Criminal law has traditionally been taught and analysed as if the gender of criminals and their victims is irrelevant. It has also been taught and analysed as if criminal law doctrine has no connection with questions of criminalisation,crime detection, decisions to charge and prosecute, lawyers trial tactics, decisions as to guilt and sentencing policy and practice, all of which are significantly affected by gender.This book seeks to fill these gaps by looking at the major areas in which gender affects the way that suspected criminals and their victims are treated by the criminal justice system. However, this book is not just a supplement to traditional criminal law discourse. It is a dangerous supplement, in that the focus on gender challenges laws claim to neutrality and even-handed justice.The essays in this book establish that, not only does the law frequently fail to offer women the sort of protection from male violence and sexual invasion that they need, but it continues to discriminate on grounds of gender. Even when discriminating in favour of women, it does so in ways that reinforce dangerous gender stereotypes. More specifically, both criminal law doctrine and criminal justice personnel apply and reinforce ideas, on the one hand, of female passivity, irrationality and proneness to illness, and, on the other, of natural male aggression - both physical and sexual.

Criminal Law Perspectives: From Principles to Practice is an engaging introduction to the criminal law in New South Wales, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and the Commonwealth Criminal Code. It takes a comparative approach to the law in these jurisdictions, focusing on prevalent summary offences, substantive federal offences and criminal procedure. Complex concepts are explained and contextualised by linking them to practical applications. Each chapter is supported by tools for self-assessment: review questions; case boxes summarising and extracting key historical and contemporary cases; and longer, narrative end-of-chapter problems that promote student engagement and help students develop problem-solving skills and independent thinking. Criminal Law Perspectives explores the development of criminal law principles in Australia, and provides a comprehensive and accessible overview of criminal law for students studying in the area for the first time.

Providing an overview of the sociological approaches to law and criminal justice, this book focuses on how law and the criminal justice system inevitably affect one another, and the ways in which both are intimately connected with wider social forces.

The often-tenuous relationship between law enforcement and communities of color, namely African Americans, has grown increasingly strained, and the call for justice has once again ignited the demand for criminal justice reform. Rebuilding the trust between the police and the citizens that they have sworn to protect and serve requires that criminal justice practitioners and educators collaborate with elected officials and commit to an open, ongoing dialogue on the most challenging issues that remain unresolved but demand collective attention and support. Reform measures are not limited to policing policies and practices, but rather extend throughout the criminal justice system. There is no denying that the criminal justice system as we know it is flawed, but not beyond repair. Global Perspectives on Reforming the Criminal Justice System provides in-depth and current research about the criminal justice system around the world, its many inadequacies, and why it urgently needs reformation. Offering a fully fleshed outline of the current system, this book details the newest research and is incredibly important to fully understand the flaws of the criminal justice system across the globe. The goals of this book are to improve and advance the criminal justice system by addressing the glaring weaknesses within the system and discuss potential reforms including decreasing the prison population (decarceration) and improving police/community relations. Highlighting topics that include accountability, community-oriented policing, ethics, and mass incarceration, this book is ideal for law enforcement officers, trainers/educators, government officials, policymakers, correctional officers, court officials, professionals, researchers, academicians, and students in the fields of criminal justice, criminology, sociology, psychology, addictions, mental health, social work, public policy, and public administration.

The issue of consent and criminal law commonly focuses on consent in sports, sexual activity, and medical treatment. The notion of consent and the influence of state control in this context, however, are pervasive throughout the criminal justice process from the pre-trial stage to rehabilitation. This edited collection charts an important and original pathway to understanding these important issues, pre-, during, and post-trial, from a range of perspectives, including doctrinal, socio-legal, intersectional, medico-legal, feminist, critical legal, and queer theoretical viewpoints. The collection addresses the complex inter-relationship between consent and state control in relation to private authorisation and public censure; sexual behaviour; the age of consent; queering consent; Pro-LGBTI Refugee cases; rape by fraud; male rape; undercover policing; prisons and consent; compulsory treatment for sex offenders; sex offenders with high functioning autism and the suitability of sex offender treatment programmes; and, the criminalisation of HIV transmission. This multi-disciplinary approach draws together a variety of experts from legal and medical academia and practice in order to confront the issues raised by these subjects, which are likely to remain controversial and in need of reform for years to come.

This multi-disciplinary collection brings together original contributions to present the best of current thinking about the nature and place of remorse in the context of criminal justice. Despite the widespread and long-standing nature of interest in offender remorse, the topic has until recently been peripheral in academic studies. The authors are scholars from North America, the United Kingdom, Europe, South Africa and Australia, from diverse academic disciplines. They reflect on the role of remorse in law, for better or for worse; on how expressions of remorse are affected by the legal contexts in which they arise; and on the impact of these expressions on the individual, the court and the community. The work is divided into four parts – Part I Judging Remorse addresses issues concerning the task of assessing remorse in the courtroom, usually prior to determining sentence. Part II Remorse Beyond the Courtroom explores the place and significance of remorse in various post-court settings. Part III Remorse, War and Social Trauma addresses remorse in the context of political violence and social trauma in the former Yugoslavia and South Africa. Finally, Part IV Reflections seeks to underscore the multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary nature of the collection as a whole, through personal and disciplinary reflections on remorse. The work provides a showcase for how diverse academic disciplines can be brought together through a focus on a common topic. As such, the collection will become a standard reference work for further research across a range of disciplines and promote inter-disciplinary dialogue.

In this compilation, the authors open by reviewing some concepts that must be clear when we think about ways to help the civil law system to introduce the restorative practices in the criminal law system. Additionally, the authors compare European Union criminal law to the classical meaning of criminal law. The historical development of supranational criminal law is examined, including the different roles of the judicial practice and legislative acts and improving upon the competence of the European Union in criminal law. Lastly, the authors examine the origins and development of penitentiary law in the law schools of Buenos Aires, Córdoba and La Plata between 1887 and 1955. Although in the earlier times of this period only the universities of Buenos Aires and Córdoba were active in the field, the University of La Plata has been included in order to have a complete overview of the academic world in those years.

Criminal law has struggled to keep pace with developments in psychiatry, both in substantive and procedural terms, and it is widely recognised that increased inter-disciplinary discussion of mental condition defences is required in order to address this gap between the law and psychiatry. This edited collection comes at a time of review of this sensitive area of criminal law. The Law Commission for England and Wales recently placed its evaluation of insanity, automatism and intoxication on hold, while it considers the law on unfitness to plead. These reviews are set against the backdrop of earlier Law Commission reports on partial defences to murder which informed significant changes that were made to the law in this area under sections 52–56 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009. Recent developments in case law in this substantive area illustrate not only the importance of the role of the medical expert, but also that reform in this area is informed by ongoing inter-disciplinary research. This collection brings together medical and legal conceptions of mental disorder in order to appraise the operation of mental condition defences. In this respect, it provides invaluable and original insights into mental condition defences and criminal law.

'Comparative Perspectives on Criminal Justice in China is highly recommended. The editors have assembled the leading Western and Chinese scholars in the field to examine the administration of criminal justice in China, showing both how far the system has come and the challenges that lie ahead. This is an important and timely book. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand or has to deal with the Chinese criminal justice system.' Klaus Mühlhahn, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany 'This highly informative and engaging volume on the Chinese criminal justice system today provides a window into the vagaries of law and its operation in the People's Republic. McConville and Pils bring together an impressive array of scholars whose studies span the criminal process. From initial police investigation, through to prosecution and sentencing of defendants, we see how dominant values in the Chinese state and its structures of power make the practice of criminal justice today still intensely political.' Susan Trevaskes, Griffith University, Australia Comparative Perspectives on Criminal Justice in China is an anthology of chapters on the contemporary criminal justice system in mainland China, bringing together the work of recognised scholars from China and around the world. The book addresses issues at various stages of the criminal justice process (investigation and prosecution of crime and criminal trial) as well as problems pertaining to criminal defence and to parallel systems of punishment. All of the contributions discuss the criminal justice system in the context of China's legal reforms. Several of the contributions urge the conclusion that the criminal process and related processes remain marred by overwhelming powers of the police and Party-State, and a chapter discussing China's 2012 revision of its Criminal Procedure Law argues that the revision is unlikely to bring significant improvement. This diverse comparative study will appeal to academics in Chinese law, society and politics, members of the human rights NGO and diplomatic communities as well as legal professionals interested in China.