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Criminal Justice Posts

All the latest news: Modernisation Austerity Crime Trends Policy Practice Innovation

Here you can find over 500 posts tracking every major development in criminal justice since 2011. You can track crime trends, court modernisation and digitisation programmes and the impact of austerity. If you’re looking for something in particular, try the search box below.

Hate crime up 18%

It remains extremely concerning that figures from CSEW suggest that less than one in 25 disability hate crimes were reported to and recorded by the police.

Latest crime statistics: behind the headlines

The heart of the problem is that the criminal justice system is not transparent. The public do not have a clear view of what is being delivered and the different agencies that make up the CJS do not understand what is happening and are not under pressure to improve.

young offenders

Details of Youth Justice review

The review has been met with some scepticism among seasoned justice commentators such as Rob Allen who are surprised at the exclusions and wonder if the review is an excuse to finally go through with the abolition of the Youth Justice Board. The next few months will be a good test of Mr Gove’s pledge to build a new justice system based on the evidence.

Families fight for treatment for vulnerable offenders

This is a timely report that reminds us all how much families are neglected in the criminal justice system. Unlike many other countries, approbation, and even youth justice, services tend to focus on the individual offender and often view interested family members as a necessary evil rather than affected others with an important role to contribute themselves.

Austerity is an opportunity to shrink the justice system

Will the prospect of saving billions of pounds (if Pentonville prison were closed, selling off the land to developers would probably generate several hundred million pounds alone), tempt the Chancellor and Justice Secretary to shift justice policy in a very different direction?

How many serious offences are committed on bail?

Whenever there is any public debate about rates of imprisonment, you can be fairly confident that the tabloid press will produce figures on how many crimes are committed by people on bail. But what are the real figures?

What works in reducing young adults’ reoffending?

Professor McGuire makes it clear that conclusions can only be tentative given the small number of studies reviewed (there are many more research studies aimed at juvenile offenders, but far fewer targeted at the young adult age group). Nevertheless, there are some helpful critical success factors upon which to build more effective approaches:

Alternatives to punishment for drug using offenders

In summary, few countries in Europe have chosen to adopt widespread rehabilitative approaches, with most opting for simpler policies of decriminalisation or depenalisation — alternatives to prison, but not alternatives to punishment. The policies that are adopted are often carried out without robust monitoring or evaluation; large numbers of drug users are diverted from the criminal justice system in many European countries without any systematic follow-up.

Inspectors critical of court custody service

It is hard to imagine a more critical report, but even more concerning was the inspectors’ conclusion that there was very little strategic leadership or expectation that the poor conditions highlighted again in this report would be rectified.

Preventing the unnecessary criminalisation of women

Far too many women are brought into the justice system unnecessarily. Thousands of women are inappropriately criminalised every year to the detriment of individuals, families and communities. For many women it is their repeated victimisation which has led to involvement in the justice system

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