THE LIMITS OF THE LEGAL PROCESS A STUDY OF LANDLORDS LAW AND CRIMEPDF电子书下载

1.The Response to Rachmanism 1

Prologue: The Rachman Scandal 1

The 1965 Rent Act and After 5

Explaining the Official Responses to Rachmanism 10

Types of Landlord 11

Types of Malpractice 14

The Changing Form of Property Rights 18

Legislation and its Constraints 21

The Management of Legislative Outcomes 23

Harassment and “Ordinary Crime” 24

Notes 28

2.The Making and Breaking of the 1965 Rent Act 29

The Making of the Rent Act 30

Interest Groups 30

The Political Parties and the Political Process 32

The Milner Holland Committee 39

The Breaking of the Rent Act 42

Business-oriented Landlords and Harassment 42

Business-oriented Landlords and the Security and Rent Provisions of the Rent Acts 44

Rachmanism continued 50

The Theory and Practice of Legal Rachmanism 53

Why Winkling is not a Crime 57

Notes 64

3.Harassing Settings and Harassment Behaviour 65

Offenders, Victims and Settings 67

Varieties of Harassment Behaviour 71

Varieties of Instrumental Harassment 74

Varieties of Personal Harassment 79

From Harassment Behaviour to Criminal Harassment 87

Landlords’ Justifications for Harassment Behaviour 93

Note 99

4.The Social Organization of Harassment Prosecutions 101

The Enforcement Agents 102

Police 102

Elected Councillors 104

Harassment Officers 107

Solicitors 109

Magistrates 111

Tenants 113

Stages in the Enforcement Process 114

Notes 124

5.The Construction of Harassment Crimes 127

Transformations of Reality in the Legal Process 128

Procedural Aspects of Enforcement Criminalization 130

Characteristic Transformations in Investigation Reports 132

Investigation Reports and the Stereotype of the Harassing Landlord 143

Harassment Officers and the Criminalization of Harassment 148

Notes 154

6.The Reconstruction of Harassment Crimes at Court 157

The Procedural Basis of Court Criminalization 157

Characteristic Transformations in Court Presentations 159

Court Reconstructions and the Rachman Stereotype 171

A Note on the Magistrates’ Role 179

Notes 182

7.The Social Construction of Harassment Crime 185

Purposes and Outcomes 186

Maintaining the Appropriateness of Harassment Crime 192

Making Harassment a Crime 192

Keeping Harassment a Crime 195

Keeping Other Types of Landlord Behaviour Non-criminal 199

Conclusions 204

Notes 212

Appendices 215

References 219

Index 227