Isabelle Bartkowiak-Théron

This book arises from a research project funded in Australia by the Criminology Research Council. The topic, bail reform, has attracted attention from criminologists and law reformers over many years. In the USA, a reform movement has argued that risk analysis and pre-trial services should replace the bail bond system (the state of California may introduce this system in 2020). In the United Kingdom, Europe and Australia, there have been concerns about tough bail laws that have contributed to a rise in imprisonment rates. The approach in this book is distinctive. The inter-disciplinary authors include criminologists, an academic lawyer and a forensic psychologist together with qualitative researchers with backgrounds in sociology and anthropology. The book advances a policy argument through presenting descriptive statistics, interviews with practitioners and detailed accounts of bail applications and their outcomes. There is discussion of methodological issues throughout the book, including the challenges of obtaining data from the courts.

This textbook addresses existing gaps in police research, education, and training, and provides guidance on how to respond to and address the vulnerability that arises in policing practice. It guides students through the conceptual and also the practical issues of managing vulnerability in policing with case studies and practitioners’ views from the UK, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the US, Canada, France, and beyond to the Maldives, China, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. It includes key concepts, views from the front-line, further reading and activities in each chapter. Policing Practices and Vulnerable People is aimed at researchers and practitioners working with police. While focussed on democratic policing practices, this book includes case studies and practitioners’ views from a wide range of approaches, including those from the Global South. This book provides readers with a framework that can assist them in converting conceptual knowledge to critical, ethical policing practice.

This book arises from a research project funded in Australia by the Criminology Research Council. The topic, bail reform, has attracted attention from criminologists and law reformers over many years. In the USA, a reform movement has argued that risk analysis and pre-trial services should replace the bail bond system (the state of California may introduce this system in 2020). In the United Kingdom, Europe and Australia, there have been concerns about tough bail laws that have contributed to a rise in imprisonment rates. The approach in this book is distinctive. The inter-disciplinary authors include criminologists, an academic lawyer and a forensic psychologist together with qualitative researchers with backgrounds in sociology and anthropology. The book advances a policy argument through presenting descriptive statistics, interviews with practitioners and detailed accounts of bail applications and their outcomes. There is discussion of methodological issues throughout the book, including the challenges of obtaining data from the courts.