Book review: The Official History of Criminal Justice in England and Wales. Volume II: Institution-Building
| Author | Thomas Guiney |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/17488958221083054 |
| Published date | 01 November 2022 |
| Date | 01 November 2022 |
| Subject Matter | Book review |
Criminology & Criminal Justice
2022, Vol. 22(5) 790 –792
© The Author(s) 2022
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
journals.sagepub.com/home/crj
Book review
Paul Rock, The Official History of Criminal Justice in England and Wales. Volume II: Institution-Building,
Routledge: London, 2019; 555 pp.: 9780429469916, 120.00 (hbk), 9780367730116, £36.99 (pbk)
Reviewed by: Thomas Guiney, University of Nottingham, UK
DOI: 10.1177/17488958221083054
In recent years, the broad fields of criminology and criminal justice have experienced
something of a renaissance of interest in the mediating role of institutions. A rich and
varied literature is beginning to explore how the institutional structure of the political
economy shapes penal policy outcomes at a local, national and supranational level
(Lacey et al., 2018). It has documented the enduring impact of occupational cultures
within the core institutions of the criminal justice system, such as the police (Brown
et al., 2021), and it is beginning to reveal how institutional ideas, templates and practices
flow across national boundaries (Newburn et al., 2018).
Institutions play an important role in shaping policy and practice; they help to struc-
ture public debates over crime and create new ways of working that are often extremely
resilient to reform. However, we still know relatively little about where these institu-
tions come from. What factors shape institutional creation and renewal? Why do gov-
ernments choose to invest in new institution-building rather than persevere with the
status quo ante? Why do some institutional templates achieve official policy-making
expression while others do not? In The Official History of Criminal Justice in England
and Wales Volume II: Institution Building, Paul Rock offers a timely historical treatment
of these questions, documenting the genesis of two major criminal justice institutions:
the Crown Court and the Crown Prosecution Service. Commissioned by the Cabinet
Office, this is the second of a collaboratively written series of official histories that will
analyse the evolution of criminal justice in England and Wales between 1959 and 1997
using interviews, British Government records, and papers housed in private and institu-
tional collections.
The first half of this volume details the establishment of the Crown Court, as given
legal effect by the Courts Act 1971. Chapter 1 traces the evolution of criminal justice
administration in England and Wales back to the early medieval period where minor
breaches of the criminal law were dealt with by local courts of quarter sessions, who met
1083054CRJ0010.1177/17488958221083054Criminology & Criminal JusticeBook review
book-review2022
To continue reading
Request your trial