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The policing of young people, especially through stop-and-search, has been rigorously debated in the context of rising violence in the UK. While concepts based on procedural justice theory and perceptions of police fairness are directly relevant to these debates, these have rarely been tested on young people, nor have they taken account of the impact of stop-and-search. This paper examines young people's experiences of stop-and-search in two Scottish and two English cities, and tests the relationship between these experiences, their trust in the police, their perceptions of police legitimacy and their compliance with the law. The study finds that Scottish adolescents, who experienced higher volume stop-and-search, had more negative attitudes to the police and perceived them to be less procedurally fair than English adolescents. Structural equation modelling confirms that principles of procedural justice theory do apply to young people in this UK sample. However, our findings suggest that stop-and-search may damage trust in the police and perceptions of police legitimacy, regardless of the volume of police stop-and-search, and this may result in increased offending behaviour. With ongoing calls to increase the use of stop-and-search in response to recent increases in knife crime in England, we argue that its use needs to be carefully balanced against the, as yet poorly evidenced, benefits of the use of the tactic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines public attitudes to the sentencing offences associated with the rioting which took place in England in August 2011. Findings are based on a nationally representative survey of adults. The study uses a randomized split-sample experimental design to compare sentencing preferences for actual offences committed during the riots with preferences for similar offences committed under normal circumstances. The riot sub-sample generally ‘sentenced’ more severely than the non-riot sub-sample, but much less severely than the courts. The majority also thought that a non-custodial sentence with a reparative element was an acceptable alternative to custody. These trends suggest an unusual divergence of perspectives between the community and the courts: although the public are generally critical of the courts for leniency, with respect to non-violent offending during the riots, the latter appear more punitive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the immediate and more distant origins of a programme of comparative research that is examining cross-national variations in public trust in justice and in the police. The programme is built around a module of the fifth European Social Survey, and evolved from a study funded by the European Commission. The paper describes the conceptual framework within which we are operating – developed in large measure from theories of procedural justice. It reviews some of the methodological issues raised by the use of sample surveys to research issues of public trust in the police, public perceptions of institutional legitimacy and compliance with the law. Finally it gives a flavour of some of the early findings emerging from the programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors comment on an article by Austin Lovegrove about the role of personal mitigation under the sentencing guidelines set by the government of Great Britain. The authors explain some of the important flaws they identified from the analysis of Lovegrove and offer correction to misconceptions about the role of mitigation. They also examine the interpretation of Lovegrove on public attitudes in Wales and England.

Determining the factors which make a difference between a custodial sentence and a community penalty is one of the most challenging decisions for sentencers. Little research to date has explored the nature of public reaction to mitigating factors and the circumstances which may justify imposition of a community penalty even though the custodial threshold has been crossed. This article reports findings from a representative survey of the British public. Respondents were asked a series of questions designed to explore public reaction to sentencing cases at the custodial threshold. Public opinion polls suggest that the public respond punitively at sentencing, and have little sympathy for mitigating factors relating to the offender. In a series of questions, using experimental manipulations, respondents demonstrated considerable flexibility when sentencing cases near the custodial threshold. Significant support emerged for a wide range of mitigating factors at sentencing. The strength of public support for custody as a sanction was also explored by providing respondents who had imposed a term of imprisonment a possible alternative community penalty. Significant proportions of respondents found the alternative acceptable, even for relatively serious offences. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article reports findings from empirical research upon public attitudes to sentencing purposes and sentencing factors. The results demonstrate high levels of support for the use of previous convictions at sentencing. As well, there was significant public support for a range of mitigating factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews public opinion research relating to imprisonment. The focus is upon British attitudes, but wherever possible we place findings from this country in an international context. Most members of the public report little familiarity with the prison system– few people report having had any direct contact with a penal institution. A common finding around the world is that most people believe that prison conditions are quite easy; this belief helps to explain low public levels of confidence in the prison system. Despite these trends, the public does not wish to make prison life harsher merely for the purpose of punishment. People want and expect prisoners to improve their lives while inside, although there is widespread scepticism that rehabilitation is possible in today's prisons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses approaches to assessing the size of the illicit market for powder cocaine, and the inherent difficulties of this issue. It describes recent attempts to investigate more accurate measures of the prevalence and extent of use than have been available to date. A new approach is suggested in which estimates are derived separately - using separate methodologies for different groups of powder cocaine users, and then summed. The review offers some suggestions that future researchers in the area of sizing the drugs market might consider. It suggests that prevalence and consumption estimates for non-problem users can be improved by re-weighting the British Crime Survey for characteristics associated with powder cocaine use. Indirect estimates of the number of problem users derived from arrestee and treatment data should be compared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on public opinion over the past three decades has consistently established that the British public are critical of sentencers, and that this criticism exists independent of crime trends and even dramatic changes in criminal justice policies. This finding points to the possibilities that the findings are an artefact of the approach used by these surveys or that public opinion is formed in ignorance of actual practice. The 1996 British Crime Survey (BCS) contained a section of questions designed to test these hypotheses. Respondents were asked a series of questions about their knowledge of, as well as attitudes towards, sentencing practice and sentencers. Results indicate that judges received significantly more negative evaluations than any other group of criminal justice professionals. The public systematically under-estimate the severity of sentencing patterns, and this is significantly related to attitudes to sentencers. When asked to provide a sentence in a specific case of burglary, members of the public favoured sentences that were on balance little different from, and if anything more lenient than, current sentencing practice. Discussion focuses on the policy implications of these findings, as well as their relation to research in other jurisdictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the British Crime Survey (BCS) about threats and threatening behavior. The BCS asks respondents a large number of screening questions to identify victims of crime. Some 1.7 percent of BCS respondents told interviewers that they had received threats in the previous calendar year. 85 percent of the threats were to beat up the respondent. 5 percent of the threat was explicitly to kill. The person making the threats was known to approximately a third of the victims and in the remaining two thirds of cases, the threatener was a total stranger.

This paper argues that victimological research on risks can contribute to the study of offender decision-making. It examines some of the problems in conventional approaches to the topic and discusses strengths and weaknesses of surveys of victimization as an additional source of information. It presents and discusses a conceptual framework for examining target selection, the key elements of which are proximity, yield, and accessibility. It presents a "worked example" in the shape of findings on burglary from the British Crime Survey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Editorial. Comments on changes and reform in the criminal justice system in Great Britain. Issues related to the probation service in the criminal justice system; Capacity for resistance to modernizing the criminal justice system; Importance of public perceptions related to constitutional modernization in Europe.

This paper summarizes what is known, and what is uncertain, about strategies what exploit the coercive potential of the criminal justice system to get problem drug users to get treatment for their dependency. It considers the links between problem drug use and crime, the characteristics of effective treatment for problem drug users, the effectiveness of coerced treatment, and the practical obstacles in bridging the gap between criminal justice and treatment services. It draws on experience in Britain, though it is also informed by the English-language research literature, especially that carried out in the United States.