Gerry Mooney, et al. "Scottish criminal justice: Devolution, divergence and distinctiveness". Criminology and Criminal Justice, Vol.15, No.2 (2015): 205-224.

Gerry Mooney, et al. "Scottish criminal justice: Devolution, divergence and distinctiveness". Criminology and Criminal Justice, Vol.15, No.2 (2015): 205-224.

• Scotland's policy network is small and closely knit, largely a consequence of the small population being concentrated in an urban belt running between Edinburgh and Glasgow. This allows personal connections to develop between key civil servants, interested academics, and parliamentarians (208-209).
• All persons interviewed as part of this project reported a deep sense of pride in the Scottish judicial system and its uniqueness from the rest of the UK. This pride often concentrates around the children's hearing system, a social work focus in criminal justice, and a rehabilitative prison system distinct from punitive systems in England (210).
• Elements or proposed reform that would introduce managerial or punitive elements into the Scottish system were seen as exceptions that would not affect an overall ethos of social welfare (210).
• Perceptions were widespread that the Scottish system was more progressive, softer, and general 'better' than English law. Scots took particular pride in times when the UK had copied Scottish criminal innovations. This attitude of liberal consensus was largely enforced by the tightness of the policy community and the lack of democratic accountability prior to devolution, allowing the insular civil service to dominate policy discussions (210-211).
• Claims of 'liberal, socialist Scotland' are to some extent mythological. Policy wise, Scotland is characterized by high rates of incarceration and a general harshness of prison conditions. The penal system itself has a distinct focus on punitive measures and rehabilitative programs in prison are relatively rare (210).
• The first two government of the devolved Scottish Parliament were dominated by coalitions of Labour and the Liberal Democrats, with Labour presiding. Those governments, from 1999 until 2007, presided over a 'detartanization', where policy took a more punitive turn and the hegemony of the civil service was infringed by parliament (212).
• Despite general sympathies by the Scottish government for the civil service's liberal consensus, they found that the civil service was prone to dismissing data which contradicted with their world view and generally ignoring outside opinions (212).
• These early devolved governments had a strongly liberal focus and were dedicated towards reducing the use of prisons in criminal justice, with convicts instead being transferred more towards community sentences. During the early first government, the focus on human rights and liberalism had endeared the civil service, but conflicts began to erupt during the second government when the government took a more punitive turn (212-213).
• The second Scottish government, elected in 2003, marked a break with early welfare policies. Although welfare-oriented policies still certainly continued, criminal justice policy during the second government became much more politicized, leading the government to adopt more punitive policies that applied to public fear, similar to England (213).
• Although ultimately not enacted, this government did try to create a single agency with responsibility for both prisons and social work to effectively capture the range of community penalties. The initiative provoked distrust from local government and the civil service, both of which saw the action as a purposeful and unnecessary flexing of parliamentary authority and strongly opposed such radical reform from a fledgling government (214).
• It is important to note that, despite similarities in its proposed function, this institution was not indented to copy the English system (214).
• There is evidence to support claims that part of the reason that the second Scottish government adopted such a radical change in criminal justice policy was to secure its legitimacy in the eyes of the community. MPs felt that they needed to prove themselves or else be disregarded by the population and defeated by the SNP (216).
• There is no consensus about why the second Scottish government took such a turn towards punitive measures, although some of suggested that it was a popular move, that they were followed New Labour orthodoxy, or that new democratic accountability allowed a response to pressures that had existed for decades (215).
• Interviews would suggest that new democratic pressures within Scotland were the main cause of the change in criminal justice policy, especially the renewed focus on anti-social behavior. This is largely because, unlike the civil servant, MPs were in touch with communities feeling victimized by anti-social behavior, esp. by youths (215).
• The primary difference between the second Labour-LibDem government and the third government, run by the SNP, were a decreased focus on criminal justice. They were willing to take policies from both Labour and the Conservatives, but generally tried to ignore contentious policies in criminal justice, because they didn't really care (217-218).
• In the 2007 elections, which saw a minority SNP government come into power, the justice policies of Labour and the SNP only differed in that the SNP opposed the Custodial Sentences and Weapons Act of 2007, which would have greatly increased supervision following release from prison (216).
• The Labour reaction to the SNP government was to return to the principles of Old Labour and give a sudden and knee-jerk reaction to all SNP justice policies which were seen as increasingly punitive or involved privatization. This was a sudden break from the policies pursued by the Labour government (217).
• "Labour’s approach being influenced by the need not to depart too strongly from the New Labour UK Government, and, in opposition, to be seen to oppose the SNP, even to the extent of rejecting former policies" (220).
• Despite its desire to focus on constitutional matters or popular fields over justice issues, the SNP has actually embarked on a number of major reforms during its time in government. These reforms have generally reduced costs and been popular among the general public. They are less radical and more pragmatic than the reforms of the Labour governments. They do not clearly represent a 'retartanization' process in Scottish criminal justice (217-218).
• "Scottish criminal justice, in common with most jurisdictions, has had to balance shifts between welfare and punishment, and indeed shifts within welfare and punishment in the wider context of pressures in all areas of public policy to look towards cost-effectiveness. There is little especially ‘Scottish’ in this, nor indeed ‘British" (219).
• The decisive characteristics of change in the Scottish criminal justice system where a break between the pre-devolution policies and the policies of the second Scottish government. The narrative of welfarism decreasing is, however, largely misinformed. The distinction is more that a democratic deficit in the Scottish civil service prior to devolution allowed for more liberal policies to continue despite changes in outside conditions. When democratic control was returned, the changes expected in the 1980s where enacted by the new government (219).
• None of the policies developed by the Scottish Parliament can be seen as distinctively 'Scottish' in nature. The role of 'Scottishness' in criminal justice instead seems to be the small and intimate nature of the policy-making community, which was seen as greatly affected the nature of political discussions and policy management (220).