The British government has recently launched a new package of legislation for criminal justice, one that is widely regarded as marking a return to traditional right-wing strategies of increased police powers and harsher punishments for offenders. This paper examines that development against the backcloth of Conservative policy for law and order as it has developed since the Conservative government came into office in 1979. It concludes that it is now possible to identify three clear phases in criminal justice policy under the Conservatives, each linked to wider political objectives. The effect of such policy shifts has been to destabilize the criminal justice system and to subordinate criminal justice policy to political expediency.
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