Criminology & Criminal Justice

The measurement of public attitudes towards the criminal law has become an important area of research in recent years because of the perceived desirability of ensuring that the legal system reflects broader societal values. In particular, studies into public perceptions of crime seriousness have attempted to measure the degree of concordance that exists between law and public opinion in the organization and enforcement of criminal offences. These understandings of perceived crime seriousness are particularly important in relation to high-profile issues where public confidence in the law is central to the legal agenda, such as the enforcement of work-related fatality cases. A need to respond to public concern over this issue was cited as a primary justification for the introduction of the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007. This article will suggest that, although literature looking at the perceived seriousness of corporate crime and, particularly, health and safety offences is limited in volume and generalist in scope, important lessons can be gleaned from existing literature, and pressing questions are raised that demand further empirical investigation.

The contemporary focus of crime reduction and community safety policies on youth crime, anti-social behaviour and forms of conventionally defined property and violent crime excludes many hazards, in particular those associated with economic and corporate crime, which, despite their considerable impact, have a contested `criminal' status and have not generally been considered relevant to community safety. Drawing on work on the impact of economic crime, this article will map out the economic and physical harms associated with a selected range of economic and business offences. It will also argue that they pose a threat to citizens' quality of life and will explore their relevance to community safety. It will include activities that involve physical dangers and intrusions of privacy in the home and others that have an impact on consumers, the local neighbourhood and the quality of life. It will conclude with an analysis of the extent to which these crimes can and should be incorporated into a broader construction of community safety.

Race Relations in English and Welsh prisons have a history of critical events and flawed management. There is evidence that at the policy level the Prison Service has responded to policy directives to improve race relations. This article is based on research that examined the relationship between national legislation, Prison Service policy and practice. The focus of the article is the views of operational Prison Service staff, revealing the complexities in implementing race relations policy in the testing prison environment. The article concludes that the policies implemented by the Prison Service appear, theoretically, to be a rational and appropriate means of achieving positive race relations. Operationally the Prison Service has experienced the challenges of the prison setting, the need for proper resources and the stresses and strains in meeting the demands of its own race relations policy.

Crime displacement is a concern often raised regarding situational crime prevention measures. A national evaluation of closed circuit television cameras (CCTV) has provided an interesting test-bed for displacement research. A number of methods have been used to investigate displacement, in particular visualization techniques making use of geographical information systems (GIS) have been introduced to the identification of spatial displacement. Results concur with current literature in that spatial displacement of crime does occur, but it was only detected infrequently. Spatial displacement is found not to occur uniformly across offence type or space, notably the most evident spatial displacement was actually found to be occurring within target areas themselves. GIS and spatial analysis have been shown to complement more typical crime analysis methods and bring a much needed dimension to the investigation of displacement.

The Probation Service has, for some years, worked with external service providers in partnership. One strand of this work has involved collaboration with voluntary sector organizations in helping offenders into education training and employment (ETE). Underlying this work is a slim but important evidence base, which shows that offending diminishes when offenders gain employment, and that being in work may trigger longer term desistance.

Drawing on an evaluation of a government-sponsored `Employment Pathfinder' and on other relevant research, the article argues that recent governmental pressure to contract out services, and to adhere to certain `what works in reducing re-offending' principles, has given rise to tension within this collaboration attributable to conflicting ideology and practice. Specifically, this has created a context in which there is limited scope to adopt practices which are informed by knowledge about `what works' in getting people into employment. A less prescriptive approach from the centre about what should be delivered, and how, would restore effective teamwork and might also open up probation practice to empirical and theoretical insights into the desistance process. Wider implications of these findings for the future involvement of organizations with expertise in the provision of services for offenders are discussed.