Paul Rock

Volume II of The Official History of Criminal Justice in England and Wales traces, for the first time, the genesis and early evolution of two principal institutions in the criminal justice system, the Crown Court and the Crown Prosecution Service. This volume examines the origins and shaping of two critical institutions: the Crown Court, which rose from the ashes of the Courts of Assize and Quarter Sessions; and the Crown Prosecution Service which replaced a rather haphazard system of police prosecuting solicitors. The 1971 Courts Act and the 1985 Prosecution of Offences Act were to reconfigure the architecture of criminal justice, transforming the procedures by which people were charged, prosecuted and, in the weightier cases demanding a judge and jury, tried in the criminal courts of England and Wales. One stemmed from a crisis in a medieval system of travelling justices that tried people in the wrong places and for inadequate lengths of time. The other was precipitated by a scandal in which three men were wrongly convicted for the murder of a bisexual prostitute. Theirs is an as yet untold history that can be explored in depth because it is recent enough, in the words of Harold Wilson, to have been ‘written while the official records could still be supplemented by reference to the personal recollections of the public men who were involved’. This book will be of much interest to students of criminology and British history, politics and law.

Volume II: Institution-Building

The Official History of Criminal Justice in England and Wales

This book, first published in 1973, explores the manner in which conceptions of deviancy arise and shows how the attitudes of non-deviants, of society and of authority, are as instrumental in forming these conceptions as the actions of the deviants themselves. Chapters include discussions on the definition of deviants and deviancy and the enforcement of the law, alongside a detailed introduction. This title will be of particular value to students and scholars with an interest in criminology and the sociology and psychology of deviancy.

Deviant Behaviour (Routledge Revivals)

David Downes

Understanding Deviance

Conor Gearty

Christine Chinkin

Professor of Social Administration David Downes

Professor of Social Institutions Paul Rock

The work of Stanley Cohen over four decades has come to acquire a classical status in the fields of criminology, sociology and human rights. His writing, research, teaching and practical engagement in these fields have been at once rigorously analytical and intellectually inspiring. It amounts to a unique contribution, immensely varied yet with several unifying themes, and it has made, and continues to make, a lasting impact around the world. His work thus has a protean character and scope which transcend time and place. This book of essays in Stanley Cohen's honour aims to build on and reflect some of his many-sided contributions. It contains chapters by some of the world's leading thinkers as well as the rising generation of scholars and practitioners whose approach has been shaped in significant respects by his own.

From Moral Panics to States of Denial, Essays in Honour of Stanley Cohen

Crime, Social Control and Human Rights

Mary McIntosh

Originally published in 1974, Deviance and Social Control represents a collection of original papers first heard at the annual meeting of the British Sociological Association in 1971. They reveal how the American approach to deviance has been taken up by British sociologists, and revised and modified, and they explore possibilities of extending and strengthening the subject, for instance through comparative analysis or by examining issues which bear on deviant behaviour.

Deviance and Social Control

Volume I of The Official History of Criminal Justice in England and Wales frames what was known about crime and criminal justice in the 1960s, before describing the liberalising legislation of the decade. Commissioned by the Cabinet Office and using interviews, British Government records, and papers housed in private, and institutional collections, this is the first of a collaboratively written series of official histories that analyse the evolution of criminal justice between 1959 and 1997. It opens with an account of the inception of the series, before describing what was known about crime and criminal justice at the time. It then outlines the genesis of three key criminal justice Acts that not only redefined the relations between the State and citizen, but also shaped what some believed to be the spirit of the age: the abolition of capital punishment, and the reform of the laws on abortion, and homosexuality. The Acts were taken to be so contentious morally and politically that Governments of different stripes were hesitant about promoting them formally. The onus was instead passed to backbenchers, who were supported by interlocking groups of reformers, with a pooled knowledge about how to effectively organise a rhetoric that drew on the language of utilitarianism, and the clarity and authority of a Church of England. This came to play an increasingly consequential and largely unacknowledged part in resolving what were often confusing moral questions. This book will be of much interest to students of criminology and British history, politics and law.

Volume I: The 'Liberal Hour'

Janet Finch

Philip Abrams

Rosemary Deem

Originally published in 1981 Practice and Progress is a collection examining the changes that have occurred in the theories, methodologies and practices of sociology, in the institutional and educational setting of the subject, and in British society. The themes pursued include the professionalization of sociology its development and standing in the universities; the impact on it of Marxism and feminism and the major debates over positivism and empiricism, quantitative methods, linguistic analysis; and numerous other crucial methodological and theoretical concerns.

British Sociology 1950-1980

Practice and Progress

Eugene McLaughlin

In Understanding Deviance, Seventh Edition, leading experts David Downes, Paul Rock, and Eugene McLaughlin examine the major sociological theories behind crime and deviance, covering their development, recent research, and varying perspectives on their explanations of criminality. The authors discuss key debates in depth, challenging students to question assumptions and explore new avenues of scholarship. An extensive bibliography provides references to a wide range of both classic and lesser-known texts.

Paul Rock

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