Showing papers in "British Journal of Criminology in 1996"

THE LIMITS OF THE SOVEREIGN STATE Strategies of Crime Control in Contemporary Society

Abstract: The article offers a descriptive analysis of strategies of crime control in contemporary Britain and elsewhere. It argues that the normality of high crime rates and the limitations of criminal justice agencies have created a new predicament for governments. The response to this predicament has been recurring ambivalence that helps explain the volatile and contradictory character of recent crime control policy. The article identifies adaptive strategies (responsibilization, defining deviance down, and redefining organizational success) and strategies of denial (the punitive sovereign response), as well as the different criminologies that accompany them.

What is vigilantism

Abstract: Despite popular and official concern about an apparent increase in vigilante activity in the United Kingdom, there has been little serious attempt to conceptualize vigilantism. This paper attempts to establish a criminological definition of vigilantism, so providing a starting point for future empirical analysis of the subject. The paper argues that vigilantism has six necessary features: (i) it involves planning and premeditation by those engaging in it; (it) its participants are private citizens whose engagement is voluntary; (iii) it is a form of autonomous citizenship' and, as such, constitutes a social movement; (iv) it uses or threatens the use of force; (v) it arises when an established order is under threat from the transgression, the potential transgression, or the imputed transgression of institutionalized norms; (vi) it aims to control crime or other social infractions by offering assurances (or guarantees') of security both to participants and to others. This approach is distinct from attempts to define vigilantism as mere establishment violence' and neither assumes vigilante engagement to be extra-legal nor to involve the necessary imposition of punishment on victims.

In search of masculinity: violence, respect and sexuality among Puerto Rican crack dealers in East Harlem

Abstract: Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted while residing next to a crack house in El Barrio, New York, for almost five years, this article analyses how the social and economic marginalization of second- and third-generation Puerto Rican immigrants in the inner city has polarized violence and sexuality against women and children both within the family and on the street. Traditional working-class patriarchy has been thrown into crisis by the restructuring of the global economy and the expansion of women's rights. Unable to replicate the rural-based models of masculinity and family structure of their grandfathers' generation, a growing cohort of marginalized men in the de-industrialized urban economy takes refuge in the drug economy and celebrates a misogynist, predatory street culture that normalizes gang rape, sexual conquest, and paternal abandonment. Marginalized men lash out against the women and children they can no longer support economically nor control patriarchally. (Abstract Adapted from Source: British Journal of Criminology, 1997. Copyright © 1997 by Oxford University Press) New York Ethnographic Studies Sociocultural Factors Socioeconomic Factors Immigrant Offender Hispanic Offender Hispanic Violence Hispanic Male Hispanic Adult Adult Male Adult Offender Adult Violence Sexual Assault Offender Masculinity Gender Role Ideology Drug Trafficking Urban Environment Sexual Assault Causes Violence Causes 05-00

IN SEARCH OF THE HIGH LIFE Drugs, Crime, Masculinities and Consumption

Abstract: Contemporary social theory draws our attention again to the role of consumption in the construction of the self. The project of constructing self-identity through consumption increasingly relies on global rather than parochial images and traditions, and often proceeds via mimicry. In this paper the biographical narratives of a group of young male offenders are used to explore some of the problems and possibilities of growing up male on the margins of civil society. It is suggested that drug use, drug dealing, and 'normal' crime serve as important cultural and emotive resources for scripting a particular, and powerful, masculine identity on the street. Thus, some conventional themes in delinquency theory are recast in the terms of modern social theory and cultural studies. (Abstract Adapted from Source: British Journal of Criminology, 1997. Copyright © 1997 by Oxford University Press) Juvenile Male Juvenile Offender Juvenile Crime Male Offender Male Crime Crime Causes Juvenile Substance Use Male Substance Use Substance Use Causes Drug Use Causes Masculinity Gender Role Ideology Drug Trafficking Sociocultural Factors Juvenile Delinquency Delinquency Causes Self-Concept 05-00

Policing and the idea of democracy

Abstract: This paper has four major objectives. First, through reference to the considerable body of writing on democratic theory, to attempt to clarify what is meant by ‘democracy’. Secondly, to explore the difficulties in applying such concepts to the police service, and to examine how writers of different perspectives have approached this task in the past. Thirdly, to distil a set of ‘democratic criteria’ which might be applied to the police service, and finally, to consider the institutional arrangements through which such principles might be applied.

Attrition in rape and sexual assault cases

Abstract: This article presents the key findings of a research project investigating changing police policies and practices at two London police stations in relation to rape and sexual assault cases. Despite a shift to the more sensitive treatment of women reporting sexual attacks, the attrition rate remains high. The police practice of no-criming' a high proportion of cases is compounded by the negative role of the Crown Prosecution Service and the extreme difficulty of securing a conviction when cases do come to court. The paper concludes by emphasizing the need for a radical overhaul of the judicial process.

TAKING WRONGS SERIOUSLY Public Perceptions of Crime Seriousness

Abstract: This article sets out to investigate three issues central to the study of the public perception of crime seriousness, based on empirical data arising from a survey of a representative sample of Irish (Dublin) citizens. The firstissue is that of the meaning' of seriousness and some evidence is found for the notion that seriousness may be a complex variable reflecting the relative weights given to the wrongfulness and harmfulness of an offence. Secondly, the degree to which perceptions of crime seriousness are consensually held between differing societies, and social groups over time is examined. Finally, the methodological debate over rating and ranking offence seriousness is considered.

The relationship between alcohol intoxication, stressors and injury in urban violence

Abstract: The relationships between alcohol consumption and intoxication, stressors and injury in urban violence were investigated in parallel case control and cohort studies of injured people presenting at a large Accident and Emergency Department. Alcohol intoxication and consumption were assessed using the breath analysis and diary method, stressors were assessed using the Holmes and Rahle Life Style Score for the periods up to one week; more than one week but less than one month; more than one month but less than one year; and more than a year prior to injury, and injury severity was calculated by means of four injury severity indices. The Glasgow Coma Score was recorded as a measure of the effect of alcohol on brain function. Cases could not be differentiated from controls on the basis of experience of major life events or minor stressors in the period prior to injury, or on the basis of age, employment status, social class or the types of relationship formed with peers or sexual partners. Cases drank more during an average weekend than controls, drank more on each weekend drinking session than controls, and were more likely to binge drink (consume more than ten units) compared to controls. Consumption of more than ten units of alcohol in the six hours prior to assault and blood alcohol levels of greater than 160 mgm per 100 ml were associated with injury. A predominance of facial injuries was found. While blood alcohol concentration and injury severity were significantly related to levels of alcohol consciousness, there was no significant relationship between injury severity and blood alcohol concentrations. The results of this study suggest that heavy binge drinking increases vulnerability to injury.

Masculinity and child homicide

Abstract: In this article masculinity and violence are explored through an examination of case studies of child homicides committed by men in Victoria, Australia between 1985 and 1994. The findings reveal a diversity of violent scenarios and a complexity in masculinity and its relationship to violence. They challenge the adequacy of universalistic representations of male violence as either an instrumental act, a means of accomplishing masculinity, or as an unpremenditated emotional act of rage and anger in response to a threat. In particular, the scenarios reveal both the complex and sometimes contradictory expectations of masculinities and the ways in which they are achieved differently in different situations.

The impact of equal opportunities policies on the day-to-day experiences of women police constables

Abstract: The Sex Discrimination Act was introduced as legislation in Great Britain in 1975. The police ser vice responded by integrating the existing Women's Sections and the main operational body of the rest of the service. Despite the introduction of equal opportunities policies in many services in the late 1980s and early 1990s, real change was slow in filtering down through the ranks and it could be argued that early policy changes were entirely notional. This study examines the attitudes and experiences of some officers in one division of Sussex Police since the implementation of such a policy. The first part of the paper looks at recent research which addresses general issues surrounding women in the police. The paper then examines the research findings and discusses whether equal opportunities policies alone can effect change for women in the police. A key issue identified in this study is the lack offlexibility for female officers who wish to take career breaks for having children, which effectively limits their pro motional opportunities.

Masculinity and Heroism in the Hollywood "Blockbuster": The Culture Industry and Contemporary Images of Crime and Law Enforcement

Abstract: This article considers the connections between masculinity and heroic agency in certain versions of popular film. It proposes that how films dignify and celebrate the suffering and striving of their leading men may be quite centrally indicative of durable sensibilities regarding the qualities and virtues seen as defining manliness; and, moreover, that some of the more drastic reaffirmations of rugged masculinity in recent films starring Schwarzennegger, Stallone, and others are in reaction against instabilities in current notions of masculine gender identities. It is in such aspects of representatio n, and in what they suggest about the appeal of such films to their audiences, that we should now locate discussions of the social influences of screen 'violence'. Linguists speak of terms as displaying 'marked' or 'unmarked' forms. Until very recently 'he' was in general use as an unmarked personal pronoun: one had to mark departures from a presumed male reader or company of male subjects. Nouns too have marked and unmarked forms. The unmarked cases of'nurse', 'nanny', and 'secretary' would seem to be feminine, as in a different vein is 'prostitute': they can all be qualified by adding the prefix 'male-', but otherwise they take feminine pronouns automatically. By contrast the unmarked cases of 'prisoner', 'criminal', 'defendant', 'offender', and 'delinquent' (not to mention those of'judge', 'detective', 'Superintendent', and so on) remain masculine. If this is so, what follows for the understanding of the positions of crime and law enforcement in popular culture from the initial realization that the unmarked case of all the following terms is masculine: 'hero', 'villain', 'cop', 'killer', 'psycho', 'hood', 'private eye', 'con', 'gangster? And surely more abstract terms are also gendered in their unmarked forms: 'heroism', 'violence', 'action'? It has by now been pointed out many times that criminology traditionally fails to consider fully the implications of the unmarked gender of its key topics and terms (so often in fact that one might dare to hope that it were no longer true). The doings of boys and men have been so overwhelmingly at the forefront of the discipline's concerns that it has neglected to note clearly just how centrally their boyishness or manhood is constitutive of the activity itself. Something of this sort has also long been true of discussions of media 'violence', in a number of respects. First, we have rarely spoken with sufficient clarity about the startlingly evident fact that historically the heroic agents of popular film and television have, predominantly, been men. Secondly, in discussions of the 'effects' of media 'violence' there is the largely unexamined, but no less overwhelming, point that really it is the 'effects' on the behaviour of males (and more particularly boys) that underlies the social anxiety and animates the research. It is

Culture, masculinities and violence against women

Abstract: The visibility of male-dominated criminal violence differs substantially from culture to culture. Accordingly, a perception of masculinity and male dominated violence as monolithic categories is misleading. Australian, German, and Japanese data display significant variations in the visibility of violence against women. In the light of this, standard gender neutral explanations of comparative criminology will be reviewed. In a conceptualization of hegemonic masculinity' in the context of sexual assault the visibility of the rapist in Australia is interpreted as a consequence of economic and cultural crises of gender relations causing a transformation of hegemonic masculinity. At present, historical and political constellations in Germany and Japan result in the visibility of different features of male dominated violence.

COCAINE AND HEROIN IN EUROPE 1983–93 A Cross-national Comparison of Trafficking and Prices

Abstract: Drug law enforcement aims to reduce the consumption of illicit drugs through reducing supply and increasing prices Data on cocaine and heroin seizures, prices, and methods of trafficking are presented for 1983—93 Seizures, giving some indirect indicator of trafficking, rose sharply for both drugs in the second half of the the 1980s Prices of both drugs showed a decline across the decade, and the prices of both drugs seemed to track each other Data on the primary means of transport of cocaine and heroin into Europe lends support to an explanation of the price patterns in terms of the risk factors these impose for traffickers The nature of the trafficking, and the mechanism by which enforcement of trafficking laws is intended to impact upon the problem, suggest that the rapid substitution ofinterdicted traffickers and routes is highly likely, and that present levels of enforcement will have little deterrent or preventive impact While the European drug scene is changing rapidly, not least due to political changes, the analysis may retain some general applicability The aim of drug control law enforcement is to reduce the supply of illicit drugs and increase the price in order to reduce consumption Via a reduction in consumption it is assumed that social cost is reduced This paper presents trends in the prices of cocaine and heroin in Europe from 1983 to 1993, in the context of the amounts of those drugs reported seized by law enforcement agencies and the means of transport of the drugs Variations in the price of a good are one of the most commonly used indicators of the working of market mechanisms Price variations for the drugs are explained in terms of the activity of law enforcement agents and traffickers, and of factors that distinguish illicit drug price systems from those of licit markets Some of the implications for present practices are n6t encouraging However, the best way to begin to tackle a problem is to recognize it and try to gain some understanding The data sources are reviewed, followed by a brief description of trends in cocaine and heroin seizures and their interpretation with respect to drug supply This gives the context for the development of the drug price analyses The paper does not contain the balancing demand-side information against which the price equilibriums would be reached, but this does not preclude any interpretation of the present data: it may be a possibility for furthering the work contained herein The trends in European prices are placed in the context of, and contrasted to, the US market and the hazard imposed by law enforcement upon the trafficking of illicit drugs The paper concludes with a discussion of implications and possibilities for further research

STATE, MASCULINITIES AND LAW Some Comments on Gender and English State-Formation

Abstract: This paper examines connections between masculinity, social order, and the state in history, through a focus on English state-formation. Drawing on recent work in anthropology, social history, and the sociology of masculinity, it is suggested that state-formation involves both a fundamental shift in the social structure of gender, and a more specific politicization of masculinity. In the English case this politicization was both dynamic and multi-faceted, but one of its key outcomes was the gradual erosion of aristocratic masculinities which enjoyed dominance prior to the late medieval period, and the development of bourgeois masculinities which became hegemonic during the nineteenth century. Like state-building' itself (both in England and across Europe) this broad contest between aristocratic and bourgeois masculinities took a variety of forms, and also waxed and waned in intensity during the period from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, although it was sharpened considerably both by the onset of industrialization, and by the expansion and consolidation of the British Empire. It is suggested that such contests throughout the period were also played out within the law itself, and within the state and its legal and administrative apparatus. The case of duelling in England is used to illustrate some of the political, legal, and ideological manifestations of these interactions between competing constructs of masculinity.

What's New in Evaluation Research? A Note on the Pawson and Tilley Article

Abstract: This paper examines the criticisms of quasi-experimental design included in a recent article by Pawson and Tilley (1994). The note argues that the criticisms are poorly developed and unconvincing and concludes that the article provides us with little that is new and nothing that is useful in developing research methods in criminology.

WHAT PRICE A FREE MARKET IN FORENSIC SCIENCE SERVICES? The Organization and Regulation of Science in the Criminal Process

Abstract: The organization and regulation of forensic science services are scrutinized and evaluated in the light of important and extensive recent developments. The tension between free market competition and external regulation is identified as the central focus for inquiry, and this tension is explored through an analysis of two principal themes in the Runciman Royal Commission's recommendations, namely: (i) free market competition in forensic science services and (ii) regulation of the forensic science community by a Forensic Science Advisory Council. Contextual links with broader developments in the forms of government, administration and political participation are suggested. It is argued that the market approach to forensic science services is flawed in principle. After drawing attention to one fundamental objection--that the language of market exchange irrevocably distorts and debases the pursuit of criminal justice--the economic arguments are considered squarely on their merits. Economic theory is used to derive three predictions which, when taken together, provide a powerful case against extending the market mechanism to forensic science services. The proposal for external regulation by a Forensic Science Advisory Council is endorsed as long overdue, but it is suggested that effective regulation is incompatible with free market principles.

Young adult offenders, alcohol and criminological cul-de-sacs

Abstract: This paper compares and contrasts quantifiable data and motivational accounts obtained from indepth interviews with 66 persistent young adult offenders, most of whom were also heavy drinkers. It not only demonstrates how important technique and setting are in producing results but shows how misguided a primary focus on alcohol as a key variable can be if the consumption of other psychoactive drugs is ignored. The increasing significance of alcohol's entanglement in poly-drug use is thus highlighted. Acquisitive crime, violence and alcohol and drug use may well be connected, particularly in the lives of persistent young adult offenders, but as this study shows the linkages prove extremely complex and difficult to describe fully. British criminology, having largely retreated from qualitative, ethnographic community-based studies of subculture and deviant lifestyles, is in danger of losing touch with these issues. This is worrying not just for criminology but also because authoritative explanations are unavailable to challenge the endless allusions to alcohol plus young men equals violent crime' which forms a key part of the law and order discourses that blame youth for society's ills.

The distribution of deviance and exceeding the speed limit

Abstract: Some theorists have argued that the propensity to deviance, like certain other psychological traits, is normally distributed in the population. Others have maintained that, since deviance is socially defined, its distribution is inevitably skewed by laws, rules, and regulations in the direction of conformity. Support for both these positions can be found in empirical studies conducted more than 50 years ago, but there has been little relevant work since then. The present study, using data made available by the Illinois Department of Transportation, supports the former position in that observed speeds of 16.4 million cars on rural highways in the state were found to be normally distributed with the mean on the speed limit of 65 mph. Similar results were found for trucks, though the distribution was slightly skewed in the direction of non-conformity. The implications of these results for criminological theory and for controlling everyday crimes committed by ordinary people are discussed.

The concept of ‘dangerousness’ in the people's republic of cihina and its impact on the treatment of prisoners

Abstract: Throughout the history of the People's Republic of China criminal process and administrative sanc tions have been viewed as a medium for the exercise of coercive state power against those who would undermine the existing political order, and Chinese socialist political ideology has consistently justified this position. Dangerousness is a concept informed by those political considerations necessary to maintain order in a one-party socialist state. Dangerousness forms an element of both criminality and sentencing in China. Dangerousness to society is an explicit component of liability under the Criminal Law and liability for administrative punishment. It is also a major factor in determining sentences. The Chinese system's preoccupation with dangerousness to society is also demonstrated by the use of regular anti-crime campaigns which target activities viewed as being particularly dangerous to society at a given time. While the concept of individual dangerousness is not codified, Chinese scholars have in recent years argued that it is an implicit element in determining the appropriate sentence for individual offenders. In fact, individual dangerousness is also an importantfactor in deciding whether or not to commit a person to Re-education Through Labour or Forced Job Placement, which are administrative sanctions. The concept of dangerousness also plays a role in the differentiation between various categories of incarceratedpersons and their treatment. Prisons and remote labour camps are thus reserved for counter revolutionaries,prisoners serving at least ten-year sentences or with knowledge of state secrets, recidi vists, those who resist reform and the like. Treatment of individual prisoners and detainees also depends on perceived levels of the dangerousness they pose to society and each other, whether in the reform tech nique employed during incarceration or in deciding on early release and Forced Job Placement. Since the establishment of the People's Republic of China (China), both the criminal process and administrative detention have been justified as tools of coercive state power against elements who challenge or undermine the political establishment. 'Dangerousness' is both an ingredient of criminality and a criterion in sentencing in China. It is a concept informed by the same political considerations necessary to maintain order in a one-party socialist state. There are two concepts of 'dangerousness' in the criminal justice system of China. First, 'dangerousness to society', shehui weihaixing, is regarded as a fundamental characteristic of crime. Thus conduct constitutes a crime only if it poses a sufficiently serious 'dangerousness to society',1 measured in terms of harmful social consequences or, if no actual harm resulted, the state of danger the conduct created (Gao 1986: 88 9). The degree of'dangerousness to society' also determines the severity of punishment. * Edward J. Epstein is a Solicitor and Manager of the China Practice Group at Clifford Chance, London. From

What's crucial in evaluation research: a reply to Bennett

Abstract: Beware researchers proclaiming an innocence in respect of methodological principles. Every nut, bolt and washer in a laboratory instrument is the carrier of epistemological assumptions. Every aspect of design, data collection and analysis in social research bears a commitment to a particular model of social explanation. This paper examines Bennett's reconstruction of his own research, detects some wishful thinking and seeks to extract from the debate further clarification on what is crucial in evaluation research.

Serious offending and the management of public risk in new zealand

Abstract: Amendments to Mew Zealand's Criminal Justice Act 1985 have produced a twin track policy similar in form to that operating in England and Wales. The theoretical or empirical validity of these measures is examined and data from New Zealand used to test core assumptions of the policy: in particular: (1) that future harmful behaviour--dangcrousness--is adequately described or predicted by current behaviour; (2) that in the long run public exposure to risk of serious crime is most effectively reduced by longer periods of imprisonment; and (3) that comprehensive programmes of post-release supervision and rehabilitation are equally appropriate to all prisoners as a means of reducing risk of further offending. Not one of these assumptions was clearly supported by the data or the literature on offending behaviour. The findings are discussed and factors affecting the development of policies against violence in New Zealand are suggested.

Urban place of residence and individual criminality

Abstract: Spatial variation in crime within cities has been studied using residential areas as sta tistical units and aggregated data on the population of each area as the basis for con structing variables. There is considerable research available on this topic showing that rates of criminality of different types vary between residential areas and that there are strong relationships between crime rates and other social factors. There has not, how ever, been as much interest in research on the possible relationship on the individual level between the area of residence and the incidence of criminal behaviour. The pre sent study elucidates this relationship for young males who have resided in the same areas of metropolitan Stockholm over a long period of time. Reasons for a Statistical Relationship A statistical relationship between urban area of residence and individual criminality may arise for two reasons. First, it may result from selection processes. These processes entail that certain areas attract residents of certain types, which means that individuals are spatially differentiated according to their criminality or according to other char acteristics—either of the individuals or of their households—that are related to their criminality. Socio-economic and ethnic status and the presence of social problems are characteristics of this kind that are often mentioned. Households with certain char

John galsworthy's justice

Abstract: It has been widely acknowledged in the various biographies of John Galsworthy (1867-1933), the Edwardian novelist and dramatist (Marrott 1935; Barker 1963; Dupre 1976; Frechet 1982; Gindin 1987), and increasingly in the penal reform litera ture (Radzinowicz and Hood 1986; Forsythe 1990) that his play, Justice (1910), had a small but direct impact on penal decision making in this period. Written (in part) to highlight the evils of separate confinement in the prison system it numbered the then Home Secretary, Winston Churchill, and the then Chairman of the Prison Commis sion, Sir Evelyn Ruggles-Brise, in its first-night audience and influenced the decision later that year to reduce the period spent by prisoners in such confinement. This much is understood. But Galsworthy's penal interests, and his eventual impact, were greater and more diffuse than this. He was not formally a criminologist (see Garland 1994: 45-6 for the range of occupations to which this term could be applied in this period), but Justice was the highpoint of a period in which he mastered key elements of contemporary debate on the causes of crime and the means by which it might be controlled, and, by dint of his social and literary status, presented them to both the public and to government with an authority that they would not otherwise have had. It is the purpose of this article to examine the 'criminological milieu' in which Galsworthy's ideas and campaign developed, and to explore the artifice of his play in more detail than previous accounts have done, in order to explore the role of the 'man of letters' as a contributor to penal sensibilities. The decline in Galsworthy's literary reputation after his death and the received, though now convincingly contested (Gindin 1987), view of him as an essentially con servative, middle-rank writer whose only claim to fame is the nine-volume Forsyte Saga (which chronicled the decline of the Edwardian middle classes to which he belonged) is not of concern to us here. It is important to emphasize that in the early years of the twentieth century this is not at all how he was perceived, as even George Orwell, who was himself scathing about the later Galsworthy, conceded:

The policing of glue-sniffing

Abstract: This article examines the implications for police practices of central government's policy which constitutes parents as primarily responsible for 'glue-sniffing'. Using data from interviews with families and the police, as well as other research on glue-sniffing, I examine how this policy affects the latter3s decision-making activities and, thereby, the consequences these have for parents presenting with their glue-sniffing children. It shows that the families dealt with by the police were not necessarily the 'tiny minority' of chronic sniffers the government saw as needing help. It explains that this has to do with a complex interplay of factors such as the relationship between government and its regulatory apparatuses, the functioning of police discourse, organizational priorities, and institutional constraints. This paper discusses police responses to the problem of glue-sniffing in Scotland and parents' reactions to these. The police were one of the first agencies in Scotland to become involved in the problem of glue-sniffing, initially informally but later formally, when in 1983 the Solvent Abuse (Scotland) Act made glue-sniffing a ground of referral to the Children's Panel. Under section 32(gg) of the Act, children found sniffing 'glue' and deemed to be 'in need of compulsory measures of care' could be dealt with by the Panel. Most of the referrals to the Panel come from the police (89 per cent in 1984, 86 per cent in 1985, 82 per cent in 1986, 83 per cent in 1987, 80 per cent in 1988, 84 per cent in 1989, 79 per cent in 1990, 82 per cent in 1991) (Statistical Bulletin 1993). The centrality of the role of the police is also borne out by the literature which suggests that referrals to other agencies come mainly from the police (Didcott and Asquith 1983; Masterton 1979). The