Hucklesby & Wahidin: Criminal Justice 
Glossary
Test bankHucklesby & Wahidin: Criminal Justice
Online glossary
[A] [B] [C] [D] [E] [F] [G] [H] [I] [J] [K] [L] [M] [N] [O] [P] [Q] [R] [S] [T] [U] [V] [W] [X] [Y] [Z]
A
Abolitionism is a theoretical and political perspective which holds that the penal system creates social problems rather than providing solutions. Abolitionists call for new understandings of social harms and radically alternative social policies.
Aggravation an aggravating factor is one which makes the offence more serious than usual and which usually leads to a more severe sentence being imposed. An example would be where the victim was particularly vulnerable.
Antecedents are previous convictions or cautions.
‘At risk’ are assumptions made about particular sections of the population based on the statistical probability of their becoming offenders and/or victims in the future.
Attorney-General is the Chief Legal Advisor to the Crown in England and Wales. The Attorney-General has the right to challenge unduly lenient sentences in certain circumstances.
Attrition rate refers to the proportion of cases which do not end in a conviction or caution because they drop out of the criminal justice process at various points. For example, when the Crown Prosecution Service decide that there is no case to answer. The attrition rate is high and results in between two and three per cent of offences ending up with a conviction.
B
Belfast/Good Friday Agreement was the constitutional settlement signed by the majority of Northern Ireland’s political parties in 1998. It established the basis for a return to devolved government in Northern Ireland.
Bridewell was a type of prison that emerged in England in the sixteenth century. The first Bridewell was the adapted Bridewell palace, hence the name. These prisons were used as places for short periods of detention, often for petty offenders, and were also known as houses of correction.
The British Crime Survey is a national crime survey that is carried out in England and Wales every year by the Home Office. The British Crime Survey explores levels of crime reporting to the police, why people do not always report incidents and what types of incidents tend not to be reported. The British Crime Survey also focuses upon attitudes to the police, the criminal justice system and sentencing and individuals’ fear of crime.
C
Capitalist state is the institutional and relational means through which political, economic, and coercive power is exercised and consent is secured in capitalist societies.
Community safety is a politically progressive variant of crime prevention. Community safety offers a holistic approach to preventing crime that combines social and situational approaches. Its object of concern—safety—is also potentially broader than crime, encompassing a range of hazards (e.g. discrimination, pollution, social exclusion) that may threaten safety and security, more broadly conceived. In practice, particularly because community safety partnerships are heavily funded by criminal justice-related bodies such as the Home Office, it is crime that tends to dominate their agendas.
Conferencing is an informal process in which a third person helps the people affected directly by crime—victims, offenders, and close contacts of both—to have constructive dialogue about what happened and reach a mutually acceptable plan for repairing harm.
Contestability is a term that first appeared in the Carter Report (2003) and which is synonymous with competition. Carter argued that the private, voluntary and public sectors—or mixed consortia involving more than one sector—should compete to provide services for offenders. Contestability is expected to lead to innovation, better integration of services and cost savings.
Consequentialism is a philosophical approach where current actions and policies are justified through their [positive] future consequences.
Convict prisons were operated by the government and held prisoners who were sentenced to longer periods of imprisonment (then known as penal servitude). The convict system was set up after the decline and then end of transportation of offenders to the colonies.
Crime refers to any action which breaks the laws laid down by a political authority, although crimes can also be committed by those authorities. Every crime is deviant, but not every deviant act is criminal.
Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships are a statutory requirement of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 that bring together a range of local agencies (e.g. police, local authority, fire service, health) to promote a coordinated and holistic response to community safety.
Crime Control is a model of criminal justice which prioritises convicting the guilty over protecting the innocent in which criminal justice professionals are trusted to ensure that the correct individuals are convicted. Suspects’ and defendants’ rights are seen as barriers to ensuring that the guilty are convicted.
Crime facilitators is a concept used by proponents of situational crime prevention. Put simply, it is more likely that a crime will be committed if there are external facilitators available to the potential offender, such as physical items (e.g. glass bottles in nightclubs) or chemical substances (e.g. alcohol). Where possible, proponents of situational crime prevention seek the removal or control of crime facilitators.
Crime reduction is a variant of crime prevention that valorises demonstrable performance. Crime prevention is difficult to measure because the phenomenon of a prevented crime is a non-event. By contrast, crime reduction uses crime data, particularly police crime statistics, to seek demonstrable reductions in crime figures in specific places, or indeed nationally. Perhaps paradoxically, crime reduction can be achieved by measures not normally considered as measures of crime prevention, including traditional criminal justice responses, such as arrest and conviction.
Criminal Courts are places where criminal cases are heard. They include the magistrates’ court, Crown Court, and Courts of Appeal.
Criminal Justice Review was the Northern Ireland Criminal Justice Review which was established by the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement in 1998 to examine the operation of criminal justice in Northern Ireland and to make recommendations for reform.
Criminal Trial is any hearing in a criminal court whose purpose is to determine the guilt or innocence of an accused person.
Crisis of Legitimacy is the crisis in criminal justice caused by the widespread feeling that the system lacks legitimacy, i.e. moral acceptability.
Crisis of Resources is the crisis in criminal justice caused by the scarcity of material resources for running the system, including staff, money, buildings, and equipment.
D
Dangerousness is a social and historical construction used to refer to a number of different groups of defendants and offenders who may pose a risk to the public including those with mental health problems.
Defensible space is a concept associated with the work of Oscar Newman, whose empirical research showed a correlation between certain design characteristics, such as high-rise buildings, and crime rates. Having identified design characteristics that were positively correlated with high crime levels, Newman developed his theory of defensible space to show that crime could be ‘designed out’ by following a set of principles—such as the privatisation of ‘unowned’ public spaces—that in their application would either remove these criminogenic design characteristics, or mitigate their effects.
Deterrence is the philosophical justification of punishment that aims to prevent future law breaking through efficient and effective penal sanctions. Deterrence may be directed at individual offenders (specific deterrence) or others (general deterrence).
Devolution is the process by which a national body delegates or distributes powers to a local or regional body.
Direct victims are usually the most immediate and clear victims of a criminal offence, often suffering the most appreciable impacts. Direct victims include, for example, the owner of stolen property or someone suffering injuries or trauma as a result of a violent attack.
Discretion is the latitude which criminal justice professionals have to use their judgement to decide what action to take or decision to make in any given situation.
Divided Society is the term used in the literature to refer to a society like Northern Ireland that is fractured to a dysfunctional extent along a particular cleavage or cleavages. All societies are, however, divided to some extent along the lines of social class, race/ethnicity, gender, and so on.
Domestic violence is officially ‘an incident of threatening behaviour, violence or abuse (psychological, sexual, financial or emotional) between adults who are or have been intimate partners or family members, regardless of gender or sexuality’ (Home Office, 2005a). The scope of ‘domestic violence’ is greatly debated.
Due Process is a model of criminal justice which ensures that suspects’ and defendants’ are protected from the power of the state and that individuals are convicted only if the investigation and prosecution conforms to legal rules and procedures. Due process safeguards include the right to a fair trial and the presumption of innocence.
E
Early Release is the practice of prisoners leaving prison early—i.e. before the formal end of the custodial sentence which the court had imposed. It has a long history in penal policy. Initially, in the nineteenth century, it was introduced as a means of improving prison discipline—the prospect of early release was held out to prisoners as an incentive to good behaviour while they were incarcerated. This rationale can still apply, but increasingly, from the latter part of the twentieth century onwards, early release has been used as a ‘safety valve’ to reduce pressure on overcrowded prisons (and on hard-pressed prison staff). Most forms of early release entail supervision in the community in the immediate post-release period, but remain controversial because it can appear that ‘the executive’ (prison managers and government) are undermining the traditional role of ‘the judiciary’ to set sentence length. Various mechanisms have been used to facilitate early release, including parole and, more recently, the use of electronic monitoring.
Extended Policing Family refers to the range of public and private agencies, including police, municipal authorities, and commercial policing, that undertake policing and security-related activities in local communities.
F
Femininity are the socio-cultural values expected of women.
Fortress society is a dystopian concept that describes a society where situational crime prevention measures of surveillance and target hardening are taken too far, evidenced by a proliferation of CCTV cameras, impenetrable walls and fences, razor wire and so forth. In such a society, there is a generalised suspicion and mistrust that militates against social cohesion. Thus, fortress societies are also divided societies, where ‘us’ (typically those who can afford to protect themselves) are protected from ‘them’ (typically the urban poor who are regarded as a threat to safety) by various means of physical exclusion.
Futurology is the enterprise of trying to predict the future by scientific or quasi-scientific means.
G
Gaols are prisons with a long history which held prisoners until trial, sentence or punishment was carried out.
Gender is socially ascribed qualities associated with being male or female.
Globalisation is a general term that summarises important social changes in the late-twentieth century. In particular it has an economic component that draws attention to the increasingly transnational nature of capitalist enterprise, as multinational corporations are able to move their businesses around the globe to places where the costs of production, particularly wages, are most favourable. This has hastened economic decline in many developed countries as old industries have collapsed, and has prompted nation states to reduce taxes and public spending in order to remain ‘competitive’ in the global economy. Culturally, developments in transport and communications have effectively shrunken the world, encouraging population movements that have radically altered the ethnic profile of urban areas, and facilitating cultural influences that bypass more traditional local structures such as family and community. One overall effect of this is taken to be an insecurity that may be translated into the fear of crime, and the ‘othering’ of particular identity groups, such as youths or ethnic minorities.
H
Hard labour, hard board, hard fare was a deterrent philosophy of punishment used in prisons from 1865 until the beginning of twentieth century. The regime denotes harsh living conditions, minimal food, and long hours of hard labour.
Hate Crime is any criminal offence committed against a person or property that is motivated by an offender’s hatred of someone because of their ‘race’, ethnic origin, religion, gender, sexual orientation and disability’ (Home Office, 2007). In Britain, the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and provisions made under the Anti-Terrorism Crime and Security Act 2001 and the Criminal Justice Act 2003 can be considered to be ‘hate crime’ legislation.
Heterosexism is the normalisation of heterosexuality, through institutional practices, serving to delegitimize other expressions and forms of sexuality.
Home Office is the government department responsible for the police, crime, anti-social behaviour, drugs policy, anti-terrorism and immigration. Prior to the creation of the Ministry of Justice in May 2007 it was also responsible for prisons, probation and criminal justice policy generally.
Home Secretary is the Secretary of State (i.e. the senior minister) in charge of the Home Office.
Hotspots are geographic areas where crime is concentrated. The identification of crime hotspots has been greatly assisted by technological advances, particularly in geographic information systems that allow the precise electronic plotting of crimes and their temporal analysis. Rather than being applied generally, much crime prevention practice concentrates on tackling crime hotspots, because such hotspots show where the risk of crime is greatest, and it is against such hotspots that the greatest impact on crime can be made (and measured).
House of correction is another term for bridewell.
I
Ideal victim was coined by Dutch victimologist Nils Christie (1986) to describe the characteristics attributed by society to ‘worthy’ victims of crime. Generally such victims are entirely blameless, vulnerable, and have impeccable characters. The concept has been drawn on by many commentators arguing that policies ostensibly aimed at all victims often seem to benefit ideal victims, especially as the research increasingly reveals that a large proportion of victims do not meet such criteria (Dignan, 2005).
‘In need’ are assumptions made about (typically child) offending which stress vulnerability and limited capacity and thereby the necessity of responding to offending through welfare and support, rather than punishment.
Incapacitation A philosophical justification of punishment that calls for the removal of offenders’ physical capacity to offend.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission is a non-departmental public body which has responsibility for overseeing the system of police complaints that covers the 43 police forces of England and Wales, and other ‘non-territorial’ police forces (e.g. British Transport Police, the Ministry of Defence Police, and the Serious and Organised Crime Agency).
Indeterminate sentence is a custodial sentence where the judge does not set a fixed term. The usual example is a life sentence but there is also a sentence of imprisonment for public protection designed for certain dangerous offenders. Instead of setting a fixed term the judge sets a period when offenders are eligible to be considered for release, although in some cases offenders will never be eligible for release.
Indirect victims are individuals who, whilst not enduring the immediate impacts of crime as with direct victims, nevertheless suffer other impacts which can be social, financial, psychological or physical. This group can include the friends and family of direct victims and local communities for example if their fear of crime is increased by the initial victimisation.
Informal Justice is a common aspect of conflict states which refers to a system of ‘justice’ that takes place in opposition to the formal state structures.
Institutional racism was defined by Macpherson (1999: para. 6.34) as ‘the collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture, or ethnic origin. It can be seen or detected in processes, attitudes and behaviour which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping which disadvantage minority ethnic people’.
Interface areas is a term used in Northern Ireland to refer to areas that contain a highly volatile population balance in ethno-national terms. For example, in North Belfast there are a number of nationalist/republican enclaves located within a much larger predominantly unionist/loyalist area.
Internment is the practice whereby individuals are arrested and held indefinitely—sometimes for years—without charge.
Irish Republican Army (IRA) is the largest nationalist paramilitary organization in Northern Ireland and a strong advocate of the use of violence to bring about a British withdrawal. While the IRA targeted police and military personnel it was nevertheless responsible for the largest number of civilian deaths during the conflict. The IRA called a ceasefire in 1994 which temporarily broke down between 1995 and 1997. The ceasefire was reinstated in 1997, with the organization formally ending its ‘military’ campaign in 2005.
J
Jurisdiction is the legal power as constituted and practiced within a particular nation.
Just deserts An approach to sentencing that is tied to the philosophical justification of retribution. Offenders receive the punishment they deserve by receiving a sentence that is proportionate to the seriousness of the offence(s) committed. The Criminal Justice Act 1991 introduced a just deserts sentencing framework in England and Wales that remains at the heart of sentencing today.
Justice by Geography is the term used to describe variations in decisions made by criminal justice agencies and institutions according to geographic area.
L
Labelling Theory is a sociological perspective that refers to the social processes by which an individual becomes categorised as ‘deviant’; in a self-fulfilling way, however, this process tends to reinforce the very behaviour that initially led to the application of the label ‘deviant’.
Law and Order Ideology is a set of attitudes including the beliefs that people must be strictly disciplined by restrictive rules, and that they should be harshly punished if they break the rules.
Legislation is the body of laws that comprise the legal system of a nation.
Legitimacy is the normative and political justifications and acceptability for the exercise of power and authority. It relates to perceptions of justness and fairness.
Less eligibility is the principle originating in the nineteenth century that argues that conditions in prison should be materially worse than the worst conditions for free honest poor people in the community, for example, prisoners should have less food and more limited access to medical care.
Liquid times or liquid modernity is Zygmunt Bauman’s distinctive term for the socio-cultural configuration in which contemporary people live. The metaphor of ‘liquidity’ denotes a situation of constant organizational change, transient cultural reference points, and uncertain moral norms, in which there are few stable and reliable structures by which people can orient their lives for a sustained period of time.
Local prison has been used since the Prison Act 1865 as a collective name for gaols, houses of correction and bridewells to distinguish them from convict prisons. Until 1877 local prisons were run by local authorities but they were then taken over by the government. Local prisons held offenders sentenced to periods of imprisonment that were two years or less.
The Lord Chancellor is the government minister who has responsibility for the administration of justice and is also the Secretary of State for Justice (in charge of the Ministry of Justice).
Loyalist/s wish to maintain the constitutional link with Great Britain, but many advocate the use of violence to achieve this goal. They are associated with the activities of paramilitary organizations such as the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF).
M
Managerialism is the application of private sector practices to the public sector which involves attempts to increase ‘economy, efficiency and effectiveness’.
Mandatory sentence is a punishment for a particular offence which is fixed by law. The most famous example is life imprisonment for murder. There has been a trend since the Crime (Sentences) Act 1997 to introduce more mandatory sentences for persistent offenders but, in the context of that Act, the judge does not have to impose the penalty if it would be unjust to do so.
Masculinity are socio-cultural values expected of men.
Ministry of Justice is the government department responsible for the courts and much of the criminal justice system. It was created in May 2007, replacing the Department for Constitutional Affairs and assuming many responsibilities previously belonging to the Home Office.
Minority perspective is often applied to Black and minority ethnic groups, however, recent developments suggest that a more inclusive approach is being taken whereby groups in relation to gender, faith, sexual orientation, disability, and age are taken into consideration by researchers and policy makers. The development of a minority perspective might be defined as ‘the inclusion, and focus upon, the lived experiences of minority groups’ (Phillips and Bowling, 2003).
Miscarriages of Justice are cases in which individuals have been wrongly convicted of offences.
Mitigation makes the offence less serious than usual. It usually leads to a reduction in the sentence imposed. It is usually brought to the court’s attention when the offender’s lawyer submits a ‘plea in mitigation’. An example of a mitigating factor would be that the offender surrendered to the police shortly after the offence.
Moral education is a non-punitive strategy that aims to provide a guide to right and wrong through exposing people to moral stories, media campaigns, and public education.
N
National Association of Probation Officers is a professional association which was formed in 1912, with the support of the Home Office, by the first generation of probation officers. It aimed to promote the interests of probation, especially among local committees of magistrates who were reluctant to appoint them. It subsequently became a trade union as well, and, historically, it was a major force in probation’s development, only becoming a serious critic of Home Office policy in the 1970s.
National Policing Improvement Agency is a national policing body set up to enhance the performance of 43 police forces of England and Wales through the dissemination of good practice, sharing of expert knowledge and other mechanisms of strategic support.
National Offender Management Service (NOMS) was created in 2004 following a review of correctional services (Carter, 2003; Home Office, 2004). It brings together the work of the Prison and Probation Services as a new single service to oversee the management of offenders. The arguments in favour of closer working relationships between the two services are difficult to counter, but the politics of crime control and lack of resources mean that four years on (2008) the potential of NOMS remains unfulfilled.
Nationalist/s are generally, but not exclusively, associated with the Catholic community in Northern Ireland. It refers to those individuals who want Northern Ireland to become part of an all-Ireland Republic at some point in the future via democratic and constitutional means.
Neighbourhood policing is a style of policing that emphasises officers being dedicated to highly localised areas, thereby enabling them to engage the community and stakeholder agencies in the co-production of neighbourhood security.
Net widening is a term first used by Cohen (1985) to describe processes whereby attempts to prevent crime (for example targeting those considered a ‘risk’) act to expand the remit of justice agencies and draw more people into the reach of formal criminal justice intervention. For example, non-custodial sentences which aim to divert offenders from custody are used for offenders who would have received a less severe sentence. Instead of reducing the number of offenders being imprisoned, more offenders end up in custody. The net of the criminal justice system has, therefore, been widened.
New Penology A managerial approach to crime control and the punishment which is ‘concerned with techniques to identify, classify, and manage groupings sorted by dangerousness’ (Feeley and Simon, 1992), including ‘risk assessments’ of offenders.
New Punitiveness is an international trend, on the rise since the 1970s, for increased harshness of punishment, associated with ‘populist punitiveness’ and law and order ideology.
Northern Ireland Office is the nerve-centre of British government administration in Northern Ireland. Until recently, it was responsible for the running of all government departments in Northern Ireland.
Nothing works is a phrase widely used to summarise the state of criminological knowledge, especially in the 1970s, on the effectiveness of criminal justice measures. Criminological research showed, for example, that police patrolling did not do much to deter potential criminals, or that most offenders who went to prison were reconvicted within two years of their release. The idea that ‘nothing works’ was misleading, because the research findings were not that negative, but the phrase was used politically as a stick, particularly to beat certain parts of the criminal justice system, such as the Probation Service.
O
Occupational culture is a shared set of understandings, values and beliefs that is common to criminal justice professions. It has been most widely applied to the police, particularly the lower ranks.
Offender Management is the Ministry of Justice’s preferred term for both the overarching structure of service provision for offenders, encompassing both prisons and community penalties—and the generic term for the panoply of measures used in face-to-face work with offenders. In some contexts it means little more than the ‘case management’ of individuals.
P
Panopticon was a prison design by Jeremy Bentham which allowed prisoners to be observed at all times without them being aware of being watched. It has since been used to explore concepts of power, discipline, and surveillance.
Parole is a system of early release from prison on licence involving supervision in the community and possibly other conditions. It is granted at the discretion of the Parole Board.
Parsimony is the presumption that the minimum restrictions possible should be used in response to wrongdoing and that the case must be made for the continued legitimacy of the deployment of state intrusion upon individuals.
Partnership is an approach to policy and practice that requires the collaboration of more than one agency to provide more effective service delivery, often combining agencies not only within the public sector, but also across sectors, such as the private and voluntary sectors. Partnerships have emerged in several areas of criminal justice, such as crime prevention, especially in the last two or three decades. Their existence heralds the emergence of a new approach to governing problems such as crime, and implicitly critiques older approaches that were based on the excessively narrow specialisms or competencies of single agencies such as the police service.
Patriarchy might be viewed as consisting of male economic and social power, underpinned by the use of, or threat of, violence (Radford, 1992).
Plea bargaining takes place when the prosecution and the defendant agree that a guilty plea will be accepted to a less serious offence than the original offence charged.
Police community support officers are uniformed, civilian employees of the police authority, who are directed and controlled by their respective Chief Officer and possess a range of limited and discretionary police powers.
Political violence is the term used in preference to ‘terrorism’ in the social science literature since it recognises that what counts as a terrorist act is highly subjective and generally the result of definition as such by the State or other powerful actors.
Populist punitiveness is a near-synonym for ‘law and order ideology’ coined by Bottoms (1995).
Positivism is the theoretical assumption that scientific methodologies can be neutrally applied to the study of human societies.
Pre-emptive intervention is ‘nipping crime in the bud’ by intervening in the lives of those who have not committed any criminal offence but who are thought likely to become offenders in the future.
Pre-sentence reports are prepared by probation officers at the request of the court to provide sentencers with information about offenders, an assessment of their risk of harm and further offending, and proposals regarding sentence (previously known as social inquiry reports).
Prevention is interventions designed to stop crime before it occurs.
Privatisation is the incidence or process of transferring ownership of business from the public sector (government) to the private sector (business). In a broader sense, privatization refers to transfer of any government function to the private sector including governmental functions like revenue collection and law enforcement.
Probation is the supervision of offenders in the community, classically by members of the Probation Service under the terms of Probation Orders. In England and Wales this now occurs under supervision requirements in Community Orders
Problem Analysis Triangle (PAT) is a conceptual device used by those with a responsibility for crime prevention or crime reduction to address specific crime problems. The PAT breaks down a specific crime problem into three constituent elements, the offender, the target or victim, and the place. An examination of each individual element will lead to the identification of measures to prevent or reduce the problem, and the PAT therefore provides, in theory, a systematic approach to crime problem solving.
Prosecution is the bringing of a criminal charge in court or a group of people involved in prosecuting someone in court.
Prosecution process is the process which individuals accused of criminal offences go through in order to be convicted.
Punishment is the deliberate infliction of pain.
Punitive rationale is the logic of punishment as understood as an appropriate response to moral conflicts and problematic behaviours.
R
Rape as defined in law by the Sexual Offences Act 2003 states that a person (A) commits the offence of rape against B if: 1) he intentionally penetrates the vagina, anus, or mouth of another person (B) with his penis; 2) B does not consent to that penetration; 3) A does not reasonably believe that B consents.
Rehabilitation is a philosophical justification of punishment which claims that punishments can be used to readjust and reform offenders’ behaviour and re-integrate them into society as a law abiding citizen.
Reparation is making amends for harmful behaviour.
Republican/s seek to bring about a British withdrawal from Northern Ireland using violent means. It is associated with the activities of paramilitary organizations such as the Irish Republican Army (IRA).
Responsibilisation is a political strategy based on making individuals accountable for their own behaviour and encouraging families and communities to take a more active role in preventing and controlling crime.
Restoration is a group of interventions based on principles of resolving conflict and healing damaged relationships.
Restorative justice is a distinctive way of thinking about how we should view and respond to crime and analogous conduct, revolving around the ideas that crime is in essence a violation of a person, that justice requires that the harm caused be repaired, and that offenders, victims, and others directly affected should participate meaningfully in the justice process.
Restorative values are those values (moral principles and beliefs of a person or group) which—according to some advocates of restorative justice—distinguish genuine restorative justice from other approaches to crime. Precisely what those values are is a matter of ongoing discussion.
Retribution is a philosophical justification of punishment which claims that people deserve to be punished for their crimes.
Royal Ulster Constabulary was the police force of Northern Ireland between 1922 and 2001. It was replaced by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).
S
Scheduled Offence is an offence specifically listed in a schedule to the Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act [1973]. Scheduled offences were assumed to have a ‘terrorist’ motivation and were committed by members of proscribed organizations, such as the UVF and IRA. All scheduled offences were tried by a single judge sitting alone under the Diplock system. The Emergency Provisions Act was amended several times since 1973 and repealed in 2000 when Northern Ireland was brought within the remit of the Terrorism Act (2000).
Seamless Sentence was coined by civil servant John Halliday in his review of the sentencing framework (Home Office 2001) to denote penalties which combined elements of both custodial and community supervision, thereby breaking with a century long tradition of keeping such measures conceptually and practically separate. The model for seamless sentences was essentially prison-followed-by-parole, but Halliday’s version allowed for a number of permutations, including intermittent custody, in which periods of imprisonment alternated with periods of community supervision. The idea of ‘seamless sentences’ was important to the NOMS story because it implied that a seamless organization—prisons and probation combined, engaging in ‘end to end offender management’—would be needed to deliver them once they were made available to courts.
Secondary victimisation is a phrase which has come to mean the re-victimisation of crime victims at the hands of the criminal justice system itself. Secondary victimisation can result from a lack of information, support or facilities or any other actions or omissions which make the justice process more difficult and intimidating for the victim.
Sentencing Advisory Panel is the body created by the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 whose task is to provide the Court of Appeal with detailed information and suggestions on the sentencing of particular offences. The Panel’s reports are now considered by the Sentencing Guidelines Council before they issue definitive guidelines.
Sentencing circles are a variety of forums in which victims, offenders, interested community members, justice officials and others meet to have constructive dialogue about the impact of a crime upon a community and what should be done about it. Circles hold offenders accountable to the community, discuss what should be done to reintegrate the offender into the community, and address underlying community problems that contribute to and arise from offending behaviour. Some recommend a ‘sentence’ to the judge.
Sentencing Guidelines Council The Council was introduced in the Criminal Justice Act 2003. Its function is to provide courts with definitive guidelines on sentencing particular offences or for dealing with certain sentencing issues such as the appropriate discount for a guilty plea. The Council’s membership comprises of judges and those with experience of policing, prosecution, defending criminals and working with victims of crime. All courts have to have regard to the definitive guidelines before passing sentence.
The separate system is a prison regime under which prisoners are kept separate from each other at all times. Prisoners would undergo long periods of separation in which they would eat, sleep and work in their cells, only leaving the cells to attend chapel or for exercise.
Serious and Organised Crime Agency is a nondepartmental public body funded by the Home Office and dedicated to combating serious and organised crime through law enforcement and crime disruption strategies.
The silent system is a prison regime under which prisoners were kept silent at all times. Although prisoners would work in large workshops with other prisoners communication was prevented at all times and prisoners punished for breaking such regulations.
Sinn Féin is a political party in Northern Ireland that historically has been closely associated with the IRA. Mr Gerry Adams MP is currently President of the party. The party has polled extremely well in recent years, particularly among younger voters.
Social control is the formal and informal mechanisms deployed to ensure people conform to social expectations.
Social justice is the equitable redistribution of wealth and power allowing individuals to meet their necessary needs.
Socio-legal research is a type of legal scholarship which seeks to analyse the law in a broader social context than traditional legal scholarship which concentrates on the law itself. Socio-legal research is often ‘inter-disciplinary’ in that it draws upon the subject matter or methodological approaches of other disciplines such as sociology or social policy.
Special constables are volunteer, uniformed police officers who possess the full powers of constable and work a minimum of four hours per week.
Special measures are a set of facilities regulated under the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999 designed to assist ‘vulnerable and intimidated witnesses’ give evidence in court’. The special measures are: the giving of live evidence through video-links; the removal of the traditional wigs and gowns worn by judges and barristers; screens to block the witness’ view of the defendants and/or public gallery; giving evidence via pre-recorded examination in chief or cross-examination; clearing the public gallery and the use of registered intermediaries and aids to communication to assist those with communication difficulties.
Suspects’ and defendants’ rights are the rights given to individuals who are accused of criminal offences in order to ensure that they are treated fairly and justly and that the powers and resources of the state and the accused are matched to some extent.
Suspended Sentence Order is a sentence of imprisonment of between 28 and 51 weeks’ which is suspended. This means that offenders are not actually imprisoned unless they either fail to comply with the requirements of the order, for example by breaching curfew requirements, or they commit a further offence during the period of the order.
T
Tariff has two separate meanings in sentencing. First, it refers to the idea that the punishments available to the court form a scale depending upon their relative seriousness. A court should impose a sentence whose gravity is proportionate to the seriousness of the offence. This idea is based on retributivism and was most evident in the Criminal Justice Act 1991. The second meaning is the period of time that a person serving an indeterminate sentence such as life imprisonment must serve before he can be considered for parole. This period is determined by the judge. It should be noted that some individuals sentenced to life imprisonment are never eligible for parole and that, even if offenders are eligible for parole, it will not automatically be granted. Offenders who are granted parole are released on licence and are liable to be recalled to prison if the terms of the licence are breached.
Temperance is the promotion of abstinence from alcoholic drinks, usually as an aspect of Christian evangelism, in which drinking is seen as sinful, and manifestly responsible for exacerbating the social problems faced by the urban poor.
‘Titan’ prisons are the large, American-style prisons which are to be built in England and Wales. In Greek mythology, the Titans—human-looking deities whom Zeus perceived to be ‘super-criminals’—were imprisoned in Tartatus, a deep, escape-proof place within the underworld. Lord Carter (2007) chose this somewhat chilling image to name the large, American-style prisons, which, he believes, will be necessary to take account of inexorable increases in the use of custody in England and Wales. The government is committed to building three—the first by 2012—each holding 2,500 prisoners, at a cost of £450m each. The Prison Reform Trust (2008) has pointed out that available evidence does not support the concept of large prisons, that smaller ones, (no larger than 700 places) have better records on a number of indices, including prisoner safety and resettlement. Only 17 of the 51 organisations consulted by Carter were asked about Titans—9 of these were private sector organizations who may have an interest in building them, 6 were government departments.
Transgender is an umbrella term that emerged in the 1990s to capture the multiplicity of gender experiences that lie between the medically constructed categories of transvestite and transsexual (Moran and Sharpe, 2004).
Transitional Justice is a developing field of law and criminology that refers to criminal justice reform in post-conflict, and as the term implies, transitional states. The emphasis is on making the structures of criminal justice democratic and compliant with human rights principles.
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Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) is the largest loyalist paramilitary organization in Northern Ireland. Historically it has perceived its role as maintaining the link with Great Britain through the use of violence, although in practice this involved the routine targeting of Catholic civilians. The UVF has been on intermittent ceasefire since 1994, but formally renounced violence and an end to its ‘military’ campaign in May 2007.
Ultimate sanction is the most serious action that can be taken against a person (or country) who has broken a law or rule.
Underclass is a concept regarded by many liberals as offensive when used to describe the disposition of a social grouping that is perceived to be particularly crime-prone. The underclass is thought to be culturally disposed to crime, and is recognised by its place of residence (usually run-down deprived urban areas), by its social characteristics (high rates of unemployment, single parent households, welfare benefit dependency), and by its behaviour (high impulsivity, hedonism, instant gratification, violence, machismo, etc.). The idea of an underclass is peddled especially by right wing commentators, who argue that the cultural disposition is transmitted inter-generationally, and thus so entrenched that it cannot be reformed, but rather requires physical containment through firm policing and punitive incapacitation in prison, for those convicted of offences.
Unionist/s are generally, but not exclusively, associated with the Protestant community in Northern Ireland. Unionists want to maintain Northern Ireland’s current constitutional status and the link with Britain.
The Unit Fines system was modelled on the Scandinavian day fine system. It is ostensibly a way of making financial penalties fairer to rich and poor offenders alike, by fining them each according to their income rather than imposing a fixed sum which is notionally proportionate to the offence. A fixed sum imposed on each may have a far more deleterious impact on a poor person (and therefore be more punitive) than it would on a wealthier person. In a unit fines system the wealthy always pay more than the poor, but in terms of units of lost income the proportion taken by the court from each of them is comparable.
Uptariffing relates to the ‘tariff’ which is the full scale of sentences available to courts, ranging from the least to the most severe. Uptariffing is a feature of sentencing practice in which offenders are given more severe sentences than they might otherwise have received, because sentencers perceive that they have already, on a previous occasion, received a sentence which did not prevent them from offending. For example, an offender who has already served a Community Order may be more likely to be given a custodial sentence. If the Community Order was more severe than the original offence warranted i.e. if net-widening had occurred, the offender would be closer to a future custodial sentence than they would otherwise have been. Net-widening is the logical precondition of uptariffing, but whether it actually occurs depends on the judgement which sentencers make about the initial, net-widening sentence—they may choose not to go higher up the ‘tariff’ but simply to impose a penalty of similar severity to the earlier one, in which case uptariffing cannot be said to have occurred.
Utilitarianism is a philosophical credo rooted in the principle of the greatest happiness of the greatest number and where morality is shaped by considerations of utility.
Utopian managerialism is the ideological and practical expression of the New Public Management, a theoretical approach which developed in the 1980s to assist in the reform of public sector organizations, in effect to make them function with the presumed efficiency levels of private sector organizations, without actually privatising them (although that can come later). It subordinates all other values to narrowly conceived notions of economy, efficiency and effectiveness and imposes a regime of meticulous regulation, geared to incessant change, on hitherto more autonomous, stable-yet flexible ways of working. It becomes utopian because the claims it makes for itself, and the ease with which it imagines its goals can be accomplished are invariably unrealistic, taking no account of the personal social realities on which it seeks to impose transformation.
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Verdict is the decision made by a jury in Crown Court or magistrates or District Judges in magistrates’ courts at the end of a trial on whether the accused is guilty or not guilty (or ‘not proven’ in Scotland).
Victim–offender mediation is an informal process in which a third person helps the victim and offender to have constructive dialogue about what happened and reach a mutually acceptable plan for repairing harm.
Victimisation surveys ‘are concerned with crime measurement and reasons for the under-reporting of crime; the correlates of victimization; the risk of victimization; the fear of crime and its relationship to the probability of victimization; the experience of crime from the viewpoint of victims; and the treatment of victims in the criminal justice system’ (Jupp, in McLaughlin and Muncie, 2006: 449).
Victims code of practice are the basic standards of service and support for victims within the criminal justice system through a statutory Code of Practice which was laid down by the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004. The Code’s basis in statute is significant, although its provisions are not law and failure to comply with the Code does not leave anyone liable to legal proceedings. The enforceability of the Code therefore remains with the complaints procedures of individual criminal justice agencies. If dissatisfied with the outcome of such procedures, members of the public can report the matter to their MP who can refer it to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration for investigation. The new Victims and Witnesses Commissioner created under the Act is charged with monitoring the operation of the Code, although it has not been said that discontented victims can complain directly to him/her.
The victims’ movement is a term used loosely to describe the development of academic, political and activist interest in victims of crime (and, indeed, victims of other hardship like natural disasters and war) in the late 1960s to early 1970s.
Victimology is ‘a field of study focusing on the victims of crime, the consequences [of crime] for victims and the way they and others respond to it’ (Dignan, 2005: p.200).
Victim Support is the largest organisation providing services to victims and campaigning on their behalf. The charity largely kept out of politics from its inception in the early 1970s. In terms of government funding and in terms of influence upon policy, this undeniably paid off—98 per cent of its funding comes from a government grant—although Victim Support has increasingly taken up political stances on particular issues since the mid-1990s.
Vulnerable and intimidated witnesses are defined in ss. 16 and 17 of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999 as including witnesses who are under 17 years of age or suffer from a mental or physical disability and/or witnesses whose quality of evidence is likely to be diminished by reason of fear or distress.
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What Works is an approach to rehabilitation rooted in the psychological theory known as cognitive behaviourism. The rise to ascendancy of the ‘what works’ agenda in the last two decades is closely tied to forms of governmental sovereignty shaped by concerns around risk control and the responsibilisation of the powerless.
The witness service is a court-based organisation run by Victim Support and staffed by volunteers. There is now a Witness Service in every court in England and Wales, charged with supporting witnesses and ensuring they are kept up to date with case progression.
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Youth Justice Board is an executive non-departmental government body aimed at preventing offending by children and young people.
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