9781841133720
The Shaming of Sexual
Offenders
Edition: paperback
Author: Anne-Marie McAlinden
ISBN: 9781841135922
Publishers: Hart Publishing
Price: £30
Publication Date: April 2007
Publisher’s Title
Information
Sex offenders, particularly those who offend against children,
feature prominently in contemporary law and order debates. Child sexual abuse is a small component of
the broader category of 'gendered and sexualised violence' which causes
significant trauma for victims, yet continues to evade conventional approaches
to justice. This is evidenced not only
by the low number of prosecutions, due mostly to low levels of reporting and
evidential difficulties at trial, but also by the failure of the justice system
to prevent re-offending, largely due to the limited availability and
effectiveness of prison treatment programmes.
Following Braithwaite's dichotomy of 'reintegrative' and 'disintegrative'
shaming, this book argues that contemporary popular and state-led responses to
the risk posed by sex offenders are largely disintegrative in nature. At best, the offender may be labelled,
stigmatised and ostracised from the community, while at worst, he may be
subjected to violence and vigilante action and ultimately return to offending
behaviour. The failure of these retributive
responses means there is considerable scope for exploring alternative forms of
justice and their potential for improving the outcome for victims, offenders
and communities affected by sexual offences.
This book examines the controversy of whether restorative justice can be
applied to child sexual abuse as one of the most intractable of contemporary
societal problems, and if so, what special considerations might apply. Although restorative schemes with sex offenders
are in short supply, a few initiatives have developed in Canada and parts of
the United States which have effected significant benefits in 'reintegrative
shaming.' The book examines whether
such ad hoc schemes may be of general application with child sexual abuse and
whether they may be implemented on a more holistic basis.
The Author
Anne-Marie McAlinden is
Lecturer in the School of Law at Queen's University Belfast.
Review
To name or not to name sexual offenders: that is the question. A question that has been troubling the minds of politicians, social workers, police, criminologists and academics for many years. To date no one has satisfactorily provided a solution.
When an individual has
served a prison sentence it is normal practice for that person to be released
into his former community. But with sex
offenders this presents a problem, partly because of the danger of vigilantes.
The alternative is to move to another town where only the police are aware of
his presence but, it is argued, should not the public also be warned they have
a potential recidivist in their midst?
Should he be allowed to live near a school, a community centre, leisure
centre and similar places frequented by children? An alternative and perhaps more drastic solution that has been
advocated is castration.
These and many other
questions and possible solutions are posed by Anne-Marie McAlinden in her book
"The Shaming of Sexual Offenders". She
explores in great depth, the use of shaming mechanisms with sexual offenders,
particularly those who offend against children and considers whether a plethora
of legislation has been effective; also whether prisons specialising in dealing
with sex offenders offer a comprehensive treatment and therapy programme. But sexual offenders have existed from time
immemorial and the comment that “child sexual abuse and the management of
offenders against children in the community have only been conceptualised as
distinct social problems within the last two decades” is curious in view of the
time such knowledge has been available.
In the 1970s and possibly
even a decade earlier, some of the most obscene publications depicted child
abuse, especially those arriving in the UK from Sweden and the Netherlands and
often publicised by the late Mary Whitehouse, who’s voice was ignored. At that time the question also arose as to
whether any readers of the material were affected by the pictures and vivid
descriptions. But again, despite the fact
that there were instances where convicted persons admitted that they had been
influenced, it was only when cases hit the headlines that the appropriate
authorities woke up to the dangers.
It is therefore curious that
little research has been conducted into the effect of the material in European
countries that produced the material. The Netherlands has the reputation of
“sexual freedom” but despite that, it does possess relevant legislation and
also has sexual offenders: so how does it deal with the matter? The author states European countries were
also late appreciating the problem.
Even so, it would have been interesting to compare the actions of, say,
France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands as to their methods of dealing with
the offenders: experience has shown time and again that the US does not have
the answer to every problem that arises.
Despite these comments the
book provides a readable history of events over the years and poses numerous
questions and possible solutions. This
is an ongoing problem with apparently no end in sight. Since the book’s publication there has been
yet another attempt to solve the matter.
Photographs and details of ten sexual offenders who failed to report to
police and whose whereabouts are unknown have been shown on the Internet and
Television. As stories serialised in
magazines used to conclude: to be continued……
Iconoclast
The
Constitution of the United Kingdom
A Contextual
Analysis
Edition:
Paperback
Author:
Peter Leyland
ISBN:
1-84113-666-2
Publishers:
Hart Publishing
Price
£12.95
Publication
Date: March 2007
Publisher’s
Title Information
This is the first book in the
new series Constitutional Systems of the World, and as such launches what is
set to become an invaluable resource for all students and teachers of
constitutional law and politics. The
book provides an outline of the principles and doctrines which make up the
United Kingdom constitution. The
chapters are written in sufficient detail for anyone coming to the subject for
the first time to develop a clear and informed view of how the constitution is
arranged and how it works. The main
themes include: a description of the history, sources and nature of the
constitution; later chapters deal with: constitutional principles, the role of
the Crown, Parliament and the electoral system, government and the executive,
the constitutional role of courts including the protection of human rights, the
territorial distribution of power between central, devolved and local
government and the European Union dimension.
Secondly, the book offers an analytical discussion of the development of
the constitution, its strengths and perceived weaknesses, and the on-going
reforms aimed at modernising the UK constitution. The book is written in an
accessible style, with an emphasis on clarity and concision. It includes a list
of references for further reading at the end of each chapter.
Legal Responses to
Trafficking in Women for Sexual Exploitation in the European Union
Edition: 1st
Author: Heli Askola
ISBN: 1-84113-650-6 / 9781841136509
Cover: Hardback
Publishers: Hart Publishing
Price £35.00
Publication Date: March 2007
Publisher’s Title Information
The phenomenon of
trafficking in women for sexual exploitation, which in the last decade has
changed from a marginal 'non-issue' to a legitimate concern in many parts of
the world, has become familiar through newspaper coverage, and now, finally,
legislators and law enforcement agencies have begun to act. In Europe many EU
Member States now have (or are developing) at least some sort of
anti-trafficking policies (with some of them in the forefront of global
anti-trafficking efforts). Moreover, the EU itself has become markedly more
active with regard to curbing trafficking in human beings, as part of its
migration control and police and judicial co-operation functions.
However, even co-ordinated efforts such as those being worked on by the EU tend
to produce only short-term 'cures' to a problem that is in truth global and
structural in nature and which cannot be eradicated - or necessarily even
significantly reduced - through policing and migration control measures alone.
Too often there is little debate on broader measures which might be targeted to
address the 'root causes' of trafficking, such as poverty, under-development,
general lack of economic and migration opportunities and, above all, gender
inequality.
Against this background, this book deals with present efforts to control
trafficking in women for sexual exploitation. In doing so it examines claims
that what is needed effectively to prevent and tackle trafficking is a
'comprehensive' approach, and at the very least one that is far more
wide-ranging and coherent than what exists today, and also analyses the
assertion that destination countries, and more specifically Member States of
the EU, could and perhaps should, take more action against trafficking through
regional co-operation, particularly in the framework of the EU, rather than as
individual Member States.
The book will be of interest to a wide range of scholars in EU law, human
rights, comparative law, sociology, feminist theory and politics, as well as
policy-makers, practitioners and NGO activists in various European countries.
The Author
Heli Askola is a Lecturer in
Law at Cardiff University.
Review
This book essentially argues that sexual
services by prostitutes are a commodity and in the EU should be lawful under
the EU Freedom of Movement: but that it is not.
The author says, “The lack of will to
engage in any debate over whether or not the Union should play a role in
addressing demand for sexual services is actually a manifestation of a broader
problem. To say this is not to claim that the European Union is the problem
rather than the solution as far as trafficking in women for sexual exploitation
is concerned; rather we have to recognise the multiple ways in which the
European Union is part of the problem in order to conceive of ways of making it
a part of the solution as well”.
Framework Decision 2002/629/JHA, [2002]
OJ L 203/1, largely reflects the UN Trafficking Protocol... Article 3 of the UN
Trafficking Protocol states:” Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the
exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual
exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery,
servitude or the removal of organs.”
Paragraph 2 of the EU Council Framework
Decision 2002/629/JHA simply copies the UN Trafficking Protocol, Article 3(b)
on consent, but the EU Council Framework Decision introduces additional
provisions such as the demand for sanctions against trafficking to be
effective, proportionate, minimum, and maximum penalties.
The United Nations Trafficking Protocol
established the first internationally agreed definition of the crime of
trafficking in humans, but this book averts itself from the criminality of
trafficking. Throughout the book, the term irregular immigration is used,
rather than illegal immigration. It concentrates on the “freedom” of movement
and states in Chapter 3, “Freedom after all, is a central and cross-cutting
feature of European integration, whereas victims of trafficking are in some
ways the personification of the un-free…”, claiming that trafficking is rarely
extended to address the working of the Internal Market of the European
Community. Yet, earlier parts of the book state that prostitutes are not
necessarily passive victims of a patriarchal society and that prostitution is
not always inherently exploitative, it can also be well paid. The writer argues
that expansion of sex-industries in many countries is not due to natural male
urges, but as in any market, to sex-business entrepreneurs who actively create
and expand the demand for an ever-widening range of ‘sexualised’ services…
In examining prostitution in EU
countries, the writer admits that Sweden has criminalised prostitution whereas
in the Netherlands the ban on brothels was lifted in the year 2000. The writer
missed a strong point in her argument by ignoring Germany where legalisation of
prostitution is being considered and, as if the UK were not a member of the EU,
the writer side-lined the UK situation altogether, (in the book, Wicked beyond
Belief by Michael Bilton, (pg 306), he wrote that, in searching for the
Yorkshire Ripper who murdered prostitutes some decades ago, police details of all
known men regularly visiting prostitutes in West Yorkshire and Manchester
alone, revealed that 21,000 males were “punting” prostitutes in one 18-month
period alone, - thereby missing a strong argument to support the thesis.
There are 900,000 to 1,000,000 trafficked
prostitutes in the world, according to statistics by the US State Department.
It would have been enlightening for the writer to tell us approximately how
many of these are trafficked to the EU, as this would have strengthened the
hypothesis that the EU should view trafficking under the Freedom of Movement of
workers. The writer did however acknowledge that the service industries,
especially the feminised sectors of care and domestic work, which absorb a
large proportion of female migrants, are typically associated with informality
and irregularity of working conditions.
I think that this academic exploration
into trafficking of women for prostitution is a welcome addition to the list of
scarce writings on the subject and will add to the debate.
Sally Ramage
May 2007
Juvenile Law Violators, Human Rights, and the Development of New Juvenile
Justice Systems
Oñati International Series In Law And Society - No. 18
Edition: 2007
Author: Edited by Eric L.
Jensen and Jørgen Jepsen
ISBN: 1-84113-636-0 / 9781841136363
Publishers: Hart Publishing
Price £22
Publication Date: October 2006
This volume brings together scholars and practitioners specialising in juvenile
justice from the US and Europe alongside scholars from Africa and Asia who are
working on human rights issues in developing countries or countries in
transition. The book presents two types
of papers: descriptive and analytical academic papers on whole systems of
juvenile justice or aspects of those systems (e.g., aftercare, restorative
justice, etc.) and papers which deal with efforts to promote reform through
international activity (PRI, DCI, DIHR), and through efforts to utilise modern
theory in national reforms in developing countries (Malawi, Nepal, and Serbia)
or in countries experiencing current or recent political and systemic changes
or developments (South Africa, Germany, and Poland). The volume is also intended to throw light on recent trends in
juvenile crime in various countries, the relationship between actual developments
and popular and political perceptions and reactions to such developments
(including efforts to find alternatives to the incarceration of young
offenders). A streak of new moralism is
clearly discernable as a counteracting force against more humane reform
efforts. The volume throws light on
developments in the actual parameters of juvenile offending, public and
political demands for security and public intervention, and measures to provide
interventions which are at the same time compatible with international human
rights instruments.
The Editors
Eric L. Jensen is Professor
of Sociology, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, USA.
Jorgen Jepsen is Senior Consultant at the Danish Institute for Human Rights,
and Associate Professor Emeritus in Criminology at the University of Aarhus,
Denmark.