This volume brings together a collection of articles on penal reform in the United States, Europe, Japan, and other English-speaking countries. Unique and wide-ranging, the volume provides material on penal policy development and research and presents an international, comparative focus. Written by leading national and international authorities, it offers some of the broadest efforts to characterize recent penal trends and to analyze their causes and consequences.

Exploring the key issues and debates surrounding the question of the incorporation and institutionalization of restorative justice, this book builds bridges between those concerned with the practical and the more theoretical aspects of penal development.

Designed for a wide readership, this book looks at the problems that have led to the penal crisis in the UK. It argues that informed media and public opinion - including much chatter on the Clapham omnibus - has finally 'turned the corner' and that the time is ripe for a concerted pragmatic U-turn in criminal justice policy-making based increasingly on well understood restorative justice principles. The Penal Crisis and the Clapham Omnibus poses questions and tries to give straightforward answers to matters that commonly arise in discussions about restorative justice and argues that the idea of resistance from the public to more enlightened approaches to 'doing justice' is misplaced.

Seamlessly blending history with an easy presentation of day-to-day realities and empirical evidence, Tonry proposes tangible, specific solutions that can serve as a platform for the reform of a criminal justice system no one would knowingly have chosen yet one that no one seems able to change.

Combining the latest work of leading sentencing and punishment scholars from twelve different countries, this major new international volume answers key questions in the study of sentencing and society. It presents not only a rigorous examination of the latest legal and empirical research from around the world, but also reveals the workings of sentencing within society and as a social practice. Traditionally, work in the field of sentencing has been dominated by legal and philosophical approaches. Distinctively, this volume provides a more sociological approach to sentencing: so allowing previously unanswered questions to be addressed and new questions to be opened. This extensive collection is drawn from around one third of the papers presented at the First International Conference on Sentencing and Society. Almost without exception, the chapters have been revised, cross-referenced and updated. The overall themes and findings of the international volume are set out by the opening "Introduction" and the closing "Reflections" chapters. Research findings on particular penal policy questions are balanced with an analysis of fundamental conceptual issues, making this international volume essential reading for: sentencing and punishment scholars, criminal justice policy-makers, and graduate students.

From Labour's promise to be 'tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime' through to the White Paper and new criminal justice legislation, controlling crime and reforming the criminal justice system has been one of the government's key priorities. This book provides a detailed review of the thinking behind these new plans and legislation, looking at policies and proposals in the field of punishment, particularly those embodied in the Halliday Review of the Sentencing Framework (2001), the government White Paper Justice for All (2002), and the 2002 Criminal Justice Bill. The contributors to the book subject to scrutiny the evidence for the 'evidence-based policy making' that is often claimed as a distinctive new feature to these processes, examining approaches to drug-dependent offenders, dangerous sex offenders, nuisance offenders, procedural and evidential protections in the courts, sentencing guidelines, sentencing management, racism in sentencing, custody plus, custody minus, and reducing the prison population.

In this book a group of leading authorities in the field address the key issues surrounding the future of sentencing in Britain, in the light particularly of the highly influential Halliday Report. These proposals for reform amount to the single most ambitious and comprehensive set of proposals for reconstituting the sentencing system of a common-law country, and include proposals to replace existing sentencing statutes, the establishment of a sentencing commission and sentencing guidelines, and the creation of a sentence review function in the judiciary. As well as addressing the major issues of the Halliday Report the chapters in this book go beyond this to explore the broader set of policy problems and implications which are raised, drawing upon experiences of reform in other jurisdictions and contexts, particularly that of the USA. This book will be essential reading for anybody with an interest in the future of sentencing or the future direction of the criminal justice system as a whole.

Probably the best collection there is, Civilizing Criminal Justice is an inescapable resource for anyone interested in restorative justice: truly international and packed with experience while combining history, theory, developments and practical advice.This volume of specially commissioned contributions by widely respected commentators on crime and punishment from various countries is a 'break-through' in bringing together some of the best arguments for long-overdue penal reform. An increasingly urgent need to change outmoded criminal processes, even in advanced democracies, demands an end to those penal excesses driven by political expediency and damaging notions of retribution, deterrence and punishment for its own sake. 'Civilising' criminal justice will make it fairer, more consistent, understandable and considerate towards victims of crime, currently largely excluded from participation. Principles of reparative and restorative justice have become increasingly influential in the quest to provide justice which tackles harm, compensates victims, repairs relationships, resolves debilitating conflicts and calls offenders to account. And in any case, what real justification is there for subjecting more and more people to the expensive but hollow experience of prison, especially at a time of economic stringency. Civil justice - in its various forms - can be swifter, cheaper and more effective, in court or through mediated processes focusing on the harmful consequences of offences rather than inflicting punishment that may satisfy a baying media but come home to haunt the community. This brave and generous book (600 pages) illustrates the many different ways in which criminal justice can be 'civilised' and how lessons can be learned from practical experience across the world and shared expertise. It is a volume that every politician should read, every criminal justice professional should possess, and that every student of criminology and penology will find invaluable. David Cornwell, John Blad and Martin Wright are three of the leading international experts on this topic with many publications to their names individually. Contributors: Serge Gutwirth and Paul De Hert (Belgium), Federico Reggio (Italy), Bas van Stokkom (The Netherlands), Lode Walgrave (Belgium), Susan Easton and Christine Piper (UK), Louis Blom-Cooper QC (UK), Tapio Lappi-Seppälä (Finland), Thomas Trenczek (Germany), Jean-Pierre Bonafé-Schmitt (France), Per Andersen (Norway), Claire Spivakovsky (Australia), Ann Skelton (Republic of South Africa), Borbála Fellegi (Hungary), Judge Fred McElrea (New Zealand); and the editors. John Braithwaite is a Distinguished Professor at the Australian National University, author of ground-breaking works on restorative justice and recipient of various awards.

With an escalating number of criminals going to prison, longer sentences, overcrowded and ineffective regimes, high rates of re-offending and an eclectic penal policy, there is a prison crisis. In this book, the author argues that this penal malaise is grounded in media sensationalism of crime and the need of politicians and their advisers to retain electoral credibility. Change is long overdue, but it requires a fresh, contemporary penology based on restorative justice. This book challenges the status quo, asks 'different questions' and places victims of crime at the centre of the criminal justice process.

This title examines the role of political culture and penal populism in the response to the emotive subject of child-on-child homicide. Green explores the reasons underlying the vastly differing responses of the English and Norwegian criminal justice systems to the cases of James Bulger and Silje Redergard respectively. Whereas James Bulger's killers were subject to extreme press and public hostility, and held in secure detention for nine months before being tried in an adversarial court, and served eight years in custody, a Redergard's killers were shielded from public antagonism and carefully reintegrated into the local community. This book argues that English adversarial political culture creates far more incentives to politicize high-profile crimes than Norwegian consensus political culture. Drawing on a wealth of empirical research, Green suggests that the tendency for politicians to justify punitive responses to crime by invoking harsh political attitudes is based upon a flawed understanding of public opinion. In a compelling study, Green proposes a more deliberative response to crime is possible by making English culture less adversarial and by making informed public judgment more assessable.