A powerful petition against the privatisation of the criminal justice system.

This collection offers a comprehensive review of the origins, scale and breadth of the privatisation and marketisation revolution across the criminal justice system. Leading academics and researchers assess the consequences of market-driven criminal justice in a wide range of contexts, from prison and probation to policing, migrant detention, rehabilitation and community programmes. Using economic, sociological and criminological perspectives, illuminated by accessible case studies, they consider the shifting roles and interactions of the public, private and voluntary sectors. As privatisation, outsourcing and the impact of market cultures spread further across the system, the authors look ahead to future developments and signpost the way to reform in a ‘post-market’ criminal justice sphere.

Privatising Criminal Justice explores the social, cultural and political context of privatisation in the criminal justice sector. In recent years, the criminal justice sector has made various strategic partnerships with the private sector, exemplified by initiatives within the police, the prison system and offender services. This has seen unprecedented growth in the past 30 years and a veritable explosion under the tenure of the coalition government in the UK. This book highlights key areas of domestic and global concern and illustrates, with detailed case studies of important developments. It connects the study of criminology and criminal justice to the wider study of public policy, government institutions and political decision making. In doing so, Privatising Criminal Justice provides a theoretical and practical framework for evaluating collaborative public and private-sector response to social problems at the beginning of the twenty-first century. An accessible and compelling read, this book will appeal to students and scholars of criminology, criminal justice, sociology and politics and all those interested in how privatisation has shaped the contemporary criminal justice system.

Over the past twenty years, England and Wales have witnessed many changes to probation governance aimed at shifting control to the central government. However, the changes introduced under the Coalition Government's 2013 Transforming Rehabilitation (TR) agenda are unprecedented: probation has been divided and partially privatized. This topical book looks at the attitudes of probation practitioners and managers toward the philosophy, values, and practicalities of TR. Based on a unique online survey of over 1,300 respondents that found practitioners were unequivocally opposed to TR's broad aims and objectives, Privatising Probation provides unique insights into the true beliefs of probation staff and how they deliver these services. Including broader discussion of the privatization and marketization debate and placing the privatization of criminal justice services and questions of legitimacy and governance in context, this book is essential reading for everyone interested in the future of probation.

Pre-crime aims to pre-empt ‘would-be-criminals’ and predict future crime. Although the term is borrowed from science fiction, the drive to predict and pre-empt crime is a present-day reality. This book critically explores this major twenty-first century development in crime and justice. This first in-depth study of pre-crime defines and describes different types of pre-crime and compares it to traditional post-crime and crime risk approaches. It analyses the rationales that underpin pre-crime as a response to threats, particularly terrorism, and shows how it is spreading to other areas. It also underlines the historical continuities that prefigure the emergence of pre-crime, as well as exploring the new technologies and forms of surveillance that claim the ability to predict crime and identify future criminals. Through the use of examples and case studies it provides insights into how pre-crime generates the crimes it purports to counter, providing compelling evidence of the problems that arise when we act as if we know the future and aim to control it through punishing, disrupting or incapacitating those we predict might commit future crimes. Drawing on literature from criminology, law, international relations, security and globalization studies, this book sets out a coherent framework for the continued study of pre-crime and addresses key issues such as terminology, its links to past practises, its likely future trajectories and its impact on security, crime and justice. It is essential reading for academics and students in security studies, criminology, counter-terrorism, surveillance, policing and law, as well as practitioners and professionals in these fields.

In recent years, the criminal justice sector has made various strategic partnerships with the private sector, exemplified by initiatives within the police, the prison system, offender services and legal defense. This has seen unprecedented growth in the past quarter of a century, and a veritable explosion under the tenure of the Coalition government in the United Kingdom. This book explores the social, cultural, and political context of privatization in the criminal justice sector. Key areas of domestic and global concern are highlighted and illustrated with detailed case studies of important developments. It connects the study of criminology and criminal justice to the wider study of public policy, government institutions, and political decision making and provides a theoretical and practical framework for evaluating collaborative public and private sector response to social problems at the beginning of the twenty-first century.

Over the past ten years, the field of evidence-based policing (EBP) has grown substantially, evolving from a novel idea at the fringes of policing to an increasingly core component of contemporary policing research and practice. Examining what makes something evidence-based and not merely evidence-informed, this book unifies the voices of police practitioners, academics, and pracademics. It provides real world examples of evidence-based police practices and how police research can be created and applied in the field. Includes contributions from leading international EBP researchers and practitioners such as Larry Sherman, University of Cambridge, Lorraine Mazerrolle, University of Queensland, Anthony Braga, Northeastern and Craig Bennell, Carelton University.