Overview

The impact of public opinion on criminal justice policy is the highly topical theme of Lord Windlesham's third volume of Responses to Crime. Like the first two volumes, Legislating with the Tide provides a readable and scholarly analysis of the development of contemporary penal policy. The political contents are examined; the role of the mass media weighed; and the translation of powerful tides of opinion into enforceable law compared in recent legislation aimed at combating crime in England and in the United States. The American example of the effects of populist-inspired sentencing reforms offers a timely warning to English policy-makers. The importance of the steps toward gun control promoted by President Clinton, one of the most high risk policies for any American elected politician, are shown in the recent tragedies of the mass shootings in Scotland and Tasmania. Also topical are the chapters on life sentences, appeals in cases of miscarriage of justice, and compensating victims of crime, each of which demonstrate the heightened significance of judicial review by the courts of ministerial decisions. For general readers with an interest in current policies towards crime and the punishment of offenders, as well as for all those directly involved in the processes of criminal justice, this book will be an indispensable guide. Lord Windlesham writes about criminal justice from his experience as a former minister at the Home Office and Northern Ireland Office, and as Chairman of the Parole Board for England and Wales for six years in the 1980s. He is Principal of Brasenose College, Oxford, and President of Victim Support. In 1995 he was awarded the degree of D.Litt by the University of Oxford for his studies in Criminal justice.

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Reviews

`The book is outstanding for its probing political analysis, its detailed documentation, and its clear and elegant style...These are fascinating (if somewhat depressing) times for criminal justice policy, brilliantly unravelled in this timely volume. Already, this reader is looking forward to volume 4.' Andrew Ashworth in Criminal Law Review `This third volume of his trilogy, deploying high-level experience and scholarship, brings us up to date with the past three years, known to many as the Age of Howard.' The Sunday Times `...highly topical book.' The Daily Telegraph `the scope is wide in as much as the situation in Britain is studied alongside legislation and attitudes in the United States...a comprehensive guide to current thinking on both sides of the Atlantic - academic in spirit but written with a clarity of detail and analysis that makes it quite accessible to the general reader.' Prison Writing `The abiding merit of 'Responses to Crime', Lord Windlesham's substantial and elegantly written account of the penal history of Britain from 1948 to 1994, is that students in the twenty first century will be able to turn to it as an authoritative source of information...There is more than enough material here and elsewhere to encourage Lord Windlesham to write a fourth volume covering the last five years of this century...The twenty-first-century students of criminal justice and the penal system will then be fully equiped.' Times Literary Supplement `This book, like its predecessor volumes, is eminently worth reading for those interested in criminal policy, and the political processes which shape it. The book provides much detail, but it is precisely the details that make it so interesting.' Andrew von Hirsch in The Law Quarterly Review `The third volume in Lord Windlesham's acclaimed work has as its theme the impact of public opinion on the criminal justice system...distinguished work.' Parliamentary Affairs

The book is outstanding for its probing political analysis, its detailed documentation, and its clear and elegant style...These are fascinating (if somewhat depressing) times for criminal justice policy, brilliantly unravelled in this timely volume. Already, this reader is looking forward to volume 4. Andrew Ashworth in Criminal Law Review This third volume of his trilogy, deploying high-level experience and scholarship, brings us up to date with the past three years, known to many as the Age of Howard. The Sunday Times ...highly topical book. The Daily Telegraph the scope is wide in as much as the situation in Britain is studied alongside legislation and attitudes in the United States...a comprehensive guide to current thinking on both sides of the Atlantic - academic in spirit but written with a clarity of detail and analysis that makes it quite accessible to the general reader. Prison Writing The abiding merit of 'Responses to Crime', Lord Windlesham's substantial and elegantly written account of the penal history of Britain from 1948 to 1994, is that students in the twenty first century will be able to turn to it as an authoritative source of information...There is more than enough material here and elsewhere to encourage Lord Windlesham to write a fourth volume covering the last five years of this century...The twenty-first-century students of criminal justice and the penal system will then be fully equiped. Times Literary Supplement This book, like its predecessor volumes, is eminently worth reading for those interested in criminal policy, and the political processes which shape it. The book provides much detail, but it is precisely the details that make it so interesting. Andrew von Hirsch in The Law Quarterly Review The third volume in Lord Windlesham's acclaimed work has as its theme the impact of public opinion on the criminal justice system...distinguished work. Parliamentary Affairs

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