Showing papers by "Anthony Bottoms published in 2017"

Police Legitimacy and the Authority of the State

Abstract: All modern states claim authority over their citizens, and that is one thing which distinguishes them from bands of robbers. ... [T]he state ’ s authority ... also claims to be supreme ... It claims to regulate [people ’ s] most vital interests, and to do so with supremacy over all other mechanisms of social control. Sometimes these grandiose claims are hollow. In a society undergoing upheaval they cannot be made effective and quickly become legal fi ctions. Even when they are effective they may be unjustifi ed, for legitimacy is not among the existence conditions for a state. However — and here is the real importance of Weber ’ s celebrated argument — a belief in its legitimacy tends to increase its stability and effectiveness. It is therefore a crucial question in what circumstances, if any, such beliefs are justifi ed. 1

Offending and offence patterns in the early stages of desistance : A study of young men in England

Abstract: This chapter offers fresh quantitative findings from the Sheffield Desistance Study (SDS). Three conceptual issues were of special importance in the design of the SDS: age, persistent offending, and 'asymmetric causation' – that is, the view that the causes of desistance are not simply the obverse of the causes of initial involvement in crime. The SDS focuses on the beginnings of journeys towards desistance among a sample of young adult recidivists with notably persistent criminal histories. The chapter considers the types of offence committed at the beginning and the end of the SDS, using both official and self-reported data. Here, the main results can be summarised as an increase in offence specialisation as the study progressed; and at the end of the study period, some significant differences in self-reported offence patterns between those who had decreased their offending and those who had maintained or increased it, with the differences centring on relatively specialised factors.

‘Punishment’ in Non-custodial Sentences: A Critical Analysis

Abstract: This paper reviews various uses of the concept of ‘punishment’ in relation to non-custodial sentences, including the frequently-made comparison between ‘punishment’ and ‘rehabilitation’. It concludes that ‘punishment’ has no stable meaning in respect of such sentences and, when utilised, often results in non-custodial penalties being found wanting by comparison with imprisonment. It is suggested that all sentences should be regarded as ‘punishments’, and that the creative development of community penalties will best be achieved by working with a threefold conceptualisation of reparation, rehabilitation and incapacitation, set within appropriate boundaries of proportionality.