Archive for the ‘Headline grabbing’ Category
28 days
Professor Ken Pease astutely points out in a report published today for a right wing think tank that offenders are prevented from committing crimes against the general public while in prison (they can of course beat, scald, rape and attack staff and other inmates but let’s leave that aside.) But he suggests that keeping prisoners [...]
August 28, 2010
Tags: Prisons Posted in: Government policy, Headline grabbing, Overcrowding, Prisons, Sentencing, Uncategorized, Victims
One Comment
Policy developments
I haven’t got around to doing a blog for ages because we have been rushing around organising events. I am not going to comment on the hustings or conference on community sentences because there are detailed reports on the website, but there have been some interesting policy developments that are worthy of comment.
In the [...]
July 29, 2010
Tags: Prisons, Youth Justsice Board Posted in: Children and young people, Government policy, Headline grabbing, Uncategorized
No Comments
Women first
Should the media always mention that the three women who were killed in Bradford were prostitutes? Yes and no.
The BBC has slightly improved in its terminology recently; instead of automatically labeling the women as prostitutes every time reporters now sometimes say they were women working as prostitutes. Identifying them first as sex workers, [...]
May 28, 2010
Posted in: Headline grabbing, Uncategorized, Victims
One Comment
Criminalising children
And so two young boys, aged 10 and 11, have been found guilty of the attempted rape of an 8 year old girl. They will now be sentenced, most likely into child custody, and join the sex offenders’ register.
As I said before, criminalising young children does not help young victims and does nothing to enhance [...]
May 25, 2010
Tags: youth justice Posted in: Children and young people, Government policy, Headline grabbing, Uncategorized
2 Comments
The right to a fair trial
One of the fundamental rights upheld in Britain is the right to a fair trial. Jon Venables has not been found guilty of any new crime and should be treated as being innocent until it is proven otherwise. We don’t know yet whether he is even accused of a crime and if so, whether he [...]
March 11, 2010
Posted in: Government policy, Headline grabbing, Uncategorized
3 Comments
Rage against the machine
It seems that rage is the centre of the news today. Whether we have the right to inflict retribution following an assault in our home, and raging against the pop music of television talent shows.
Chris Grayling, Tory shadow home secretary, has said his party in government would strengthen the rights of householders to defend themselves [...]
December 21, 2009
Tags: Chris Grayling, RATM, The X Factor Posted in: Headline grabbing, Sentencing
No Comments
Keir Starmer lecture on the role of the modern prosecutor
The Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer QC, gave a lecture for the Howard League last night discussing issues about the role of the prosecutors in dealing with young people. There were plenty of references to his defence of the Human Rights Act and consequent media attention, but I was really pleased to see that [...]
October 23, 2009
Tags: CPS, The Guardian Posted in: Children and young people, Headline grabbing, Howard League, Uncategorized
2 Comments
Naming and shaming, postal strikes and pensions
So poor little Baby Peter’s mother and her partner have their photographs splashed across every media outlet. The judge who allowed them to be identified said this would somehow increase confidence in the criminal justice system, although I challenge that. I am at a loss to understand how public prurience serves the cause of justice. [...]
August 11, 2009
Tags: Friends Provident, strikes, tabloids Posted in: Children and young people, Headline grabbing
No Comments
Prison is no place for children
The Telegraph and other papers are carrying stories that Warren Hill prison for children is some sort of holiday camp. These stories appear from time to time and the only difference this time is that the papers have extracted the juicy titbit that children can, weirdly, pick their own lavatory seat. All this makes for [...]
July 28, 2009
Tags: Prisons, youth justice Posted in: Children and young people, Headline grabbing, Inside prisons, Prisons
One Comment
Crime rates down! Read all about it?
The crime statistics just published are really encouraging and do indicate that we are becoming a safer society. Of course particularly gratifying is the reduction in the homicide rate. In the last ten years vehicle crime, domestic burglary and crimes of violence have all gone down substantially. This means fewer victims and should be the [...]
July 17, 2009
Tags: British Crime Survey, gun crime, tabloids Posted in: Headline grabbing
One Comment
