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.
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.
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?
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?
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:
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.
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.
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
The overall trend is up Although overall levels of crime are down, re-offending rates have proved more intransigent. The latest data – which covers the year
I can foresee a situation in the near future where the MoJ links its own funding to participation in the Justice Data Lab and puts pressure on other funders to do the same.
The homicide rate for England and Wales has fallen sharply since 2002/3, and we are one of the safest countries in the world.
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The latest figures from the Crime Survey for England and Wales showed that there were an estimated 6.8 million incidents of crime in the year ending March 2015. This is a 7% decrease compared with the previous year’s survey, and the lowest estimate since the CSEW began in 1981.
