Child imprisonment has a long history, one that predates the formal creation of juvenile justice. However, the continued use of prison establishments for children, known as young offender institutions (YOIs), remains a controversial issue. This thesis seeks to advance the debate regarding the abolition of child imprisonment by drawing on empirical research conducted in an English YOI accommodating teenage boys. In so doing, the thesis contributes to the established prison ethnographic literature by developing an understanding of the attitudes and lived experiences of child prisoners, a typically overlooked dimension of prison ethnography. The thesis critically analyses three key themes that emerged from the empirical research: surviving life inside; interpersonal victimisation; and, the nature of the staff-prisoner relationships and the use of power. It is argued that imprisonment is far from a neutral experience. The stark similarities between the lived experience of adult and child prisoners illustrate the futility of attempting to create a distinct secure estate for children whilst retaining the use of YOIs. The differences that do exist only serve to demonstrate the inappropriateness of detaining children in the prison environment. The recent fall in the youth custody population presents an opportunity to finally abolish child prisons.

In this thesis, I explore the desirability of including polygamous marriages within contemporary legal understandings of marriage in the UK. I develop existing research in this area to undertake a contextualised, historically-conscious examination of English legal and judicial responses towards polygamous marriages which I then use to underpin my analysis of real women’s narratives. My thesis addresses five research questions: 1.) How are legal and judicial responses towards polygamous marriage framed in English law? 2.) What is the impact of current legal and judicial attitudes towards polygamous marriages on women in the UK? 3.) How are women’s views, experiences and perceptions of polygamous marriage constructed in relation to law, religion, culture and society in the UK? 4.) How might the UK’s legal regulation of polygamy be changed to better reflect the needs of women? 5.) Is legal recognition for polygamous marriages in the UK, a desirable or viable option for reform? I argue that current English legal and judicial responses towards polygamous marriages are archaic and remain underscored by colonial imperialist, orientalist and sexist attitudes. These attitudes have also permeated wider social and cultural attitudes towards polygamy. The debate surrounding the legal recognition of polygamous marriages has evolved very little because the same arguments concerning equality and harm have been made for centuries. A more sensitive engagement with the advantages and implications of legal recognition for polygamous marriages is required to promote a nuanced model of recognition.

Today slavery is illegal in every part of the world. It has been recognised as a crime against humanity and a violation of fundamental human rights. Nonetheless, the exploitation, marginalisation and degradation of human beings for material profit continue to flourish in 21st-century society. Sophisticated criminal networks and transnational illicit operations, coupled with weak governance and a high demand for slave labour, has allowed modern slavery to evolve and thrive underground, where vulnerable individuals are exploited for a multitude of purposes. Due to the complex nature of modern slavery, not only is a comprehensive approach needed to address its commonalities, but particular attention needs to also focus on the complexities and challenges unique to specific forms of exploitation. Further, due its transnational nature its regulation requires the involvement and co-operation of various actors in the international community. In particular, one area that has been subject to increasing concern is the role of corporate entities in joining the fight against slavery, by ensuring that their operations and supply chain networks are not tainted with exploitative labour and riddled with human rights abuses. The international community has recognised that while corporate entities have the capacity to promote positive effects such as economic development, job opportunities, and technological innovations, that their operations can also adversely affect vulnerable individuals and communities. Thus, through the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR), and various human rights initiatives, businesses have been facing pressure to use their global resources, and power to acknowledge their influence and impact on significant global issues such as human rights, modern slavery, forced labour and human trafficking. Separately, as States are the prime guarantors of international human rights, they have an obligation to establish and enforce effective measures to regulate modern slavery, including the conduct of those who violate human rights and engage in the exploitation of people. Concerning unethical business practices, States then have a responsibility to establish corporate liability for complicity in modern slavery and related issues. Against the backdrop of global contemporary forms of slavery, this thesis aims to understand the extent of corporate obligation to respect internationally recognised human rights in the regulation of modern slavery, and challenge the perceived role of firms in combatting slavery in their operations. Moreover, this study considers the role of the State in enforcing CSR in line with its international obligation to protect human rights and combat modern slavery by preventing and prohibiting the crime, protecting the victims and prosecuting the offenders. This thesis will then conclude with an exploration of domestic level operations in the United Kingdom and evaluate what key approaches mean in the support of victims, the prosecution of offenders, and the responsibility of UK businesses.

This thesis investigates the work of custody visiting in police stations. Custody visitors make what are supposed to be random and unannounced visits to custody blocks in all parts of England and Wales. They check on the welfare of detainees being held in police custody, and they report their findings to the local Police and Crime Commissioner. Custody visiting is an important component of the criminal justice system, but it has been almost completely ignored by police scholars, and is largely unknown among the general public. The thesis analyses the character of official policy about custody visiting since the first “lay visiting” schemes in the early 1980s, through to the operation, from 2002, of the current statutory scheme known as “Independent Custody Visiting”. Using observation and face-to-face interviews in a local case study, along with wider desk and archival research and elite interviews, and drawing on Steven Lukes’ concept of power, this thesis is an original, in-depth investigation of this phenomenon. It is the first rigorous assessment of custody visiting, and the first thorough evaluation of its independence and of its effectiveness as a regulator of police behaviour.

This thesis explores the potential of volunteer-based mentoring of offenders and victims in criminal justice in England and Wales. The research was based on four case-study organisations and involved analysis of the recruitment and training of volunteers and of their contribution in comparison with standards defined for mentoring as practiced in more generic professional mentoring circles. Key findings from the research were of limited appreciation of the nature of mentoring among the four organisations; of significant reliance on college students as volunteers seeking work experience for their CVs (and who therefore were not always available to provide longer-term mentoring support); of rudimentary training programmes; and of supervisory staff who often seemed reluctant to empower volunteers to engage in proper mentoring roles. Indeed, rather than mentoring, the contribution of the volunteers was better described as a mix of practical assistance provision, coaching and clerical/administrative support. Despite this, the main conclusion of this research was that volunteer-based mentoring does appear to offer valuable potential in criminal justice for both offenders and victims of crime. However, more strategic approaches to recruitment and more rigorous training in the principles and skills of mentoring are needed, as well as greater support from supervising staff.

Judicial discretion is at the heart of a humane criminal justice system, but the latitude exercisable in the UK juvenile courts allowed constructive treatment at one end of the spectrum and penal custody the other. Official acknowledgement of the different culpability of adult and juvenile offenders really began in the middle of the 19th century, and Parliament finally made provision early in the 20th century for this ‘welfare principle’, that reform and welfare rather than punishment were to guide judicial discretion in the decisions and conduct of juvenile criminal courts. This thesis offers an explanation for the varying emphasis given to this principle in England/Wales and Scotland, concentrating on the last 40 years of the 20th century. The lack of implementation of earlier reforms was confronted in two major reports, chaired by Kilbrandon in Scotland and Longford in England and Wales. Although they came to similar conclusions about the causes and the remedies for juvenile delinquency, and their subsequent legislation shared the same general philosophy, the implementation took diametrically different routes in the two jurisdictions. It is argued that deep-seated cultural and historical differences played a significant role both in legislative reforms and their application, coupled in Scotland with a conjunction of agency and political pragmatism that produced radical reforms. Significant factors implicated in the failure of the English reforms were political ambivalence towards the legislation; judicial/magisterial resistance or lack of training, particularly on child development; the absence of accountability in the magistracy; and the influence exercised by the Magistrates' Association. The research draws on archival papers and research literature, supplemented by interviews with key people. It has sought to find the origin of some influential ideas and explain their acceptance or rejection by the lay justices, through their exercise of judicial discretion. As there were further Acts related to juvenile defendants in both jurisdictions in the 1990s, the research was concluded with a consideration of their implementation.

The study will examine the introduction of the computerisation of crime and intelligence recording in three police forces in the United Kingdom in the decade 1976-1986. The thesis will critique the roles and actions of the main players in this decade, The Home Office in London England, three provincial police forces, Kent County Constabulary, Humberside Police and Lothian and Borders Police, and the computer supply industry. The study will consider the concept of ‘crime' from a jurisprudential viewpoint and will consider the legal imposition on chief officers of police to collect, store and distribute certain crime based data. The study will also examine and analyse in detail three computer projects in different police forces. The use of new, complex and expensive computer programs is highlighted with the introduction of free text searching of large data sources and the need for large scale mainframe computers to handle the analysis and storage of that data. The limited success of two police projects will question the requirement for central government control of publicly funded new technology. The study will examine strategic planning in the process, as well as the rush to be the first police force to embrace the new technology. Further the study will review central government control over public spending, in the first police force based computerisation projects. In conclusion, the thesis will suggest that new police systems should be scaled to local needs and guided by expert central advice. Additionally, chief police officers should be encouraged to use new technology in a strategic manner, sharing outcomes in open fora. Possible new research problems are listed and evaluated.

Police around the world present evidence to suspects at different points during the interview. Some psychologists suggest that police should strategically delay disclosing evidence and test the truthfulness of a suspect’s account by comparing it with the evidence. Moreover, psychologists suggest interviewers who plan strategic evidence disclosure might be less guilt-presumptive about the suspect because they must consider alternative explanations of the evidence as part of their planning. In contrast, many lawyers argue that police should not strategically disclose evidence as it undermines a suspect’s fair trial rights and prevents lawyers from advising suspects effectively before the interview. To address these conflicting perspectives from the domains of psychology and law, this thesis takes an interdisciplinary approach and considers strategic evidence disclosure within the broader legal context of a suspect’s custodial detention. First, a field study of police disclosure briefings with lawyers, lawyer-client consultations, and police interviews, and a survey of lawyers highlights how lawyers rely upon the police’s evidence to advise suspects in custody. When police strategically disclose evidence, lawyers cannot provide informed legal advice and tend to advise suspects to not answer police questions. Second, three experiments and a mini meta-analysis show that generating alternative evidential explanations for criminal cases, as interviewers planning strategic evidence disclosure might do, has a very small effect, or plausibly no effect, on people’s beliefs about the suspect’s guilt. Finally, a mock crime experiment shows that, even two months after a crime, truthful suspects’ accounts fit evidence that was strategically withheld more than deceptive suspects’ accounts did. Independent laypeople from a follow-up experiment could distinguish between these truthful and deceptive accounts. Together, these findings suggest that strategic evidence disclosure could help deception detection even months after a crime, but it also impinges upon suspects’ legal rights and is unlikely to make interviewers less guilt-presumptive.

Chapter 1 introduces the topic of third party funding of litigation which is a recent phenomenon in academic circles. Few of the existing papers on commercial litigation funding are empirically based and those that are, with one exception, use surveys and interviews to collect data. Within the legal boundaries of litigation funding, economic theory predicts that in perfectly competitive markets consumers control what is supplied, prices cover costs without excessive profits and inefficient producers are eliminated. However reality rarely conforms to prediction, and regulation may be appropriate in the public interest to overcome market failures arising from information asymmetries. The research focus is: ‘How effectively are commercial third party litigation funders governed and/or regulated?’ Chapter 2 proceeds to consider the literature on regulation, it’s applicability to litigation funding and the interests of stakeholders. A major concern is the ability of a litigation funder to pay the costs of a winning defendant. The conclusion reached in Chapter 3 is that litigation funders have too much choice in the way they report and disclose information and what they actually report and disclose is deficient in meeting the needs of investors. In Chapter 4, using single firm event study methodology I discover that the stock exchange market does not always react as predicted to disclosure by litigation funders and consequently the market is not an adequate proxy for a regulator. Chapter 5 extends chapter 3 on the solvency issue and also considers other stakeholder issues e.g. ethical ones which may require regulation. The conclusion reached is that a light touch independent regulator overseen by the legal services board would be appropriate. This work narrows the literature gap for empirically based economic research and augments and extends the existing literature by examining third party funding of heterogeneous high value, low volume cases in contrast to homogenous, low value, high volume cases. It is the first work on the accounting regulation of litigation funding. This work will also assist investors, the judiciary and other stakeholders to better evaluate the risks of this new industry.

The principle of equality in the workplace, enshrined in the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, applies to a wide category of workers. However, there are certain exceptions to the legislation. Ministers of religion are not protected by the Act where employment is limited to one sex. Historically "employment" as a Church of England priest was limited to one sex. Then in 1993, following the momentous General Synod vote, legislation was passed which allowed women to be ordained as priests. A significant change had taken place regarding the theology of the Church. This shift in theology also brought the legal position of priests, in relation to sex discrimination, into question. An initial question was, should such priests be protected by secular employment legislation? if so, what are the legal difficulties of inclusion under the Sex Discrimination Act, and what are the practical difficulties of accommodation under the Act? These questions form the foundation stones of this thesis. A four stage process was used to answer these questions. First, a philosophical analysis of the theory behind sex discrimination law was undertaken, focusing on the concepts of equality and difference. Secondly, the position of the Church of England in relation to sex discrimination law was assessed with special reference to the employment status of ministers of religion. Thirdly, drawing on the theoretical work of stages one and two, an empirical investigation into the treatment of Church of England priests was conducted. The fourth stage built upon the empirical findings and the theoretical framework. British and European Community sex discrimination law was critically analysed, as was the relevant ecclesiastical law, and recommendations for law reform were made.