scholarly journals Decolonizing the criminal question

2021 ◽  
pp. 146247452110205
Author(s):  
Ana Aliverti ◽  
Henrique Carvalho ◽  
Anastasia Chamberlen ◽  
Máximo Sozzo
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Crime Control ◽  
Intimate Relationship ◽  
Production Of Knowledge ◽  
The Past ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Critical Account ◽  
Justice Practice ◽  
The Impact

In the last years there has been a growing effort from different theoretical perspectives to interrogate critically the impact of colonialism in the past and present of institutions and practices of crime control, both at the central and peripheral contexts, as well as in the production of knowledge in the criminological field. In this feature piece we examine this debate. We offer a critical account of key themes and problems that emerge from the intimate relationship between colonialism and punishment that directly challenge the persistent neglect of these dimensions in mainstream criminological scholarship. We aim to foreground the relevance of this relationship to contemporary enquiries. We highlight that decolonization did not dismantle the colonial roots of the cultural, social and political mechanisms informing contemporary punishment. They are still very much part of criminal justice practice and are thus also central to criminological knowledge productions.

Introduction

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Activity ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Processes Of Change ◽  
The Past ◽  
Psychosocial Processes ◽  
Desistance From Crime ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Crime Causation ◽  
Do So

Criminology has pursued a long-standing interest in crime causation and what leads individuals into committing crime. It is striking, though, considering the extent to which state machineries are marshalled into efforts to control and reduce crime, that criminologists have only relatively recently turned their attention to the question of what prompts offenders to cease criminal activity and how they do so. Consequently, and perhaps making up for lost time, the past two decades have seen a proliferation of literature exploring the psychosocial processes of change. Recent research has also opened questions about the impact of social contexts and criminal justice interventions on desistance from crime, examining the way that individuals transform aspects of identity and social relationships as they move away from offending (for example, ...

scholarly journals Diversion from custody: An update

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (6) ◽  
pp. 375-384 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luke Birmingham ◽  
Olusola Awonogun ◽  
Howard Ryland
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
List Type ◽  
Mentally Disordered ◽  
The Past ◽  
Important Landmark ◽  
Justice Process ◽  
Criminal Justice Process ◽  
The Impact

SummaryLiaison and diversion services are concerned with ensuring that individuals with mental health problems and related vulnerabilities who come into contact with the criminal justice system receive appropriate support and treatment. In the past 15 years there have been significant changes in policy, legislation and the broader landscape in community, custodial and hospital settings which have shaped these services. The Bradley Report, published in 2009, represents an important landmark in this field. Bradley made 82 recommendations, from interventions to improve identification of mental illness and vulnerable individuals at risk of offending to effecting speedier transfers of mentally disordered prisoners to hospital. Some progress has been made in achieving these recommendations, and further investment is promised, but at present only half of England is covered by liaison and diversion services.LEARNING OBJECTIVES•Appreciate how services have developed over the past 15 years to provide support and treatment and divert mentally disordered people from custody at all stages in the criminal justice process•Recognise how government policy has shaped the development of liaison and diversion services over the past 15 years•Understand the impact of the 2007 amendments to the Mental Health Act on the diversion of mentally disordered people from custody

Enduring dispositions: Examining punitive logics in the context of disciplinary reform

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 96-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
John J Brent
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
School Discipline ◽  
Crime Control ◽  
Interview Data ◽  
School Outcomes ◽  
Student Misconduct ◽  
Criminal Justice Systems ◽  
Control Orientation ◽  
Alternative Practices ◽  
The Impact

Reflecting the punitive turn in criminal justice, schools have adopted a crime control orientation when responding to student misconduct. Termed the ‘criminalization of school discipline’, this trend has diminished student and school outcomes while also establishing a school-to-prison pipeline. Consequently, there has been mounting pressure to reform punitive and disproportionate practices. While research has evaluated the impact of remedial programs, little work explores how punitive logics continue to structure disciplinary responses. Drawing from ethnographic and interview data, this study examines the entrenchment of punitive dispositions in the context of appeals for alternative practices. By tracing the contours of punitive norms within a non-criminal justice context, this study captures the mechanisms through which penal logics infuse into society and extend beyond criminal justice systems.

Charge Bargaining and Sentence Discount: The Victim's Perspective

1997 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen Fenwick
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Due Process ◽  
Crime Control ◽  
Charge Bargaining ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Due Process Rights

This paper draws attention to the interests of the victim in the criminal justice system in relation to the use of charge bargaining and the sentence discount in UK law. The paper argues that debate in this area tends to assume that these practices, particularly use of the graded sentence discount, are in harmony with the needs of crime control and with the interests of victims, but that they may infringe due process rights. Debate tends to concentrate on the due process implications of such practices, while the ready association of victims' interests with those of crime control tends to preclude consideration of a distinctive victim's perspective. This paper therefore seeks to identify the impact of charge bargaining and the sentence discount on victims in order to identify a particular victim's perspective. It goes on to evaluate measures which would afford it expression including the introduction of victim consultation and participation in charge bargains and discount decisions as proposed under the 1996 Victim's Charter. It will be argued, however, that while this possibility has value, victims' interests might be more clearly served by limiting or abandoning the use of these practices.

scholarly journals Gendered Justice: The Impact of Gender on Criminal Justice Policies and Legislation throughout the United Kingdom

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samantha Perussich
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Crime Control ◽  
The Other ◽  
Criminal Behaviour ◽  
Traditional Role ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Harm Prevention ◽  
The Impact

<h2>This article discusses the role of gender in the commission of crime, criminality, and harm prevention, by critically examining the notion of crime within theories about women’s and men’s criminality, and the gendered nature of crime control policies throughout the United Kingdom (UK), England, Wales, and Scotland. Throughout the literature, there has been a continued focus on women needing to be ‘repaired’ when they commit crime, because women are seen as having gone outside the traditional role of what it means to be female. On the other hand, the link between hegemonic masculinity and criminal behaviour among men is often ignored within criminal justice policies. It will be argued that both women and men are failed by a system that does not engage with gendered power and harms within society. A combination of targeted approaches that focus on the factors that lead to offending is required to reduce crime. </h2>

Big Data and Visuality

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet Chan
Keyword(s):  
Big Data ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Data Storage ◽  
Data Visualization ◽  
Crime Control ◽  
Big Data Analytics ◽  
Emotional Impact ◽  
Predictive Tool ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Big Data Technology

Internet and telecommunications, ubiquitous sensing devices, and advances in data storage and analytic capacities have heralded the age of Big Data, where the volume, velocity, and variety of data not only promise new opportunities for the harvesting of information, but also threaten to overload existing resources for making sense of this information. The use of Big Data technology for criminal justice and crime control is a relatively new development. Big Data technology has overlapped with criminology in two main areas: (a) Big Data is used as a type of data in criminological research, and (b) Big Data analytics is employed as a predictive tool to guide criminal justice decisions and strategies. Much of the debate about Big Data in criminology is concerned with legitimacy, including privacy, accountability, transparency, and fairness. Big Data is often made accessible through data visualization. Big Data visualization is a performance that simultaneously masks the power of commercial and governmental surveillance and renders information political. The production of visuality operates in an economy of attention. In crime control enterprises, future uncertainties can be masked by affective triggers that create an atmosphere of risk and suspicion. There have also been efforts to mobilize data to expose harms and injustices and garner support for resistance. While Big Data and visuality can perform affective modulation in the race for attention, the impact of data visualization is not always predictable. By removing the visibility of real people or events and by aestheticizing representations of tragedies, data visualization may achieve further distancing and deadening of conscience in situations where graphic photographic images might at least garner initial emotional impact.

Evaluating Alternatives in Criminal Justice

1976 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 265-283 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Musheno ◽  
Dennis Palumbo ◽  
James Levine
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Crime Control ◽  
Control Strategies ◽  
The Self ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Vested Interests ◽  
The Impact

A normative policy-impact model that provides criteria for evaluating specific programs as well as for determining which goals should be given priority in criminal justice is presented. With "decision structure," "self-interest goals," and "public-interest goals" the main elements of the model, the article stresses the impact of criminal justice on various groups related to this policy area. Although a policy may be aimed primarily at groups out side government (e.g., criminals), it also will have an impact on those asked to carry it out (e.g., police). When the effects benefit the nongovernment groups (sometimes called the clientele), the policy achieves "public-interest goals. " When the beneficiaries are government officials, "self-interest goals" are being attained. One of the main themes of this paper is that the extent to which public-interest goals can be reached depends entirely on how well they serve the self-interests of those who are responsible for executing the policies in question. Thus, while the article proposes that the ultimate goal of the criminal justice system should be the "equalization of the burden of crime," it emphasizes that the means of accomplishing this goal are uncertain because traditional crime-control strategies (e.g., deterrence) have major fallacies. Moreover, even if promising strategies are discovered, the self- interests of personnel in the criminal justice system motivate them to subvert such policies. Only through conscious mani pulation of work incentives can the vested interests of many criminal justice personnel in the status quo be altered and the equalization of the costs of crime be obtained.

8. Summary justice in the magistrates’ court

2021 ◽  
pp. 389-430
Author(s):  
Lucy Welsh ◽  
Layla Skinns ◽  
Andrew Sanders
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Due Process ◽  
Crime Control ◽  
Process Models ◽  
Lower Court ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Impact

This chapter focuses on the magistrates’ courts. It discusses the importance of the magistracy and the work that they do; the involvement (and funding) of lawyers in summary justice; major pre-trial decisions such as bail and whether a case can be dealt with in the magistrates’ court or is so serious that it needs to be sent to the Crown court (mode of trial/allocation); how magistrates and their legal advisors measure up to the crime control/due process models of criminal justice; and the future of summary justice (including the impact of managerialist and ‘victim rights’ reforms and trends that encourage dealing with much lower court business away from the courtroom itself).

scholarly journals Feeding behaviour, risk-sensitivity and response control: effects of 5-HT2Creceptor manipulations

2018 ◽  
Vol 374 (1766) ◽  
pp. 20180144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trevor Humby ◽  
Yateen Patel ◽  
Jenny Carter ◽  
Laura-Jean G. Stokes ◽  
Robert D. Rogers ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Taking ◽  
Impulse Control ◽  
Delay Condition ◽  
Risk Sensitivity ◽  
Variable Delay ◽  
Theme Issue ◽  
The Past ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Developed World ◽  
The Impact

People, like animals, tend to choose the variable option when given the choice between a fixed and variable delay to reward where, in the variable delay condition, some rewards are available immediately (Laura-Jeanet al. 2019Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B374, 20180141. (doi:10.1098/rstb.2018.0141)). This bias has been suggested to reflect evolutionary pressures resulting from food scarcity in the past placing a premium on obtaining food quickly that can win out against the risks of sometimes sustaining longer delays to food. The psychologies mediating this effect may become maladaptive in the developed world where food is readily available contributing, potentially, to overeating and obesity. Here, we report our development of a novel touchscreen task in mice allowing comparisons of the impact of food delay and food magnitude across species. We show that mice exhibit the typical preference, as shown by humans, for variable over fixed delays to rewards but no preference when it comes to fixed versus variable reward amounts and further show that this bias is sensitive to manipulations of the 5-HT2Creceptor, a key mediator of feeding and impulse control. We discuss the data in terms of the utility of the task to model the psychologies and underlying brain mechanisms impacting on feeding behaviours.This article is part of the theme issue ‘Risk taking and impulsive behaviour: fundamental discoveries, theoretical perspectives and clinical implications’.

Just mercy through cultural and convict criminology

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna King
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Crime Control ◽  
Cultural Criminology ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Call To Action ◽  
Criminal Justice Reform ◽  
Working Lives ◽  
The Us ◽  
Convict Criminology ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore Bryan Stevenson’s (2014, 2015) call to action from within two emergent schools of thought in criminology, “cultural criminology,” and “convict criminology”, which share a special concern with the contributions that criminological research makes to a climate of social control and punishment. The author’s central aim is to explore the capacity of what the author argues is a potentially under-leveraged tool of social change – the philosophies underlying and implemented in cultural and convict criminology. Design/methodology/approach To demonstrate the potential impact of this research, the author draws upon a purposive sample of qualitative studies that exemplify the particular emotive, moral, and aesthetic goals central to Stevenson’s call to action. The impact of the production of images of crime, crime control, and criminals that emerge in the development of the paradigms central to cultural and convict criminology is finally discussed in terms of Stevenson’s four prescriptions for social and criminal justice reform. Findings The underlying philosophies, theoretical assumptions, and methodological approaches dictated by convict and cultural criminology are uniquely equipped to make visible the forces linked to resistance to penal and social reform. Research limitations/implications In synthesizing cultural criminology and the emergent convict criminology as guides to doing empirical research, and identifying each as embodying Stevenson’s call to action, the author hopes – maybe not to extract those easily ignitable, invisible forces away from reform efforts entirely, but at least – to provide those who are interested with a more nuanced map of where they are not likely to live and breathe them. Stimulating and widening the criminological imagination might not satisfy our need to quickly and concretely apply a solution to injustice, but it might be what the problem demands. Originality/value Stevenson (2014) argues that the extent of injustice in the US criminal justice system is so pervasive, extraordinary, and long standing, that everyone has a role to play in the course of our everyday lives in turning the tide of indifference and cruelty that feed mass injustice and incarceration. Applying his proposals to the on-the-ground working lives of empirical criminologists holds potential for effecting change from the top-down.

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