Powerful Offenders and Criminal Justice
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In recent years both criminology and criminal law have become
much more aware of issues surrounding what might be called
'powerful offenders', that is to say, offenders who have various
resources with which to neutralise the efforts of the criminal
justice agencies to apprehend and convict them. The power of
organised criminal gangs to intimidate witness, the ability of
both organised crime and terrorist groups to evade the law
enforcement agencies is also a very topical issue. One of our
themes here will be the extent to which, in order to equip
itself with stronger powers to deal with such offenders, the
criminal justice system is in fact dismantling vital parts of
our system of civil liberties.
One feature of this module is that it encourages you to read
(mainly on-line) literature such as official government research
and strategy documents as well as the publications of
non-governmental organisations alongside more traditional
academic publications. On all topics you are encouraged to do
your own searches. If you do, make sure to quote your sources
correctly if you refer to them in assessment essays
The criminal justice system seems to have two distinct tasks. On
the one hand it defends certain rights (the rule of law, due
process, a fair trial) and on the other hand it exists to
protect the public and guarantee security. How far is there an
incompatibility between these two tasks? How far does serving one
mean compromising on the other? Under what conditions can they be
reconciled?
John Lea (2003) Criminal Justice and Powerful Offenders. (lecture on this website)
John Lea (2002) Crime and Modernity. London: Sage Publications (chapter one) (this chapter is on this website)
John Lea (1992) A framework for the analysis of crime (paper on this website)
Watch on YouTube a
lecture on the rule of law by Lord Bingham, former Lord
Chief Justice of England and Wales. His book, Bingham, T. (2010) The
Rule of Law. London: Penguin books is worth a look.
LCHR (2000) What
Is a Fair Trial: a Basic Guide to Legal Standards and Practice,
New York: Lawyer's Committee for Human Rights. An extensive
definition
Council of Europe website giving a definition of a fair trial under article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights
Organised crime is one category of
powerful offenders able to mobilise various resources to evade or
obstruct the criminal justice system. Traditional forms of
organised crime may have attempted various types of corruption and
intimidation of such groups as police, potential witnesses,
lawyers. The use of internet and computing and various types of
'cybercrime' place an emphasis on the ability of criminals to
avoid surveillance. What types of prosecution strategies have
developed and do they pose any problems for the rule of law?
J. Lea (2004) 'Hitting Criminals where it hurts: organised crime and the erosion of due process' Cambrian Law Review vol 35: 81-96 (An earlier version is here )
Cabinet Office (2011) The cost of cyber crime. London: Cabinet Office
Cabinet Office and Home Office (2009)
Extending
Our Reach: a comprehensive approach to tackling serious
organised crime. Cm 7665. London: the Stationary
Office
Crown Prosecution Service (England and Wales) web
site on problems and issues in the prosecution of organised
crime (contains numerous further links worth
investigating)
Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA)
the main UK police agency dedicated to dealing with organised
crime. Read the SOCA annual
report for 2010/11 and note the section on cybercrime
(pages 16-17)
Government Plans for the new National
Crime Agency (to replace SOCA in 2013)
C. Harfield (2008) 'The organization of 'organized crime policing' and its international context' Criminology and Criminal Justice 8: 483-507 (subscription required - maybe its in the library?)
Home Office (2004) One
Step Ahead: A 21st Century Strategy to Defeat Organised
Criminals Cm6167 London: Home Office
M. Levi and A. Smith (2002) A
Comparative Analysis of Organised Crime Conspiracy
Legislation and Practice and Their Relevance to England and
Wales. London: Home Office
M. Levi (2007) Organised Crime and Terrorism, Oxford Handbook of Criminology. Oxford: Oxford University Press (chapter 23. pp: 771-809)
Garlik (a computer security organisation) publishes useful
statistical summaries on the extent and type of cybercrime in
the UK. Reports for 2007
and 2009
UK Home Office (2010) Cybercrime strategy CM7842. London: The Stationary Office (the most recent government strategy document. Other useful online resources are listed at the end of the document)
UK Cabinet Office (2011) The
UK Cyber Security Strategy: Protecting and promoting the UK
in a digital world. London: the Cabinet Office
US Department of Justice (2011) Cybersecurity: protecting America's New Frontier. (recent US government statement on prosecuting cybercrime)
Alkaabi, Ali and Mohay, George M. and McCullagh, Adrian J. and Chantler, Alan N. (2010) Dealing with the problem of cybercrime. In: Conference Proceedings of 2nd International ICST Conference on Digital Forensics & Cyber Crime, 4‐6 October 2010, Abu Dhabi.
Grabosky, P. (2007) Requirements of prosecution services to
deal with cyber crime. Crime, Law and Social Change
47(4-5): 201-223
Rush, H. et al. (2009) Cybercrime and illegal innovation London: NESTA /University of Brighton. A major study with an emphasis on credit card fraud
Choo. R. et al. (2007) Future
Developments in Technology-enabled crime.
Australian Institute of Criminology. (major Australian study
with an emphasis on prosecution and policing
issues)
Urbas, G. & Choo, R. (2008) Resource
Materials on Technology-enabled Crime. Australian
Institute of Criminology (read the introduction and the sections
on 'Jurisdictional, prosecution and sentencing issues' and 'Law
enforcement and evidentiary issues'
Brenner, S. Cybercrime Investigation and Prosecution: the Role of Penal and Procedural Law (University of Dayton) A US legal perspective on the problems of prosecuting cybercrime
Tonry, M. ed. (2009) Oxford Handbook of Crime and Public
Policy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (chapter 10 on Identity
Theft and chapter 19 on Cybercrime)
Smith, R. et al. (2004) Cyber Criminals On Trial.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
(you can read some of this on-line
at google books)
Glenny, M. (2011) Dark Market: cyberthieves, cybercops and you. London: Bodley Head. (recent book by a leading journalist who specialises in organised crime)
Jewkes, Y. & Yar, M. eds. (2010) Handbook of Internet
Crime. London: Willan Publishing (particularly parts III
and IV)
Yar, M. (2005) Cybercrime and Society. London: Sage Publications. (one of the main criminological studies of cybercrime)
Wall, D (2007) Cybercrime: The Transformation of Crime in
the Information Age. Cambridge Polity (chapters
7-10 deal with control and policing issues)
A quite different set of problem is
presented by criminal activities in the world of large business
corporations and banks. Here the obstacles to successful
prosecution of crimes are usually some combination of the
following. Firstly, the complexity of the offence: financial
frauds are, for example, notoriously complex to unravel.
Investigations and court trials may last an inordinately long time
and be enormously costly. Secondly, the status of the offender.
This might be a question of the social class and status of top
business executives making judges disposed to treat them lightly
or it may be a question of the economic importance of the
corporation and pressure from the government for lenient treatment
given the large contribution that the offender makes to exports or
employment. Finally of course, the offender may apply some of the
pressures noted in the previous session. Intimidation of witnesses
is rare but the bribery and corruption of criminal justice
officials may occur. A recent UK case has given rise to
allegations of the latter.
Lea, J. (2006) A Brief Introduction to Corporate Crime. Page on this website
Nelken, D. (2007) White Collar and Corporate Crime. Oxford Handbook of Criminology. Oxford: Oxford University Press (chapter 22. pp: 733-769)
Mackenzie, S & Green, P. (2008)
Performative Regulation: A Case Study in How Powerful People Avoid
Criminal Labels. British Journal of Criminology 48(2):
138-153
Laurie Taylor (2009) BBC 'Thinking
Allowed" series. Broadcasts on white collar crime: (NB - these are
audio files so you will need an audio media player on your
computer to listen to them
There is also an associated
page from the Open University on these talks
McBarnet, D. After Enron will ‘Whiter than White Collar Crime’ Still Wash? British Journal of Criminology 46(6)
Dorn, N. (2010) The Governance of
Securities: Ponzi Finance, Regulatory Governance, Credit Crunch. British
Journal of Criminology 50: 23-45. (this is hard going but
worth giving it a try)
Wikipedia pages on
the Enron
scandal
the Madoff Investment Scandal here
and here
DTI (2001) Report into Mirror Group Newspapers. The major official report into the Maxwell scandal. BBC commentary on the report and also commentary from the Guardian
Tim Webb (2007) Bribing For Britain. Goodwin Paper No 5. London:Campaign Against Arms Trade (see also their Briefing Paper on BAE Systems)
The BAE Files a Guardian newspaper website giving a wealth of background and up to date detail on the issue
Website of the UK Serious
Fraud Office (type 'BAE' into the search box)
BBC news website giving background to
the decision to abandon investigation into BAE arms sales to Saudi
Arabia here
and here
(further searches on this site will reveal a wealth of detail)
Frontline
World: The
Business of Bribes (website of the International
Confederation of Investigative Journalists)
Susan Hawley (2003) Turning
a Blind Eye: Corruption and the UK Export Credits Guarantee
Department. London: The Corner House (a useful
general investigation of the role of bribery
The official
website of BAE Systems with special focus on the Woolf
Report, commissioned by the company to investigate issues of
business ethics
In recent years The Serious Fraud Office has come in for a good deal of criticism for inefficiency. In 2007 the UK Attorney General invited a leading New York prosecutor, Jessica de Grazia, to conduct a review of the SFO. Her report remains secret. Here are some press references: Accountancy Age (June 2008) The Guardian (July 2007)
On the phone-hacking scandal and News
International, which are still very recent on-going issues
academic criminology and political studies have yet to produce
significant contributions. But meanwhile there is a wealth of
information on the internet. The best place to start is the
'timeline' from the
Telegraph and also a Guardian
website full of reports and resources. These will give you
what you need in terms of factual background. Other references
will be put here as they come to light.
In particular look at recent revelations to the Leveson Inquiry - the inquiry into the implications and extent of the phone hacking scandal conducted by the Judge, Lord Leveson
Watson, T. & Hickman, M. (2012) Dial
M for Murdoch: News Corporation and the Corruption of
Britain London: Allen Lane. (the first book so far on the
details of the phone hacking scandal)
Today wars are rarely fought between
the uniformed military forces of sovereign nation statespreceded
by formal declarations of war and concluded by official peace
treaties or surrender. They are more likely to be chaotic
affairsreflecting the break-up and collapse of national states and
fought by a diversity of irregular forces using a variety of
weaponry and mainlytargetting civilian populations. This
characteristic of 'new wars' (see Kaldor below) and the atrocities
(genocide, ethnic cleansing etc.) withwhich they are frequently
associated has made it easier to treat such conflicts as forms of
criminality. The establishment of tribunals suchas the
International Criminal Court in 2002 and the issue of arrest
warrants for military leaders and even heads of state deemed
guilty ofperpetrating war crimes or crimes against humanity, seems
to be step in the direction of assimilating armed conflict to the
status ofcriminality
Lea, J. (2011) 'Left
Realism, Community and State Building' Crime,
Law and Social Change 54: 141-158. (especially page 148
onwards)
Cooper, B. (2009) The
Limits of International Justice. World Policy Journal
Mayerfeld, J. (2004) 'The
Democratic
Legacy of the International Criminal Court' Fletcher
Forum on World Affairs 28(2): 147-56
Philippe Sands (2006) Lawless
World. London: Penguin Books
Inside Justice (2009) The
International
Court in a New Era. This recent web page based on a hearing
at the US House of Representatives gives a useful introductionand
brief history of the ICC
Nick Grono (2008) The International Criminal Court:success or failure? Open Democracy website
William Schabas (2006) The enigma of the International Criminal Court's success. Open Democracy website
The official ICC
website. Here you can read reports and updates of ICC
current cases and evenwatch video of the court in action
ICC
Student Network "brings together students from around the
world in support of international justice" (lots of material and
links)
website for movie 'The
Reckoning' showing from March 2009 'the epic story of the
battle for the InternationalCriminal Court' complete with video
trailer
Wikipedia has numerous pages on the
ICC. The best place to start is here
with the introduction to the history and structure of the ICC and
then go here
to look at some of the current cases. This page is fairly up to
date (as far as the beginning of 2011)
Kaldor, M (2006) New
and Old Wars: Organized Violence in a Global Era (2nd
Edition) Cambridge: Polity (this is an important background text.
You can read
theintroduction
on Google )
Cawston, R. (2005) Nuremberg andthe legacyof law Open Democracy website
Dworkin, A. (2007) The law and genocide: Bosnia, Serbia, and justice Open Democracy website
Wikipedia web page on Crimes
against
humanity
Martin Shaw (2007) What
Is Genocide? Cambridge: Polity chapter
2
Martin Shaw (2009) Sudan,
the
ICC and genocide: a fateful decision. Open
Democracy
website
A
dilemma over Darfur The
Economist 15th July 2008
Waddel, P. and Clark, P. eds (2008) Courting
Conflict? Justice, Peace and the ICC in Africa.
London: Royal Africa Society
Wikipedia pages on Dafur
Guardian article by Julie Fint and Alex de Waal opposing the actions of the ICC regarding Dafur (6 March 2009)
Guardian article by Cherie Blair on the African Union's support for Mr Bashir (18 July 2009)
de Waal, A. (2008) Sudan
and the International Criminal Court: a guide to the controversy.
Open Democracy website
Brendan O'Neill (2011) That's a first. The ICC is after Muammar Gaddafi – a man who isn't black (Daily Telegraph March 4th)
BBC News (2011) Libya: ICC prosecutor seeks warrant for Gaddafi (16 May)
Oxford Transitional Justice Research
(2010) Debating
International Justice in Africa. Collected Essays, 2008–2010.
Oxford Centre for Socio-legal Studies/FLJS (parts One and Two)
Chandler, D. (2006). Empire in Denial: The Politics of State-Building. London: Pluto.
Clark, J. N. (2009). The Limits of Retributive Justice: Findings of an Empirical Study in Bosnia and Hercegovina. Journal of International Criminal Justice, 7(3), 463-487.
The
South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission