NCJ Number
31869
Date Published
1975
Length
212 pages
Annotation
A NARRATIVE EXAMINATION OF CRIME IN BRITAIN AND THE WAYS THAT THE BRITISH CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM IS ADDRESSING OR AVOIDING THE PROBLEM.
Abstract
TOPICAL SUBJECTS INCLUDE POLICE; VIOLENCE; JUVENILES; FRAUD; THEFT OFFENSES; PRIVATE SECURITY; SMUGGLING, VICE, AND DRUGS; TERRORISM; FORENSIC SCIENCE; COURTS, LAW AND PRISONS; AND CORONERS. ONE CHAPTER IS DEVOTED TO THE ROYAL ULSTER CONSTABULARY AND THE EXTRAORDINARY MEASURES TAKEN BY IT IN RESPONSE TO THE DISTURBANCES IN NORTHERN IRELAND. THE AUTHORS BELIEVE THAT NO ONE GROUP CAN CLAIM TO BE BLAMELESS IN HELPING TO CREATE A SITUATION WHERE THE CRIMINAL TENDS TO RECEIVE GREATER PROTECTION THAN HIS VICTIM. THEY DISCUSS THE ATTITUDES OF CRIMINALS, THE POLICE, LAWYERS, JUDGES AND THE POLITICIANS WHO MAKE THE LAWS, AND ARE FORCEFUL IN LAYING THE BLAME SQUARELY AT DOORS OF THOSE WHO MAY, MISTAKENLY, FEEL THEY ARE ABOVE CRITICISM: WEAK JUDGES, CROOKED LAWYERS, MINDLESS THUGS, PUBLICITY-SEEKING POLITICIANS, UNSCRUPULOUS POLICEMEN-ALL FEATURE IN THIS DOSSIER OF A NATION ON THE FIDDLE. (AUTHOR ABSTRACT MODIFIED)