scholarly journals Evaluating voluntary sector involvement in mass incarceration: The case of Samaritan prisoner volunteers

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 637-657
Author(s):  
Philippa Tomczak ◽  
Christopher Bennett
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Emotional Support ◽  
Mass Incarceration ◽  
Voluntary Sector ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Citizen Involvement ◽  
Positive Form ◽  
State Involvement ◽  
Normative Criteria

Mass incarceration and supervision operate through a mixed economy. Using the case study of Samaritans’ emotional support for prisoners in distress in England and Wales, we present an original framework of five normative criteria to facilitate nuanced assessment of voluntary sector criminal justice participation. This is an urgent, significant task for theory and practice: we need to find forms of public input that can deconstruct bloated penal systems. Whilst citizen involvement can be a positive form of ‘people power’, our assessment of Samaritans’ ostensibly welcome humanitarian intervention reveals how it deflects attention from severe shortcomings of the penal system. In the context of mass incarceration, we conclude that voluntary sector and citizen involvement in individualised service delivery alone risks obscuring deep problems and delaying much-needed change. This topic is particularly timely, given increasing non-state involvement in criminal justice and the global problem of prison suicide.

The Voluntary Sector Role in Youth and Young Adult Justice Services: A Comparative Case Study of Finland and England/Wales

Youth Justice ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 278-298
Author(s):  
Laura S. Abrams ◽  
Lisa Moreno ◽  
Timo Harrikari
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Young Adult ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Voluntary Sector ◽  
Probation Officers ◽  
System Level ◽  
Comparative Case Study ◽  
Funding Sources ◽  
Youth And Young Adults

This comparative case study investigates the voluntary sector interface with criminal justice systems for youth and young adults in England/Wales and Finland. Methods included document review and stakeholder interviews. Across cases, key differences were found in the training of corrections and probation officers, funding sources and structures, and use of actuarial models and evidence. The organization of these relationships was also different for youth and young adult services, particularly in England/Wales where clear lines are drawn between age groups. The results contribute to an understanding of how system-level factors can drive relationships between the voluntary and criminal justice sectors.

The Situated Actor and the Production of Punishment

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mona Lynch
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Dynamic Model ◽  
Criminal Procedure ◽  
Mass Incarceration ◽  
Institutional Commitment ◽  
Legal Analysis ◽  
Criminal Justice Systems ◽  
Institutional Contexts

In this chapter, Mona Lynch proposes a “social psychology of criminal procedure.” The term conceptualizes local criminal justice processes and outputs in a multivariate way: by simultaneously considering individual “situated actors,” their institutional contexts, and the ways that rules engage, constrain, and are interpreted by both individuals and institutions. Drawing from sociology, social psychology, and structural legal analysis, the chapter proposes a dynamic model for understanding “local criminal justice systems (and the criminal justice actors and workgroups that people them) [as] hubs that translate and put into motion formal legal change to produce punishment outcomes.” The chapter analyzes a case study on racially disproportionate felony charging practices in Cleveland, Ohio, from the late 1980s until 2009. The example raises questions about how the policy was conceived, enacted, and routinized, why prosecutors ratified arrests as felony charges, and why the practice was so resistant to change even after its racially disparate impacts were made clear to system actors. The chapter argues that such thick descriptions are critical to understanding the system’s institutional commitment to mass incarceration.

“We’ll Take the Tough Ones”

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 542-584
Author(s):  
Chrysanthi S. Leon ◽  
Corey S. Shdaimah
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Diversion Programs ◽  
Social Emotional ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Material Resources ◽  
Professional Goals ◽  
Criminal Justice Systems ◽  
Working Groups ◽  
Justice Systems

Expertise in multi-door criminal justice enables new forms of intervention within existing criminal justice systems. Expertise provides criminal justice personnel with the rationale and means to use their authority in order to carry out their existing roles for the purpose of doing (what they see as) good. In the first section, we outline theoretical frameworks derived from Gil Eyal’s sociology of expertise and Thomas Haskell’s evolution of moral sensibility. We use professional stakeholder interview data (N = 45) from our studies of three emerging and existing prostitution diversion programs as a case study to illustrate how criminal justice actors use what we define as primary, secondary, and tertiary expertise in multi-agency working groups. Actors make use of the tools at their disposal—in this case, the concept of trauma—to further personal and professional goals. As our case study demonstrates, professionals in specialized diversion programs recognize the inadequacy of criminal justice systems and believe that women who sell sex do so as a response to past harms and a lack of social, emotional, and material resources to cope with their trauma. Trauma shapes the kinds of interventions and expertise that are marshalled in response. Specialized programs create seepage that may reduce solely punitive responses and pave the way for better services. However empathetic, they do nothing to address the societal forces that are the root causes of harm and resultant trauma. This may have more to do with imagined capacities than with the objectively best approaches.

The Importance of Context in Thinking About Crime‐Preventing Neurointerventions

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matt Matravers
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Moral Values ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Justice Theory ◽  
Argument Proceeds ◽  
Current Practices

This chapter argues that neurointerventions, whether in criminal justice or in any other social practice, need to be understood, and can only be evaluated, in light of the context provided by the relevant practice. In the case of criminal justice, the meaning and nature of the practice is contested and so the evaluation of proposed neurointerventions must be preceded by substantive argument about its justification. The chapter considers the retributive context of much criminal justice theory and practice before noting the continued existence—and indeed renaissance—of rehabilitative features of that practice. The argument proceeds by showing that neither retributive considerations, such as proportionality, nor an appeal to independent moral values, such as dignity, can in themselves guide us in deciding on the justification of neurointerventions. It also raises the question of whether, in evaluating alternatives to current practices, we should take as our baseline what we currently do or what we would ideally do in ideal circumstances.

scholarly journals Understanding why impact assessment fails; a case study of theory and practice from Wafi-Golpu, Papua New Guinea

2021 ◽  
Vol 89 ◽  
pp. 106582
Author(s):  
Charles Roche ◽  
Martin Brueckner ◽  
Nawasio Walim ◽  
Howard Sindana ◽  
Eugene John
Keyword(s):  
Impact Assessment ◽  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Theory And Practice

scholarly journals Creating and Maintaining Structural Hindrances to Criminal Justice Control – A Policy Analysis on the Normalisation of Parental Violence as a Crime in Finland

2021 ◽  
pp. 096466392110208
Author(s):  
Riikka Kotanen
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
Interpersonal Violence ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Division Of Labour ◽  
Legal Form ◽  
Parental Violence ◽  
Control Policies ◽  
And Control

In the context of home, violence remains more accepted when committed against children than adults. Normalisation of parental violence has been documented in attitudinal surveys, professional practices, and legal regulation. For example, in many countries violent disciplining of children is the only legal form of interpersonal violence. This study explores the societal invisibility and normalisation of parental violence as a crime by analysing legislation and control policies regulating the division of labour and involvement between social welfare and criminal justice authorities. An empirical case study from Finland, where all forms of parental violence were legally prohibited in 1983, is used to elucidate the divergence between (criminal) law and control policies. The analysis demonstrates how normalisation operates at the policy-level where, within the same system of control that criminalised these acts, structural hindrances are built to prevent criminal justice interventions.

scholarly journals Rapid, remote and responsive research during COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 205979912110085
Author(s):  
Jane Richardson ◽  
Barry Godfrey ◽  
Sandra Walklate
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Health Research ◽  
Applied Research ◽  
Data Gathering ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Research And Innovation ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Practical Recommendations

In March 2020, the UK Research and Innovation announced an emergency call for research to inform policy and practice responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. This call implicitly and explicitly required researchers to work rapidly, remotely and responsively. In this article, we briefly review how rapid response methods developed in health research can be used in other social science fields. After outlining the literature in this area, we use the early stages of our applied research into criminal justice responses to domestic abuse during COVID-19 as a case study to illustrate some of the practical challenges we faced in responding to this rapid funding call. We review our use of and experience with remote research methods and describe how we used and adapted these methods in our research, from data gathering through to transcription and analysis. We reflect on our experiences to date of what it means to be responsive in fast-changing research situations. Finally, we make some practical recommendations for conducting applied research in a ‘nimble’ way to meet the demands of working rapidly, remotely, responsively and, most importantly, responsibly.

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