Tim Newburn, Crime and Criminal Justice Policy

Longman: London. 259 pages, ISBN 0582 234 336 SB £12.99.

Reviewed by Ian McKenzie

Senior Lecturer in Police Studies
University of Portsmouth
< mckenzie@ipcs.demon.co.uk>

Copyright © 1996 Ian McKenzie.
First Published in Web Journal of Current Legal Issues in association with Blackstone Press Ltd.

Contents

Introduction.
Penal Systems and Prisons.
Policing and Policing Policy.
Probation Service, Alternatives to Custody, and Juvenile Courts.
Victims.
The Future.
General comment.

Bibliography

Introduction

There is, what is usually typified, as a Chinese curse. It is "may you live in interesting times". The ironic use of the phrase 'interesting times' is nowhere more clearly to be seen than in the more recent developments in the broad picture of Criminal Justice and Crime Policy. The criminal justice system, as the author points out in his introduction, is more than simply a penal system, a police system, a probation system or a court system. It is of course all those things but it is equally the way in which they all work, or perhaps occasionally do not work, together. The period of rapid and sometimes dramatic change through which all sections of 'the system' are passing, does indeed make the curse of 'interesting times' a cogent one.

Concentrating upon what is probably the last twenty years of developments in all these fields, Newburn has produced an accessible, well written, and very valuable text, which should be commended to all students of criminal justice. Although not formally sectionalised, the book is divided into eight chapters which, either in pairs or singly, cover the areas of prisons and imprisonment, the police and policing policy, probation services, juvenile offending, victims, and a final section dealing with what is sometimes called 'futures'.

Top | Contents | Bibliography

Penal Systems and Prisons.

In the first and second chapters Newburn provides a cogent overview of the emergence of the modern penal system. Taking as his starting point the focus on punishment in the eighteen, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, he establishes the groundwork for an examination of changes which have taken place in the last ten to twenty years. In a lengthy section examining the Woolf Report (Woolf 1991) on the disturbances in Strangeways prison in 1990 he points to the fact that "to a considerable extent Woolf confounded the sceptics and produced a document which met with approval across the political spectrum..." (p 35). The white paper which followed it, Custody, Care and Justice (Home Office, 1991) which was generated from the Woolf report seems also to have been surprising in that it did reflect more of the content and observations of Woolf than had been anticipated.

However, Woolf did place considerable emphasis on the role of overcrowding in the control of prisons. He made some very specific recommendations about discipline and grievance procedures. However, concerns about the nature of discipline and the activities, particularly recreational activities, available to those in prison, quickly became a source of political discussion. A debate commenced about the aims of imprisonment which has yet to run its course. Thus it is the case that, even in the face of continuing unrest, the Home Secretary, Michael Howard, is able, in the face of considerable evidence to the contrary to claim that prison works. The question 'works in achieving what?' still remains to be answered.

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Policing and Policing Policy.

In these chapters Newburn again commences with some historical background but rapidly moves on to examine the changes which have occurred in policing and police accountability since the beginning of the 1960s. He has brief sections on the Police Act of 1964, the introduction of unit beat policing, and the uncovering of corruption in the 1970s: the so called 'firm within a firm'. There is a great deal of factual information contained in Chapter 3 much of which, being sited in one place, will be of considerable benefit to students and academics alike. However the most important sections of this chapter deal with events within the last five years. In particular Newburn examines the Sheehy Inquiry, the Royal Commission on Criminal Justice, and the issues contained in the recent Home Office Review of Core and Ancillary Tasks. This chapter concludes with a lengthy section dealing with the Police and Magistrates Courts Act of 1994 and, in particular, the changes likely to be brought about through 'adjustments' in the mechanisms for accountability through Police Authorities.

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Probation Service, Alternatives to Custody, and Juvenile Courts.

The chapters falling under these general headings are also placed in their historical context. The author examines the expansion of alternatives to custody which has taken place since the Second World War and the way in which a probation service, beset with many of the difficulties to be found in an underfunded public organisation, has dealt with a growing responsibility to administer probation orders, community service orders, suspended sentences and other legislative innovations.

The responsibility of the Probation Service to deal with alternatives to custody can nowhere be more clearly seen, than in an examination of the 'Juvenile Justice System'. Indicating the key points in history, the Children and Young Persons Act, 1933, the Criminal Justice Act, 1948, a series of white papers, the Children and Young Persons Act of 1969 and the Criminal Justice Act 1982, Newburn points to the plethora of alternatives which drain, and at the same time divide, the community. Such issues as youth custody, care orders with charge and control conditions, community service orders, intermediate treatment programmes and short- sharp-shock detention centres, together with the introduction of the Youth Court and other diversionary measures point quite clearly to the problem identified by Vivien Stern (1989), who writing about Britain's prisons, said in a comment which could nevertheless apply to the probation service:

"'It is a story of many dedicated people trying to make things better, and continually trapped by what can only be called 'the system' - the system in which the sentencers produce a steadily rising prison population; the system that fears political embarrassment and revelations in newspapers about prisoners enjoying themselves watching colour videos more than it fears revelations about prisoners locked up for twenty-three hours a day and having no access to sanitation; the system where the processes, procedures, rules, Standing Orders and Circular Instructions take on a life of their own, and gradually block out the consciousness that it is people not numbers being locked up." (p 247).

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Victims

In the last few years there has been a growing interest in the sub-discipline of criminology, now called 'victimology'. The term victimology was first used in the late 1940s at a time when criminologists were searching for grand theories that would explain crime. Victims of crime became in part another focus of that concern. This chapter looks at such contentious issues as compensation by the state for involvement as a victim in crime, compensation to be paid by the offender for similar involvement, issues associated with rape and domestic violence, and the concerns regularly and justifiably raised about child abuse. Newburn presents a useful examination of the development of the National Victim Support Programme but comes to the regrettable conclusion that:

"Both of the major political parties have pursued half formed and in many ways half hearted policies in relation to victims of crime. There is little indication of change in this area."(p 117).

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The Future

In a brief five page examination, Newburn looks at some of the driving forces which have produced change in the last ten years. In particular, he cites the Conservative Government's concern with managerialism and financial control. The movement to privatise things which had previously been public, and concerns about the viability of roles undertaken by previous public bodies, are discussed in the context of a burgeoning private sector "not discouraged" by Governmental bodies.

The battle, often a semantic battle, is one between those who see the changes as giving more local control and those who see a degree of centralisation in the criminal justice system which has no precedent. There is the likelihood, according to Newburn, that we will see a return to penal populism and the kind of authoritarian approach still echoing around after "the Thatcher years". Newburn concludes most depressingly that "with the front bench Home Affairs spokesmen (for they are generally men) of both the major parties battling to 'out-tough' each other, there appears little prospect of coherent and forward-thinking policy-making"(p 178).

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General comment.

This is a well constructed, well written and, sometimes, very entertaining book. The author clearly has a substantial grasp of the literature although I was disappointed to find that in the section dealing with police accountability there was no discussion of case law and the establishment of 'constabulary independence', which may have considerable effect on the way in which the police respond to the new structure of Police Authorities. However, in general this is a book which could be commended for both its breadth and depth of information. The publishers, Longman, produce this volume as part of a series on Social Policy in Britain. The pricing of a 259 page volume at Ł12.99 is sufficiently low to allow it to fill the needs, both academic and financial, of even the impecunious student.

Bibliography

Home Office (1991) Custody, Care and Justice: The Way Ahead for the Prison Service in England and Wales Cm 1647 (London: HMSO).

Stern, V (1989) Bricks of Shame: Britain's Prisons, 2nd ed (Harmondsworth: Penguin).

Woolf, H (1991) Prison Disturbances April 1990 Report of an Enquiry by Rt. Hon. Lord Justice Woolf (Parts I and II) and His Honour Judge Steven Tumin (Part II) Cm 1456 (London: HMSO).