Publishers:
Oxford University Press
Price
£24.95
Publication
Date: 20th April 2006
Publisher's Title Information
This book is a practical and theoretical analysis of
public protection and criminal justice. This area has seen immense change in
recent years and the book examines the recent legislative, policy and
organisational changes and their impact on the various agencies involved,
including the police service and the probation service.
Public protection has now assumed a position of dominance within the criminal
justice agenda. New ways of working have necessitated changes to organisational
culture, which in turn has begun to blur traditional criminal justice boundaries.
Agencies must now work together by law and the public protection 'family' has
extended to include a range of agencies, such as housing and leisure services.
This book explores the problematic concept of 'dangerousness' and its
application to criminal justice. All recent policy and legislative initiatives
are examined within a critical context that questions the need for populist,
punitive agendas, for example the creation of MAPPA (Multi-Agency Risk
Assessment Panels) and changes in relation to the National Probation Service.
Recent relevant legislative references are collated in a useful appendix at the
back of the book.
The book is a practical and useful reference, ideal reading for students and
academics working critically in the area who wish to understand how public
protection has reached its present status. It is also a useful reference for
probation officers, police officers and policy makers.
Description
Explores the growth of the public protection agenda and its impact on criminal
justice practice. Provides a critical evaluation of the area and looks at the wider context outside the framework set by policies. Balances practical and theoretical considerations, including useful case studies Covers, the changing perceptions of 'dangerousness' and its effect on criminal justice practice. Includes a handy appendix which collates all relevant legislative and Home Office Circular references. Examines topical issues such as hate crimes,sex offender orders, internet crime and domestic violence
Blackstone’s Guide to the Sexual Offences Act 2003 Edition:
1st Authors:
Kim Stevenson, Anne Davies and Michael Gunn ISBN:
0199270007 Publishers
Oxford University Press Price: £29.95 RRP UK Publication
Date: 18th March 2004 The
very name Blackstone is deeply embedded in English law and, of course, now has
a special place in the memories of those who labour, often for some years, to qualify
for promotion within the police service through the pages of the four volumes
of Police Manuals bearing that name. The Blackstone's Guide Series also
perpetuates the designation. The latest in that series on the Sexual Offences
Act 2003, besides bearing the Blackstone name, has one other attribute, in that
the three authors are all academic staff of the Trent University, thus making
for a closely knit team who have put together, in quick time, an authoritative
text book on this major revision of the law relating to sex offences. This
modernisation of the sexual laws, the first for almost half a century, still
relies on age as an essential ingredient of many of the offences set out in the
Act. Whilst the authors, and indeed the legislation itself, quite rightly draw
attention to the growth in offences against the young, one wonders whether less
attention could have been drawn to the age factor. Rape after all is rape,
whatever the age of the victim and surely judges can reflect the circumstances
of individual cases by determining the sentence they impose. Too much perhaps
has been allowed to remain of the old law. One detects the hand of central
government dusting down old papers on the time-honoured principle of what did
we do last time. For instance, one factor that does not appear to have been
considered is sexual attacks on the elderly. All too often these days one reads
about some 80 year old pensioner being raped in her own home. Perhaps the time
has come to deal with such cases specifically in legislation. They are
obviously always premeditated to some degree. As
is usual when dealing with text books, one finds they are either out of date
before the publication date or one can recognise that the matter they deal with
will almost certainly require revising in the not too distant future. One only has to think of the Mental Health
review provisions that have been presented to Parliament. Three
areas that will be of particular interest to police officers concern the
provisions relating to indecent photographs of persons aged 16 or 17 (Section
45), exposure (Section 66) and voyeurism (section 67). They are at the coalface and have to make
decisions without the aid of law books and, that priceless asset, time. The
matter of indecent photographs of 16 and 17 year olds has some interesting
points. The authors suggest that the reason for this could be that those over
the age of 16 could still be vulnerable to abuse and a possible over reaction
to public concern about paedophilia. It might also be said that neither of
these two factors are the reason, but instead it might be the tidy minds of the
parliamentary draftsmen wanting to keep the definition of child to 18 for all
purposes. One recalls that the definition of child was raised from 17 to 18
years when Juvenile Courts were rebranded Youth Courts. What it did not do was
to prevent remands to prison for those young people within what the legislators
probably had in mind, namely a 'golden year' that would keep such offenders out
of custody. It did not work out that
way because there were insufficient remand places available. It is submitted that the possibility of 16
and 17 year olds becoming embroiled in the pornography business and winding up
as accused persons requiring scarce remand places, rather than victims, has
more to do with moving the age to 18, than the views advanced by the authors. The
new section 45(3) adding section 1A to The Protection of Children Act 1978
deals with the law relating to young marriages, but interestingly also includes
enduring family relationships. As the
authors point out, the words 'enduring relationship' are not defined and pose
the question as to whether six months would be sufficient? No mention is made of the age of the other
partner, neither it appears, need the age of the child be considered as to when
the enduring family relationship commenced.
The critical issue appears to centre on the day of the 16th
birthday. Provided the photograph was
taken on or after that day and the other aspects of the statute are met, there
must be an acquittal. As
to section 66 and the matter of exposure, at long last the days of rogues and
vagabonds under the Vagrancy Act 1824 have gone and a much more sensible
offence has been substituted. Many
police officers engaged in the charging process must have wondered why this
offence, which caused so much distress to school children was allowed to remain
a minor summary offence for very nearly 200 years. They must also have wondered why some extremely petty shoplifting
theft was rated as a crime whereas a 'flashing' offence never achieved that
status. We shall almost certainly see
Chief Officers of Police commenting that crime has increased because of new
reporting methods. One
can see some fine legal arguments being fought over what constitutes
genitals. Quite rightly the authors, at
page 137, comment that the exposure offence is completely gender neutral
relying on the Interpretation Act 1978 provisions, but is the vagina an
external reproduction organ? No doubt
this will be an early one for the Judges to pronounce upon. Another
issue appertaining to the general offence is touched upon by the authors also
on page 137, namely exposing the buttocks and the omission of such conduct from
the statute. It is perhaps a pity that
such behaviour is not catered for. Male
exposure of the buttocks is surely capable of causing alarm or distress when it
occurs in a busy thoroughfare or at a bad tempered football match. Similar conduct by a female in front of a
group of elderly women could have a like effect. As social behaviour worsens this type of behaviour might find its
way into future legislation. The
new offence of Voyeurism created under section 67, will put an end to much head
scratching among hard pressed Custody Officers in busy police stations and will
take the civil content out of such behaviour.
The 'Peeping Tom' conduct of peering through chinks in the curtains to
see what was going on has long caused problems when deciding appropriate charges. Sometimes recourse was had to public order
offences, but more usually the culprit was placed before the court under the
provisions of the Justice of the Peace Act 1361 and bound over to keep the
peace. Only the Common Law and the
office of Lord Chancellor have survived longer. It might be said that with this new offence and the office of
Lord Chancellor about to be abolished, there is now a case for the movement of
the Common Law into statute form. The
creation of the Voyeurism offence ensures that any person found guilty will
have the finding of guilt cited as a previous conviction. One sometimes hears binding over Orders
cited in such circumstances, quite erroneously, because it is not a previous
conviction. The authors have done an excellent and
extremely brave job in offering comment on so many aspects of this major
consolidating statute. Acknowledgements are made to the contributions made by
the final year LL.B students at Nottingham Law School, which the authors took
into account when formulating their own views that appear in the book. It would
have been interesting to have been able to read some of the students’ copy. The draftsmen have done their best with a
difficult subject in rapidly changing times and the Sexual Offences Act 2003,
is probably the forerunner of many more amending Acts over a far lesser period
than was the case of its predecessor. Brian
Rowland 10
May 2004 This
is a landmark statute that repeals almost all of the Sexual Offences Act 1956
and many other statutory provisions enacted since, as the authors point out, it
is, "a new criminal code of sexual offences". Within
the Police service there will be a need for a complete re-write of training
manuals and training courses - in fact as with other times when legislation has
drastically altered the law, eg; (Theft Act 1968, and PACE 1984), there will be
a need for short courses to help officers absorb all the changes. For
those teaching or preparing these courses something more than the bare statute
will be useful;this book is well written and researched with examples of how
changes could or will affect everyday situations - it also contains the statute
in full. One
way of assimilating the new law would be to use appendix 2, "table of
changes", here the authors give us the old offence and its replacement. Read this first,
then refer back to the chapter on it. Gone
are so many of those definitions that Police officers of my generation spent
weeks learning. Some of the most
important changes are:, New definition for rape Section 9 Theft Act 1968, burglary with intent to commit rape - now
Section 63, “Trespass with intent to commit a sexual offence”. Section 2 Procurement - new offence. Section 3 Procurement - new offence. Section 4 Administer drugs - new offence. Section 5 USI - repealed, new offence. Section 6 USI repealed, new offence. Section 10 Incest - now familial sexual abuse, embracing more members
of the family. Section 12 Buggery - repealed. Sections 14 & 15 Indecent assault - new offences. Indecency with Children Act 1960- repealed, new offences. Changes to prostitution laws. Protection of Children Act 1978 - now a child "under 18", was
16. Kerb Crawling - now a woman can commit the offence. Indecent exposure, now it is "person exposes genitals", not
"his person"; now a woman can commit the offence, it will not be an
offence under this new section to expose breasts or buttocks, These
are just some of the main changes; this book will provide an excellent quick
reference at a price affordable for Forces to provide a copy in all custody
suites. Custody Sergeants whatever
their training, will be the ones needing something readily available. Rob Jerrard> Contents CCTV
and Policing Author:
Benjamin J Goold ISBN: 0199265143 Publishers
Oxford University Press Price: £50 RRP UK Publication
Date: 19th Feb 2004 The
Publishers that CCTV and Policing
is the first major published work to present a comprehensive assessment of the
impact of CCTV on the police in Britain. Drawing extensively upon empirical research,
this volume examines how the police in Britain first became involved in public
area surveillance, and how they have since attempted to use CCTV technology to
prevent, respond to, and investigate crime. In addition, this volume also
provides a detailed analysis of the legality of CCTV surveillance in the light
of recent changes to the Data Protection Act and the incorporation of the
European Convention on Human Rights. Challenging
many existing accounts of the relationship between the police and new
surveillance technologies, CCTV and Policing breaks new ground in policing and
surveillance theory, and argues that it is time for a major reassessment of
both our understanding of how the police respond to technological change, and
the role played by such technologies in our society. Benjamin J. Goold has been Lecturer in Law at
both Corpus Christi College and New College, Oxford. From 2001-2002, he was
Adjunct Instructor in the Department of Law and Police Science, John Jay
College of Criminal Justice, New York, and has since spent a year as Associate
Professor of Anglo American Law at Niigata University, Japan. He is currently
University Lecturer in Law and Fellow of Somerville College, Oxford. This is not the first study of CCTV,
Perpetuity Press did publish a book on the subject in 2003 This was Edited by
Martin Gill, the ISBN is 189928771X; the RRP UK is £35 plus £3.50 P&P.
Details can be found at www.rjerrard.co.uk/law/ppress/ppress1.htm This previous book by Perpetuity presents
research from specialists in the field along with in-depth analysis and
valuable new insights relating to the effective use and management of CCTV.
With significant case studies providing lessons from the experiences of others
around the world, this book is an important addition to the bookshelves of all
those who work with or have an interest in CCTV. Those working in the field may want to
possess copies of both books. This
latest CCTV book is part of The Clarendon
Studies in Criminology was inaugurated in 1994 under the auspices of the
centres of criminology at the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford and the
London School of Economics. The
General Editor’s Introduction tells us that in CCTV and Policing the author makes two central claims. The first
is that the introduction of CCTV may not have significantly changed the way the
police operate on a day-to-day basis.
There is some interesting empirical evidence for this thesis from his
own study of the police in the Southern region of England. The second,
following on from this observation, is that this fact should lead us to rethink
the 'conventional wisdom' in criminology and social science, and among civil
libertarians, about the relationship between policing and surveillance
technology. The author states that
there is a pressing need for us to re-examine the ways in which we think about
surveillance and to resist the pull of dystopic visions when looking at the
impact of technologies like CCTV. Cameras are not in and of themselves
intrusive-they only become so when used in particular settings and in
particular ways. In
Goold's book, CCTV and Policing,
we have an important, and partly controversial contribution to the ongoing
discussion of the role of the police and policing in the emerging surveillance
society. Rob
Jerrard Title:
English Private Law & English Public Law, as a complete set Series:
Oxford English Law Author:
Edited by David Feldman ISBN: 0199270791 Publishers
Oxford University Press Price: £299 (for the Pack)Titles can be purchased
separately Publication
Date: 29 April 2004 Oxford English Law - English
Private Law & First Cumulative Supplement and English Public Law Edited by
Peter Birks, Regius Professor of Civil Law, University of Oxford and David
Feldman, Legal Adviser to the Joint Houses of Parliament Committee on Human Rights Description The publication of English
Public Law sees the completion of Oxford English Law, a good first point of
reference on English law for lawyers in the UK and throughout the world. English
Private Law and English Public Law are now available together as a set at a
special pack price. The set includes the First Supplement to English Private
Law. ENGLISH PRIVATE LAW VOLUME I Rt Hon The Lord Goff of
Chieveley: Foreword Preface Introduction Table of Cases and Legislation Part I Sources of Law 1 Professor John Bell: Sources
of Law Part II The Law of Persons 2 Dr Stephen Cretney: Family 3 Dr Charles Mitchell:
Companies and Other Associations Part III The Law of Property 4 William Swadling: Property:
General Principles 5 Associate Professor Lionel
Smith: Security 6 Professor William Cornish:
Intellectual Property 7 Roger Kerridge: Succession Index VOLUME II Part IV The Law of Obligations 8 Sir Guenter Treitel:
Contract: General Rules 9 Professor Francis Reynolds:
Agency and Representation 10 Professor Ewan McKendrick:
Sale of Goods 11 Professor Francis Reynolds:
Carriage of Goods by Sea 12 Professor Mark Freedland:
Employment 13 Professor Norman Palmer:
Bailment 14 John Davies: Tort 15 Professor Peter Birks &
Dr Charles Mitchell: Unjust Enrichment Part V Litigation 16 Professor Michael Bridge:
Insolvency 17 Adrian Briggs: Private
International Law 18 Professor Andrew Burrows:
Judicial Remedies 19 Neil Andrews: Civil Procedure Bibliography Index FIRST CUMULATIVE SUPPLEMENT The Supplement follows the same
structure as the main work, with each contributor providing updates to their
chapter, carefully referenced to the relevant paragraphs of the main work. ENGLISH PUBLIC LAW Part I Constitutional Law 1 Constitutional Fundamentals (a) Eric Barendt: Fundamental
Principles (b) Evelyn Ellis: Sources of
law and the hierarchy of norms 2 The Law of Parliament (a) Dawn Oliver: The
constitution of Parliament and its role in the appointment
of a Government (b) Dawn Oliver: The powers and
privileges of Parliament (c) Evelyn Ellis: The
legislative supremacy of Parliament and its limits,
including the effect of EC law 3 Andrew Le Sueur: The Legal
Powers of Central Government (a) The nature and structure of
central government (b) The domestic and
international powers of central government 4 Stephen Bailey: The
Structure, Powers, and Accountability of Local
Government 5 Tony Prosser: The Powers and
Accountability of Agencies and Regulators 6 Tony Bradley: The
Constitutional Position of the Judiciary Part II Standards of Review in
Human Rights and Administrative Law 1 David Feldman: Human Rights
in English Law (a) General Principles and
concepts (b) Relationship between human
rights obligations in public
international law, in EU law, and under the common law
of civil liberties (c) The scope of the Human
Rights Act 1998 2 David Feldman: Rights to
Life, Physical and Moral Integrity 3 David Feldman: Rights to
Freedom of Lifestyle and Religion or Belief 4 David Feldman: Political
Rights 5 Sandra Fredman: Social,
Economic, and Cultural Rights 6 Chris McCrudden: Equality and
Non-Discrimination 7 Stephen Bailey: Due Process
Rights 8 The Grounds for Judicial
Review of Administrative and Ministerial
Action (a) Paul Craig: Fundamental
Principles (b) Maurice Sunkin: Illegality
in the strict sense (c) Stephen Bailey: Due
process, including natural justice and fairness (d) Paul Craig: Substantive
control over discretion: irrationality, proportionality,
legitimate expectations, and
equality Part III Remedies in Human
Rights and Administrative Law 1 Paul Craig: Access to
Mechanisms of Administrative Law 2 Maurice Sunkin: Remedies
Available in for Judicial Proceedings 3 David Feldman: Remedies for
Violations of Convention Rights 4 Genevra Richardson: Tribunals 5 Michael Purdue:
Investigations by the Public Sector Ombudsmen 6 Michael Purdue: Public
Inquiries as a Part of Public Administration Part IV Criminal Law 1 Leonard Leigh: Principles of
Criminal Procedure 2 Andrew Ashworth: General
Principles of Criminal Law 3 Andrew Ashworth & Tony
Smith: Offences Against the Person 4 Tony Smith: Offences Against
Property 5 Tony Smith: Offences Against
the State, Public Order, and Public Morality and
Decency 6 Martin Wasik: Principles of
Sentencing There is no doubt that these
combined works could become a first point of reference for anyone seeking to
find the current law on any aspect of English Law, what cannot be helped is the
constant changes that occur, EG; the Sexual Offences Act 2003. For that reason Cumulative Supplements are
being issued, the 1st and 2nd are already published for
English Private Law. It is a pity that keeping up
with the current law is so expensive, these two supplements cost £70, this set
is not therefore within the budget of the average law student, to that end it
is to be hoped that all Law Libraries will invest in a few sets, because I
think it will be in demand as word get about. Rob Jerrard
Introduction
1 Consent and Consensual Issues
2 Sexual Violation, Rape, and Assault
3 Sexual Activity with Children
4 Sexual Activity with Persons with a Mental Disorder or Learning Disability
5 Prostitution and Child Pornography
6 Other Sexual Offences and Sexual Activity
7 Evidential Issues
8 Sex Offenders: Nofitication and Sex Offenders Register
9 Sex Offenders: Sex Offences Prevention Orders
Conclusion
Appendix
Text of the Sexual Offences Act 2003
·
"Internet Law Book Reviews" Copyright Rob Jerrard 2007