Showing papers in "Criminology & Criminal Justice in 2019"
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors report on a two-year investigation, which maps out contemporary approaches to the delivery of youth justice in England, in light of substantial recent changes in this area of practice.
Abstract: This article reports on a two-year investigation, which maps out contemporary approaches to the delivery of youth justice in England, in light of substantial recent changes in this area of practice...
44 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a qualitative study of migrant labour in the UK food industry is presented, which demonstrates that workers experience a range of mistreatment in the workplace, which is unlikely to fall within the scope of severe exploitation and remit of criminal justice interventions.
Abstract: The issue of exploitative labour practices against migrant workers has been well established in previous work. Yet most research and policy focus on severe forms of exploitation, including types of ‘modern slavery’ such as human trafficking and forced labour. Research has paid less attention to ‘routine’ labour abuses that are less extreme than severe exploitation, but which are still exploitative or harmful. This article argues that a stronger emphasis is needed on routine labour exploitation, which risks being overlooked when contrasted with severe exploitation. Drawing on a qualitative study of migrant labour in the UK food industry, the article demonstrates that workers experience a range of mistreatment in the workplace, which is unlikely to fall within the scope of severe exploitation and remit of ‘criminal justice’ interventions. In order to achieve full ‘labour justice’, more consistent attention is needed on these routine and banal practices, not just the most brutal.
43 citations
TL;DR: The authors argued that contemporary research is in danger of conveying a misreading of policing and procedural justice theory by portraying a reified social world divorced from the social psychological dynamics of encounters between the police and policed.
Abstract: Contemporary research on policing and procedural justice theory (PJT) emphasizes large-scale survey data to link a series of interlocking concepts, namely perceptions of procedural fairness, police legitimacy and normative compliance. In this article we contend that as such, contemporary research is in danger of conveying a misreading of PJT by portraying a reified social world divorced from the social psychological dynamics of encounters between the police and policed. In this article we set out a rationale for addressing this potential misreading and explore how and why PJT researchers would benefit both theoretically and methodologically through drawing upon advances in theoretical accounts of social identity, developed most notably in attempts to understand crowd action. Specifically, we advance an articulation of a ‘process-based’ model of PJT’s underlying social and subjective dynamics and stress the value of ethnographic approaches for studying police–‘citizen’ encounters.
35 citations
TL;DR: To what extent can the past 'explain' the present? This deceptively simple question lies at the heart of historical criminology (research which incorporates historical primary sources while address....
Abstract: To what extent can the past ‘explain’ the present? This deceptively simple question lies at the heart of historical criminology (research which incorporates historical primary sources while address...
34 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a body of victimological literature drawn from social and personality psychology, criminology and sociology is combined to illuminate mechanisms underlying possible tensions between victims' narratives and other perspectives on their ordeal.
Abstract: This article offers a novel approach to the difficulties experienced by victims in relation to their social surroundings in general, and to justice processes in particular, by expanding on an emerging paradigm of narrative victimology. For victims, ownership of their narrative is a key element of their experience, but this ownership is contested. The article brings together a body of victimological literature drawn from social and personality psychology, criminology and sociology to illuminate mechanisms underlying possible tensions between victims’ narratives and other perspectives on their ordeal. These tensions are relevant to understanding secondary victimisation in the criminal justice processes, as well as to understanding the strengths and weaknesses of restorative justice as a possible avenue for meeting victims’ needs.
32 citations
TL;DR: The authors explored how teenage boys (aged 15-18 years old) in an English young offender institution (YOI) engage in and construct prison violence, focusing on the relationship between violence and the performance of adolescent prison masculinities.
Abstract: The article explores how teenage boys (aged 15–18 years old) in an English young offender institution (YOI) engage in and construct prison violence. Focusing on the relationship between violence and the performance of adolescent prison masculinities, it presents three key findings. First, there are key differences between juvenile and adult prison violence (behaviour that is framed in terms of being a ‘real man’ or a ‘little boy’). Second, the performance of masculinity is complicated by the striking vulnerability of child prisoners and masks the real problems that all young people experience ‘handling jail’. Third, the performance of ‘manhood’ is an unfinished, negotiated and incomplete work where young people exist in a state of liminality and ‘kidulthood’, catapulted into premature adulthood but retaining aspects of their childhood sensibilities and needs. Thus, gendered performances are mediated and constructed in accordance to youth and adulthood.
28 citations
TL;DR: A minority of those who consume or supply illegal drugs are detected and subsequently punished for breaching these laws as discussed by the authors, but only a minority of active "drug offenders" are ever formally subjected...
Abstract: A minority of those who consume or supply illegal drugs are detected and subsequently punished for breaching these laws. Thus, only a minority of active ‘drug offenders’ are ever formally subjected...
26 citations
TL;DR: For those with multiple and complex needs, re-entering the community after prison is particularly challenging as discussed by the authors, and they contend that in addition to common intersectional categories such as gen...
Abstract: For those with multiple and complex needs, re-entering the community after prison is particularly challenging. This article contends that in addition to common intersectional categories such as gen...
26 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the relationship between fear of crime and risk perception in the context of 23 European countries, and find that risk perception is positively correlated with fear in all of the analysed countries, although the strength of the relationship differs.
Abstract: Cross-national comparisons of fear of crime have been gaining in popularity within the academic community, as they allow for the examination of both individual and country-level correlates of this phenomenon. Nevertheless, the role of perceived victimization risk in fostering fear of crime with respect to various country specifics is often neglected. Drawing on data from the European Social Survey Round 5 (ESS R5), the aim of this study is to explore the relationship between fear of crime and risk perception in the context of 23 European countries. Risk perception is positively correlated with fear of crime in all of the analysed countries, although the strength of the relationship differs. Contrary to expectations, countries with a higher victimization rate exhibit a weaker relationship between fear of crime and risk perception, while in countries with a lower victimization rate, risk perception plays a relatively important role in shaping fear of crime. No effect of unemployment rate, size of migrant po...
22 citations
TL;DR: In recent decades, several highly influential studies have sought to articulate the changed and changing character of contemporary crime control in its historical context as discussed by the authors. But, while the substantive cla cla...
Abstract: In recent decades, several highly influential studies have sought to articulate the changed and changing character of contemporary crime control in its historical context. While the substantive cla...
19 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, children whose mothers were imprisoned in England and Wales, to investigate the impacts of maternal imprisonment on dependent children, were interviewed with children who had been separated from their mothers.
Abstract: This article draws upon research with children whose mothers were imprisoned in England and Wales, to investigate the impacts of maternal imprisonment on dependent children. The research directly engaged with children, in accordance with Article 12 of the UNCRC 1989, and is set within an examination of the differentiated treatment in the family and criminal courts of England and Wales of children facing state initiated separation from a parent. The article explores children’s ‘confounding grief’ and contends that this grief originates from social processes, experienced as a consequence of maternal imprisonment. ‘Secondary prisonization’ is characterized by changes in home and caregiver and the regulation of the mother and child relationship. ‘Secondary stigmatization’ occurs when children are stigmatized by virtue of their relationship with their mother. These harms to children call into question the state’s fulfilment of its duty to protect children under Article 2 of the UNCRC 1989.
TL;DR: In this article, it is widely claimed that criminologists should exercise a "criminological imagination" by connecting individual experiences of crime to social structures and historical context, despite such claim.
Abstract: It is widely claimed that criminologists should exercise a ‘criminological imagination’ by connecting individual experiences of crime to social structures and historical context. Despite such claim...
TL;DR: In this paper, two different studies in England and Ireland which utilized an innovative technique, Photovoice, to foreground the experiences of probationers on their journey towards desistance are explored as well as their need for emotional calm, and support and understanding from their supervisors and the wider community.
Abstract: The lives and experiences of those on probation supervision are often invisible and dismissed as unimportant or worse as ‘an easy option’. This article reviews two different studies in England and Ireland which utilized an innovative technique, Photovoice, to foreground the experiences of probationers on their journey towards desistance. The difficulties they face such as stigma, social judgement and exclusion are explored as well as their need for emotional calm, and support and understanding from their supervisors and the wider community. Photovoice as a methodological and creative tool is revealed as a novel and expressive means to develop insight into probation supervision and an effective technique for undertaking cross-national research which can communicate across cultural boundaries.
TL;DR: The role of probation workers in the English and Welsh Magistrates' courts has been neglected as mentioned in this paper, despite playing a pivotal role in thousands of defendants' experiences of criminal justice every year.
Abstract: Despite playing a pivotal role in thousands of defendants’ experiences of criminal justice every year, the role of probation workers in the English and Welsh Magistrates’ courts has been neglected ...
TL;DR: In this paper, the self-reported situations of 21 female respondents who were part of a large-scale study of offenders' health needs were analyzed, and the findings show an extensive ran...
Abstract: Analysis of data in this article focuses on the self-reported situations of 21 female respondents who were part of a large-scale study of offenders’ health needs. The findings show an extensive ran...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors developed a theoretical approach to international criminal justice archives for social scientific research and applied it to social science research in the field of criminal justice. But they did not address the problem of data sharing.
Abstract: In response to recent demands to make use of international criminal justice institutions’ archives for social scientific research, this article develops a theoretical approach to international crim...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors used the concepts of risk and acceleration to explain the controversial and apparently unsettling image of road policing in recent years, and pointed out that road policing is the most likely generator of an adverse-outcome encounter between the general public and the police and is therefore one of the likely situations in which individuals are confronted with their own "law-abidingness" or lack of it.
Abstract: Roads policing is the most likely generator of an adverse-outcome encounter between the general public and the police and is therefore one of the most likely situations in which individuals are confronted with their own ‘law-abidingness’, or lack of it. Despite this, it has so far failed to excite much criminological interest. The article will propose that the concepts of ‘risk’ (as a political as well as sociological concept) and ‘acceleration’ (of technological change, as well as everyday life) can be used to explain the controversial and apparently unsettling image of roads policing in recent years. This article reflects on how speeding offences (researched between 2002–2006) and mobile phone use by drivers (researched between 2013–2016) reveal much about how drivers see themselves, their priorities and the law.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate how Irish neo-abolitionists, through their Turn Off the Red Light (TORL) campaign, map and delimit access to political space and consequently misframe, misrecognize and misrepresent the "problem" of sex work and sex-working women.
Abstract: This article interrogates the discursive framing of recent law and policy debates on criminalizing sex purchase in Ireland and the implications this has for sex workers’ political voice. Drawing on Nancy Fraser’s work on the political dimensions of justice, we look at how Irish neo-abolitionists, through their Turn Off the Red Light (TORL) campaign, map and delimit access to political space and consequently misframe, misrecognize and misrepresent the ‘problem’ of sex work and sex-working women. We employ the methodological framework suggested by Carol Bacchi’s What’s the Problem Represented to Be (WPR) approach to explore how TORL campaigners exercise and manage frame-setting in law and policy contexts to deny all ‘other’ voices parity of participation in political space. We argue these misframing strategies reflect meta-political injustices of misrepresentation.
TL;DR: Probation practice, past and present, is under-researched in Ireland, with limited attention paid to the personal accounts of the people of probation such as administrators, probation officers, clients and rehabilitation workers.
Abstract: Probation practice, past and present, is under-researched in Ireland, with limited attention paid
to the personal accounts of the people of probation such as administrators, probation officers,
clients and rehabilitation workers. This article presents findings from the first phase of a project
which aims to construct a comprehensive and multi-faceted historical account of probation
practice in Ireland from the perspective of core stakeholders. It begins with an overview of its
‘formal’ history, before presenting key findings from interviews with probation officers who began
work in the 1960s and 1970s. The core objectives of the project are to shed light on probation
officers’ occupational identities, map the probation sub-field, and bridge the ‘governmentality gap’
between official and frontline narratives; goals that are achieved through the application of an
oral history methodology. A thematic framework of analysis is employed in order to better hear
the individual and collective voices at the frontline of probation in Ireland during the timeframe.
TL;DR: The authors compared the views on the purposes of sentencing of three major participants in the criminal justice system: legislators who pass sentencing statutes, judges who impose and justify sentences, and jurors who represent the community.
Abstract: In recent times, parliaments have introduced legislation directing judges to take defined purposes into account when sentencing. At the same time, judges and politicians also acknowledge that sentencing should vindicate the values of the community. This article compares the views on the purposes of sentencing of three major participants in the criminal justice system: legislators who pass sentencing statutes, judges who impose and justify sentences, and jurors who represent the community. A total of 987 Australian jurors in the Victorian Jury Sentencing Study (2013–2015) were asked to sentence the offender in their trial and to choose the purpose that best justified the sentence. The judges’ sentencing remarks were coded and the results were compared with the jurors’ surveys. The research shows that, in this jurisdiction, the views of the judges, the jurors and the legislators are not always well aligned. Judges relied on general deterrence much more than jurors and jurors selected incapacitation as the primary purpose in only about a fifth of ‘serious offender’ cases where legislators have prescribed community protection be the principal purpose.
TL;DR: In this paper, the Howard League for Penal Reform and the Equality and Human Rights Commission provided funding for a study on the intersection of criminal justice and human rights, which received funding from both organizations.
Abstract: This research received funding from The Howard League for Penal
Reform and the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the context of gangsterism in the selected provinces by means of a comparative analysis and provide some strategies for effective intervention in order to strengthen the chances of success of future interventions in affected communities.
Abstract: Gang violence has been extensively highlighted as an issue of national concern in South Africa. Gangs also pose concerns about the social contexts of the communities in which they are found. The Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces have had the most prolific occurrences of gangsterism. Here gangs have demonstrated unique characteristics that set them apart from gangs in other areas. This article examines the context of gangsterism in the selected provinces by means of a comparative analysis. The purpose is to provide some strategies for effective intervention. The discussion also interrogates how or why intervention efforts may have failed and what could be improved in order to strengthen the chances of success of future interventions in affected communities.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that much of their methodological insights from researching policing in sub-Saharan Africa come from studies of frontline officers and that many important methodological questions about research on policing on the ground are still open.
Abstract: Much of our methodological insights from researching policing in sub-Saharan Africa comes from studies of frontline officers. Consequently, many important methodological questions about research on...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the Welsh criminal justice policy space that has been opened up by devolution in Wales and provided a long overdue assessment of how drug policy in Wales, while continuing to straddle the UK Government's criminal justice responsibilities, is configured and shaped within post-devolution Wales.
Abstract: The process of Welsh devolution has marshalled major political, social and institutional change. While scholars within various disciplines have attempted to make sense of these changes, the discipline of criminology remains something of an exception. This article offers an examination of the unique Welsh criminal justice policy space that has been opened up by devolution in Wales. The article provides a long overdue assessment of how drug policy in Wales, while continuing to straddle the UK Government’s criminal justice responsibilities, is configured and shaped within post-devolution Wales. The empirical findings presented here reveal the existence of a distinct Welsh drug policy as well as discovering clear limitations to Welsh policy divergence. The article outlines the need for criminologists to take Wales – and the Welsh policy space – more seriously, while highlighting the need for criminologists to become more attuned to the considerable effects being made by constitutional change.
TL;DR: The role of health professionals in preventing violence in prisons is discussed, suggesting that, under compromised circumstances where a punitive penal ethos often subverts good intentions and appeals to professionalism, advocacy for prisoner health and torture prevention initiatives must be broad-based and include a more radical questioning of the foundations of the penal apparatus.
Abstract: This article adds to a growing body of empirical work on prisons in the global south. It reports on a survey into prison health provision in Sierra Leone, West Africa conducted by a local non-gover...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine citizens' reactions to being issued with an on-the-spot penalty and the consequences this has for holding a law-abiding identity, finding that people use common-sense purposive reasoning in their interpretation of law which does not match the actual black-letter law application of specific statutes.
Abstract: This article examines citizens’ reactions to being issued with an on the spot penalty and the consequences this has for holding a law-abiding identity. Using mundane examples of statutory requirements regulating everyday life (motoring), it is found that people use common-sense purposive reasoning in their interpretation of law which does not match the actual black-letter law application of the specific statutes. The lack of congruence between the purposive understandings of legal requirements and the black-letter application of enforcement agencies allows citizens to maintain a moral position that is aligned with the aims of the law but not its actual requirements. This process reaffirms a belief in law-abidance even where the citizen has been found to break the law.
TL;DR: Following the implementation of the Offender Rehabilitation Act 2014, the Transforming Rehabilitation (TR) reforms expanded the offender management market to include several private providers, know as Transformation Rehabilitation as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Following the implementation of the Offender Rehabilitation Act 2014, the Transforming Rehabilitation (TR) reforms expanded the offender management market to include several private providers, know...
TL;DR: This paper explored the experiences of imprisoned mothers in the Victorian convict prison system and argued that motherhood, of central importance to the ideals of Victorian femininity, was disordered by the system.
Abstract: This article explores the experiences of imprisoned mothers in the Victorian convict prison system. It argues that motherhood, of central importance to the ideals of Victorian femininity, was disru...
TL;DR: In this article, a growing corpus of research now indicates that poor practice integrity or inadequate implementation of the model's principles is a key but under-researched factor that undermines the efficacy of interventions based on the model.
Abstract: Although the Risk, Need, Responsivity model of rehabilitation is rooted in a substantial body of research evidence, several studies of the model’s efficacy in youth and adult justice settings within England and Wales have revealed modest outcomes. In this article, we contend that the findings do not necessarily reflect deficits in the model. Rather, a growing corpus of research now indicates that poor practice integrity or inadequate implementation of the model’s principles is a key but under-researched factor that undermines the efficacy of interventions based on the model. We also present the findings of a study that explored applications of the model in three Welsh youth justice services and we examine possible means of bridging the gap between research evidence and real-world practice.