27. Critical perspectives on crime and punishment

Criminology ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve Case ◽  
Phil Johnson ◽  
David Manlow ◽  
Roger Smith ◽  
Kate Williams
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Transformative Justice ◽  
Crime And Punishment ◽  
Community Justice ◽  
Critical Perspectives ◽  
Control Theories

This chapter examines a range of perspectives which question the assumptions underlying the concept of ‘punishment’. It first explains what is meant by the idea of critical perspectives on punishment before discussing a number of critical perspectives on the justice system including abolitionism, social control theories, community justice, and transformative justice. It then explores unjust punishment and problems for criminal justice of discrimination and inequality, focusing on the disparities in treatment between white, BME, and other sectors of the population in the criminal justice system. It also considers how ‘crimes of the privileged’ and state crimes can remain unseen or unpunished and concludes with an evaluation of the limitations of critical analyses of crime and punishment.

8. How do we prevent crime?

2018 ◽  
pp. 97-116
Author(s):  
Tim Newburn
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Crime Prevention ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Situational Crime Prevention ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Informal Social Control ◽  
Prevention Techniques

It is often assumed that the criminal justice system is crucial in determining crime levels, but the available evidence does not bear this out. In fact, it is the processes of socialization underpinned and reinforced by informal social control that play a vital role in controlling crime. ‘How do we prevent crime?’ considers the various crime prevention techniques that have contributed substantially to recent apparent reductions in crime. It describes the distinction between social crime prevention, which tends to focus on fairly broad and deep issues, and situational crime prevention, which is narrower in focus, is pre-emptive, and seeks, through a variety of means, to reduce the opportunities for crime.

scholarly journals Out-Group Animus and Punitiveness in Latin America

2019 ◽  
Vol 66 (8) ◽  
pp. 1161-1189
Author(s):  
Peter S. Lehmann ◽  
Cecilia Chouhy ◽  
Alexa J. Singer ◽  
Jessica N. Stevens ◽  
Marc Gertz
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Ethnic Conflict ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Social Threat ◽  
The Social ◽  
Racial Ethnic

The social threat perspective anticipates that members of racial/ethnic out-groups might be perceived as socially, politically, or economically threatening; criminally inclined; and in need of social control via the criminal justice system. In light of this framework, the current study examines the influence of out-group animus on punitive sentiments in the rarely explored context of Latin America. Data from the 2012 AmericasBarometer survey collected in nine countries ( N = 15,145) are analyzed, and the findings indicate that animus against foreigners, Blacks, and the Indigenous is positively associated with support for punitive measures. These results lend support for the social threat perspective and provide further evidence that this relationship might be a cultural universal in societies characterized by racial/ethnic conflict.

scholarly journals New Times, New Crimes: Notes on the Depillarization of the Criminal Justice System

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 309-326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Matthews
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Historical Overview ◽  
Crime And Punishment ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Subject

Abstract A great deal has been written about the changing nature and direction of criminology over the past two decades, including claims that we are moving into a “new penology.” Many of these claims are suggestive rather than authoritative. In contrast to most commentaries on the subject, this article provides longer historical overview and attempts to sketch out how the central structures or “pillars” of the criminal justice system have become weakened and eroded over the last 200 years and how the emergence of body of “new crimes” and their regulation is challenging what might be called the “old criminology.” The emergence of new relations between victims and offenders, criminal justice and social justice, as well as the development of innovative modes of regulation are, it is argued, changing the social and criminological landscape. This raises issues of theory and practice that challenge traditional conceptualisations of crime and punishment.

scholarly journals Book Review: Crime and Punishment in America: An Encyclopedia of Trends and Controversies in the Justice System

2017 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 302
Author(s):  
Emily Lauren Mross
Keyword(s):  
Domestic Violence ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
White Collar Crime ◽  
White Collar ◽  
Street Crime ◽  
Crime And Punishment ◽  
Biological Explanations

The American criminal justice system affects people in all walks of life, from street crime to domestic violence to white collar crime. This two-volume set explores not only landmark cases and laws, but also covers prominent figures, policies, and scandals. Further, the set includes entries that explain broader issues such as “Biological Explanations for Crime” and “Sociological Explanations of Crime.”

The Development of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice in Africa from Pre-Colonial Rule to the Present Day

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kebreab Isaac Weldesellasie
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Islamic Law ◽  
Customary Law ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
African Continent ◽  
Criminal Legislation

This chapter examines the development of criminal law and substantive, procedural, and relevant institutions on the African continent from antiquity to the present day. It demonstrates the existence of a well-knit and contextual criminal justice system throughout Africa, which was later infused with elements of Islamic law to serve the needs of the newly converted populations. The key characteristic of pre-colonial African criminal law is its customary, unwritten nature, with a focus on serving community rather than individual pursuits. Incarceration and punishment were unknown and instead efforts were made to compensate the victim, whose role was central to the process. This customary law served the continent until the advent of colonialism, whose protagonists enforced their conception of social control by reducing or even eliminating the application and influence of customary norms. As a result, even following decolonization, the new African nations retained colonial criminal legislation.

scholarly journals Sentencing Circles, Clashing Worldviews, and the Case of Christopher Pauchay

1969 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toby Susan Goldbach
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
First Nations ◽  
Restorative Justice ◽  
Dispute Resolution ◽  
Alternative Dispute Resolution ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Crime And Punishment ◽  
Cultural Methods ◽  
System A

The case of Christopher Pauchay demonstrates some of the differencesbetween predominant Euro-Canadian and First Nations approaches todispute resolution. The principles of sentencing circles sometimes overlapwith the principles of restorative justice and suggest their potentialincorporation into the criminal justice system. The use of alternativeprocesses that share some common values is not enough to overcome tochasm between Euro-Western and Aboriginal justice. Where underlyingworldviews diff er, those who can choose between competing valuesamidst limited possibilities will likely choose the values that refl ect theconventional system. A comparison of Euro-Western and Aboriginalapproaches to crime and punishment clarifi es why Pauchay’s sentencingcircle was unsuccessful as an alternative option. Advocates of alternativemethods must consider more than the implementation of a process whenadapting selective cultural methods to the overarching system. Withoutfurther evaluation, alternative dispute resolution (ADR) itself becomesa mechanism of recolonization.

Colonialism, Crime, and Social Control

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Viviane Saleh-Hanna
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Penal Code ◽  
Power Politics ◽  
The Core ◽  
Chattel Slavery ◽  
European Thought

Crime is a distinctly European concept that was institutionalized into the criminal justice system through the penal code, created in the 1700s by founding theorists of criminology’s classical school of thought. In practice, crime is a concept that limits what can be defined as harmful and violent. Written at the height of Europe’s genocidal colonial wars and chattel slavery, the penal code excluded, and continues to exclude mass atrocities and violations committed through these institutions. Since criminal justice institutions were birthed through and spread by Western Europe’s colonial wars around the globe, the study of colonialism, crime, and social control requires a re-evaluation of the pillars of Western European thought and the peculiar colonizing economies and punitive praxis that produced the criminal justice system. Through an anticolonial, genealogical framework scholars and researchers can better locate criminal justice institutions, practices, and concepts within their colonial contexts, allowing for a more thorough understanding of how history, power, politics, and economy shape crime and practice social control in the 21st century. At the core of an anticolonial study of crime and social control is an understanding that Europe’s crime-concept depends upon institutionalized constructions of dangerousness for colonized people and nations, and lack thereof, for colonizing people and nations. Dangerousness, as defined by colonial renditions of race, gender, sexuality, ability, class, nation, and so forth, anchors the cultural and implemented processes of criminalization; as a result, proper and comprehensive deconstructions of colonizing definitions of dangerousness require an intersectional understanding of power and oppression. Therefore, an effective framework for the study of colonialism, crime, and social control necessitates a re-evaluation and re-articulation of the following questions: what is colonialism?; what is crime?; what is colonial social control?; and what is criminology’s relationship to colonialism?

6. Crime and punishment

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Massimo Renzo
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Joel Feinberg ◽  
Philosophical Debate ◽  
Crime And Punishment ◽  
International Crimes ◽  
Justification Of Punishment

This chapter explores some of the most important arguments that have been advanced in the philosophical debate over crime and punishment. More specifically, it examines the question of what justifies the alleged right of states to punish their citizens. Without a convincing answer to this question, the radical conclusion that the criminal justice system should be abolished deserves a consideration. The chapter first explains what we mean by ‘punishment’ before discussing a range of approaches to the justification of punishment, including consequentialism, retribution, and mixed approaches. A case study on international crimes is presented, along with Key Thinkers boxes featuring Joel Feinberg and R. A. Duff.

scholarly journals Post-release reforms for short prison sentences

2018 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
pp. 302-315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Cracknell
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Previous Attempt ◽  
Offender Rehabilitation ◽  
Dominant Form ◽  
Short Sentence ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Way

Transforming Rehabilitation (TR) promised a ‘revolution’ in the way offenders are managed, providing a renewed focus on short sentence prisoners. The TR reforms extends mandatory post-release supervision and tailored through-the-gate resettlement provisions to a group that has predominantly faced a ‘history of neglect’ yet often present with the most acute needs within the criminal justice system. However, existing literature underlines that serving short sentences lacks ‘utility’ and can be counter-productive to facilitating effective rehabilitation. This article explores the purposes of providing post-release supervision for short sentences, firstly exploring a previous attempt to reform short sentences, the now defunct ‘Custody Plus’ within the 2003 Criminal Justice Act, and then the Offender Rehabilitation Act (ORA) 2014 within the TR reforms. This article contends that both post-release reforms have sought to re-affirm and re-legitimise prison as the dominant form of punishment in society – or what Carlen refers to as ‘carceral clawback’. This article will also use Cohen’s analysis on social control to establish that post-release supervision will serve to ‘widen the net’, extend the period of punishment and oversight and will only reinforce a form of enforced ‘state-obligated rehabilitation’ that will undermine efforts made to resettle short sentence prisoners.

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