary Professor of Criminology
at the University of Edinburgh, UK, and Visiting Professor at the London School
of Economics and Political Science, UK. Alistair Henry is based in the School
of Law at the University of Edinburgh, UK, and a member of the Centre for Law
and Society.
Review
This collection reflects on
transformations of policing that have become evident since the publication in
1983 of a four volume study entitled Police and the People in London (PPL
hereafter). The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) commissioned the work in 1979
and it was undertaken by a team of researchers from the Policy Studies
Institute (PSI) led by David Smith, one of the two editors of this book.
The purpose of the original
study was to examine relations between the MPS and 'the community it serves',
particularly relations between the MPS and ethnic minorities. The PSI team
conducted their fieldwork (surveys of Londoners and police officers, participant
observation of a group of young black people, and observation of police work)
from 1980 to 1982, a period that included the Brixton Riots of April 1981 and
which marked deteriorating relations between the police and ethnic minority
communities.
The PSI published its
critical conclusions in November 1983 generating extensive media coverage which
depicted MPS officers as racist, sexist bullies. The study made recommendations
concerning: the initial selection of police officers; training and career development;
performance assessment; frontline supervision; management models; management
information systems; stop and search policy and practice; racism and sexism;
and beat patrols. Subsequently, the PPL study has been referenced consistently
for: (a) its value as a research exemplar; and (b) for providing a rich picture
of policing London in the early 1980s.
Reading this book at a time
when the current Labour government is actively pursuing a police reform
programme, which follows the previous Conservative government's attempts to
reform policing in the early 1990's, it is easy to conclude that since the
publication of the PSI study, policing would appear to have been in a state of
ongoing crisis and reform. It is in this context that Transformations of
Policing is a particularly useful addition to the policing literature. In this
respect the book reflects not only on policy and organisational change since
1983, but also examines developments in the conceptualisation of 'police' and
'policing'. The transformational themes that emerge include: the increasing
importance of policing beyond the state; the development of risk- based and
intelligence-led policing styles supported by associated technologies; the
change in the nature of debates around police accountability; the
centralisation of policing policy-making; and the impact on policing of the
increasing diversity of communities. These themes are summarised concisely in
chapter one by Alistair Henry, who argues that they are connected by two other
themes that run through the contributing chapters, namely the debates on: (a)
the reconfiguration of 'police' and 'policing'; and (b) the challenges to, and
the striving for, police legitimacy.
These themes are examined
and inter-related to varying degrees across the book's twelve chapters.
Following Henry's scene-setting chapter, there follows eight chapters in which
leading policing scholars focus on one or more transformational themes. Space
precludes a detailed review of each chapter, but to provide an overview of the
subject matter and the quality of the contributions, it suffices to mention
that Tank Waddington assesses public order policing developments since the 1981
Brixton riot, Adam Crawford asks some hard questions of reassurance policing
and Richard Jones theorises the use of force and the police-public relationship
within a 'constraint-based compliance' model. To review other chapters in
slightly more detail, Les Johnston analyses the trajectory of private policing
between 1980 and 2005, charting developments in the functions undertaken by
private security companies and also considering how the theoretical analysis of
private policing has changed over the same period. This is followed by an
intriguing, though not entirely accurately titled, chapter (Police Ethnography
in the House of Serious and Organised Crime), in which James Sheptycki focuses
on the restructuring of policing as a response to serious and organised crime,
culminating in the establishment of the Serious and Organised Crime Agency
(SOCA). Sheptycki traces (page 51) the trend towards 'strategic
criminal-intelligence-led policing' and locates SOCA's inception within the
broader context of transnationalization.
While Johnston and Sheptycki
cover ground untouched by the PSI study, in chapter four Alistair Henry returns
to a core theme of the original work, namely Policing and Ethnic Minorities. He
reviews changes and continuities in three areas: disproportionate policing; the
treatment of ethnic minority police officers within the police organisation;
and democratic reform aimed at increased police responsiveness to communities.
From this review, he concludes that changes since 1983 have been achieved
through creating a climate in which inhibitory rules sensitise officers to race
issues. Although this represents progress, he argues (page 107) that a more
fundamental transformation of policing would be to encourage 'working rules'
embedded with 'fairness, effectiveness and openness'.
Mike Hough also picks up on
themes from the original study. He focuses on trends in public confidence in
policing and in police legitimacy, drawing on his involvement in the Policing
for London study which was planned as a sequel to the PPL study (FitzGerald et
al. 2002). From a differing perspective
a police insider, Peter Neyroud, currently chief executive of the National
Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA), reflects on twenty years of policing
change, a period that charted his rise from young constable to chief constable.
In the final section of the
book, two complementary and illuminating chapters consider the possible futures
of policing. Preferring the term 'governance of security' to 'policing',
Clifford Shearing challenges (page 266) scholars to think beyond the accustomed
historical and institutional reference points to develop conceptual frameworks
that are not 'analytically state-centred' and which will help to understand
'the complex relationships that are emerging between state, supra-state and
non-state entities' in the delivery of security. Tim Newburn maintains the
conceptual level of analysis but in contrast adopts a mainly British focus.
Building on the themes of 'pluralization, centralization and managerialism'
developed in his recent writings on policing, he discusses how each of these,
together with the impact of the 'security agenda' and transnationalization, may
shape policing in its further development. He concludes (page 244) that the
days of the 'standard model' of policing are numbered as the pressure increases
for 'tailored, localized policing, undoubtedly increasingly plural in
character, which is subject to ever-more minute management from the centre'.
The final chapter, aptly, is
written by David Smith, who pulls together many threads through his
consideration of police legitimacy. Acknowledging that the PPL study was
commissioned partly as a response to challenges to police legitimacy, he
considers how developments in policing since 1983 (as identified in the
preceding chapters) have led to new challenges to legitimacy and analyses some
of the attempts to meet these. He concludes (page 276), echoing in part the
1983 study, that 'trust, a professional culture, and good practice are the key
to the establishment of police legitimacy in the face of the recent and
continuing transformations in policing'.
To conclude, through looking
both backwards and forwards this book contributes high quality, intelligent
essays on the trajectories of policing. It provides much evidence and
considered scholarship to help readers make up their own minds concerning the
extent of continuity and change in policing since 1983 and whether the
acknowledged changes represent 'transformation'. Though most suitable for
postgraduates, it deserves to be essential reading for all students of
contemporary policing.
Refs:
FitzGerald, M., Hough, M.,
Joseph, I. and Qureshi, T. (2002) Policing for London. Cullompton: Willan.
Rob Mawby
Crime and Immigration
Authors: Joshua D. Freilich, & Graeme R. Newman
ISBN: 13 978-0-7546-2449-3
Publishers: Ashgate
Number of Pages: 558 pages
Binding: Hardback
Binding Options: Available in Hardback only
Price £130/$250
Publication Date: March 2007
Publisher’s Title
Information
This book provides a broad and yet in-depth overview on migration and crime. It includes classic pieces from different disciplines
(such as criminal justice, sociology, psychology and political science) that
examine a variety of topics (such as hate crimes, organized crime, trafficking,
victimization issues, reporting issues, policing and incarceration issues and
conceptual paradigms) in a variety of locations (such as the USA, Israel,
Europe, Japan and Jamaica) with both qualitative and quantitative
methodologies.
Contents
Series preface; Introduction; Part I Theory and Policy: The application of the
'culture conflict' hypothesis to the criminality of immigrants in Israel,
Shlomo Shoham; The immigration-crime nexus: toward an analytic framework for
assessing and guiding theory, research and policy, Daniel P. Mears; Exporting
and importing criminality: incarceration of the foreign-born, Graeme Newman,
Joshua D. Freilich and Gregory J. Howard; Policy paradox: implications of US
drug control for Jamaica, Marlyn J. Jones; Non-EU citizens experiences of
offending and victimisation: the case for comparative European research, Joanna
Goodey. Part II Offending: Migration and crime in Europe, Hung-en Sun and Jack
Reed; Foreign minorities and the criminal justice system in the Federal
Republic of Germany, Hans-Jörg Albrecht; Some explanations of crime among 4
ethnic groups in the Netherlands, Marianne Junger and Wim Polder; Crime and
Russian immigration – socialization or importation? The Israeli case, Arye
Rattner; Analysis of the crimes committed by foreigners in Japan, Minoru
Yokoyama; Immigration and crime among youth in Switzerland, Alexander T.
Vazsonyi and Martin Killias; Crime and manipulation of identity among Russian-
speaking immigrants in the Netherlands, Dina Siegel and Frank Bovenkerk; A
comparative assessment of criminal involvement among immigrants and natives
across 7 nations, James P. Lynch and Rita J. Simon; Does immigration increase
homicide? Negative evidence from 3 border cities, Matthew T. Lee, Ramiro
Martinez Jr. and Richard Rosenfeld; Immigrants, urban politics and policing in
1900, M.Craig Brown and Barbara D. Warner. Part III Transnational Crime and
Illegal Immigration: Trafficking and human smuggling: a European perspective,
John Salt; Illegal Chinese immigration into the United States: a preliminary
factor analysis, John Z. Wang; The sanctuary movement and the smuggling of
undocumented Central Americans into the United States: crime, devianc or
defiance?, Gregory L. Wiltfang and John J. Cochran. Part IV Immigrants as
Victims: Immigrants as victims of crime, Peter L. Martens; Aggressive youth
cultures and hate crime: skinheads and xenophobic youth in Germany, Meredith W.
Watts ; Fear of crime among an immigrant population in the Washington DC area,
Yaw Ackah; Willingness to report crimes: the role of ethnic group membership
and community efficacy, Robert C. Davis and Nicole J. Henderson; Risk, fear,
harm: immigrant women's perception of the 'policing solution' to woman abuse,
Sandra Wacholz and Baukje Miedema; Name index.
The Authors
Joshua D. Freilich is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology, John
Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, USA. His main
research interests include; Far-right wing culture, deviance, political crime
& terrorism; criminological theory; and International & comparative
criminal justice. He is a lead investigator for the National Consortium for the
Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), a Centre of Excellence
of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Graeme R. Newman is distinguished teaching professor at the School of Criminal
Justice, University at Albany. He has advised the United Nations on crime and
justice issues over many years, and in 1990 established the United Nations
Crime and Justice Information Network. He has published works in the fields of
the history and philosophy of punishment, comparative criminal justice, private
security, situational crime prevention, problem-oriented policing and
information technology. He edited with Joshua Freilich, Shlomo Shoham, Moshe
Adad Migration, Culture Conflict and Crime (Ashgate).
Security Officers and
Policing
Powers, Culture and Control in the Governance of Private Space
Edition: 1st
Author: Mark Button
ISBN: 9780754647973
Publishers: Ashgate
Price £50
Publication Date: 2007
Publisher’s Title
Information
This volume examines how and to what extent security officers make use of legal tools. The work identifies these tools and draws on two case-study sites to illustrate how security officers make use of them as
well as how they fit in broader security systems to secure compliance. The
study also examines the occupational culture of security officers and links
them into the broader systems of security that operate to police nodes of
governance.
The book provides insights for researchers and policy-makers seeking to develop
policy for the expanding private security industry.
Foreword; Introduction;
Power, authority and the security officer: under-researched and
under-estimated?; Researching security officers; The legal tools of security
officers in England and Wales; Nodes of governance: pleasure Southquay and
armed industries; 'Knowledge is power?': security officers' understanding of
their legal tools; Universal legal tools: consent, coercion and commonsense;
Select legal tools: compliance, consent and commonsense; Occupational hazards:
too many masters, isolation and abuse; 'I'm a security guard get me out of
here!' the cultural characteristics of security officers; 'Big fish in little
ponds': security officers and the policing of private and hybrid space;
Bibliography; Index.
Reviews to date
'This excellent book provides a valuable analysis of the legal tools,
operational practices and organizational cultures of private security guards.
Presenting new empirical evidence to challenge taken-for-granted assumptions
about the security industry, the author also raises important implications for
the future regulation of security and for the theoretical analysis of nodal
governance.' Professor Les Johnston, Institute of Criminal Justice Studies, UK
'The phenomenal growth in private security is a crucial factor in the major
transformation of policing around the world in recent decades. Although this
has provoked extensive theoretical and political discussion, relatively little
is known about the characteristics, culture, powers and practices of security
officers. Mark Button's vivid case studies of private security in operation,
based on extensive direct observation of security officers, is a major
contribution to our understanding of this vital area of social control and
policing.' Professor Robert Reiner, London School of Economics and Political
Science, UK
The Author
Dr Mark Button is a Principal Lecturer and Associate Head (Curriculum) at the
Institute of Criminal Justice Studies, University of Portsmouth, UK. Mark is an
expert on private policing and security and has written extensively on these
subjects.
Review
This book explains the legal
powers of Security Officers. The change
in structures of policing and security has meant that in many places power has
shifted from Police Officers to Security Officers. The book explains what power is and in the introduction puts these in a security context by giving
examples. If a security officer asks a
‘youth’ to leave a shop when they do not wish to and they do, that could be
considered as an example of the first dimension of power. An example of the
second might be where a security officer's mere presence leads a ‘youth’ not to
enter the shop when they want to. The third dimension could be illustrated by a
‘youth’ not even wanting to enter the shop because sub-consciously they have
been influenced not to do so, hence the behaviour of the `youth' had been
influenced without there been any observable conflict.
A security officer has the power to make a citizen's arrest in certain
circumstances - an outcome power. They also possess a wide range of social
powers varying according to their skill and the social environment they work
within to make x
happen by manipulating the social environment. This might be at one extreme the
threat of coercion to more subtle tactics of influencing the incentive
structures of an individual. A security
officer who wants to make a trespasser leave private property could at one extreme
threaten to physically remove them if they refuse to leave. Alternatively the officer could persuade the
trespasser to leave by threatening legal action or to call the police.
Any book examining the
powers of Security Officers will of course need to examine Police powers. There is an extensive range of literature on
Police powers. There are of course all
the books published by Oxford University Press written for Police officers
starting with the Police Manuals.
Additionally there are works by (Feldman,
1996; Zander, 2003; and Jason-Lloyd 2005) and studies into their use. Such is the wide range and amount of
literature on police powers it would not be possible to provide a comprehensive
overview in the space available in this book.
However, some of the research conducted on police powers provide
important insights for a study of Security Officers.
Regarding the powers of
Security Officers the author points us to the works available.
The research which does
exist is mainly focused upon what legal powers security personnel possess
(Braun and Lee 1971; Stenning and Shearing 1980; Sarre 1994; Jason-Lloyd 2003;
and Sarre and Prenzler, 2005), public perceptions of private security officers'
powers (Mopas and Stenning 1999), the regulation of their powers and
accountability mechanisms (Scott and McPherson 1971; and Button 1998; and
Stenning 2000), and security officers' knowledge of their legal powers (Kakalik
and Wildhorn 1971).
The books chapters are as
follows:-
Foreword; Introduction; Power, authority and the security officer: under-researched and under-estimated? Researching security
officers; The legal tools of security officers in England and Wales; Nodes of
governance: pleasure Southquay and armed industries; 'Knowledge is power?'
security officers' understanding of their legal tools; Universal legal tools:
consent, coercion and commonsense; Select legal tools: compliance, consent and
commonsense; Occupational hazards: too many masters, isolation and abuse; 'I'm
a security guard get me out of here!' the cultural characteristics of security
officers; 'Big fish in little ponds' security officers and the policing of
private and hybrid space; Bibliography; Index.
This is an excellent book
and as such it is a welcome addition to the limited publications available.
Rob Jerrard