Publication Date: January 2007
Over the past four decades the fear of
crime has become an increasingly significant concern for criminologists,
victimologists, policy makers, politicians, police, the media and the general
public. For many practitioners reducing fear of crime has become almost as
important an issue as reducing crime itself.
The identification of fear of crime as a serious policy problem has
given rise to a massive amount of research activity, political discussion and
intellectual debate. Despite this
activity, actually reducing levels of fear of crime has proved difficult. Even
in recent years when many western nations have experienced reductions in the
levels of reported crime, fear of crime has often proven intractable. The
result has been the development of what amounts to a fear of crime industry.
Previous studies
have identified conceptual challenges, theoretical cul-de-sacs and
methodological problems with the use of the concept fear of crime. Yet it has endured as both an organizing
principal for a body of research and a term to describe a social malady. This provocative, wide ranging book asks how
and why fear of crime retains this cultural, political and social scientific
currency despite concerted criticism of its utility? It subjects the concept to
rigorous critical scrutiny taking examples from the UK, North America and
Australia.
Part one of Inventing Fear of Crime
traces the historical emergence of the fear of crime concept, while part two
addresses the issue of fear of crime and political rationality, and analyses
fear of crime as a tactic or technique of government. His book will be essential reading on one of the key issues in
government and politics in contemporary society.
Fear and anxieties over crime of crime are a central feature of
western societies and their government’s approaches to crime control policy.
This book provides a wide-ranging analysis, investigating fear and
anxieties over crime with special reference to N America, UK and Australia.
This is a major contribution to criminological theory and our
understanding of the development of government policy on crime.
Contents
1
Introduction
2 Fear of crime: a pre-history
3 Anxieties in the knowledgeable society: the birth of a new criminological
object
4 Surveying the fearful: the expansion of the victim survey
5 Fearing subjects
6 Governing and policing the fearful
7 The marketing of monsters
8 Conclusions: don't mention the 'F' word
Bibliography
Index
Reviewer
Wanted
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Out of Sight
Crime, youth and
exclusion in modern Britain
Edition: 1st
Author: Robert McAuley
ISBN-10: 1-843921-96-0 ISBN-13:
978-1-843921-96-7 Price £40 HB Publication Date: October 2006 Publisher’s
Title Information Youth crime is
simultaneously a social problem and an intrinsic part of consumer culture:
while images of gangs and gangsters are used to sell global commodities, young
people not in work and education are labelled as antisocial and susceptible to
crime This book
focuses on the lives of a group of young adults living in a deprived housing
estate situated on the edge of a large city in the North of England. It
investigates the importance of fashion, music and drugs in young people’s
lives, providing a richly detailed ethnographic account of the realities of
exclusion, and explaining how young people become involved in crime and drug
use. Young men and women describe their own personal experiences of exclusion
in education, employment and the public sphere. They describe their history of
exclusion as ‘the life’, and the term identifies how young people grew up as
objects of suspicion in the eyes of an affluent majority. The author As the millennium
approached, a number of insightful books appeared that questioned the
self-satisfied state of fin-de-siecle Britain. In their descriptions of the
poor and the marginalised, works such as Danziger’s Britain (Danziger 1997) and
Dark Heart (Davies 1997) echoed earlier writing, for example, George Orwell’s
The Road to Wigan Pier. In Out of Sight, Robert McAuley adds to this recent
body of hitherto largely journalistic work by providing an ethnographic and
theoretically informed investigation of this ‘other’ Britain. His context is
Britain as a de-industrialised consumer society characterised by the
‘redevelopment of cities into theme parks organised around the pursuit of a
consumer lifestyle’ (page 12). Unfortunately these are theme parks that require
cheap labour to undertake work that is unrewarding and poorly paid. The
marginalised young people whom McAuley interviews and observes during his
twelve months of field work are faced with the unsatisfactory prospect of
joining this work force or opting for alternative means of scraping a living. McAuley focuses on ‘Nova’, a
1950s housing estate located on the edge of ‘Ford’, one of northern England’s
large cities. Initially constructed in post-war optimism to house the workers
who powered the post 1945 recovery, by the time of his study, Nova is
disproportionately featured in the local media for its association with car
crime, drug dealing and vandalism; its residents are associated with
fecklessness, poor parenting and welfare dependency. This is an estate
overlooked by regeneration booms and its residents are demonised at school and
work for where they come from. Geographically adjacent to Nova, regeneration
funding has led to the establishment of ‘Gemini Park,’ a retail, business and
hi-tech park where the more affluent residents of Ford work and play, oblivious
to the other Britain just beyond. Out of Sight provides
numerous rich insights into the lives of the young people of Nova. After
setting the context of Nova and its neighbour, Gemini Park, in chapters one and
two, the author allows his informants to guide us through their world. This
includes: the ‘workfare merry-go-round’ that perpetuates exclusion with its
culture of lowly paid, insecure employment; the escape of some into informal
work and working for themselves, sometimes crossing the border into criminality
through ‘mooching’ and going ‘on the shift’; the decline of others into class A
drug-taking. Relief is provided by ‘the Project’ (see below) and through the
hedonistic pursuit of leisure; the account of a night out in the area’s leading
night-spot is suitably grim. McAuley’s conceptual
framework is consumer society as ‘a world in which everyone is trapped’ (page
77) and where consumer culture is ‘defined by angst and dread’ (page 166). The
dominant structural conditions, exacerbated by government policy, ensure that
poor communities such as Nova are excluded and its residents carry the stigma
of crime. This is a post-modern vision in which the modern Nova contrasts
starkly with post-modern mainstream Britain (page 165). The absurdity of the
strangling structural conditions described by McAuley is symbolised by ‘the
Project’. This is a valued drop-in centre, providing employment advice for the
young people of Nova. It is one public amenity that has succeeded in wining the
trust of young people; it is both a link to work and training and also a place
where they meet and socialise. Yet because it doesn’t fit the managerialist
model of achieving performance targets and providing a standardised service, it
is forced to close, denting the collective confidence of the community’s young
people and further emphasising their exclusion. The outline thus far
suggests that the lives of Nova’s young people are bleak and literally
hopeless. However, the book describes also how the young people maintain their
self-respect through working for themselves and enjoying a collective,
inclusive culture expressed, for example, through hip-hop. The older young
people, particularly, maintain notions of faith in themselves and some degree
of positive certainty about the future. Following the low of the demise of ‘the
Project’, optimism for the future is raised by the creation of ‘Gateways’, a
local education and employment training centre, achieved through the social
capital that Nova’s community groups are able to build. For those who wonder
what will become of Nova’s young people, McAuley tells us towards the end of
the book (page 157) of returning to Nova and meeting up with the people who had
let him into their lives for a year; he finds that most remain strong and
resilient. This book is not without
faults. The prose throughout the book is idiosyncratic. For example, on page 20
McAuley argues that ‘economic and social policies designed to target young
people living in deprived urban areas are based on a principle of evil’ (page
20). He certainly can’t be accused of fence-sitting. In addition: the frequent
sub-headings don’t always appear directly relevant to the text that follows;
Ellis Cashmore is not an African American as stated on page 163. He is ‘White
British’ (more Birmingham, West Midlands, than Birmingham, Alabama).
Nevertheless, McAuley should be congratulated; his personal investment in this
ethnographic journey shines through and he succeeds in bringing out these
people’s voices and their experiences of exclusion. References Davies, N (1997) Dark Heart:
The shocking truth about hidden Britain, London: Vintage Danziger, N. (1997)
Danziger’s Britain: A journey to the edge, London: Flamingo Reviewer: Dr Rob Mawby, Reader in
Criminal Justice, Centre for Criminal Justice Policy and Research, UCE
Birmingham. Imagining Security Edition: 1st Author: Jennifer Wood &
Clifford Shearing ISBN 10: 1-843920-74-3 ISBN-13:
978-1-843920-74-8 Publishers: Willan Price £22 Publication Date: November
2006 Publisher’s Title
Information This book is concerned with the ways in which the problem
of security is thought about and promoted by a range of actors and agencies in
the public, private and nongovernmental sectors. The authors are concerned not
simply with the influence of risk-based thinking in the area of security, but seek
rather to map the mentalities and practices of security found in a variety of
sectors, and to understand the ways in which thinking from these sectors
influence one another. Their particular concern is to understand the drivers of
innovation in the governance of security, the conditions that make innovation
possible and the ways in which innovation is imagined and realised by actors
from a wide range of sectors. The book has two key themes:
first, governance is now no longer simply shaped by thinking within the state
sphere, for thinking originating within the business and community spheres now
also shapes governance, and influence one another. Secondly, these developments
have implications for the future of democratic values as assumptions about the
traditional role of government are increasingly challenged. Cutting-edge
analysis of the nature of thinking of security and its wider implications Leading scholars
in the field Widespread
international interest in this issue Contents Reviewer
Wanted Would you be interested in
reviewing this book? (The Book Above) If you are interested in providing a review in about 600/800 words within 3 months or sooner then please contact me by e-mail at robjerrard@aol.com providing a small CV and your interest in this particular book. For an indication of what is
required please see this site, which contains hundreds of examples. "Internet Law book Reviews" which currently attracts up to 1000 visitors per day welcomes all categories of reviewers. Crime Online Edition: 1st Author: Edited by
Yvonne Jewkes ISBN-10:
1-843921-97-9 Publishers: Willan Price £22 Publication Date: November
2006 Publisher’s Title
Information Crime Online is concerned to
explore the dual capacity of the Internet to pervert and to democratize: it
offers its users freedom, democracy, and communication with people around the
world while at the same time generating anxieties concerning its potential to
corrupt vulnerable minds and facilitate heinous crimes. This book
provides a highly authoritative account and analysis of key issues within the
rapidly burgeoning field of cybercrime. Drawing upon a range of internationally
known experts in the field, and representing several different disciplines, Crime Online focuses on different
constructions and manifestations of cybercrime and diverse responses to its
regulation. It will be essential reading for anybody with an interest in one of
the most exciting and fast moving areas of crime, policing and legislation. Contents The editor Reviewer
Wanted Would you be interested in
reviewing this book? (The Book Above) If you are interested in providing a review in about 600/800 words within 3 months or sooner then please contact me by e-mail at robjerrard@aol.com providing a small CV and your interest in this particular book. For an indication of what is
required please see this site, which contains hundreds of examples. "Internet Law book Reviews" which currently attracts up to 1000 visitors per day welcomes all categories of reviewers. Young People
and Offending : Education,youth justice and social inclusion Author: Martin
Stephenson ISBN-10:1-843921-54-5 ISBN-13:978-1-843921-54-7 Price £19.50 Publication
Date: November 2006 Publisher’s
Title Information The relationship between education and youth crime has long been recognised in terms of social policy and public opinion, the full extent of this and its implications has been largely neglected and unexplored: educationalists on the one hand and
criminologists on the other have largely failed to engage meaningfully with one
another on the issue, and there has often been a large gap between youth
justice and educational provision. This book seeks
to remedy this deficiency, providing a critical survey of the research evidence,
policy development and practical issues relating to education and offending by
young people. It has the following objectives: to examine the evolution of
social policy and institutions in relation to the relationship between
education and offending by young people; establish the scale and nature of the
problem and the characteristics of the young people involved; identify any
evidence based approaches that could be adopted across education and youth
justice; review the effectiveness of New Labour's education and youth justice
reforms; propose a series of measures for social policy makers and
practitioners in education and youth justice. Contents I was particularly interested in reviewing this book since
my own work for over 20 years was in the prevention and treatment of young
persons who were becoming delinquents and criminals. I ran a therapeutic
community and school at Allington Manor, in Hampshire between 1977 and 1997
which individually assessed, treated and educated the young persons in my care,
many of whom had already committed serious crimes. The author rightly brings
into the open the devastating effect that a poor education has on children at
risk who end up by becoming delinquents. This is due to the lack of adequate analysis
of their problems in school and an appropriate educational curriculum to meet
their needs. This is why prisons spend
a considerable period of time in educating young offenders through teaching
them to read and write. This point was also made by Rod Morgan, Chairman, Youth
Justice Board who wrote the foreword to the book. Education is an important
aspect to consider as it can both cause antisocial and delinquent behaviour and
prevent it by an appropriate educational presentation to the child at an optimum
time in his life. This book provides evidence of this as to the question of the
importance of appropriate education for potential young persons who are likely
to offend.This book therefore is likely to be of considerable value to
Probation Officers, Youth Justice Practitioners, and those running Therapeutic
Communities and Schools whether they be open or secure. Mr Stephenson, the author,
has extensive experience in education, youth justice and social care. He has
been on the Youth Justice Board from 1998 onwards to 2002. He was a Chief
Executive of the charity INCLUDE. This organisation provides education for
excluded young persons. The book is divided into
three sections. The first provides background theories and evidence and the
evolution of education and youth justice, as well as social exclusion and youth
crime. Section 2 provides information on the impact on young persons due to an
inappropriate education being presented to them. This often results in low
achievement and eventually, coming into conflict with the Law. Part 3 concerns
itself with what can be done about the situation and involves the work of
Magistrates, the Youth Justice System, and social policy as well as social
inclusion. The book begins with a
glossary of terms including such terms as Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity
Disorders (ADHD), Special Education Needs (SEN) and the Young Offender
Institution (YOI). These terms are particularly employed in dealing with young
people who offend. The author points out what
has been known for many years that young people who are disengaged from
education are much more likely to be involved in antisocial and criminal
behaviour. One might well ask whether the education system currently in vogue
is responsible for much crime that could have been prevented had an appropriate
method been included for young persons who cannot compete effectively with
others in the school setting. Such youngsters then become severely handicapped
in obtaining appropriate employment due to the fact that they have often failed
to receive either education or training. This is often due to their "drop-out"
from school and their having a string of offences before they are of school
leaving age. This leads to low self-esteem and the tendency to seek
gratification elsewhere. This is often by participating in a variety of
criminal activities. Once such youngsters have been incarcerated their chances
of finding employment of an appropriate kind becomes even more severely
restricted. The process is well known.
Children initially find school work difficult, or meaningless, or both, and
become children who are stressed and frustrated. This is followed by conduct
disorders of various kinds. The next step is undoubtedly to avoid attending
school or when attending school showing signs of considerable behaviour
problems. Sometimes they bully and sometimes they become the target of
bullying. They frequently turn to such behaviour as shoplifting, joy riding,
drinking alcohol, and taking and selling drugs. Eventually they graduate to assaulting
or robbing others. Sometimes even more serious crimes than that are committed
by such young persons as they graduate from one antisocial activity to another.
This book returns again and again to the connection between an inappropriate
education and criminality. Quite early such youngsters become labelled and such
labels stick. They tend to become worse as time and same antisocial cycle
continues. The author draws heavily on
research carried out by such individuals as Farrington, Furlong, West and Pennell.
This book continues to explore the relationship between education and
offending. Efforts are made by the penal system rather belatedly to put right
what has gone wrong before and to provide education for the young people who
have failed to receive it earlier. One might well ask: "Would there be so many
in prison today had they in the early stages received an appropriate and
meaningful educational process?" This book is well written.
It is informative and well organised with summaries at the end of chapters and
sections. In the final section the author puts forward some ideas that may be
of value. He states in the final conclusions: "The only chances of significant
improvement lie in a very significant reduction in the custodial population and
complete reconfiguration of the juvenile secure estate." Hence the author
encourages, except for the most grave of crimes, some other form of dealing
with young offenders than utilising the prison system primarily. This I endorse
most whole-heartedly. L F Lowenstein Problem-oriented Policing
and Partnerships: Implementing an evidence-based approach to crime reduction Edition: 1st Authors: Karen Bullock,
Rosie Erol & Nick Tilley ISBN-10:
1-843921-39-1 Publishers: Willan Price £26 Publication Date: September 2006 This book makes an important
contribution to the literature on problem-oriented policing, aiming to distill
the British experience of problem-oriented policing. Drawing upon over 500
entries to the Tilley Award since its inception in 1999, the book examines what
can be achieved by problem-oriented policing, what conditions are required for
its successful implementation and what has been learned about resolving crime
and disorder issues. Contents Reviewer
Wanted Would you be interested in
reviewing this book? (The Book Above) If you are interested in providing a review in about 600/800 words within 3 months or sooner then please contact me by e-mail at robjerrard@aol.com providing a small CV and your interest in this particular book. For an indication of what is
required please see this site, which contains hundreds of examples. "Internet Law book Reviews" welcomes all categories of reviewers. Holding Your Square Masculinities, Streetlife and Violence Edition: 1st Author: Christopher Mullins ISBN: 1843921944 Publishers: Willan Price £40 Publication Date: September
2006 Publisher’s Title
Information This book is
about the meanings of masculinities within the social networks of the streets
of an American city (St Louis, Missouri), and how these shaped perceptions and
enactments of violence. Based on a
large number of interviews with offenders the author provides a rich
description of life on the streets, contextualizing criminal violence within
this deviant subculture, and with a specific focus on issues of gender. The book provides one of the most detailed
descriptions yet of the forms masculinity takes in disadvantages communities in
the United States. It establishes how
street based gender identity motivated and guided men through violent
encounters, exploring how men’s relationships with women and their families
instigated violence. One key issue
addressed is why men resorted to violence in certain situations and not in
others, exploring the range of choices open to them and how these opportunities
were interpreted. The book makes a
major contribution to the study of the relationship between masculinities and
violence, making use of a much larger sample than elsewhere. Contents Holding Your Square is one
of the first offerings as part of Willan publishing’s new crime and ethnography
series. However the title is
interesting in so far as it is not what one would expect of ethnographic
research because its author, Christopher Mullins is not the ethnographer. Rather he has drawn on a staggering array of
work undertaken by a collective of academics at the University St Louis,
Missouri as part of an ongoing academic project aimed at mapping the particular
criminal’s practices and cultures around a number of black American men from an
excluded community where opportunities are limited. To that end, much of the material has already been used and
published, for example as texts on ‘Street Justice’ (Jacobs and Wright 2006)
and ‘Robbing drug dealers’ (Jacobs 2000).
Indeed one of the disappointing aspects of this book, is that those who
have read the various offerings of the St. Louis academics might well feel a
sense of déjà vu. While Mullins can
claim to have used an innovative methodology, whether his using ethnographic
data from a range of different projects towards a singular end (examining
masculinity and crime generally) really offers anything theoretically new is
debatable. Indeed, I found his
inductive theory coupled with a re-evaluation of existing ethnographic data to
be far less interesting than the original studies. Mullins text is a little
repetitive; there are very few basic observations; that gendered power on the
streets is not simply men’s patriarchal dominance over women, and such gendered
roles should not simply be taken for granted; the meanings of masculinities
within the social networks of the streets are shaped by perceptions and
enactments of violence; and that there is a distinct street culture that is
largely masculine and highly stylised.
The book is best when it charts these and lets the ethnographic material
flow, and provides a rich description of the sub cultural life of criminals on
the streets. However, empirically, it
has more to say than it does theoretically, and the way in which Mullins deals
with the issues of gender after a while becomes rather repetitive. While it might be true that there are highly
stylised masculine roles on the streets amongst offenders, the theoretical
dressing that accompanies this seems to offer little that is new. Criminals are driven by hedonism; they hold
particular perceptions of masculinity based around violence; they are
fatalistic; there are hegemonic and subordinate male roles; it is bad to be
called a ‘punk’. None of this strikes
me as particularly relevant or new.
When compared with the way the data had originally been employed (for
example in Jacobs and Wrights accounts of street justice mentioned above) it is
not nearly as interesting or accessible. References Jacobs, Bruce A. 2000.
Robbing Drug Dealers: Violence beyond the Law. New York: Aldine de Gruyter Jacobs, B and Wright, R
(2006) Street Justice: Retaliation in the Criminal Underworld. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press James Treadwell Title: The Price of Sex,
Prostitution, policy and society Author: Belinda Brooks-Gordon Publishers: Willan Price £22 Publication Date: July 2006 Publisher’s Title
Information As a society we are buying
more sex than ever before. Adult sex shops now take their place amongst
retailers in the high street and lap dancing clubs compete for an increased
share of the leisure economy. Hotel chains offer sexually explicit films as
part of their standard service, the party selling of adult toys to women in
their homes has become a mainstream activity. And at the traditional end of the
sexual service economy, prostitution has experienced new growth. Society buys more sex than
ever before Focus on issue of how
society deals with the selling of sexual services and how it is to be regulated Provides a critical
perspective on recent legislation and the chaos surrounding attempts to
regulate it Review This is the latest in the
rapidly expanding specialist series of Willan books on themes relating to sex
and society. It addresses a real gap in terms of current texts and understandings
in relation to the problem of prostitution and specifically the legalization of
commercial sex work. The author sets her stall out right from the start
asserting that recent Government reforms to control prostitution are
counter-productive in not only failing to meet their desired objectives, but in
creating a number of unanticipated ancillary social problems. She has also been
fortunate to draw on the expertise and help of a number of leading
criminologists and practitioners in the
field, including Betsy Stanko, Keith
Soothill, Helen Self, Lorraine Gelsthorpe and the Metropolitan Police Vice and
Clubs Unit. This gives the book not only considerable academic integrity, but
embeds the discussion in a practical and real life context as well. The first chapter provides a
brief historiography of societal responses to commercial sex as both an actual
and perceived problem, from initial public acceptance in Roman times to an
increasingly less tolerant and more repressive regime. Reference is made to
moral repression, the role of the church, the hypocrisy of the Victorians and
associated vice and vigilance campaigns, through to the Wolfenden Report and
the Sexual Offences Act 1956. From then the increasing use of more punitive
strategies aimed at ‘eradicating’ the ‘problem,’ primarily the kerb-crawling
provisions of 1985 are covered, culminating in the Sexual Offences Act 2003. In the second chapter
Brooks-Gordon analyses the integrity of the Government’s investigation into the
current problem of prostitution; analysing its Consultation Document Paying the
Price 2004 and subsequent Co-ordination Strategy on Prostitution January 2006.
The consultation report maintains the premise that prostitution must be
controlled despite the fact that it is not illegal. The author challenges the
Government’s approach on the basis of its failure to even ask the question
whether sex-work should be legitimate and its automatic assumption that it is
and should be a crime. The consultation exercise is subjected to considerable
criticism, particularly the lack of any historical perspective post-Wolfenden
in the literature review and the subsequent failure to consider the wider
contextual and socio-cultural changes of the past 50 years. The failure to
address the psyche of male sex clients and the reasons why they choose to
engage in commercial sex is identified as another shortcoming. Existing research on these themes is also
underutilised and remarkably the Home Office is alleged to have misrepresented
its own previously commissioned research.
Further condemnation emanates from the Government’s failure to fully
consider policy initiatives introduced elsewhere, particularly Sweden, Germany,
the Netherlands and New Zealand, and where reference has been made the author
claims it has been misinterpreted or misread.
Finally, in relation to domestic ‘re-education schemes’ and ‘conditional
cautioning’ the claimed successes of the Home Office are not, she argues,
supported by its own research and statistics. Thus not only is it claimed
that there appears to be a considerable amount of spin but also that the
Government’s approach lacks integrity in its failure to analyse the problem of
prostitution in light of the not inconsiderable debates that have been taking
place in sociological discourse. Brooks-Gordon questions the failure to utilise
any legal discourse (i.e. legitimacy and
legal theory), feminist
discourse (traditional moral discourse, sexual domination discourse, sex work
discourse) or social policy discourse (public nuisance discourse, moral order
discourse, market discourse) which given the subject matter displays either
extreme ignorance or extreme arrogance and the author is right to point this
out. Instead she asserts that the discourse adopted is one where sex work is
constructed as a crime, and that adult prostitution and child prostitution are
confused through the emphasis on both being labelled as ‘victims’ and subjects
of abuse, when patently with adult prostitution this is not always the case.
While the subsequent Co-ordination Strategy contains some positive changes such
as the removal of ‘common’ prostitute, referral medical services for street sex
workers (albeit under threat of failure to comply) and redefinitions of and
co-operation between brothels etc; the lack of vision including the dismissal
of safety zones is in her view very disappointing. Brooks-Gordon also offers
some interesting commentary on the police perspective questioning police
(primarily The Met) neutrality (at higher levels) in terms of intervention and politicization.
She also alleges that the police are complicit in maintaining a high moral tone
about commercial sex aligning themselves with some unfamiliar partners: ‘The Strategy is a curious alliance of views
which melds those of the police and the tabloids with those of radical
separatist feminists, who along with the religious right, had a vested interest
in running exit programmes linked to a new moral agenda (p.73).’ The book then moves on in
chapter three to analyse some empirical research conducted by the author with
men who pay for sex, preceeded by a summary of the limitations of previous
research in this field. The chapter maps out the characteristics and patterns
of 518 cases of kerb crawlers stopped in London over a 2 year period categorized
according to ethnicity, age, employment, offence circumstances, vehicle use etc
confirming a number of (mainly unsurprising) assumptions and correlations. For
example it was found that most street business occurs mid-week, that there was
a significant proportion of diplomats and taxi drivers, tourists were treated
more leniently than UK nationals, and many men were as interested in voyeurism
as commercial sex etc.. The findings are used to highlight the practical
problems of enforcing law and policy espoused in chapter four which reflects on
police responses and perceptions as evidenced in patrolling practices. Writing
in the aftermath of the Macpherson Inquiry the author seems to be somewhat
surprised that there was a ‘necessary awareness of gender’ in the Vice Squads
she followed and had expected to find more examples of institutionalized racism
and sexism. Such assumptions from
academics highlight the damage that findings of ‘institutionalized racism’ can
create where all personnel are so-defined and the difficulties for the police
service in endeavouring to overcome such labelling. The research also revealed the dilemma held by many specialist
officers that while they did not perceive prostitutes to be in the same class
as other criminal offenders they acknowledged the need to respond to residents’
concerns. The result was that this could often lead to a selective and
undesirable charging strategy. On the other hand police officers, particularly
female officers, were more dismissive of kerb crawlers and reported that
dealing with them had led to a more sensitive understanding of the issues faced
by sex workers. From her fieldwork, four
typical responses of kerb crawlers to any police approach are identified -
admission, admission to cruising, denial and failure to stop. These are
reinforced by a distinctive 5 Phase order which matches, in 95% of the
incidents observed, the interactions between the police and the kerb crawlers
in the sample. These are labelled as the Bemused Phase, Excuse Phase, Indignant
Phase, Confrontational/Pleading Phase and Indication of Future Intent. These
signifiers are used to explain the tactics and strategies adopted by the kerb
crawlers leading to the (not unexpected?) conclusion that kerb crawling is ‘not
only more sophisticated and rule-governed behaviour than previously thought,
but also perhaps more deeply rooted in the psyche …’ It is then strongly
suggested that this model has implications for policy and practice such as in
determining appropriate prosecution strategies. Chapter five is a short
chapter that summarizes the incidence of violence against prostitutes. Again,
unsurprisingly, the author concludes that levels of reporting violence against
sex workers are low, that 73 sex workers were killed 1990-2002 and that current
sentencing practice is therefore not working. The case is briefly made that
this justifies the promotion of a safer environment for sex workers and that
only a seismic shift in public policy towards commercial sex will have any
significant and positive impact. No doubt Brooks-Gordon is right in this
context, but it appears unlikely that the Government will offer a sympathetic
ear at the moment. Perhaps of more interest is the tentative suggestion that
there could be a link between those who kerb crawl and those who perpetrate
serious acts of violence against prostitutes, albeit in a very small number of
cases. The main conclusion drawn is
that recent policies have increasingly criminalized the client and constructed
the sex worker as victim causing conflicting tensions and dilemmas for police
professionals. ‘Client’ groups are treated differently by the police and
consequently the law is neither applied consistently or neutrally, undermining
its integrity. The utility of criminalizing kerb crawlers is strongly
challenged and the argument made that more non-criminal alternatives should be
considered. A considerable number of (controversial?) suggestions for reform
are proposed including the decriminalization of sex work and introduction of
rights for those who choose to engage in what should be legitimate work,
whether as part of a small worker-run establishment or larger business concern.
Safety zones should be designated for street workers to operate in and laws
protecting sex workers introduced so that civil remedies can be brought against
those who abuse or harass them. Overseeing this should be a Home Office Sex
Industry Inspectorate. While not everyone will necessarily agree with all of
the recommendations and proposals suggested they are worthy of serious debate
and introspection. This book should therefore provide the catalyst to generate
the broader debate that Government in its consultation seemingly wished to
avoid, whether deliberately or otherwise. Kim Stevenson Forensic Identification and
Criminal Justice Forensic Science, Justice
and Risk Edition: 1st Author: Carole McCarthy ISBN: 1-84392-184-7 Publishers: Willan Price £35 Publication Date: July 2006 Publisher’s Title
Information Analyses development of forensic identification technologies and impact on legal system
Considers human rights implications
Focus on national DNA database and its implications
This book provides an
account of the development of forensic identification technologies and the way
in which this has impacted upon the legal system. It traces the advent of
forensic identification technologies, focusing on fingerprinting and forensic
DNA typing, and their growing deployment within the criminal justice system. It
also elucidates the ways in which these new technologies are accelerating
procedural changes to investigative practices, and shows the ways in which in
some areas human rights (such as privacy rights and rights against
discrimination) are coming under threat. The use of forensic evidence in
criminal investigations and trials is analysed in detail.
Publishers: Willan
While social exclusion continues to be seen as a consequence of young people’s
behaviour, Out of Sight: crime, youth
and exclusion in modern Britain examines how stigmatising poor
communities has come to define Britain’s consumer society.
The book challenges the view underlying government policy that social exclusion
is a product of crime, antisocial behaviour and drug use, and in focusing on
one socially deprived neighbourhood it promotes a different way of seeing the
problematic relationship between socially excluded young people, society and
government.
Contents
Acknowledgements
List of illustrations
Introduction
Masking poverty
Twenty-four seven society
Outline
1 A mugger's paradise
The unusual suspects
Working poor
Growing up in a poor community
Through the looking glass
Being poor in an affluent society
Shovelin shit: Nova's local
economy
Ordinary world
Crime as status
Welfare and Workfare
Poverty, culture and crime
Too much too young
Social exclusion
Stitched up: exclusion at
school
Compulsory youth training
Working in a service economy
Room 101
Crime and consumption
2 Nova
The Project
Uncle Sean
Born and bred
Spirit of a community
The rule of the street
Linden's
Nova: it's me, it's who I am
Survival of the fittest
Elements of a culture
Orpheus
Going under
Work and leisure
Working in Nova
A bit of business
Fuckin' chaos
3 Work
Life or death
Children under a shadow
Just Thievin'
Racism
Gender and crime
Youthful aspirations
Shit Street
4 Respect
Gangsters
Drugs and crime
Poverty and drug use
Inside out
Social exclusion in action
Achieving respect
Floetry
Exclusion through style
Hip Hop culture
Watching communities
Risk and defeat
Maintaining respect
The enemy within
Feeling for one another
Faith in the future
5 Education
Problem youth
Ghetto heaven
One hand doesn't know what the other hand's doing'
A new initiative
Learning to labour
Escape attempts
You got no hopes: working on
Workfare
Urban regeneration
The Workfare carousel
Been here before: repackaging the Project
Behind the scenes
Making history
The Breakfast Club
Demonising community
6 Community
Living with poverty
Stigmatising poor people
Changing times
Thinking about society
Fatal strategies
People power
Township community
They think you're bad
War on community
The last frontier
Staying alive
7 Society
A dolls' house
Heroes and villains
Imagining crime
Search and destroy
Consumer protection
Faith in the city
The golden years
Law and order
Back to basics
Intel: crime in an information society
Being human
Bibliography
Index
Robert McAuley studied for a doctorate in criminology at the University of
Cambridge, and was formerly a research Fellow at London South Bank University.
He is currently writing a book about young people’s experiences of higher
education.
Review
The first five chapters of the book explore what has happened to the governance
of security, through an analysis of the drivers, conditions and processes of
innovation in the context of particular empirical developments. Particular
reference is made here to 'waves of change' in security within the Ontario
Provincial Police in Canada. In the final chapter the authors examine the
implications of 'nodal governance' for democratic values, and then suggest normative
directions for deepening democracy in these new circumstances.
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Imagining security
Imagining governance
Governance through force
Governing through enrolment
1 From state to nodal governance
Introduction
Transformations in state governance
Governing through others: enrolment and alignment
Private governments
Nodal governance
Conclusion
2 Community security and local governance: waves in public policing
Introduction
The place of the police
Waves in public policing
Policing as community-based
Policing as solving problems
The influence of neo-liberalism
Policing as restorative justice
Policing as fixing broken windows
Policing as intelligence work
Policing as reassurance
Conclusion
3 Human security and global governance
Introduction
Imagining human security
Threats to human security
Strategies of human security governance
Fighting crime and terror
Protecting people in zones of conflict
Protecting human rights
Building peace
Developing communities and societies
The state security/human security nexus
Conclusion
4 Responding to governance deficits
Introduction
Methods of power
Concentrate power nodally and use it to steer governance
Recognize and use all your power resources
Focus on nodes where one can be creative and assertive
Concentrate knowledge at nodes
Locate resources at nodes
Promote deliberative processes within nodes
Democracy in nodal governance
Conclusion
5 The governance of governance
Introduction
Hybridity in state governance: the case of public policing
Legal accountability
Political accountability
The new regulatory state or regulatory capitalism
Thinking like a business
Hybridity in decentred governance: private policing and beyond
Nodal governance for the future
Conclusion
Conclusion
Explanatory themes
Normative themes
Bibliography
Legislation
Legal cases
Index
ISBN-13:
978-1-843921-97-4
1 ‘Killed by the Internet’: Cyber Homicides, Cyber Suicides and Cyber Sex
Crimes, Yvonne Jewkes
2 Cybercrime: Re-thinking Crime Control Strategies, Susan W. Brenner
3 The Problem of Stolen Identity and the Internet, Emily Finch
4 Biometric Solutions to Identity-related Cybercrime, Russell G. Smith
5 Internet Child Pornography: International Responses, Yvonne Jewkes and Carol
Andrews
6 The Role of Computer Forensics in Criminal Investigations, Robert Moore
7 Teenage Kicks or Virtual Villainy? Internet Piracy, Moral Entrepreneurship,
and the Social Construction of a Crime Problem, Majid Yar
8 In the back of the net: football hooliganism and the Internet, Stefan
Fafinski
9 Constructing Crime: Stalking, Celebrity, ‘Cyber’ and Media, Maggie Wykes
10 Digital Undergrounds: Alternative Politics and Civil Society, Rinella Cere
11 Beyond ‘the Desert of the Real’: Crime Control in a Virtual(ised) Reality,
Katja Franko Aas
Index
Yvonne Jewkes is Reader in Criminology at the Open University. She has written extensively on the problems
of policing cybercrime as well as more generally about the relationship between
new technologies, crime and deviance. Her books include Dot. cons: crime, deviance and identity on the internet (Willan,
2003) and Media and Crime
(Sage, 2004). She is also Editor of Crime, Media, Culture: an international
journal.
Publishers: Willan
Young People and Offending will
be essential reading for youth justice practitioners as well as students taking
courses on youth crime and youth justice, or on youth justice or probation
training courses.
1 Foreword by Rod Morgan (Chairman, Youth
Justice Board)
Introduction
1 Background: theories and evidence
2 The Evolution of Education and Youth
Justice
3 Social Inclusion
4 Detachment: exclusion, absenteeism, non participation
and unemployment
5 Low Attainment and Under-achievement
6 The Influence of the School
7 Custody and Custodial Education
8 Stakeholders: public opinion, magistrates,
Yots, and young people
9 What Works in Youth Justice and
Education
10 Social Policy
11 Conclusions
References
Index
Review
ISBN-13:
978-1-843921-39-4
Examples of problem-oriented policing examined in this book include specific
police and partnership initiatives targeting a wide spectrum of individual
problems (such as road safety, graffiti and alcohol-related violence), as well
as organisational efforts to embed problem-oriented work as a routine way of
working (such as improving training and interagency problem solving along with
more specific challenges like improving the way that identity parades are
conducted.
This book will be of particular interest to those working in the field of crime
reduction and community safety in the police, local government and other
agencies, as well as students taking courses in policing, criminal justice and
criminology.
1 Introduction: problem-orientated approaches to crime reduction and policing
2 Experiences of problem-orientated policing implementation
3 Mainstreaming problem-orientated policing implementation
4 The implementation of problem-orientated projects in the UK
5 Resources for improving problem-orientated policing and partnerships
6 The changing context of British problem-orientated policing
7 Conclusions: problem-orientated policing and Evidence Based Policy and
Practice
Index
Preface and acknowledgements
Foreword by Jody Miller (University of Missouri St Louis)
1 Doing crime, doing gender
2 Gender's omnipresence: methodology
3 Real men and punks: masculinities on the streets
4 Every motherfucker gonna try to punk you: masculinity challenges
5 One's man 'ho' is another man's sister: men's relationships with women and
families
6 Is it being smart, or just a punk ass move? The contradictions of street
masculinity
7 Masculinities, streetlife and violence
References
Index
Review
Edition: 1st
ISBN-10: 1-843920-87-5
ISBN-13: 978-1-843920-87-8
Along with this has come new legal measure and attempts to regulate the sexual
leisure economy, and far more comprehensive plans than ever before to regulate
prostitution, in particular in the form of the new Sex Offences Act. This book
seeks to address the range of issues and contemporary debates on the sex
industry, including the demand by customers who buy sex, the policing of women
who work in the street sex industry, and the violence that pervades
prostitution. It shows how these issues have been addressed in policy terms,
the problems that have emerged in this, and how a social policy might be
formulated to minimize harm and enhance public understanding.
Overall the book aims to provide a critical perspective on prostitution policies
and the legal chaos and complexities that surround this.
Contents
Introduction
1 How prostitution became a legal problem
2 Understanding prostitution policy
3 Understanding sexual demand
4 Policing street prostitution
5 Violence, victimisation and protection
6 Motives, method and morality
7 Conclusion
References
Index
ISBN-13: 978-1-843-92184-4
