The New Politics of Criminal Justice
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The New Politics of Criminal Justice by Ann James and John Raine London and New York: Longman (1998) ISBN 0 582 31721 5 (128 pages, £11.99)
Reviewed by Bethany Smith This book aims to examine the guiding principles and practice of criminal justice over the final two decades of the millennium. This overarching objective is translated into an endeavour to tackle three key questions, namely (p 3): what is the contemporary purpose of criminal justice? What influences have shaped criminal justice in recent years? And finally, what do the answers to the first two questions tell us about the future of criminal justice? The authors attempt to resolve these questions by examining what they term the ‘four key dynamics’ which have influenced criminal justice policy and practice in recent years (p 4). Each of these—politicization, managerialism, administrative processing, and public voice and participation—are treated discretely within the book, ie there is a chapter for each. It is posited that each dynamic has contributed ‘its own logic and rationale based on its own set of values’ and that each has left its own ‘distinctive mark’ on criminal justice policy and practice (p 4). However, they are also presented as both complementary and conflicting factors in an interconnecting model. It is argued that the ‘tensions and conflicts’ between these four dynamics provide enlightenment as to the seemingly contradictory and fickle approach to criminal justice in the period under review. Chapter One sets the scene by providing an overview of the problem of crime and the way it is recorded. It goes on to regurgitate the traditional paradigms for the treatment of crime and offenders and the shifts and conflicting philosophies between them. It also describes the various agencies within the criminal justice system, though at what can only be described as a very basic level. In this unnecessarily descriptive section the authors neglect to mention the role of the Crown Prosecution Service, as the link between the police and the courts. However, it is noted that the issue is addressed later in the book (Chapter Four). The book comes alive in Chapter Two, when the core issue of the politicization of criminal justice policy is addressed. The discussion is tightly focused, and makes excellent use of David Garland’s work on the notion of a ‘contract’ between the citizen and the state. The authors demonstrate the joint role of government and political rhetoric, on the one hand, and of public attitudes to crime, on the other, in shifting the boundaries of this contract. They argue convincingly that: … the disaggregation of the state from social policy to intervention within a series of agreed and budgeted concerns … combined with a very real and deep fear of crime … generates the conditions under which both government and the public become eager participants in a tough stance on crime. (p 30)
Chapter Three concentrates on the influence of the managerialist agenda and its effect on criminal justice policy, and covers issues such as prison privati
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