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