NCJ Number
177542
Date Published
1998
Length
186 pages
Annotation
This volume critically examines the criminal justice system in Great Britain and argues that the solutions to crime lie with a greater emphasis on education, enhanced employment opportunities, and crime prevention rather than with a greater emphasis on punishment and reliance only o the police, courts, probation, and prison services.
Abstract
The authors examine the nature and extent of crime in Great Britain, the reasons for the increases in the prison population, public attitudes toward crime, and the role of the media in fear of crime. They also discuss juvenile delinquency factors and prevention, racial issues in the criminal justice system, the handling of female offenders, drug policies and prevention efforts, police reforms, and probation and alternatives to prison. In addition, they examine and contrast crime control policies in the United States and France. The authors argue that although the criminal justice system retains a symbolic importance, but it has only a minor part in controlling the incidence and seriousness of crime, despite what is claimed by politicians and those who work within the system. They recommend that the government focus on crime causes rather than punitive approaches as a means of making the country safer. Figures, tables, footnotes, index, and appended list of the corrections officials, criminologists, ex-offenders, and the elected official who formed the book's editorial advisory committee