In the Name of the Law: The Collapse of Criminal Justice
| Author | Chris Stevenson |
| Published date | 01 June 1996 |
| Date | 01 June 1996 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/026455059604300209 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
98
In
the
Name
of
the
Law:
The
Collapse
of
Criminal
Justice
David
Rose
Jonathan
Cape,
1996;
pp
356;
£17.99
I
first
came
across
’noble
cause
corruption’
in
1983
when
I
was
working
for
the
Surrey
Probation
Service.
The
phrase
did
not
exist
then,
invented,
David
Rose
tells
us,
by
Sir
John
Woodcock,
the
Chief
Inspector
of
Constabulary,
who
coined
the
phrase
in
1992.
I had
gone
out
for
a
pub
lunch
with
a
student
in
the
office,
an
ex-Metropolitan
Police
officer.
In
the
pub
he
bumped
into
an
ex-
colleague
and
was
soon
engrossed
at
one
end
of
the
bar
in
a
conversation
with
him
while
I
ate
my
lunch.
Afterwards,
he
told
me
that
his
ex-colleague
had
just
been
released
from
serving
a
four-year
prison
sentence
for,
’putting
someone
in
the
frame’.
What
seemed
to
disturb
my
student
colleague
most
was
his
ex-
colleague’s
repeated
reference
to
it
being
’a
war
out
there’.
David
Rose
begins
his
book
with
’The
Old
Regime
and
its
Passing’.
In
1983
few
would
have
guessed
how
much
was
going
to
change
in
the
criminal
justice
system.
In
a
few
short
years
there
was
the
Police
and
Criminal
Evidence
Act
1984;
a
year
later
the
Prosecution
of
Offences
Act,
which
created
the
Crown
Prosecution
Service;
and
in
1989
the
release
of
the
Guildford
Four.
I
started
my
career
in
the
criminal
justice
system
in
the
late
1970s.
I
can
remember
a
police
inspector
who
regularly
prosecuted
in
the
Blackpool
Magistrates
Court
and
who
invariably
told
the
court:
’and
its
fair
to
say,
Your
Worships,
that
he
put
his
hand
up
straight
away’.
The
trouble
was
that
in
an
era
which
still
looked
back
to
the
days
of
Dixon
of
Dock
Green
and
when
’Mounties
always
got
their
men’,
there
were
not
enough
villains
who
did
put
their
hands
up.
As
a
result,
police
would
resort
to
’verbals’
and
honoured
’the
Judge’s
rules’
more
in
their
breach
than
in
their
observance.
David
Rose
suggests
that
other
players
in
the
criminal
justice
system
besides
the
police
knew
full
well
what
was
going
on,
but
as
a
then
police
sergeant
told
him,
’it
was
a
parternalistic
approach,
in
which
all
concerned
believed
they
were
acting
in
the
best
interests
of
society’.
David
Rose
goes
on
to
examine
’race class
and
justice’
and
notes
the
rise
of
vigilantism.
In
’The
Rising
Tide
of
Crime’,
he
looks
at
conviction
figures
and
comments
that
’here
the
extent
of
the
old
regimes
collapse
is
laid
bare’.
However,
it
is
in
the
following
chapter
’The
Retreat
From
Prosecution’,
that
the
most
startling
changes
in
the
system
are
described:
’Before
the
Crown
Prosecution
Service
was
founded,
the
law
allowed
the
police
to
prosecute
if
there
was
a
prima
facie
case.
This
was
a
low
threshold,
there
had
simply
to
be
evidence
which
meant
that
there
was
a
case
to
answer.
The
advent
of
the
Crown
Prosecution
Service
brought
a
revision
of
enormous
importance
to
the
working
of
the
law
in
this
area.
The
Crown
Prosecution
Service
will
only
bring
a
case
to
trial
if
it
considers
there
is
&dquo;a
realistic
prospect
of
conviction&dquo;.
This
is
a
much
higher
threshold.
The
Prosecutors
code
has
a
second
principal
criteria
which
determines
whether
a
case
is
continued
or
dropped, -
is
proceeding,
&dquo;in
the
public
interest&dquo;?
It
is
easy
to
see
that
is
a
world
where
cost
and
value
for
money
are
the
principle
by
which
everything
is
measured,
many
matters
will
never
come
to
trial’
Even
if
they
do,
there
is
always
’charge
bargaining’ -
not
a
Crown
Prosecution
Service
phrase
but
what
they
term
’the
acceptance
of
pleas’.
Every
probation
officer
will
know
how
far
a
GBH
can
drop.
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