The growing prosperity of Britain since the Second World War has been accompanied by a growth in criminal activity, which has continued to increase as the Welfare State has been replaced by the Enterprise Culture. Crime and Criminal Justice Since 1945 charts this growth and analyses the social and political responses to it, looking at the progress of penal and legal reform, at the growing crisis in the penal system, and at changes in the style of policing in reaction to different types of crimes. Taking into account both celebrated individual cases (such as Timothy Evans, Derek Bentley and Ruth Ellis) and the growth of public disorders such as football hooliganism, the book offers an account of the political and social aspects of crime in Britain over the last four decades.