Book Review: Comparative Criminal Justice
| Author | Rod Earle |
| Published date | 01 February 2005 |
| Date | 01 February 2005 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/146680250500500106 |
hoped that this publication will function as a deserving companion work to
Handbook of Policing while simultaneously re-introducing us to some of the
most influential international works in the field.
References
Bayley, D. and C. Shearing (1996) ‘The Future of Policing’, Law and Society
Review 30(3): 585–606.
Finnane, M. (1994) Police and Government: Histories of Policing in Australia.
Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
Francis Pakes
Comparative Criminal Justice
Cullompton, Devon: Willan Publishing, 2004. 200 pp. £17.99 ISBN
1–84392–031–X (pbk); £40.00 ISBN 1–84392–032–8 (hbk)
•Reviewed by Rod Earle, University of Surrey, UK
Martin Narey, head of the National Offender Management Service, would
probably appreciate this book. With some exasperation he recently drew
attention to the fact that in England and Wales nearly 2000 children and young
people are imprisoned every year while in Finland there are just three young
prisoners! Illuminating differences of this kind rarely surface in the popular
media perhaps because the very idea that there may be fundamental differences
in criminal justice systems seems faintly counter-intuitive to the British mind-
set. The stories that do occasionally emerge, such as the case of footballers
arrested in Spain in 2004, are often laden with a chauvinistic disdain for
‘foreign’ procedures of justice.
There is something of a contradiction, or at least an internal tension, around
the idea of comparative criminal justice. The basic premise of criminal justice is
an enlightenment one of universal standards and norms. This apparently
monolithic notion rapidly melts in the face of the diversity that this book
describes. Pakes’ task is a daunting one and at times the frustration involved
leaks into the text. Describing prosecution and pre-trial processes, in Chapter
4, he is forced to declare ‘The law in this respect is hideously complex’ (p. 63).
He is, therefore, careful to introduce, in the opening two chapters, the
difficulties and dilemmas of the comparative approach. He selects a thematic
structure, dividing the book into chapters on policing, prosecution and pre-trial
justice, systems of trial, judicial decision makers and punishment. The final two
chapters are more discursive considerations of, respectively, transnational and
international criminal justice and the possible future directions of the com-
parative project.
He uses a variety of comparative methods, including case studies, focused
comparisons and statistical comparison. Each method is briefly described and
Book Reviews103
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