Examining the Policy Spiral Associated with Civil Preventive Orders and Notices in England and Wales - CANCELLED

• In Event: Examining the Impact of Policy for Police Agencies

Abstract

Year after year, Civil Preventive Orders and Notices (CPONs) continue to be introduced or amended despite limited empirical understanding of how these powers should operate. These developments are increasingly problematic as CPONs follow a two-step legal structure whereby they are applied using lower civil evidential standards; however, upon breach of the notice, order or any of the requirements, a recipient commits a criminal offence leading to a fine, imprisonment, or both. While policy entrepreneurship is essential, what has come to fruition since the mid-1990s is what appears to be a concoction of the language and philosophy of the previous orders and notices, which otherwise masks increasing legal expansionism. Drawing on fieldwork undertaken with a single police force, utilising over 100 hours of ride-along ethnographic observations, sixteen semi-structured interviews and various secondary data from police policies and data. The findings from the fieldwork highlight how this policy spiral has legal implications that supersede the Anti-Social Behaviour Order (ASBO), now impacting a recipient's employment, public housing, and citizenship, even leading to deportation in some cases. Several recommendations stem from this research, which aims to gain greater consistency within the current policy landscape and policing practice underpinned by justice and human rights ideals.

Author

• Zoe Rodgers, Sheffield Hallam University