This chapter discusses how developments in criminal justice have affected suspects’ rights; different types of victims’ ‘rights’; whether victims have (legally) enforceable rights; and enhancing victims’ rights without eroding defendants’ rights. It concludes with an overview of the impact of neoliberalism, the extent to which the system incorporates the ‘core values’ it ostensibly subscribes to, and how to make criminal justice more freedom-enhancing.
Chapter
12. Victims, the accused and the future of criminal justice
Chapter
3. Punishment and welfare: social problems and social structures
David Garland
This chapter examines the complex relationship between ‘punishment’ and ‘welfare.’ It traces the various ways in which penal systems are influenced by, and interact with, broader systems of social welfare and how these linked institutions function as modes of social control and class control. Following a critical review of the historical and comparative literature—and associated questions of data and method—it discusses how penal and welfare policies relate to the social problems they purport to address and to the political and socio-economic structures within which they operate. ‘Penal-welfarist’ and ‘welfarist’ practices are defined and differentiated, some common elements of practices of punishing and assisting are identified, and the fundamentals of ‘the welfare state’ and its recent neoliberal history are explained.
Chapter
12. Social harm and zemiology
Paddy Hillyard and Steve Tombs
This chapter examines the relationships between social harm, zemiology, and criminology. It begins by reviewing some of the main arguments set out by those advocating a turn towards social harm and/or zemiology. It then elaborates on some of those arguments, first through illustrating the kinds of harms more significant than those captured by ’crime’ and, following that, to consider how these harms might take peculiar forms under neoliberalism. The chapter then turns to consider ‘criminological’ responses to those arguments—both at the level of the discipline as a set of institutions, and then via an analyses of some of the more critical, intellectual responses. The final substantive section explores the relationship between critical criminology, social harm, and zemiology.
Book
Lucy Welsh, Layla Skinns, and Andrew Sanders
Criminal Justice provides a comprehensive overview of the criminal justice system in England and Wales (excluding punishment), as well as thought-provoking insights into how it might be altered and improved and research that might be needed to help accomplish this. Tracing the procedures surrounding the appre-hension, investigation, trial and appeal against conviction of suspected offenders, this book is the ideal com-panion for law and criminology students alike. As the authors combine the relevant legislation with fresh research findings and policy initiatives, the resulting text is a fascinating blend of socio-legal analysis. Whilst retaining its authoritative treatment of the issues at the heart of criminal justice, the book has been fully updated with recent developments, including terrorism legislation and the initial Covid-related restrictions introduced in early-mid 2020. In this, the book’s 5th edition: two experienced new co-authors, Dr Layla Skinns and Dr Lucy Welsh, join Andrew Sanders (Richard Young having decided, 25+ years after the 1st edition, to do other things); the text features chapter summaries and selected further reading lists to support the student and encourage further research; the content of the book has been fully updated to include coverage of new legislation, case law, research and policy developments; and the text is enriched by the new authors’ specialist research into accountability, police custody, magistrates’ courts and criminal legal aid. The theoretical structure of the earlier editions is retained, but developed further by consideration of ‘core values’ in criminal justice and the impact of neoliberalism.
Chapter
35. The punishment-welfare relationship: history, sociology, and politics
David Garland
The relationship between ‘punishment’ and ‘welfare’ is by now a well-established topic of theory and research in historical, sociological, and comparative studies of punishment. In recent years that relationship—and in particular the balance between penal and welfare approaches—has also become a focal point for social movements working to transform criminal justice, and more generally for activists seeking to shift power and resources away from police and prisons towards social service and public health approaches to crime control. This chapter discusses the punishment-welfare relationship as a matter of history, sociology, and comparative social policy, summarizing what we know, identifying promising lines of research, and commenting on key areas of contention. As a theoretical matter, it is argued that future research ought to view penal and welfare policies in relation to the underlying social problems these policies purportedly address and also in relation to the larger social and economic structures that shape these social problems and the policies that deal with them. By way of political commentary, some considerations are noted that should be borne in mind by activists pressing for a wholesale shift from penal to welfare modes of crime-control.
Chapter
1. The aims and values of ‘criminal justice’
This chapter discusses the nature, structure, values and objectives of ‘criminal justice’, together with recent trends, primarily in England and Wales. This includes examining the concepts of guilt and innocence, and the difficulty of ‘proving’ either in many cases; the adversarial nature of the Anglo-American system, contrasted with the inquisitorial approaches that traditionally underpin ‘European’ systems; and the analytical tools of ‘crime control’ and ‘due process’. The importance, and limitation, of the human rights approach in criminal justice is discussed, along with the increasing influences of managerialism and neoliberalism. The chapter then looks at how victims are catered for in these various approaches. It concludes that human rights provide only a bare minimum of protection for suspects and victims alike, and that the system is more exclusionary than inclusionary. Thus a new theoretical framework is proposed that is centred on ‘freedom’, which would prioritise three ‘core values’: justice, democracy and efficiency.
