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A Brief History Of Crime Hardcover – April 10, 2003

by Peter Hitchens (Author)

2 customer reviews

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Crime is a political football - both left and right are terrified of seeming "soft" on the issue, but for all their efforts, or apparent efforts, crime rates continue to rise. Clearly something needs to be done. But what? Peter Hitchens argues that the time has come to re-examine the criminal justice system root and branch - to cope with rising levels of violent crime, and to restore public faith in society's ability to defend itself. Whatever you think of the solutions Hitchens suggests to this problem, you can be sure that they will excite controversy.

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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Peter Hitchens is a well-known and controversial commentator, a columnist for the Mail on Sunday and a frequent broadcaster. His first book, The Abolition of Britain, made an impact on both Left and Right with its argument that Britain had chosen the wrong future in the 1960s, and that Thatcherism had not only failed to halt the moral and cultural revolution launched by the Left, but had in many ways accelerated it.

Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Atlantic Books; Main edition (April 10, 2003)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1843541483
ISBN-13: 978-1843541486
Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 9.6 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
Average Customer Review: 2 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,976,122 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1228 in Books > Law > Constitutional Law > Civil Rights
- #3296 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > True Crime > Organized Crime
- #3316 in Books > Law > Constitutional Law > Human Rights

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William Podmore

Good study of the threats to our freedom

January 13, 2005

Format: Hardcover

Peter Hitchens is a noted political commentator. This book, a serious, detailed defence of our freedoms, is a worthy successor to his 1999 book, The Abolition of Britain, a passionate defence of Britain's integrity and sovereignty against the EU.

Most EU members lack habeas corpus, the presumption of innocence, single jeopardy, the right to silence and trial by jury. Now the EU wants to impose on us the European legal system (corpus juris), its mode of policing and its own prosecution service. Europol can already operate here, its officers immune from prosecution. Under the European arrest warrant, prosecuting authorities from any EU member country can order the arrest of a citizen of any other EU country. The Crown Prosecution Service is eliding into an EU prosecution service, an unaccountable servant of the state.

Hitchens makes an excellent case against ID cards, which would be compulsory and costly. He notes that the Australians and New Zealanders both defeated the proposal.

He points out that previous British governments wrongly copied US police methods unsuited to `this wholly different country'. He notes, "The Victorian network of police stations has been lopped as drastically as were the railways by the half-witted Beeching cuts of the sixties." Thatcher closed a thousand police stations, one in three, between 1992 and 2002, and centralised the police force. The public want bobbies on the beat: we want laws enforced, not more laws and rights. Macpherson aimed to institutionalise racism, demanding, "`Colour-blind' policing must be outlawed."

Hitchens urges that we build new mental hospitals, ending the `shameful Care in the Community programme' and getting the mentally ill out of prisons. He argues persuasively against decriminalising drugs.

This government overrules the rule of law, suspends habeas corpus and defends those who close down theatres. Its acts, particularly the Racism and Xenophobia Directive and a new offence of `religiously aggravated threatening behaviour', threaten our freedom of thought and speech: behaviour is either threatening or it isn't - the law should deal with actions, not with thoughts.

All these attacks on our freedoms are allowed, if not obligatory, under the EU Constitution.

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Review Guy

(Very) Ordered Liberty (and a slightly misleading title)

September 22, 2006

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

This is most definitely not a "Brief History of Crime," or a "Brief History of the Criminal Common Law," or even "A Brief History of the Criminal System in England." I realized, too late, that this book's title was merely a clever play on Stephen Hawking's a Brief History of Time - a tagline, if you will. This book IS an interesting, though frequently frustrating, political essay about the current state of "law and order" in Great Britain.

A more descriptive title would be: "Liberal Politics and the Failure of Criminal Policy in Great Britain since 1960." I share the author's love of English tradition and the common law. I agree with him that positivism and hermeneutic of value-neutrality have a net-detrimental effect on the justice system, worldwide. He has some wonderful insights into both the causes of crime and the prospects for reform.

But the good points in this essay are undermined somewhat by the contradictions produced by the author's reactionary views. When he waves the banner of English liberty, I find myself cheering. But he then invariably changes gears, engaging in a lot of handwringing about licentious behavior, homosexuality, public drunkeness and pornography. On one page he sounds like John Stuart Mill; on the next he sounds like Lee Kuan Yew.

I understand that social capital is important - an undisciplined community cannot live free. But the author's idea of discipline is downright Prussian. Worse, it is unreflective. He rails against these "sinful" activities without justifying his moral judgments. These views are expressed in an strangely anachronistic voice; he sounds like Oliver Cromwell raging against the Pope. He comes across as a total prig, and as such, this book is not likely to attract a lot of converts to the cause of freedom.

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