Elizabeth Burney – författare

The Insitute of Criminology at the University of Cambridge recently undertook,at the behest of the Home Office, a comprehensive study of the literature on criminal deterrence, concentrating on recent research. The result, published in this book, examines the popular claim that 'deterrence works'. That it works in general terms is beyond dispute, but the claim most favoured by law-makers is narrower: that tougher sentences have a direct impact on criminal behaviour, limiting the number and severity of offences committed. This study seeks to discover the truth of that claim. Deterrence as a penal aim, is a broad subject, hence the authors of this work decided to look at two elements of recent research. First they looked at studies which examine the marginal deterrent effects of changing the certainty of punishment, that is, of altering the likelihood of an offender's being apprehended and convicted for a crime. Secondly they looked at studies of the marginal deterrent effects of altering the severity of punishment through changes in sentencing policy.It is their evaluation and analysis of the latter which is the principal focus of the work, and which will make the book essential reading for all those interested in sentencing and penal policy.

'Anti-social behaviour' has become a label attached to a huge range of nuisance and petty crime, and rarely out of the headlines as tackling this problem has become a central part of the British government's crime control policy. At the same time 'anti-social behaviour' has provided the lever for control mechanisms ranging from the draconian to the merely bureaucratic, most notably in the shape of the Anti-Social Behaviour Order, or ASBO. This book seeks to explain why anti-social behaviour, as a focus of political rhetoric, legislative activity and social action, has gained such a high profile in Britain in recent years, and it provides a critical examination of current policies of enforcement and exclusion. It examines both the political roots of the variety of new measures which have been introduced and also the deeper social explanations for the unease expressed about anti-social behaviour more generally. This updated new edition of Making People Behave takes full account of recent legal and policy changes, including the 'Respect' agenda, as well as relevant research on the subject. It also contains two wholly new chapters, one of them devoted to the expanding web of behaviour controls, the other on Scotland which provides an alternative to the enforcement-oriented approach evident in England and Wales – complementing the wider coverage in the book of developments in North America and Europe.