Rethinking Bail

This book addresses different approaches to bail reform, a subject which has attracted attention from criminologists and law reformers over many years. In the USA, a reform movement has argued that risk analysis and pretrial services should replace the bail bond system, and the state of California may introduce this system in 2020. In Europe and Australia, there have been concerns about tough bail laws that have contributed to a rise in imprisonment rates. With origins in a research project funded in Australia by the Criminology Research Council, the approach of this book is distinctive. The inter-disciplinary authors include an academic lawyer and a forensic psychologist together with qualitative researchers with backgrounds in sociology and anthropology. There is discussion of methodological issues throughout the book, including the challenges of obtaining data from the courts. Rethinking Bail therefore advances a policy argument through the presentation of descriptive statistics, interviews with practitioners and detailed accounts of bail applications and their outcomes.