Using Civil Orders to Reduce the Risk of Serious Crime

• In Event: The Impact of Legislation on Crime Prevention and Public Safety

Abstract

From the late 1990s onwards, the United Kingdom has introduced a sophisticated range of new civil preventive orders with the aim of better protecting the public from serious crime, particularly sexual offending, offending by organised or so-called life-style criminals, and violent offending. All these orders have a similar three-stage structure: risky behaviour, followed by a formal legal warning in the form of a civil order, followed by the possibility of criminal punishment if that legal warning is ignored. This paper will critically analyse the development and use of these orders and ask what other countries might learn from the United Kingdom experience.

Author

• Stephen Cameron Shute, University of Sussex, United Kingdom