Murder is often regarded as both the 'ultimate' and a unique crime, and whereas courts are normally given discretion in sentencing offenders, for murder the sentence is mandatory – indeterminate imprisonment. Since the crime and the punishment come as a 'package deal' this book looks at both the legal nature of the offence and at the current operation of the mandatory life sentence. Not only does the book adopt a critical approach, by assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the status qu...

Former bank manager Ronald Dalton never got to watch his three young children grow up. In 1989 he was convicted for a crime that never happened. His wife, Brenda, was later ruled to have choked to death on breakfast cereal not strangled as a pathologist had initially claimed. Dalton's daughter, Alison, was in kindergarten when he was charged with second-degree murder in 1988. He attended her high school graduation on June 26, 2000, two days after his conviction was finally overturned....

Over the past forty years, the criminal justice system in the United States has engaged in a very expensive policy failure, attempting to punish its way to public safety, with dismal results. So-called "tough on crime" policies have not only failed to effectively reduce crime, recidivism, and victimization but also created an incredibly inefficient system that routinely fails the public, taxpayers, crime victims, criminal offenders, their families, and their communities.Strategies ...

Sexual cases are inherently complex and sometimes controversial presenting the practitioner with a multitude of procedural and legal challenges. The increasing number of sexual cases, often historic, places significant demands upon the criminal justice system. Sexual crime is recognised as a specialist area which demands unique skills from the practitioner and handling witness testimony in these cases calls for skills and knowledge that encompass both law and science. Witness Testimony...

This vintage book contains a detailed treatise on the history and development of punishment and crime prevention. It explores how the ideas concerning crime and how to deal with it have changed throughout the ages, as well as analysing the way that we deal with such behavior in modern society. A thought-provoking and insightful volume, "The Punishment and Prevention of Crime" is highly recommended for those with an interest in sociology and the concepts of punishment and rehabilitation. Co...

When an individual is accused of a crime he is provided, at least in theory, with numerous constitutional rights throughout the legal process. These constitutional rights, however, are soft and flexible, and are subject to a tremendous amount of manipulation by police, prosecutors, and judges. The result is that these government agents are easily able to bypass, and in fact destroy, our constitutional protections.This abuse of our fundamental rights is extremely dangerous. Far from...

This book deals with sentencing in international criminal law, focusing on the approach of the UN ad hoc Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and Rwanda (ICTR). In contrast to sentencing in domestic jurisdictions, and in spite of its growing importance, sentencing law is a part of international criminal law that is still 'under construction' and is unregulated in many aspects.International sentencing law and practice is not yet defined by exact norms and principles and as yet...

Fraud costs the United Kingdom a reported £198 billion per year and the Crime Survey for England and Wales (March 2016) estimates that there are over 5 million incidents of fraud and 2 million cyber-related crimes committed annually. Preventing and investigating fraud has become a priority for police officers and establishing successful, effective strategies to tackle this new volume crime represents a significant and persistent challenge for the police service. Investigation of Fraud ...

This is a book about what a logical legal system is, with some examples of how to change police policies to save lives and a talk about what judges should do to be logical instead of delusional as they almost always are.

Based on an interdisciplinary conference held at the University of Cambridge in May 2012, Legitimacy and Criminal Justice: An International Exploration brings together internationally renowned scholars from a range of disciplines including criminology, international relations, sociology and political science to examine the meaning of legitimacy and advance its theoretical understanding within the context of criminal justice. In policy terms, the conference afforded a timely opport...

Indigenous People, Crime and Punishment examines criminal sentencing courts’ changing characterisations of Indigenous peoples’ identity, culture and postcolonial status. Focusing largely on Australian Indigenous peoples, but drawing also on the Canadian experiences, Thalia Anthony critically analyses how the judiciary have interpreted Indigenous difference. Through an analysis of Indigenous sentencing remarks over a fifty year period in a number of jurisdictions, the book demonstr...

When horrific acts of violence take place, events such as massacres in Boston, Newtown, CT, and Aurora, CO, people want answers. Who would commit such a thoughtless act of violence? What in their backgrounds could make them so inhumane, cruel, and evil? Often, people assume immediately that the perpetrator must have a mental disorder, and in some cases that does prove to be the case. But the assumption that most people with mental disorders are violent, prone to act out, and a threat to ot...