Criminal Law and the Society of Legal Scholars
| Author | Hannah Quirk,Natalie Wortley |
| DOI | 10.1177/0022018317722221 |
| Published date | 01 August 2017 |
| Date | 01 August 2017 |
| Subject Matter | Editorial |
Editorial
Criminal Law and the Society
of Legal Scholars
Hannah Quirk
School of Law, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
Natalie Wortley
School of Law, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
This special issue was born from the Society of Legal Scholars (SLS) Annual Conference 2016.
1
As joint
convenors of the Criminal Justice Section, we initially planned this collection would showcase some of
the interesting work that was presented there. Developments in politics and policymaking, however,
suggested that this was an opportune moment for broader reflection about some of the issues that are of
topical interest, and we are grateful to the editors of the Journal of Criminal Law for giving us a forum to
develop some of these ideas.
Between 1993 and 2010, crime and criminal justice policy was one of the most potent electoral issues;
in 2015 and 2017, it barely featured. The first period arguably began
2
with the announcement of Michael
Howard’s 27-point crackdown on cr ime to the Conservative Party Confe rence 1993, including his
infamous claim that ‘prison works’. His Labour Shadow Home Secretary, Tony Blair, with a similar
talent for a sound bite, promised to be ‘tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime’
3
and the Labour
Party duly abstained from voting on the momentous Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994
(‘CJPOA’). This controversial Act attracted protests against provisions that curtailed the right of silence
and criminalised both protesting against fox hunts and attending unlicensed raves (music ‘characterised
by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats’
4
). Defying straightforward categorisation, the Act
also reduced the age of consent for homosexuals, banned simulated child pornography and extended the
definition of rape to include anal rape. The CJPOA illustrates many of the complexities involved in
reforming the criminal law: the countervailing political forces, its vulnerability to hastily drafted mea-
sures that either never come into force or require amendment, the need to respond to new harms and to
the need to remove offences that have become obsolete. Despite the reality of falling crime rates, public
perception of the problem—largely whipped up by politicians—meant that legislatio n followed the
CJPOA at a bewildering rate. Significant developments include: sexual offences being reformed and
largely brought together in one Act
5
; the expansion of ‘hate crimes’
6
; the criminalisation of new
behaviours, in particular in relation to internet-enabled crime
7
; and the repeal of a smaller number of
1. University of Oxford 6–9 September 2016.
2. S Chakrabarti, ‘A Thinning Blue Line? Police Independence and the Rule of Law’ (2008) 2 Policing 367, 369.
3. Nick Clarke, Interview with Tony Blair, ‘The World this Weekend’ (BBC Radio 4, 10 January 1993).
4. Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, s. 63(1)(b).
5. Sexual Offences Act 2003.
6. Crime and Disorder Act 1998, ss. 28–33; Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001, s. 39; Criminal Justice Act 2003,
s. 145–6, Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012, s. 65.
7. See, for example: Fraud Act 2006, s. 2(5); Communications Act 2003, s. 127; Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015, s. 33.
The Journal of Criminal Law
2017, Vol. 81(4) 278–281
ªThe Author(s) 2017
Reprints and permissions:
sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/0022018317722221
journals.sagepub.com/home/clj
To continue reading
Request your trial