Hoyle, Carolyn

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HOYLE, Carolyn

PERSONAL: Female; married; children. Education: Oxford University, M.A., M.Sc., D.Phil. (criminology).

ADDRESSES: Offıce—Centre for Criminological Research, Oxford University, 12 Bevington Rd., Oxford OX2 6LH, England. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Educator and scholar. Oxford University, Oxford, England, University Lecturer in criminology, director of graduate studies, research officer at Center for Criminological Research, and fellow of Green College.

AWARDS, HONORS: Joseph Rowntree Foundation grant, for work on restorative justice.

WRITINGS:

Negotiating Domestic Violence: Police, CriminalJustice, and Victims, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1998.

(With Richard Young and R. Hill) Proceed with Caution: An Evaluation of the Thames Valley Police Initiative in Restorative Cautioning, Joseph Rowntree Foundation (York, England), 2002.

(With Richard Young) The Implementation and Effectiveness of the Initiative in Restorative Cautioning by Thames Valley Police, Joseph Rowntree Foundation (York, England), 2002.

(Editor with Richard Young) New Visions of CrimeVictims, Hart Publishing (Oxford, England), 2002.

Also contributor to books, including Doing Research on Crime and Justice, edited by R. King and E. Wincup, Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), 2000; Restorative Justice: Assessing the Prospects and Pitfalls, edited by M. McConville and G. Wilson, Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), 2002; Restorative Justice and Criminal Justice: Competing or Complementary Paradigms?, Hart (Oxford, England), 2002; and The Use of Punishment, Willan (Devon, England), 2003. Contributor to periodicals, including Home Office, Political Quarterly, Criminal Law Review, Criminal Justice Matters, British Journal of Criminology, and Police Review.

SIDELIGHTS: British educator Carolyn Hoyle studies crime as a research officer at the Centre for Criminological Research, an independent unit of Oxford University's Faculty of Law. Her research produced 1998's Negotiating Domestic Violence: Police, Criminal Justice, and Victims, a careful investigation of police response to domestic violence incidents. Describing Hoyle's research, Times Literary Supplement contributor Sue Lees explained that the author attempts "to discover what factors shaped the Thames Valley Police and Crown Prosecution Service response to domestic violence in the light of the Home Office circular of 1990, which recommended arrest in such cases but failed to make much impact. She investigated how officers attending domestic disputes defined the situation and negotiated solutions, and why police failed to enforce the circular by arresting the assailant in the event of an assault."

In Negotiating Domestic Violence Hoyle maintains that police officers often fail to make arrests in domestic-violence situations because accusers withdraw their statements, thereby excusing whatever skirmish has occurred. Hoyle considers the role of victims, not just that of the police and the justice system, to be of equal importance in decisions whether or not to prosecute such cases.

Her acceptance of what "victims" want—that is, her insistence on recognizing that an accuser is free to withdraw that accusation—has led to debate over the extent to which women, as the most frequent "victims" and "accusers" in domestic-violence cases, are truly free to say no.

Other work by Hoyle has been in collaboration with colleague Richard Young in the area of "restorative justice." In this study they examine recent developments in British criminal justice whereby complaints against local police are put in the hands of the community. In the restorative justice scheme, both accuser and accused are invited to speak before a community gathering. The police officer presents his or her perspective, after which the accuser and the community discuss the situation from other viewpoints. Within this setting a course of action is determined that helps to knit the community back together.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Guardian, September 8, 1998, Julie Bindel, "On a Hiding to Nothing," p. T4.

International Review of Victimology, fall, 1999, Sandra Walklate, review of Negotiating Domestic Violence: Police, Criminal Justice, and Victims, pp. 255-256.

Oxford University Gazette, February 5, 1998.

Times Literary Supplement, March 19, 1999, p. 11.