The Plymouth Law & Criminal Justice Review, Volume 07 - 2015
https://pearl.plymouth.ac.uk/handle/10026.1/8785
2024-03-28T04:36:10ZHigh Times: An Ethnography of Young Adult Drug Use
https://pearl.plymouth.ac.uk/handle/10026.1/9015
High Times: An Ethnography of Young Adult Drug Use
Coombe, Ben
This research explores the phenomenon of ‘legal highs’ or Novel Psychoactive Substances (NPS), directing substantial focus towards the exploration of user attraction. Whilst legal high research is expanding, the topic of legal highs still remains a relatively under-researched topic. In particular, research concerning the user is in short supply, as policy makers remain detached from the importance of understanding the attraction for users (Winstock and Ramsey, 2010). Therefore, this paper attempts to capitalise in the expansion of this knowledge and discover what reasons users attribute for the use of these psychoactive substances. A comprehensive review of the current literature has attributed the rise in use to predominantly two significant factors, ‘legality’ and ‘availability’. Although existing literature identifies legality as a secondary motivating factor, this paper questions whether its impact is somewhat underplayed throughout previous research.
2015-01-01T00:00:00ZFront-Line Facilitators: A Study into the Conceptualisation and Implementation of Restorative Justice by Ground-Level Police Officers
https://pearl.plymouth.ac.uk/handle/10026.1/9014
Front-Line Facilitators: A Study into the Conceptualisation and Implementation of Restorative Justice by Ground-Level Police Officers
Ives, Michael
Despite a great deal of academic debate surrounding the term ‘restorative justice’, it would appear fair to suggest that the majority of the research in this area focuses upon the three main stakeholders involved within the process, namely the victim, the offender and the community, victim-offender mediation, and the benefits of such an approach. Nonetheless, not only can this can be seen to neglect a number of restorative justice processes, but also to underestimate the role of the facilitator. Considering how restorative justice has been increasingly embraced by criminal justice agencies in the past 30 years, this study sets out to examine how the ground-level conceptualisation and delivery of restorative justice by the Police Service relates to academic perspectives, policing policies and wider penological shifts. In turn, it will be argued, evidenced by analysis of research data derived from eight semi-structured interviews with operational front-line policing staff, that although the conceptualisation and delivery of restorative justice is influenced by all of these factors, primarily they channel into policing policies and individual discretion, which have the most direct effect on practice.
2015-01-01T00:00:00ZLiberty and Security in the Age of Terrorism: Negotiating a New Social Contract
https://pearl.plymouth.ac.uk/handle/10026.1/9013
Liberty and Security in the Age of Terrorism: Negotiating a New Social Contract
Tokimi, Ifeolu
The prevalent rise in terrorism related attacks and the susceptibility of the State to such attacks has, in an effort to counter future threats and neuter the ability of terrorists, brought to the fore the tensions between liberty and security. Ironic as it might seem the values that made western democracies the shining examples of free and rules governed societies are the same values that provide fertile ground for planning and executing horrific acts of terror. Taking a historical look at the concepts of security and liberty, this paper aims to understand if these ideals can still co-exist in a paradoxical relationship in face of the huge threats from terrorism.
2015-01-01T00:00:00ZDoes the Mental Capacity Act 2005 Adequately Protect Persons with Learning Difficulties Against Needless Non-Consensual Sterilisation?
https://pearl.plymouth.ac.uk/handle/10026.1/9012
Does the Mental Capacity Act 2005 Adequately Protect Persons with Learning Difficulties Against Needless Non-Consensual Sterilisation?
Watson, Jordane
Non-consensual contraceptive sterilisation of people with learning difficulties is inherently controversial. As such any legal framework that provides for such a procedure needs to rigorously scrutinised in terms of its adequacy to protect vulnerable people. This article aims to ‘determine whether the post-MCA judicial approach adequately protects adults with learning difficulties against needless nonconsensual contraceptive sterilisation’. This will be achieved by assessing how the MCA has changed the judicial approach to non-consensual contraceptive sterilisation since the common law approach. Further comparisons will also be made between sterilisation and vasectomies. The capacity section will determine whether the judiciary are approaching the capacity assessment in a proactive way that aims to uphold autonomy where possible. The best interests section will determine whether the judiciary is adopting an approach that sincerely promotes the patient’s best interests and genuinely upholds the least restrictive principle or whether their protection is undermined by a risk of prejudice, insincere motives and subjectivity. Finally, The human rights section will assess whether any Articles within the European Convention on Human Rights can offer patients reliable protection against needless sterilisation.
2015-01-01T00:00:00Z