Persistent Criminals

Résumé du livre

This is a study of the operation of the preventive detention provisions of the UK Criminal Justice Act, 1948. This act, and its predecessor, gave courts the power to sentence habitual criminals to a longer period of detention than the offence committed would normally attract. The first part of the report examines the way in which the courts used the alternative sentences before 1956. The research shows that while there are very different types of offenders eligible for preventive detention, the measures available to the courts are ineffective in diverting them from crime in most cases.