Criminal Justice 2000

This key addition to Waterside's Criminal Policy contains many valuable insights into criminal policy-making in Britain - a process typified in recent years by political manoeuvring, irreconcilable sentencing aims, a lack of coherence and divisive attitudes, including, so the authors argue, attempts at reform being undermined through 'judicial independence').A first-rate analysis of the competing strategies by three of the UK's leading commentators - which proceeds from a restorative justice standpoint and is rapidly establishing itself as a key text for criminal justice and criminal policy courses across the UK.Ever since Jack Straw replaced Michael Howard as British Home Secretary in May 1997, the New Labour government has been taking the criminal justice system in new directions. But what is the nature of New Labour criminal justice policy? What strategic options does the government really have for dealing with the problems of crime and punishment-and where is it likely to take us in future? This timely book analyses past and present policies in British criminal justice and distills a set of three broad options for the future. Strategy A is the futile, expensive and doomed quest to control crime by ever-increasing levels of harsh punishment. Strategy B is the managerial, bureaucratic approach which tries to achieve maximum efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Strategy C is the principled approach which seeks to protect the human rights of both offenders and victims by means such as rehabilitation, reintegration and restorative justice.