The Adams family are a major London crime gang specialising in drugs and extortion. The gang have a reputation for hiring Afro-Caribbeans to carry out the murder of informants and competitors. In July 1991 Frankie Fraser, former enforcer for the Richardson gang was shot at point-blank range as he left 'Turnmill's Nite Club' in Clerkenwell, London, on orders from the Adams family. The Adams family are known to regularly bribe a quantity of Metropolitan Police officers. Research Adams Family
The ARCOS Raid was a three-day search of the All Russian Cooperative Society's premises in Moorgate, London by 200 police officers in 1927, forming the climax of an attempt by Assistant Commissioner Wyndham Child of Scotland Yard to outlaw the Communist Party of Great Britain. The raid was intended to prove the Trade Mission was involved in espionage by finding marked secret papers which were 'allowed' to go missing from the War Office. The search failed to find the missing War Office papers. Research ARCOS Raid
Bail is the release by the police, magistrates' court, or Crown Court of a person held in legal custody while awaiting trial or appealing against a criminal conviction. A person granted bail undertakes to pay a specified sum to the court if he fails to appear on the date set by the court. This is known as bail in one's own recognisance. Often the court also requires guarantors (known as sureties) to undertake to produce the accused or to forfeit the sum fixed by the court if they fail to do so. In these circumstances the bailed person is, in theory, released into the custody of the sureties.
Judges have wide discretionary powers as to whether or not bail should be granted, and for what sum. Normally an accused is granted bail unless it is likely that he will abscond, or interfere with witnesses, or unless he is accused of a serious crime (such as rape) and is likely to repeat it if released. The accused has the right to appeal to the High Court against a refusal to grant him bail. The conditions governing bail are contained in the Bail Act 1976. Research Bail
Bondage is a family of sexual activities, generally involving the tying or strapping up of one partner or the other. Popular forms include Japaneserope bondage, involving extensive binding with rope. Often, though not necessarily, bondage is associated with sado-masochism, slave and master games or pony girlgames. Typical variations range from tying a partner's hands behind their back or handcuffing them in the manner of a police arrest, through to tying a partner spread-eagle on their back to a table, or standing against a wall. Tight fitting clothes, such as corsets are another popular form of self-administered bondage, particularly for women. Research Bondage
The Broadwater Farm Riot occurred on October the 6th 1985 as a result of the death of Mrs Cynthia Jarrett in the course of a police search of her home. During the riot PCKeith Blakelock was brutally murdered. Research Broadwater Farm Riot
A buck-rider was a dummy-fare who enabled a cabman to pass police-constables who prevented empty cabs from loitering at places where they were likely to be required, such as theatres and music-halls, and large hotels. A cabman who wanted to get at such a place under hope of picking up a fare would pay a person known as a 'buck', a shilling to get into his cab so that he might appear to be carrying a fare and so pass the police. Research Buck-Rider
Capital punishment is punishment by death. Capital punishment is retained in 92 countries and territories, including the 37 states of the USA, China, and Islamic countries. It was abolished in the UK in 1965 for all crimes except treason - in 1998 the death penalty for treason was finally abolished in the United Kingdom. Methods of execution include electrocution, lethal gas, hanging, shooting, lethal injection, garrotting, and decapitation. In Britain, the number of capital offences was reduced from over 200 at the end of the 18th century, until capital punishment was abolished in 1866 for all crimes except murder, treason, piracy, and certain arson attacks. Its use was subject to the royal prerogative of mercy. The punishment was carried out by hanging (in public until 1866).
The improvement in the penal laws of Europe in respect to the reduction of capital punishment may be traced in large part to the publication of Beccaria's treatise on Crimes and Punishments (Dei Delitti e delle Pene) in 1764. At that time in England, as Blackstone a year later pointed out with some amount of feeling, there were 160 capital offences in the statute book. The work of practical reform was initiated in 1770 by Sir William Meredith, who moved for a committee of inquiry into the state of the criminal laws; but the modifications secured by it were few, owing to the opposition of the House of Lords, which continued down to 1832 to oppose systematically all attempts at criminal law reform.
The publication of Madan's Thoughts on Executive Justice, in 1784, urging the stricter administration of the law as it then stood, brought out the opposition of Sir Samuel Romilly, who replied to it in 1785, and introduced at short intervals a series of bills for the abolition of the extreme sentence for minor offences. The influence of Paley and LordEllenborough, and the reaction from the revolutionary principles, which prior to the French Revolution had inaugurated great penal changes in France, told strongly against his efforts; and even his Shoplifting Act, to abolish the sentence of death in cases of theft to the value of five shillings, was resolutely rejected, though passed by the Commons in 1810, 1811, 1813, and 1816. Romilly's work was taken up by Sir James Mackintosh in 1820, and under Peel's ministry with greater success. At his death, however, in the year of the passage of the Reform Bill (1832) forty kinds of forgery with many less serious offences were still capital, though from that time the amelioration was rapid. In the five years following the Reform Act, the capital offences were reduced to 37, and subsequent changes left in 1861 only four capital charges - setting fire to H.M. dockyards or arsenals, piracy with violence, treason, and murder. By 1906 only treason and murder were capital offences in England, andScotland also, though robbery, rape, incest, and wilful fire-raising were still capital crimes in Scottish common law.
Prior to 1868 executions were conducted in public in England, but then in 1868 the law changed that all executions were to be conducted in private within the prison walls. Capital punishment for murder was abolished in the United Kingdom in 1965 but still exists for treason, and during the 1980's it was revealed that the police had a shoot-to-kill and summary execution policy for those suspected of being terrorists. In 2005 a 27 year old Brazilian man was executed by being shot seven times in the head and once in the shoulder after being tackled to the ground by plain clothed police officers who mistakenly believed him to be a suicide bomber.
In 1990, Ireland abolished the death penalty for all offences. In Saudi Arabia execution is by beheading in public. Countries that have abolished the death penalty fall into three categories: those that have abolished it for all crimes (44 countries); those that retain it only for exceptional crimes such as war crimes (17 countries); and those that retain the death penalty for ordinary crimes but have not executed anyone since 1980 (25 countries and territories).
The first country in Europe to abolish the death penalty was Romania in 1864, followed by Portugal in 1867, Holland in 1870, and by Switzerland in 1874. In the USA, the Supreme Court declared capital punishment unconstitutional in 1972, as a cruel and unusual punishment, but decided in 1976 that this was not so in all circumstances. It was therefore reintroduced in some states. Many countries use capital punishment for crimes other than murder, such as drug offences (in Malaysia and elsewhere). In 1977 the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ruled out imposition of the death penalty on those under the age of 18. The covenant was signed by President Carter on behalf of the USA, but in 1989 the US Supreme Court decided that it could be imposed from the age of 16 for murder, and that the mentally retarded could also face the death penalty. Research Capital Punishment
The C.I.D. (Criminal Investigation Department) is the detective section of the British police force. It was established in 1878 by E Howard Vincent. A ' Special Branch' was founded in 1883 to deal with the Fenian troubles, it now deals with the protection of high-ranking individuals and protection of the state, such as harassing members of the Communist Party. Research C.I.D.
CO53 is the codename for the 'South East Region Police Air Support Unit' which is staffed jointly by Metropolitan and Surreypolice officers, and has two bases - one in northeast London and one in Surrey. Research CO53
The Computer Crime Unit is a small but important section of the Fraud Squad of Scotland Yard. The Computer Crime Unit was formed in 1984 to develop and run training courses on a national basis to assist police officers deal with computer-based evidence and to deal with cases of computer crime such as hacking and malicious code (computer viruses and the like).
In 1994 the Computer Crime Unit joined with industry to improve computer crime prevention. The first major case was brought in 1988 when the Computer Crime Unit prosecuted Gold and Schifreen over hacking. However, this case was overturned by the House of Lords on the basis that simple hacking did not constitute either fraud nor forgery. Research Computer Crime Unit
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Adams Family
