A new book provided an introduction to state crime, with a particular focus on the United Kingdom. It considered how and why a democratic state would want to commit crimes against its own citizens.
Source: Alan Doig, State Crime, Willan Publishing
Links: Summary
Date: 2010-Dec
A think-tank briefing called for the United Kingdom government's proposed European Union referendum 'lock' (contained in the European Union Bill) to be tightened up, in order to force ministers to seek the approval of Parliament before signing up to any EU law in the field of justice and home affairs.
Source: The Government's EU Referendum Lock: Plugging the justice and home affairs leak, Open Europe
Links: Briefing | Open Europe press release
Date: 2010-Dec
The government published a Green Paper on plans for a 'radical reform' of the criminal justice system to punish criminals more effectively and reduce reoffending. Proposals included:
• Making offenders submit to the discipline of regular working hours in prison, more demanding tasks in the community, and greater use of curfew requirements.
• Increasing reparation to victims through greater use of restorative justice.
• Diverting more offenders with mental health or drug problems into treatment programmes.
• Introducing payment-by-results so that independent providers would be rewarded for reducing reoffending.
• Simplifying the sentencing framework by giving judges greater discretionary powers and restricting the use of indeterminate sentences.
• Giving local people a more central role in the criminal justice system.
Source: Breaking the Cycle: Effective punishment, rehabilitation and sentencing of offenders, Cm 7972, Ministry of Justice/TSO
Links: Green Paper | Hansard | Evidence report | Impact assessment | Equality impact assessment | MOJ press release | Conservative Party press release | Addaction press release | Bar Council press release | CBI press release | Childrens Society press release | Church of England press release | CMH press release | DrugScope press release | JUSTICE press release | PRT press release | Rethink press release | Turning Point press release | YJB press release | Morning Star report | Law Gazette report | Community Care report | Guardian report | Children & Young People Now report
Date: 2010-Dec
A new book examined the application of cost-benefit analysis to criminal justice policies.
Source: John Roman, Terence Dunworth and Kevin Marsh (eds.), Cost-Benefit Analysis and Crime Control, Urban Institute Press
Links: Summary
Date: 2010-Nov
The Home Office published a business plan for the period 2011-2015.
Source: Business Plan 2011-2015, Home Office
Links: Plan | Home Office press release | Alcohol Policy UK press release
Date: 2010-Nov
The Ministry of Justice published a business plan for the period 2011-2015.
Source: Business Plan 2011-2015, Ministry of Justice
Links: Plan
Date: 2010-Nov
An article said that the outgoing Labour government's criminal justice policies had: exacerbated tensions between the young and the old, and between the well-off and the dispossessed; increased public anxieties and fears about crime; undermined faith in legal institutions; and undermined public understanding of, and support for, fundamental ideas about liberty, fairness, and justice.
Source: Michael Tonry, 'The costly consequences of populist posturing: ASBOs, victims, "rebalancing" and diminution in support for civil liberties', Punishment and Society, Volume 12 Number 4
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Oct
The coalition government announced (in its 2010 Spending Review) that the Home Office budget would be cut by 25 per cent in real terms by 2014-15. Grants to police forces in England and Wales would be cut by 20 per cent. Spending by the Ministry of Justice would be cut by 20 per cent: plans to increase prison capacity to 96, 000 by 2014 would be scaled back.
Source: Spending Review 2010, Cm 7942, HM Treasury/TSO
Links: Report | Summary | Hansard | HMT press releases | Home Office press release | MOJ press release | APF press release | Law Society press release | Police Federation press release | Guardian report (1) | Guardian report (2) | Children & Young People Now report | Telegraph report (1) | Telegraph report (2)
Date: 2010-Oct
An article examined the role of economic analysis in criminal justice policy. The economic situation made it 'increasingly untenable' for the government to continue increasing prison capacity without consideration of more efficient alternatives.
Source: Chris Fox and Kevin Albertson, 'Could economics solve the prison crisis?', Probation Journal, Volume 57 Number 3 Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Sep
A new book debated the issue of restorative justice. One of the authors said that communities and the state should be more restorative in responding to harms caused by crimes, anti-social behaviour, and other incivilities. The other author said that the theoretical cogency of restorative ideas was limited by their lack of a coherent analysis of social and political power.
Source: Chris Cunneen and Carolyn Hoyle, Debating Restorative Justice, Hart Publishing
Links: Summary
Date: 2010-Sep
The new coalition government published a draft 'structural reform plan' for the Home Office. The plan set out how the department would implement the coalition government's key policy aims, in particular taking power away from Whitehall and putting it into the hands of people and communities.
Source: Home Office: Draft Structural Reform Plan, Home Office
Links: Plan | Home Office press release | Alcohol Policy press release | Guardian report
Date: 2010-Jul
The new coalition government published a draft 'structural reform plan' for the Ministry of Justice. The plan set out how the department would implement the coalition government's key policy aims.
Source: Ministry of Justice: Draft Structural Reform Plan, Ministry of Justice
Links: Plan
Date: 2010-Jul
An audit report reviewed the data systems used to support delivery of the Labour government's public service agreement 24 – to 'deliver a more effective, transparent and responsive criminal justice system for victims and the public' – over the period from 2008.
Source: Review of the Data Systems for Public Service Agreement 24, National Audit Office
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Jun
A minister in the new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government said that prison sentences had too often proved a costly and ineffectual approach to dealing with crime. Action was needed to shut off the 'revolving door' of crime and reoffending. He called for a 'rehabilitation revolution', and outlined plans that would involve paying private firms and voluntary groups according to how many prisoners they succeeded in rehabilitating.
Source: Speech by Ken Clarke MP (Secretary of State for Justice), 30 June 2010
Links: Text of speech | MOJ press release | Civitas press release | Bar Council press release | Citizens Advice press release | NIACE press release | UCU press release | Kings College press release | Children & Young People Now report | BBC report | Guardian report
Date: 2010-Jun
The new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government announced (in the Queen's Speech) plans for a Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill, designed to make the police service more accountable through directly elected 'police commissioners', create a dedicated Border Police Force, and introduce measures to tackle alcohol-related violence and disorder.
Source: Queen's Speech, 25 May 2010
Links: Text of Speech | Guardian report (1) | Guardian report (2) | Telegraph report | Children & Young People Now report | BBC report
Date: 2010-May
The Crime and Security Act 2010 was given Royal assent. The Act introduced a wide range of measures including: new rules on the retention of the DNA profiles of innocent people; stronger powers to tackle anti-social behaviour; the scrapping of stop-and-search forms; and greater protection against crime for children and victims of domestic violence.
Source: Crime and Security Act 2010, Home Office/TSO
Links: Text of Act | Explanatory notes | Home Office press release | Guardian report
Date: 2010-Apr
A paper said that there was no clear evidence that the large increase in the number of people in prison had reduced crime, especially in terms of its long-term impact on offending behaviours.
Source: Olivier Marie, Reducing Crime: More Police, More Prisons or More Pay?, Centre for Economic Performance/London School of Economics
Links: Paper
Date: 2010-Apr
The Crime and Security Bill was given a third reading. The Bill proposed a wide range of measures including: new rules on the retention of the DNA profiles of innocent people; stronger powers to tackle anti-social behaviour; the scrapping of stop-and-search forms; and greater protection against crime for children and victims of domestic violence.
Source: Crime and Security Bill, Home Office/TSO | Debate 8 March 2010, columns 32-121, House of Commons Hansard/TSO
Links: Text of Bill | Explanatory notes | Hansard
Date: 2010-Mar
A new book examined key themes and debates on state power in relation to crime and social order – including terrorism, surveillance, violence, and the media.
Source: Roy Coleman, Joe Sim, Steve Tombs and David Whyte, State, Power, Crime, SAGE Publications
Links: Summary
Date: 2010-Feb
An article examined the debate between policy-makers and independent inspectors concerning the use of the terms 'harm' and 'serious harm'. It suggested an alternative vocabulary that could bring greater clarity to risk-assessment and risk-management processes.
Source: Kerry Baker, 'More harm than good? The language of public protection', Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, Volume 49 Issue 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Feb
The main political parties in Northern Ireland reached agreement over the creation of a Department of Justice and the devolution of policing and justice powers to the Northern Ireland Executive.
Source: Agreement at Hillsborough Castle: 5 February 2010, Northern Ireland Office
Links: Agreement | Downing Street press release | Hansard | Guardian report
Date: 2010-Feb
A report by a committee of MPs said that the criminal justice system was facing a 'crisis of sustainability'. Prison was a relatively ineffective way of reducing crime for other than serious offenders: but an unthinking acceptance had evolved of punishment – for its own sake – as the paramount purpose of sentencing. If reform, rehabilitation, and reparation to victims were given higher priority, then sentencing and penal policy overall could make a much more significant contribution to reducing reoffending and making communities safer.
Source: Cutting Crime: The case for justice reinvestment, First Report (Session 2009-10), HC 94, House of Commons Justice Select Committee/TSO
Links: Report | Sainsbury Centre press release | PRT press release | BBC report | Guardian report | Community Care report
Date: 2010-Jan
The Crime and Security Bill was given a second reading. The Bill proposed a wide range of measures including: new rules on the retention of the DNA profiles of innocent people; stronger powers to tackle anti-social behaviour; the scrapping of stop-and-search forms; and greater protection against crime for children and victims of domestic violence.
Source: Crime and Security Bill, Home Office/TSO | Debate 18 January 2010, columns 24-127, House of Commons Hansard/TSO
Links: Text of Bill | Explanatory notes | Hansard
Date: 2010-Jan
The opposition Conservative Party published the crime section of its draft election manifesto. It outlined plans to: fight 'booze-fuelled' anti-social behaviour in towns and cities; stop retailers selling alcohol at below cost price; and change the rules so that anyone acting reasonably to stop a crime or apprehend a criminal was not arrested or prosecuted.
Source: Crime: It's Time to Fight Back, Conservative Party
Links: Manifesto section | Conservative Party press release
Date: 2010-Jan