Howard Journal of Crime and Justice最新文献

This article sets out the case for providing regular philosophy sessions in prisons by focusing on its role in improving metacognition. We start by drawing attention to an important body of research on metacognition that is relevant to supporting prisoners in transitioning towards more prosocial lifestyles, as well as navigating the complexities of life both during and post-incarceration. We then make the case for offering philosophy programmes in prisons in order to help nurture and develop metacognitive skills in this population.

This article addresses the role of criminal judges in mechanisms of conviction without trial that have spread in recent decades in Latin America, in the context of criminal justice reforms towards an adversarial model. These mechanisms in the region are the result of a complex translation of plea bargaining from USA legal tradition which included adaptations and innovations. One of those is a strongly active and interventionist role for the criminal judge in ‘law in books’. However, through empirical research in the Province of Santa Fe (Argentina), this article shows how a judicial practice of routine and fast ‘homologation’ of agreements is effectively structured in ‘law in action’. This role implies a sort of deresponsibilisation in relation to the exercise of the power to punish, in stark contrast with the inquisitorial model, precisely in a warm climate of strong public distrust and criticism of state crime control institutions.

While the concept of co-production is becoming embedded in mental health and social care, the criminal justice system (CJS) has been slower in embracing this approach. In this article, we draw on the findings of a process evaluation of the Include UK Hub – a co-produced service for people with offending histories in Swansea, UK and, in doing so, introduce the DEVICES principles of co-production. The DEVICES is derived from the empirical evaluation data and includes the following principles – Development, Empathy, Voices, Individual, Change, Empowerment, and Spaces. These principles will appeal globally to practitioners and policymakers looking to meaningfully utilise co-production to develop services and support for people in the criminal justice system.

In this article, I consider whether certain attributes of a judge and, most importantly, the interaction effects of these characteristics affect the way judges decide cases and can explain disparities in sentencing outcomes. Using a supervised machine learning technique, the analysis uncovers some important effects not previously discussed in the extant literature. The results suggest that judges appointed by Republican Governors are most likely to give harsher sentences for all crimes but especially for felony and violent offences. Concerning crimes involving a high level of moral turpitude, judges get harsher as they age and men much more so than women.

Magistrates’ courts in England and Wales deal with around 95% of cases from start to completion, with many cases heard by lay magistrates. Despite this reliance on both the lower courts and decision making by lay adjudicators, it has been repeatedly argued that magistrates’ justice receives little attention. McBarnet (1981) argues that this is due to an ‘ideology of triviality’ in which the work of the magistrates’ courts is constructed as ‘trivial’, when in fact the cases heard are serious in nature and consequence. This article draws upon the framing of the ‘ideology of triviality’ to present findings from a qualitative study which examined contemporary workings of magistrates’ justice through court observations and interviews with lay court users. The findings suggest that the fallacy of ‘triviality’ continues to pervade magistrates’ justice. This has consequences for both those with personal experience of the magistrates’ courts and wider society.

This article focuses on rarely heard judicial perspectives, and the little explored challenges facing care-experienced girls and women in court. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with judges and magistrates, it reveals how the court process may be a disempowering and inadequate process for both the powerful and the powerless. Using the four elements of procedural justice as a lens to explore this – voice, trust, neutrality and respect – we highlight the immense challenges of achieving these goals for those with histories of being stigmatised and marginalised. In searching for solutions, the concept of ‘judicial rehabilitation’ enables consideration of how we might rehabilitate our systems and imagine a more hopeful approach to justice.

The collateral consequences of the non-payment of fines have merited much attention in jurisdictions such as the USA or Australia, yet they are relatively unexplored in countries of the Global South. In this article, we analyse Brazil as a case study. Although Brazil has the third largest prison population in the world, its criminal justice system has received little attention. We intend to fill this gap by addressing the legal framework and practices surrounding the non-payment of fines in a country whose draconian policies cause social exclusion and impede rehabilitation.

This article deals with the right to make requests and complaints (RCs) inside Spanish prisons. It discusses the European Prison Rules and the principles set forward by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT), examining how the Spanish system respects these. It then introduces the RCs system in Spain. Through research carried out in four prisons, interviews with the directors and with 21 inmates and taking as an example one prison, we were able to discover that the number of requests in one year is 55,000. This result reveals the formalised character of Spanish prisons and raises the question as to how to respond to RCs inside prison. The last part of the article draws on interviews with three Penitentiary Judges and discusses their role in reviewing RCs. In our analysis of 626 of the final decisions we found that 98.6% were denied. Finally, the article provides some explanations for this result and questions whether judges can be said to provide an effective remedy in such cases.