Policy Press

Justice, law and human rights

There is no uniform adoption and application of an international set of rules upholding what is ‘right’ to protect society’s most vulnerable.

Disparities exist within and between countries; killings and enforced disappearances of human rights defenders, journalists and trade unionists persist despite international scrutiny and condemnation; unsecured rights for ethnic minorities, marginalised peoples, the young and the differently abled all illustrate that there is little room for complacency within the arenas of law and justice.

Addressing the UN Sustainable Development Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities and Goal 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions, our publishing in this area examines how the law is responding, or failing to respond, to these issues in a global context.

Bristol University Press and Policy Press are signed up to the UN SDG Publishers Compact. In Justice, law and human rights, we aim to address the following goals:

SDG Publishers compact logoSDG 10: Reduced inequalitiesSDG 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions

Showing 49-60 of 201 items.

Observing Justice

Digital Transparency, Openness and Accountability in Criminal Courts

This book examines how major but often under-scrutinised legal, social, and technological developments have affected the transparency and accountability of the criminal justice process. The book proposes a framework for open justice which prioritises public legal education and justice system accountability.

Bristol Uni Press

Contested Civil Society in Myanmar

Local Change and Global Recognition

ePDFs of chapters 4, 5 and 7 are available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence

This book illustrates the ways in which contestations in Myanmar society are reflected in civil society. It provides an up-to-date overview of the main identities and contestations in Myanmar society as a whole.

Bristol Uni Press

Sexual History Evidence And The Rape Trial

Adopting a critical multidisciplinary perspective underpinned by feminist theory, this accessible book mounts an important interrogation into the use of a victim’s sexual history as evidence in rape trials.

Bristol Uni Press

Secrets and Silence

Uncovering the Legacy of the Cleveland Child Sexual Abuse Case

The Cleveland child sexual abuse scandal was not the scandal we thought. Beatrix Campbell shows how medical evidence of childhood rape identified by pioneering paediatricians was deemed credible but ‘dangerous’. This secret has framed policy making and public opinion and has had consequences for children, professionals, justice and the state.

Policy Press

Gendering Green Criminology

The first volume in green criminology devoted to gender, this book investigates gendered patterns to offending, victimisation and environmental harms. The collection advances debate on green crimes and climate change and will inspire students and researchers to foreground gender in reducing the challenges affecting our planet’s future.

Bristol Uni Press

What Are Animal Rights For?

How should we treat animals? The field of animal rights raises pressing questions about how humans treat the other animals as livestock farming exerts an increasing toll on the planet, and we learn more about their capacity to think and experience pain. This book shows what the world might look like if animals had greater rights.

Bristol Uni Press

Tackling Torture

Prevention in Practice

Malcolm D. Evans tells the story of torture prevention under international law, setting out what is really happening in places of detention around the world. Challenging assumptions about torture’s root causes, he calls for what is needed to enable us to bring about change.

Bristol Uni Press

Exploring Urban Youth Culture Outside of the Gang Paradigm

Critical Questions of Youth, Gender and Race On-Road

Young people ‘on-road’ are often criminalised due to interlocking structural inequalities. Looking beyond concerns about gangs, the book addresses the concerns of practitioners, policy makers and scholars in analysing aspects and misinterpretations of the shifting realities of young people’s urban life.

Bristol Uni Press

Applying Social Policy to Criminal Justice Practice

What Every Practitioner Should Know

Exploring the important interrelationship between social policy, criminology and criminal justice, this book enables students and criminal justice practitioners to understand how social policy concepts can better inform practice with those involved in the criminal justice system.

Policy Press

Class and Social Background Discrimination in the Modern Workplace

Mapping Inequality in the Digital Age

This book exposes how inequalities based on class and social background arise from employment practices in the digital age. Examining the ways in which digitalisation creates risks of discrimination, the book proposes essential law reform and improvements to workplace policy.

Bristol Uni Press

The Unheard Stories of the Rohingyas

Ethnicity, Diversity and Media

The 2017 persecution of the Rohingyas resulted in around a million Rohingyas fleeing to Bangladesh, India and Malaysia. This book investigates the complex challenges of managing the large-scale refugee exodus in Bangladesh and how best to resolve these challenges in the future.

Bristol Uni Press

Incarceration and Older Women

Giving Back Not Giving Up

For the first time, this book offers qualitative research on the lives and social relationships of older imprisoned women. In-depth interviews with 29 female prisoners in the south-eastern United States show that older women both engage in generative behaviours, or 'giving back', in prison and also wish to do so upon their release.

Bristol Uni Press