Nathan Monk

Through an evaluation of current national approaches to community safety a nonprescriptive model is presented through which sustainable strategic decisions can be founded. The HASCADE model (Holistic Approach to Strategic Crime And Disorder Evaluation) focuses on mainstreaming community safety at the local level through providing an explanation of community dynamics. Central to HASCADE is the establishment and consolidation of inter and intra-agency collaborations coupled with mapping and statistical techniques. Relating to practical experience, this paper articulates the issues, methodology and future application of HASCADE model implementation

The US and the UK are currently reforming welfare policy to emphasise work. This article draws upon the findings of research conducted for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation which examined how employers respond to job applications from offenders to discuss the challenges faced by policy makers engaged in welfare reform. A key finding is that despite a growing policy interest in helping offenders into work, the UK government is about to implement legislation that will heighten the discrimination they face in the labour market. This contradiction reflects a selective reading of US evidence on helping move people from welfare to work by British policy makers and the weak political position of offenders.

In recent years there has emerged an inspiring body of feminist literature which has examined the range of strategies employed by incarcerated women to manage, negotiate and resist institutional regimes. However, although this literature has opened up new areas of scholarly debate and has challenged the myth that women (and women offenders in particular) are ‘feeble’ and ‘muted’ social agents, the analysis has primarily been limited to women within custodial institutions. It is the intention of this article to expand on these debates by examining the experiences of women subjected to punishment within the community, specifically within a probation hostel.
It will be argued that the construction of femininity plays a crucial but contradictory role in women’s strategies of resistance. Based on original research the article will explore the ways in which women in a probation hostel managed to navigate and resist their confinement through apparent displays of conformity. It is argued that women frequently endorsed feminising discourses and practices promoted within the institution in order to avoid further scrutiny and regulation and thus their actions can be considered as a means of ‘resistance’.

This article reviews the arguments for reforms in sentencing, as reflected in the Halliday Report (Halliday, 2001) and the White Paper Justice for All (Home Office, 2002a); considers some of the specific proposals which emerged from that Review and those which are contained in the White Paper; and examines the ways in which sentencing practice has developed over the last 10 years and the situation which that development has produced. It reflects on some of the principles involved, and the consequences to which the proposals might lead. It considers the mechanisms for putting those proposals into effect, with particular reference to the role, scope and authority of the proposed Sentencing Guidelines Council. Finally it offers some thoughts on the implications for community justice, and on the importance of community justice in the situation which seems likely to be their result.

This article explores questions about the locus and future direction of the Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs) in the light of issues that have arisen over the four years since their introduction.

Ideas are rehearsed from the current discourse about crime and disorder, and material from a recent study is used to illustrate shortcomings in joined-up thinking between different areas of government policy.

Two aspects of the early life of the CDRPs are examined – the interface with Area Criminal Justice Strategy Committees, and the involvement of the Health Service. The material is analysed for lessons about the balance between agendas for security, welfare and justice in the work of CDRPs to date. Attention is drawn to the possible future implications, including the possible vulnerability of the crime and disorder agenda, the balance of forces influencing the future work of CDRPs, and the challenges they face in their next phase of life.

Finally consideration is given to what questions are raised by the early impact of the CDRPs in reframing the relationship between criminal justice and social justice.

The purpose of this article is to explore the nature of restorative justice as it appears in the proposed South African Child Justice Bill. Restorative justice has taken different forms throughout the world; it is extremely popular both theoretically and with practitioners but instances of it being codified in legislation are still relatively rare.

The Child Justice Bill will allow and encourage restorative justice to be used at different stages in the criminal justice process, both as an alternative to prosecution and as a sentence. The enactment of the Bill will result in South Africa joining the list of countries which are seen as world leaders in  developing restorative justice initiatives.

This article considers what sort of restorative justice South Africa is developing. It explores some of the main dualities and tensions within restorative justice and outlines how they might be resolved within the new dispensation envisaged by the Bill.