Publications / Reviews | This page last updated
05.11.08
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Non-fiction
The Barlow Murders [October 2008]
Broken [June 2008]
Changing Lives: An oral history of probation [May 2008]
Coercion to Compromise: Plea bargaining, the courts, and the making of political authority [July 2008]
Crime Online [February 2008]
Criminal Records [April 2008]
Developments in Social Work with Offenders [June 2008]
Dictionary of Youth Justice [Summer 2008]
Glimpses [April 2008]
Handbook of Criminal Investigation [January 2008]
Integrating Diversity [October 2008]
Junkies, Judges & Jail [February 2008]
Letters to a Young Person [March 2008]
Making Good: Prisons, punishment and beyond [Summer 2008]
Judge for Yourself [July 2008]
Pathways and Crime Prevention: Theory, policy and practice [January 2008]
Penal Populism, Sentencing Councils and Sentencing Policy [Summer 2008]
Protecting Powers – Emergency intervention for children’s protection [March 2008]
Screwed: The Truth About Life as a Prison Officer [February 2008]
Youth Justice: Ideas, policy, practice [May 2008]
Fiction
Dead Men [May 2008]
dunno [October 2008]
What Came Before He Shot Her [July 2008]
The King of Lies [January 2008]
The Naming of the Dead [March 2008]
The Rose of Sebastopol [April 2008]
Waterloo Sunset [June 2008]
INTEGRATING DIVERSITY
(The collected papers of the 2007 Dartington Hall Conference)
Edited by Lord Justice Thorpe and Samantha Singer
Jordan Publishing Ltd, 21 St Thomas St, Bristol BS1 6JS
Tel: 0117 923 0600
Email: customerservice@
jordanpublishing.co.uk
Website: www.familylaw.co.uk
ISBN: 978 1 84661 080 6
Price: £30 (paperback)
If not on the family panel, please don’t stop reading when you discover that this is a collection of papers given to the Family Justice Council’s 2007 biennial Dartington interdisciplinary conference for medical, legal, academic and social work professionals! You would miss a quite exceptional and thought-provoking set of papers addressing a multitude of the different aspects of diversity, including the problems of asylum seekers; how to help parents with learning disabilities; considerations of culture and religion, including the placement of black and mixed race children with white parents, until so recently almost unheard of; and current legal issues relating to same-sex or non-biological parenting.
The standard of the writing is high throughout. Each paper is introduced with a short summary, ends with the author’s conclusions and poses pertinent questions on the topic. These are guaranteed to provoke discussion, whether in the retiring room or at a family panel meeting. Even the title is controversial; how do we reach a balance between assimilating people into the norms of the wider community, and recognising and respecting our differences?
Whether you read one paper of particular interest or work your way through all of them, you may be exhilarated, exasperated or enthused, but you will assuredly not be disappointed.
Kate Emerson JP
(Surrey)
dunno
Peter Inson
Charles Kimpton Publishers, 15 Priory Crescent, Sudbury HA0 2QQ
Email: peterinson@yahoo.co.uk
Website: http://www.peterinson.net
ISBN: 0954761405
Price: £6.00 (paperback)
At the outset I would say that this book gripped me after the first few chapters and I finished it in three hours.
Jon is a 15-year-old boy and is the main character of this book. His answer to many questions is ‘dunno’, hence the title. Strong language is used throughout this book.
If Jon ever appeared before the bench, charges could include: theft, breaking and entering, skipping school and extortion, to name but a few. What drives Jon to break into his own home? What fears does Jon have when older boys are beating him up because he doesn’t give them money? The consequence is that Jon gets money out of younger pupils in the school or has to steal it from his mother. Thank goodness that Jon meets a different sort of person who perhaps has been through similar situations that Jon has experienced and hence can be of help to Jon showing him there is a life other than crime!
Youth court justices, who hopefully might understand the situations Jon gets himself into, should read this book. Indeed,
I recommend it to all my fellow magistrates. Other books by this author: On the Side and The Redundant Car Park.
Dr Brian Denton JP
(Merseyside)
THE BARLOW MURDERS
George Law JP
Athena Press, Queen’s House, 2 Holly Road, Twickenham TW1 4EG
Tel: 0208 744 0990
Email: info@athenapress.com
Website: http://www.athenapress.com
ISBN: 1847483380
Price: £5.99 (paperback)
George Law is a native of Gateshead, who not only served as a police officer in the Northeast but also became a Gateshead magistrate. As well as The Barlow Murders he has had several books on local history published by Gateshead Libraries.
I read this slim volume at one sitting and I became interested in the goings on of this small parochial police force and its individual members:
• hiding in baths to collect evidence;
• waiting in darkened rooms for the smash of a window to give notice of a burglary in progress;
• taking a break from walking the beat sitting on a bench to take a breather on a sultry night;
• penny-pinching bosses;
• watch committees;
• and walking a prisoner a mile to a police station.
I imagine that this volume is the result of research into the history of policing in the Northeast combined with experience of actually policing there combined into some fictional sketches that could ultimately become a full-blown novel. George Law can draw the backdrop of this area at the time he depicts and The Barlow Murders make for an interesting read, but the reader cannot help but wonder what will happen next. Will George Law fill out these provisional sketches into a full-blown novel of policing in turn of the century Barlow County Borough and make Tom Dickson into a fully filled-out character perhaps at the centre of a full length story? I hope so.
Paul Rabbeth JP
(Bristol and North Avon)
PENAL POPULISM, SENTENCING COUNCILS AND SENTENCING POLICY
Edited by Arie Freiberg & Karen Gelb
Willan Publishing, Culmcott House,
Mill Street, Uffculme, Devon EX15 3AT
Tel: 01884 849085
Email: info@willanpublishing.co.uk
Website: www.willanpublishing.co.uk
ISBN: 1-843922-77-0
Price: £25.00 (paperback)
This book gives a better understanding of the remit of both the Sentencing Guidelines Council and the Sentencing Advisory Panel in the UK and similar institutions in other countries, including the United States, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Scotland.
Penal populism is a way of using public sentiment for political advantage, thereby removing a significant role for the public in the development of policy. This leads to what is termed ‘populist punitiveness’ which is the idea of politicians using for their own purpose what they perceive to be the general public’s general punitive stance. In a bid to oust this practice and integrate public opinion, institutions have been initiated to redress the balance.
Summaries of how these countries have managed, or not, to redress this balance provides interesting reading as to how they have addressed the lay person/professional balance within the sentencing committees, councils or panels (if at all), in order to represent the public voice in sentencing policy. Some have been more successful than others in assimilating public opinion, using outputs from various methods including deliberative polling, surveys and workshops with stakeholders, eg victim support groups in some countries. In some conducted workshops, given the proper case background information, members of the public have given a less punitive sentence than the actual trial judge – in the face of the media portraying some judges as too lenient.
Nicola Hawkins JP
(South Yorkshire)
MAKING GOOD: Prisons, punishment and beyond
Martin Wright
Waterside Press, Sherfield Gables, Sherfield-on-Loddon, Hook, Hampshire RG27 0JG
Tel: 01256 882250
Email: enquiries@watersidepress.co.uk
Website: www.watersidepress.co.uk
ISBN: 978-1-904380-41-2
Price: £19.00 (paperback)
Written on the premise that offenders should make amends rather than face prison or other obvious punishment (‘the potential of court sentences for preventing crime is so marginal that we should no longer regard them as having a significant effect towards crime prevention’), this book, by a former director of the Howard League for Penal Reform, would profitably be read alongside the new sentencing guidelines.
It begins by considering the defects of prison, then turns to ways of keeping more people out of prison, before looking at alternative sentences, and finally examines ways of making amends to the victim and society. It would make any magistrate think about their aims in court, but might not convince them that they are misguided.
Reading this book on the day when the main article in The Times was headlined ‘Law creates underclass of child criminals’, to add to the similar adult underclass, no doubt, it is pertinent to read the book in the light of a succession of knee-jerk reactions to trends in crime and the prison population and to contemplate whether a radical reappraisal of penal policy is apposite, even as we exercise our traditional jurisdiction.
Whilst a book of value to all magistrates, that value is reduced in that it is only a re-publication of a book of 1982.
Mike Cresswell JP
(South Lancashire)
DICTIONARY OF YOUTH JUSTICE
Edited by Barry Goldson
Willan Publishing, Culmcott House,
Mill Street, Uffculme, Devon EX15 3AT
Tel: 01884 849085
Email: info@willanpublishing.co.uk
Website: www.willanpublishing.co.uk
ISBN: 1-843922-93-2
Price: £24.99 (paperback)
To call this book a ‘dictionary’ is really a misnomer as between the covers you will find a splendid collection of concise mini-essays written by recognised ‘experts’ in their respective fields. The book provides much food for thought for any practitioner, policy-maker or magistrate. Do not be deterred by entries with unexpected titles such as ‘Moral panic’, ‘Re-integrative shaming’ or ‘Deviance amplification’ – read them and they will bring new dimensions to the work of the youth court.
Sadly the references to ‘magistrates’ are few in number and lacking in depth. The use of the term ‘lay magistrate’ suggests that at least one entry was not written by a member of the magistracy! 2009 sees the celebration of 100 years of the youth court but there is no entry charting the change in youth courts over the past 100 years and no mention of the change of culture in the youth courts where magistrates now ‘engage’ with the young people and their parents.
However Barry Goldson’s introductory chapter ‘Making sense of the youth justice’ is excellent and there are good accounts on many specific topics including, amongst others, persistent young offenders, restraint and on all aspects relating to ‘remand’.
This Dictionary would be an invaluable addition to the retiring room library in that it would assist all magistrates in their quest to understand better contemporary youth justice.
Mary Duff JP
(Cambridgeshire)
COERCION TO COMPROMISE: Plea bargaining, the courts, and the making of political authority
Mary E Vogel
Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP
Tel: 01865 556767
Website: www.oup.co.uk
ISBN: 9780195101751
Price: £15.99 (paperback)
Mary Vogel looks at how the American legal and political elites reshaped English common law to deal with defendants who appeared before the Bostonian courts of the mid to late 19th century. Plea bargaining did not exist in England and the common practice of an ‘early guilty plea’ emerged from America. Simply put: by exercising benevolent leniency towards those largely poor, underprivileged thieves who appeared before them, judges would assess an offender’s chances of successful rehabilitation and future dangerousness in favour of criminological science and professional judgment.
Vogel explains the way plea bargaining and bail are linked to bail bonds and sureties in the USA, leading to a financial compromise. She says that historically the courts have regarded the poor social classes with greater leniency when it comes to plea bargaining. She calls it ‘plea negotiation’, a kind of social ‘trade’ in the courts, affirming the competition among social groups. Plea bargaining, Vogel argues, is engaging in ‘criminal’ compromise of all parties and that this has now largely affected English courts.
The book is about coercion, compromise and control by force which permeate social values. Vogel argues that, since the criminal population largely exists of young unemployed males, plea bargaining is the only way out in an increasingly unbenevolent state; that is, for the courts to give them a chance.
The book has given me some insight into why we so easily accept guilty pleas in the criminal courts and why policy tells us to reward the defendant with up to 30% off the sentence for an ‘early guilty’ plea.
Ursula Smartt JP
(Middlesex)
JUDGE FOR YOURSELF
National Offender Management Service/Ministry of Justice
CD-ROM (min system requirement: Windows XP + sound card). Available via local probation offices or from: George Barrow, Criminal Justice Group Communications,
Ministry of Justice, 3rd Flr,
Fry Building, 2 Marsham Street, London SW1P 4DF.
E-mail: criminaljusticegroup@justice.gov.uk
This interactive CD-ROM has been produced to give an insight into the work of the probation service. Four offenders are presented; actors play the roles, but details are based on real cases and the probation officers who dealt with them appear as themselves. Having heard something about the offenders, the viewer plays the part of carrying out a pre-sentence report interview, choosing from a range of questions and hearing the offender’s reponses. The next stage is assessing risk of harm and of reoffending, before going on to choose from various sentencing options to include in the report. There is then a chance to compare the suggested options against what was actually imposed by the courts dealing with the cases. Finally, there is a follow-up – how effective was the sentence? Being based on real cases, of course, the outcomes vary widely.
The presentation of the CD-ROM is good; the filmed scenes are of high quality and the interactive elements work well. Magistrates will be aware that the reporting and sentencing processes have necessarily been simplified, but will gain some useful insight into PSR work, and will find the chance to check their sentencing against the real courts instructive! The programme would be of interest to a wide range of people, individuals and groups, wanting to learn more about the probation service and its part in the justice system. It would be a worthwhile addition to any bench library.
Simon Hudson JP
(Nottinghamshire)
WHAT CAME BEFORE HE SHOT HER
Elizabeth George
Hodder & Stoughton, 338 Euston Road, London NW1 3BH
Tel: 020 7873 6000
Website: www.hodder.co.uk
ISBN: 978 0 340 82751
Price:£6.99 (paperback)
This is a story of our times, set in present day London. It could be the full background of many a pre-sentence report. It follows three mixed-race children who are dumped by their Jamaican grandmother on the doorstep of their aunt Kendra, who lives on the edge of a sink estate in east London. Their father had been shot in the street some years earlier and their mother admitted to a psychiatric hospital.
Kendra does her inadequate best but one of the children, Nessa, links up with a local gang for easy ciggies and drugs. A badly organised mugging results in 2,000 hours (sic) community service for her. Her two brothers fare a little better – they actually attend school. The youngest also attends a learning centre after school which inevitably draws in the local bullies. Again the pattern is repeated when the elder brother falls in with the local drugs gang leader to try and get protection for his vulnerable little brother, and is manipulated into taking part in the shooting of the wife of the local police inspector.
So again society corrupts and destroys its weakest members. In trying to keep the children out of care, their social worker admits in the end that she has failed. At 643 pages it was long for a pre-sentence report but does give insights which would otherwise be lacking!
Jenny Harrison JP
(Cheshire)
Developments in Social Work with Offenders
Edited by Gill McIvor and Peter Raynor
Jessica Kingsley Publishers,
116 Pentonville Road, London N1 9JB
Tel: 020 7833 2307
Email: post@jkp.com
Website: www.jkp.com
ISBN: 978 1 84310 538 1
Price: £22.99 (paperback)
Although primarily aimed at criminal justice social work practitioners and students, this collection of well-documented and researched essays offers a valuable insight into the background work being carried out across the United Kingdom by academics experienced in their field of study.
Not shrinking shy of comment upon the political influences being brought to bear upon the criminal justice system, the various studies also paint a realistic picture of the effects of current sentencing practices upon the goal of rehabilitation of first-time, recidivist, minority ethnic and female offenders – not forgetting their impact upon immediate families and kinship support, especially in the field of drug misuse and criminal offending.
Thought-provoking also is the way in which the system deals/does not deal with the diversity of its clientele, in terms of ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation. The work essentially concentrates upon the strategies needed to reconcile the demand for public protection, justice for crime victims and the resettlement of offenders via meaningful rehabilitation, through effective risk-assessment, action-planning and agency collaboration, despite the challenges – both internal and external – faced by the probation service/NOMS in carrying out effectively what government and the public have come to expect of it.
It should prove of interest to those magistrates who might care to reflect critically upon the societal effects of their powers of disposal.
Byron Davies JP
(Dyfed)
Broken
Shy Keenan
Hodder & Stoughton, 338 Euston Road, London NW1 3BH.
Tel: 020 7873 6000
Website: www.hodder.co.uk
ISBN: 978 0 340 937426
Price:£12.99 (hardback)
‘I was unwanted, beaten, sold, swapped, photographed, filmed, left for dead, corrupted, blamed, betrayed and ignored. But I was also born with a fire inside me. I call it my Phoenix Fire. I am no victim – that word only describes what happened to me. Nor am I a survivor because that implies I am over it. I am a Phoenix – a work in progress.’
What a brave woman, to have undergone unimaginable abuse from within her family to complete strangers on board ships, bought and sold by one who should have been caring for her. And, later on, having enough fight left in her to work with the BBC in a documentary which led to the imprisonment of her abusers.
This book ought to be compulsory reading for social workers and family panel magistrates. One inference is that when a child says someone was hurting him or her there might be an advantage in interviewing the child in secure surroundings, away from the family. In Shy’s case her abuser or her mother would be present and deny everything, daring the child to contradict under threat of another beating, so turning an innocent child into an habitual liar and troublemaker. The error was repeated, unchallenged, year after year, through her social services record. The book reveals a ghastly let-down of vulnerable children by a number of agencies.
It is tough reading but well written, cogent and without undue embellishment. The anguish of this child was real – go on, read the book and be a better person. Certainly, a better-informed family court magistrate.
Alastair Meikle JP
(Supplemental, Cardiff)
Waterloo Sunset
Martin Edwards
Allison & Busby Ltd, 13 Charlotte Mews, London, W1 4EJ
Tel: 020 7580 1080
Website: www.allisonandbusby.com
ISBN: 978 0 74908 053 1
Price: £19.99 (hardback)
A murder mystery, where most of the characters are or have been lawyers, which lawyer do you believe? Not a new dilemma for magistrates! This is not the first appearance for Harry Devlin; there are seven previous Devlin novels and Martin Edwards has another six books to his name.
Waterloo Sunset starts with the firm of Crusoe and Devlin settling into new offices and Harry receiving a notice of his impending death:’In memoriam – Harry Devlin died suddenly Liverpool Midsummer’s Eve.’ The plot unravels over the seven days leading to Midsummer’s Day. As well as being capital of culture Liverpool becomes a capital of crime when a mutilated female corpse is found on the beach at Waterloo. When someone Harry knows dies in similar circumstances, it seems as though a serial killer is at work.
Edwards’ characters include a coroner with a perfectionist streak, a management consultant, who promises the world, a police authority lawyer with hands-on operational information as well as cleaners, office staff and plant specialists with a sub-plot for movie enthusiasts as a bonus. The narrative carries you along and there is a convincing hinterland of characters adding a realistic backdrop to the mystery.
For those who like to solve the mystery there are sufficient clues but only just and although the plot becomes more bizarre as the story proceeds it is still believable. If you are looking for entertainment you will not put it down disappointed.
Paul Rabbeth JP
(Bristol & North Avon)
Changing Lives: An oral history of probation
Edited by Harry Fletcher, Vicky Boroughs and Kath Falcon
NAPO, 4 Chivalry Road, London SW11 1HT. Tel: 020 7223 4887
Email: kfalcon@napo.org.uk
Website: www.napo.org.uk
ISBN: 0 901617 22 9
Price: £5.99 inc p&p – special price for MA members (paperback)
This book celebrates the centenary of the probation service by giving voice to retired staff from the last 60 years, in memories that are comic and tragic in equal measure.
It’s hard to put down, and you’re struck by how much, and how little, has changed. What is overwhelming is the dedication and commitment of people who worked with some of society’s most damaged and challenging individuals, charged with a duty to ‘advise, assist and befriend’ in the Probation of Offenders Act 1907.
The Act sprang from the temperance movement’s 19th century work in appointing court missionaries to ‘reclaim drunkards’; the courts released some offenders on condition they kept in touch with, and accepted guidance from, a missionary. The 1907 Act made the missionaries officers of the courts, later known as probation officers.
Changing Lives is produced by the National Association of Probation Officers (founded in 1912), covering the service’s history through landmarks, legislation, and Napo activities and developments. Collated and compiled by senior members of Napo, the book’s proceeds will go to The Edridge Fund, an independent registered charity set up to provide money and support to probation and Cafcass people, established in memory of Napo’s first general secretary, Sydney Edridge.
Carole Freeman Dunn JP
(Cleveland and South Durham)
Youth Justice: Ideas, policy, practice
Edited by Roger Smith
Willan Publishing, Culmcott House, Mill Street, Uffculme, Devon EX15 3AT
Tel: 01884 849085
Email: info@willanpublishing.co.uk
Website: www.willanpublishing.co.uk
ISBN: 978 1 843922 24 7
Price: £19.50 (paperback)
This represents a very readable, comprehensive and compelling account of the contemporary youth justice scene. It details the problems and issues arising out of the government’s agenda and considers the contradictions arising for those in the system, whether policy-makers, practitioners or consumers. While necessarily repetitive in places, the book is very thorough, drawing widely from the findings of government, responsible bodies and other researchers in the field.
At the centre of the argument is the dichotomy of rehabilitation and welfare versus punishment and control. Within this debate the complex socio-historical context is skilfully unpacked. Rogers identifies the dilemmas created by the government in its attempts to deliver a multi-agency approach which tackles the underlying issues of social exclusion through initiatives which are found to place youth in greater jeopardy of criminal prosecution than ever. One such measure is the anti-social behaviour order. Its introduction has seen a widening of the net in terms of control of young people who thereby have their non-criminal yet anti-social behaviour brought before the courts. Any breach can then lead to custody.
In conclusion, it is argued that through refocusing on more holistic approaches to youth justice, and a consideration of the individual’s rights and welfare, a less harsh system can be achieved: youth justice which avoids unnecessary tariff building. This book is essential reading for all youth magistrates and others working in the field.
Dr Ian Haffenden JP
(East Sussex)
Dead Men
Stephen Leather
Hodder & Stoughton, 338 Euston Road, London NW1 3BH
Tel: 020 7873 6000
Website: www.hodder.co.uk
ISBN: 978 0 340 92170 8
Price: £19.99 (hardback)
This tale, comprising of two tenuously connected stories of double-cross, revenge and terrorists, is the fifth in the series featuring lead character ‘Spider’. It would probably be wise to read the others first as this may make some of his less appealing qualities, only loosely alluded to, a little more plausible.
The main story concerns former IRA men (who murdered an RUC officer) being killed; the secondary concerns the father of two al-Qaeda suspects who died in custody exacting revenge on those responsible. By amazing coincidence, one of these happens to be the person running the investigation into the IRA deaths. The ‘climax’ barely warrants the term and the novel ends with a hymn of praise to how clever the Americans and their high-tech weapons are, when the story was apparently about the human dimension of fighting terrorism.
The style is linear and rather basic, the writing not at all subtle, and the characters constructed from the finest quality recycled cardboard. The tone is ‘aren’t we clever’, there are several over-graphic descriptions of thoroughly unpleasant violence and a set of coincidences that would shame a penny dreadful.
That said, if you are looking for an uncomplicated tale of special forces, undercover police, IRA, al-Qaeda, MI5, CIA, double agents, sexy financial advisors (!) and former KGB agents, then you are in for a treat.
Martyn Carey JP
(Leicestershire & Rutland)
Criminal Records
Terry Thomas
Palgrave Macmillan, Houndmills, Basingstoke RG21 6XS
Tel: 01256 302866
Website: www.palgrave.com
ISBN: 978 0 230 00767 3
Price: £45 (hardback)
Thomas has produced a meticulously researched history of the development of the keeping of criminal records from those required by the Habitual Criminals Act 1869 to the present day, together with a balanced commentary on the various pressures that have caused so many changes in how the records are kept and used.
Some of the uses of records seem uncontroversial. They are a tool that can be used for intelligence-led policing, by the Crown Prosecution Service in deciding whether or not to prosecute or oppose bail, by the courts in sentencing or by the probation service when writing pre-sentence reports. The book however questions how complete and accurate the information is and how easily it can be accessed. The long list of initiatives undertaken, and multiplicity of bodies established, to overcome the shortcomings of those that immediately preceded them makes fascinating if rather depressing reading.
There are questions about some of today’s uses of the Criminal Records Bureau, which make available much information to many users outside the criminal justice system. Examples are given of its extensive use for screening purposes, in particular, in connection with employment. The result is that, if used insensitively, a person with a record of any kind, however old, may find difficulty in gaining any employment. This can be a far harsher punishment than the original sentence itself and runs directly counter to the frequently asserted aim of rehabilitation.
This is a well-written, challenging book that has much to offer and rewards careful reading.
Peter Handley JP
(Worcestershire)
Glimpses
Declan Henry
The London Press
Website: www.declanhenryglimpses.co.uk
ISBN: 978 1 905006 12 0
Price: £13 (paperback)
In this book Declan brings to life 26 different types of young people that he has met during his work in the youth offending service. For each he uses, in a novel way, a letter of the alphabet to start their first names, ranging from Aymon to Zane. This gives the book a sense of fiction and yet the actual characters described feel real because they can be found populating youth courts up and down the land.
Whilst reading the book I went through a gambit of emotions: feeling sad for a young person one moment, and yet angry the next. There is a recurring theme of poor parenting or lack of parental love and direction – something many of us take as a fundamental right to being born. Always, the young people seem to be able to explain themselves, no matter how much harm they do to their victims – rarely accepting they have themselves to blame. Perhaps Declan is striving to show outward bravado whilst hiding their innermost fears.
It is an easy, although slightly frustrating read, which pulls no punches, yet has a clear understanding of the difficulties these youngsters face. It is a ‘must read’ for all youth court magistrates as it will help them understand even better why young people arrive in the youth justice system.
John Fassenfelt JP
(Kent)
The Rose of Sebastopol
Katharine McMahon
Orion Publishing Group, Orion House, 5 Upper St Martin’s Lane, London WC2H 9EA
Tel: 020 7240 3444
Website: www.orionbooks.co.uk
ISBN-10: 029785092X
Price: £12.99 (hardback)
Much of the action in this book is set in the Crimean War, the plot switching between England in the 1840s and the Crimea in 1855. The story follows two main characters, Rosa Barr, and her cousin Mariella Lingwood, who, along with Mariella’s fiancé, Henry, all make individual journeys to the Crimea. The switching between the two periods enables the reader to see very clearly the contrast of the two women’s lives as aristocratic, sheltered young ladies in England with the sheer horror and bloodiness of the realities of warfare into which they are plunged when they reach the Crimea. It also enables the author to keep some surprises about our characters until near the end of the book, making it a true ‘page turner’.
Themes running through the book which still resonate today include the problems with cleanliness in hospitals (cholera was rife then and there was little knowledge and many myths about its cause) and the futile waste of
young lives lost in a war fought in a far away land. Others such as the emancipation of women remind us how far we have come. The book is also about love and the author’s multi-layered approach to exploring love is one of its real strengths.
As I finish this review The Rose of Sebastopol has entered the bestselling book charts at number six.
Rebecca Wragg JP
(Wessex)
PROTECTING POWERS – Emergency intervention for children’s protection
Judith Masson with Deborah McGovern, Kathy Pick and Maureen Winn Oakley
NSPCC/John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester PO19 8SQ.
Tel: 01243 779777
Website: www.wiley.com
ISBN: 9780470016039
Price: £24.99 (paperback)
Protecting Powers is a critical account of the controversial practice of emergency protection of children, based on two major studies by Judith Masson and others on the use of the powers in England and Wales. It looked at their operation from the perspectives of those involved in the removal of children and found wide variation across the country in both court and local authority practices. Some local authorities make greater use of police protection powers than others. As there are no stringent controls of either the use of police orders or applying for a court order in either legislation or guidance, ‘the existence of two parallel powers with different controls has led to the use of the more readily available one’.
There are several case studies and some graphic descriptions of the removal of children. Many questions are posed. What constitutes an emergency? Is an agreement to a s20 placement (by consent) secured under the threat of an EPO application? Should magistrates or professional judges hear court applications? Should the length of a police protection order be shortened?
The book is up to date as it refers to the case of Re X, and includes a discussion on the impact of changes to be implemented under the Care Proceedings Review. Family magistrates should be familiar with the content of this book as the debate will surely continue and it could affect us all.
Margaret Wilson JP
(Inner London)
Letters to a Young Person
Chris Streeks
Tarquin Publications, 99 Hatfield Road, St Albans, AL1 4JL.
Tel: 01727 833866
Website: www.tarquinbooks.com
ISBN: 978 1 89961 892 7
Price: £7.50 (paperback)
Giving advice is usually a thankless task; accepting that advice, especially for a young person, is even harder. Chris Streeks’ book is very unusual. It is aimed at young people with problems; domestic, social and criminal. That’s not so unusual, but its format is. Chris, having experienced many problems in his life, including time in prison, writes letters to a young person, each one dealing with a different area of life. For example, the first letter in the book is about childhood, the second about love and the third about violence. All of the letters discuss the issues, with Chris explaining how he has experienced them and how he feels about them now. There are no imperatives given and the reader never feels that he or she has been told he must live or act a certain way. But they are given something to think about and in so doing, they may just be able to help themselves in the future. For magistrates, this book gives insight into the life of someone who has been involved in the justice system, on the receiving end of sentencing guidelines. Many magistrates have never lived or worked in the type of community that Chris and his target reader have. An understanding of this lifestyle and of the people appearing before the bench can only help to make us better magistrates.
Jill Bishop JP
(Leicestershire & Rutland)
The Naming of the Dead
Ian Rankin
Orion Publishing Group, Orion House, 5 Upper St Martin’s Lane, London WC2H 9EA
Tel: 020 7240 3444
Website: www.orionbooks.co.uk
ISBN: 978 -0-7528-8163-8
Price: £6.99 (paperback)
Ian Rankin’s 16th ‘Inspector Rebus’ novel is phenomenally readable, placing a serial killer investigation against the backdrop of the world leaders’ G8 summit in Edinburgh and the London tube/bus bombings.
President Bush falling off his bicycle is an authentic footnote to an epic police procedural that pits Rebus against his own police hierarchy, over-zealous Special Branch, the local crime bigwig, an arms dealer and even the Make Poverty History demonstrators.
The first murder victim is as unsympathetic as possible, a convicted rapist turned bouncer. With the world’s press gathered in Scotland, officialdom wants nothing to detract attention from the 2005 G8 summit, whether an unsavoury murder or the apparent suicide of a London MP over the ramparts at Edinburgh Castle.
Rankin exhibits sophisticated brilliance in concocting the investigation and the character development of Rebus and his assistant, Siobhan Clarke, is fascinating. Siobhan becomes involved because her mother is beaten up at one of the demonstrations. But by whom and why?
The ending of this 515-page big read ties up every loose end yet leaves us with that perpetual question: Can anyone make a difference? However cynical, Rebus is a detective determined to keep going, no matter what – which could be the answer.
Maris Ross JP
(Northamptonshire)
CRIME ONLINE
Yvonne Jewkes, ed
Willan Publishing, Culmcott House, Mill Street, Uffculme, Devon EX15 3AT.
Tel: 01884 849085
E-mail: info@willanpublishing.co.uk
Website: www.willanpublishing.co.uk
ISBN: 1-843921-97-9
Price: £22 (paperback)
Which crime claimed the largest number of victims in the UK in 2007? The answer: online credit card fraud, with over 1.7 million victims. It is also the fastest growing criminal activity in this country (estimated to grow at nearly 10% in 2008). Yet there have been only a handful of prosecutions in our courts; a serious study of this and other online crimes is timely.
Crime Online is a collection of articles written by criminology academics from around the world. Although a short book, its coverage is broad, ranging from the definition of online crimes to the challenges of both detection and regulation. If the book has a theme it is that the internet has the dual capacity to ‘democratize and pervert’. In other words, what is good about the internet – its unique capacity to bring people together – is also what is bad about it. For those who have a disposition toward criminal acts, be they identity theft or child abduction, the internet makes it easier than ever before to realise them. This obviously creates a huge dilemma for legislators.
Crime Online raises many thought-provoking issues but, before you seek it out, be warned. It is written for an academic audience (thus one chapter has the title: ‘Beyond “the desert of the real”: crime control in a virtual(ised) reality’), so, whilst it is often insightful, it can also be esoteric at times.
Jonathan Griffin JP
(Middlesex)
JUNKIES, JUDGES & JAIL
Stephen D Smith
Neville Douglas Publishing Ltd (see below for order address).
ISBN-10: 1-901853-72-1
Price: £9.99 (paperback)
To follow the Good Book Guide and make the ‘James Herriot’ comparison is rather lazy, but does have the merit of giving prospective readers an instant feel for what’s on offer from Stephen Smith. His memoirs of life as a legal-aid defence solicitor in South Yorkshire in the 1980s give a vivid picture of some of the professionals and clients he worked with and there are plenty of colourful characters among them. The Heptonstall family, for example, are among his most regular clients and the book opens with his advice being sought after their Transit van is stolen, containing not only 20,000 Benson & Hedges but a five-foot boa constrictor living in a golf bag.
The family and their comic adventures appear throughout the book, but Smith also deals with the tragedies of broken families, alcoholism, and drug addiction. The chapter ‘All for love’ is particularly poignant, telling the story of Howard, whose wife is in the end-stage of Alzheimer’s; he gives her an overdose to end her suffering and attempts to join her in death, but survives and has to face the ensuing legal process.
This book follows on from Boozers, Ballcocks & Bail, published in 1996. Both are highly readable and testify to the truth that legal processes are ultimately all about real lives.
Simon Hudson JP
(Nottinghamshire)
To order your copy at a special offer price of £8.50 p&p free, phone Central Books on 0845 458 9910 quoting ‘Magistrate’. Extracts posted in the ‘Junkies’ section of www.steve-d-smith.co.uk
SCREWED: The truth about life as a prison officer
Ronnie Thompson
Headline Review, 338 Euston Road, London NW1 3BH
Tel 020 7873 6000
www.hodderheadline.co.uk
ISBN 978-0755316656
Price £16.99 (hardback)
Ronnie Thompson is the pseudonym of a 29-year-old ex-prison officer whose first person account of seven years’ service should be read by every magistrate because, even if only half is true, the reality is appalling.
He disguises his prison as ‘Romwell’ to protect former colleagues and the reputations of prisons where he has worked. He is angry at the lack of recognition of the pressures, duties, life-wrecking conditions and danger which go with the job. ‘I’ve seen governors cover up the most outrageous incidents while, on the other hand, using a decent officer as a scapegoat to further themselves.’
With over-liberal use of swear words, he describes the terrible violence between prisoners, the need to try to spot behaviour changes that lead to self-harm and suicide, the widespread bribery of ‘bent’ officers because of the big money to be made by feeding the drug habits of inmate junkies and their gang culture.
While admitting often manipulating unworkable rules, he rates himself as an officer who nonetheless wanted to put some law and order in criminals’ lives until he became entangled in a false accusation and was wrongly suspended just for doing his job. The effect on him and his family was as destructive as what he reveals was actually going on in his prison.
Perhaps the book’s greatest service is to show that every decent prison officer deserves far more respect, recognition and money for what they have to do.
Maris Ross JP
(Northamptonshire)
PATHWAYS AND CRIME PREVENTION: Theory, policy and practice
Alan France and Ross Homel (eds)
Willan Publishing, Culmcott House,
Mill Street, Uffculme, Devon EX15 3AT.
Tel: 01884 849085
Email: info@willanpublishing.co.uk
Website: www.willanpublishing.co.uk
ISBN-10: 1-843922-01-0
Price: £26.50 (paperback)
Subtitled ‘Theory, policy and practice’ this is a compilation of 16 papers given at the Pathways and Prevention International Symposium in Brisbane in September 2005. ‘Pathways’ in this context is the name that has been given in recent years to the ways into and out of crime with particular reference to intervention before problems or criminal activities take root. The book is split into two sections: ‘Understanding pathways into and out of crime’ and ‘Prevention theory, policy and practice’.
Both the research and resulting proposals would be of immediate interest to the Magistrate reader. Unfortunately the text takes a very sociological approach which limits the result very much to the academic world. This limitation is something of a disappointment given the high value placed on rehabilitation and prevention by example in the sentencing procedure by magistrates.
Much of the research was undertaken in Australia although reference is also made to similar work in the United States. However, it is the very last chapter that is likely to hold the most interest for the Magistrate reader with the title ‘Policies in the UK to promote the well-being of children and young people’. It is written by Gillian Pugh, a former Chief Executive of the highly respected Coram Family trust and one that may well be familiar to those who sit in either the family or youth courts.
Dr Nigel Molden JP
(Buckinghamshire)
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HANDBOOK OF CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION
Tim Newburn, Tom Williamson and Alan Wright, eds
Willan Publishing, Culmcott House,
Mill Street, Uffculme, Devon EX15 3AT.
Tel: 01884 849085
Email: info@willanpublishing.co.uk
Website: www.willanpublishing.co.uk
ISBN: 9781843921875
Price: £31.50 (paperback)
After some time on the bench, some of you may be tempted to try your hand at crime writing, and this book would be invaluable in helping to fill in those odd corners of uncertainty like offender profiling, the golden hour and the uses of geodemographics. It refers to television programmes such as New Tricks yet maintains its academic rigour.
The book aims to be an accessible and authoritative overview of criminal investigation and to enable investigators, students and others to explore it in all its confusing glory. The history, structures, techniques, processes, practice and governance of criminal investigation are all examined by specialists.
The section on models of investigation looks amongst other things at the role of judges, magistrates and juries, and was for me one of the most interesting sections, posing a number of questions. Questions of fact have to be decided and as science is increasingly used, in the future will the training of those involved be equal to the task? Does ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ vary in meaning depending on the seriousness of the offence? Should everyone in the process be operating neutrally to explore guilt and any alternative explanation rather than be deciding on the dichotomy of guilt or innocence?
A useful addition to the library of any bench.
Paul Rabbeth JP
(Bristol and North Avon)
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THE KING OF LIES
John Hart
John Murray, 338 Euston Road,
London NW1 3BH.
Tel: 020 7873 6438
Website: www.johnmurray.co.uk
ISBN: 978-0-7195-2162-1
Price: £6.99 (paperback)
Jackson Workman Pickens, the main narrator in American writer John Hart’s impressive debut novel, is a defence lawyer who finds himself in a difficult situation. Not the usual problem of trying to represent convincingly one of his ‘clients for life’, but a much more serious situation in which he is suspected of murdering his father, Ezra, who established a successful law firm by dubious means. Added complications exist in the forms of an unstable sister, Jean, whom ‘Work’ suspects of being the murderer, and Work’s embittered wife, who veers between condemnation of all Work does and desperation to save her marriage and the status quo. Other colourful characters abound: a mysterious hobo who walks continually round the town but offers sage advice; a childhood sweetheart-cum-mistress with whom Work shares a dark secret; a shady District Attorney; and a furiously determined female police officer against whom Work has battled many times in court.
This well-written book moves along at a cracking pace. There is a classic American detective story atmosphere, occasionally even resembling Raymond Chandler in the smart one-liners and droll asides. Work makes an intriguing and ambiguous narrator of a complex but not unfathomable plot. Not surprisingly, Hart is a lawyer-turned-writer and has a second book on the way.
Sarah Prysor-Jones JP
(Cambridgeshire)
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