Abstract
This chapter examines the changing contours of legal aid decision-making in the lower criminal courts of England and Wales over the past 50 years. The story emphasises the value of repeated engagement with a particular issue in charting and attempting to bring about change, and illustrates the shifting sands of the research enterprise. The processes of securing funding and obtaining research access to the institutions of criminal justice have undergone significant reshaping in recent times. A further key development is the sharpening imperative to demonstrate the impact of research on the world beyond the academy. Legal aid research exemplifies the difficulties and contingencies involved in achieving this.
This, then, is a story not just about the evolving dynamics of how defendants gain access to legal aid funding, but also of how academics gain access to, and struggle to influence, a criminal justice system itself in constant flux.
This, then, is a story not just about the evolving dynamics of how defendants gain access to legal aid funding, but also of how academics gain access to, and struggle to influence, a criminal justice system itself in constant flux.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | The Changing Contours of Criminal Justice |
| Editors | Mary Bosworth, Carolyn Hoyle, Lucia Zedner |
| Place of Publication | Oxford |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press |
| ISBN (Print) | 9780198783237 |
| Publication status | Published - Nov 2016 |
