Respect and Criminal Justice
Gabrielle Watson
Abstract
Respect and Criminal Justice offers the first study of ‘respect’ in criminal justice in England and Wales, where the value is elusive but of persisting significance.
The book takes the form of a sustained critique of the ‘respect deficit’ in policing and imprisonment. It is especially concerned with the ways in which both institutions are merely constrained and not characterised by respect. It emerges that they appeal to the word ‘respect’—relying on its inclusive ethos in official discourse when it is expedient to do so—but rarely and only superficially address the prior question of what it i ... More
Respect and Criminal Justice offers the first study of ‘respect’ in criminal justice in England and Wales, where the value is elusive but of persisting significance.
The book takes the form of a sustained critique of the ‘respect deficit’ in policing and imprisonment. It is especially concerned with the ways in which both institutions are merely constrained and not characterised by respect. It emerges that they appeal to the word ‘respect’—relying on its inclusive ethos in official discourse when it is expedient to do so—but rarely and only superficially address the prior question of what it is to respect and be respected. Despite academic interest in the democratic design of these institutions in recent decades, respect is more akin to a slogan than a foundational value of criminal justice practice.
Keywords:
criminal justice,
law,
respect,
policing,
imprisonment,
instrumentalism,
moral values,
institutional practice and design
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2020 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780198833345 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: August 2020 |
DOI:10.1093/oso/9780198833345.001.0001 |
