The Secret Barrister
The Secret Barrister · Stories of the Law and How It’s Broken · Picador · Paperback, 2019
At a glance
The verdict: A strong starting point for readers who want to understand what is at stake in the criminal courts.
Who it’s for: Criminal justice students, practitioners and curious general readers.
Key themes: Fair trials · Courtroom practice · Access to justice
Book overview
The Secret Barrister uses stories from daily criminal practice to explore the gap between the promise of a fair trial and the experience of people who enter a courtroom. Victims, witnesses and defendants all feature in an account that asks readers to care about the system before they need it themselves.
For this collection, its value is the perspective it adds before sentencing and supervision begin. It invites probation and criminal justice readers to consider how the court process shapes trust, expectations and people's experience of authority. The personal, story-led approach also offers an accessible route into questions that can feel remote in a textbook.
Choose this for an introduction to the pressures and principles of criminal justice. Read it as a practitioner’s critical account, alongside other perspectives; its publication date also means it should not be used as a guide to current law or procedure.
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Editorial overview based on the publisher’s description and the source below.
Source: Publisher’s book details
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