The Sociology of Punishment and the Effects of Imprisonment on Families

Author(s):  
Rachel Condry ◽  
Peter Scharff Smith

This chapter considers the impact of criminal justice and particularly prison upon the families of offenders and the ways in which they are drawn into the realm of punishment. It explores how imprisonment creates, reproduces, and reinforces patterns of social inequality. The chapter shows how prisoners’ families occupy an odd position of an increasing visibility in the academic realm. Much earlier work on prisoners’ families was concerned with identifying the difficulties they faced and how this might be addressed through policy measures. In more recent years, however, studies have begun to explore deeper theoretical, legal, and sociological questions which have important implications for criminology and criminal justice, the sociology of punishment, human rights, and the broader study of social justice.

Author(s):  
Kjersti Lohne

A sociology of punishment for international criminal justice enables attention to the norms, morals, and values at play in the motivational dynamics of penal reforms. At the same time, these cultural forces must be analysed against the background of social organization and structure, indeed, as to what enables people to think and feel in certain ways and to promote policies in accordance with their sensibilities. As such, this chapter explores international criminal justice as a field replete with cosmopolitan sensibilities, but also of lifestyles, qualifications, and restraints. Finding that international criminal justice is perceived as a cosmopolitan expression of social justice, the first part conceptualizes human rights NGOs working in international criminal justice as global moral entrepreneurs and shows how they use humanist discourses to promote global justice-making through law, turning them into advocates of international criminal justice. Balancing claims to authority in the field, the NGOs have to navigate between being ‘insiders’ as experts and ‘outsiders’ that can claim moral authority. The analysis draws on scholarship inspired by Bourdieu and is put to work on transnational fields, enabling attention to what is often downplayed in studies of international law, namely class. As such, the chapter inquires into whose imaginations of global justice become part of its materiality, finding that advocates of humanity predominantly belong to a class of transnational western professionals.


2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 102-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian Howe

AbstractThis article by Adrian Howe is based on a presentation given at the ‘Sources and Methods in Criminology and Criminal Justice Conference’ in November 2015, jointly sponsored by the Institute of Advanced Education and the Socio-Legal Studies Association. She begins by querying whether there are indeed distinct feminist methods in the social sciences. She outlines the impact of what she calls the ‘methodical revolution’ on the criminology discipline, Foucault's contribution and Foucauldian methodologies deployed in criminological and criminal justice research.


Author(s):  
Barry S. Levy

Social injustice creates conditions that adversely affect the health of individuals and communities. It denies individuals and groups equal opportunity to have their basic human needs met. It violates fundamental human rights. It represents a lack of fairness or equity. This chapter provides two broad definitions of social injustice. It gives examples of social injustice, both within the United States and internationally. It describes adverse health effects related to social injustice. And it outlines ways in which health professionals and others can work to minimize social injustice and its adverse health consequences. Text boxes describe concepts of social justice, as well as the relationship between science and social justice. The Appendix to the chapter contains the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 283-292
Author(s):  
Regina Moorer

This article explores how the intersections of gender, place, and race impact the socially equitable application of criminal justice administration in Alabama. Specifically, most re-entry programs fail to address the varied and unique post-carceral needs of Black women. As such, this work examines the obstacles and opportunities for non-profit re-entry program administrators who seek to uphold the civil and human rights of Black women and highlights best practices in providing meaningful re-entry and reintegration services to women from historically under-resourced communities. Using social equity’s theoretical principles in criminal justice, this article spotlights Alabama’s re-entry programs and explores what occurs at the juncture of social equity, community-based criminal justice administration, and recidivism; this article also illustrates the interconnectedness of these three concepts.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
M Ribeiro Bizuti ◽  
M Eneida de Almeida ◽  
P Roberto Barbato ◽  
D Savi Geremia ◽  
A Inácio Andrioli ◽  
...  

Abstract The Federal University of Fronteira Sul (UFFS) is the first higher-level institution in Brazil to emerge from the processes of social and political participation of social movements and networks of civil associations. Its objective is to ensure access to higher education for the entire population of the region named Fronteira Sul, historically excluded, in order to contribute to the resolution of local and regional problems. Its public and popular character is structural, with a historical aspect of a struggle of more than forty years of various social movements for the federal university, in defense of society and its ideas: democracy, equality, respect for diversity, citizenship, right to free public education, sustainability and social justice. The center of political action at UFFS is in direction of universal human rights, equality and the reduction of social inequality, being one of the structuring axes, the strengthening of Policies and Practices for the Promotion of Public Health, since society has presented its demands guided by the concerns with health care in the region. CEBES is a national entity created in 1976, whose historical mission is the struggle for the democratization of society and the defense of social rights, in particular the universal right to health. As a supraparty plural space, it brings together activists, leaders, researchers, teachers, professionals and students, together with other entities in the fight for health. It was responsible for founding the Brazilian Sanitary Reform Movement, by producing and disseminating information, knowledge and critical analyzes aimed at strengthening subjects through the expansion of critical thinking and health awareness, essential elements for political practice and action. The Chapecó nucleus was created to contribute to academic education in the health field by respecting the founding principles of social justice that are in the Federal Constitution of 1988, universality, equity and integrality. Key messages Present the Chapecó nucleus created to contribute to academic education in the health field, while respecting the founding principles of social justice and democracy. To present UFFS as an important institution for universal human rights and its commitment to the reduction of social inequality in the strengthening of Public Health Promotion Policies and Practices.


2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-25
Author(s):  
Irene Watson

This article explores the problem of universality and the historical exclusion and translation of Aboriginal perspectives within the context of human rights and social justice. Opinions based upon Aboriginal world views have been largely excluded from Australian mainstream society, and are generally absent for example in court decisions which refer to Aboriginal law, culture, and Aboriginality. In some instances anthropological evidence is given during court proceedings, but that evidence is still treated by Euro-centric perceptions. Translation is sometimes attempted, but it occurs across the expanse of a colonial history and as if Aboriginal culture was embedded and unaffected by the workings of colonialism. In the light of this, there is a need for an analysis of the impact of colonialism and its entrenched powers. But questions arise: to what extent can effective translations occur? How might they be determined, and what might they mean? And it is sure that the exclusion of Aboriginal community voices negates the possibility or capacity for any reliable translation of Aboriginal perspectives.


Author(s):  
Kjersti Lohne

The chapter analyses the cosmopolitan penal imaginary building on western domestic penality, delving into the relationship between human rights sensibilities and criminal justice mentalities in the ‘fight against impunity’. Through the fieldwork in Uganda and Rwanda, the chapter describes asymmetries between the international and national criminal justice systems. It shows how international criminal justice circulates transnationally between different geographical sites via human rights NGOs and is closely linked to human rights expertise, and how human rights NGOs turn international criminal justice into issues about social justice. Applying a sociology of punishment perspective, the chapter brings out the similarities and differences in ‘penal imaginations’ between domestic and international criminal justice, and argues that international criminal justice both echoes the national and departs from it. For example, while international criminal justice relies upon retributive and expressive undertones, it makes no appeal to punitive sensibilities: a fact that can be understood in light of the close relation between international criminal justice and human rights NGOs. Yet, it is argued that human rights NGOs rely too strongly on punitive answers, and that amnesties can be just a matter of pragmatism in situations of profound violence. Thus, while the ICC has both retributive and reparative aims, the situation in northern Uganda demonstrates how international criminal justice became an impediment to peace. Moreover, the chapter reveals how a lot of practical issues had simply not been ‘thought of’ when setting up the ICC, such as acquittals and asylum-seeking witnesses.


Laws ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 56
Author(s):  
Simon Zschirnt

The overwhelming majority of unsuccessful petitions in the Organization of American States’ Inter-American human rights system are unsuccessful because they are dismissed at the pre-admissibility or admissibility phase rather than at the merits phase. Although this preliminary screening of applications constitutes the major obstacle to petitioners seeking justice, there has been relatively little scholarly analysis of the potential interplay of legal and attitudinal factors at this phase. That is, whether this phase may be where the biases that the system has been accused of (i.e., bias against leftist regimes and a “hierarchization” of negative rights and liberties over social justice) manifest themselves. This article fills this gap in the literature by undertaking a comprehensive quantitative analysis of Inter-American Commission on Human Rights admissibility decisions that measures the impact of a broad range of factors and compares the dynamics of admissibility decisions with those of merits decisions. In so doing, it places into context backlash against the system that has led to recent changes in the system’s procedures.


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