scholarly journals Notes on Gender, Race and Punishment From a Decolonial Perspective to a Southern Criminology Agenda

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 90-101
Author(s):  
Camilla Magalhães Gomes

The purpose of this article is to investigate how decolonial studies can contribute to an agenda of southern criminology and in particular, but not exclusively, to our research on gender and gender violence. To do so, the path chosen was to first present the common lines between these ways of theorising. Then, the entanglements of race and capitalism and of race and gender in the decolonial perspective are presented. With this done, it is possible to think about how decoloniality and punishment are related and to, from then on, think of a decolonial agenda for criminology that involves taking the colonial hypothesis seriously and always thinking and seeking to listen, read and research the ways of resistance from those dehumanised by the criminal justice system.

2020 ◽  
Vol 60 (4) ◽  
pp. 811-829 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lizzie Seal ◽  
Alexa Neale

Abstract This article examines 10 capital cases of men of colour sentenced to death in England and Wales for intimate murders of white British women during 1900–39. It argues that such cases enable analysis of the prevailing emotional norms of this era and the ways in which these were shaped by race, gender and class. Perceptions of intimate relationships as legitimate or illegitimate—judgments about who should feel what about whom—‘is’ related to understandings of citizenship. In revealing the emotional norms at play in cases of murder, it is possible to illustrate how the criminal justice system governed through emotion.


2018 ◽  
Vol 65 (13) ◽  
pp. 1767-1797
Author(s):  
Martin Bouchard ◽  
Carlo Morselli ◽  
Mitch Macdonald ◽  
Owen Gallupe ◽  
Sheldon Zhang ◽  
...  

The size of criminal populations is unknown, and policy decisions are typically based only on the number of offenses and offenders that come to the attention of the criminal justice system. However, the size of criminal populations may follow different trends than what is observed in official data. We use a regression-adjusted capture–recapture model to estimate the number of people at risk of arrest for offenses involving amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) from arrests and rearrests occurring in Quebec, Canada, controlling for year of first arrest, age, and gender. The 4,989 individuals arrested were the visible part of an estimated 42,541 [36,936, 48,145] individuals otherwise at risk of arrest (12%). Additional results show that trends in criminal populations and risks of arrest vary across offense type and drug classifications.


2019 ◽  
pp. 174889581986309
Author(s):  
Sarah-Jane Lilley Walker ◽  
Marianne Hester ◽  
Duncan McPhee ◽  
Demi Patsios ◽  
Anneleise Williams ◽  
...  

This article draws upon quantitative and content analysis of 585 reports of rape recorded within two police force areas in England in 2010 and in 2014 tracking individual incidents to eventual outcome to examine the impact, if any, of intersecting inequalities on trajectories of rape cases reported to police. The data were collected as part of the wider Economic and Social Research Council funded Justice, Inequality and Gender-Based Violence research project which examined victim-survivor experiences and perspectives on justice. Building on existing distinctions between types of rape case based on the relationship between victim-survivor and accused, the results suggest age and gender are significant factors in how sexual violence, and the criminal justice system, is experienced. While younger women and girls were disproportionately affected by certain types of sexual violence case and more likely to come into contact with the criminal justice system compared to men and older women, they were not necessarily more likely to achieve a conviction. The findings also confirm that some of the most vulnerable victims-survivors of sexual violence, especially those with poor mental health, are still not achieving criminal justice. Victims-survivors from Black and minority ethnic group or lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, queer groups are underrepresented within the criminal justice system, implying these groups are not seeking a criminal justice response in the same way as ‘white’ heterosexual victims-survivors.


2015 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 450-469 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stacy Hoskins Haynes ◽  
Alison C. Cares ◽  
R. Barry Ruback

Restitution is a court-ordered payment by offenders to their victims to cover the victims’ economic losses resulting from the crime. These losses can be substantial and can harm victims and victims’ families both directly and indirectly. But most victims do not receive reparation for their injuries, both because judges do not always impose restitution and because of problems with collecting restitution payments, even if there is a court order to do so. In this article, we review the literature on restitution and suggest that this compensatory mechanism is necessary to restore victims to where they were before the crime occurred. But monetary restitution alone is not sufficient. Making victims whole requires not only financial compensation from the offender but also procedural, informational, and interpersonal justice from the criminal justice system.


Author(s):  
Keesha M. Middlemass

Convicted and Condemned is a critical assessment of how a felony conviction operates as an integral part of prisoner reentry. Drawing on an interdisciplinary framework and ethnographic data, the book advances knowledge about the connection among politics, racial animosity, history, public policies, and a felony conviction, which is rooted in historical notions of infamy and the political system of white supremacy. By applying social disability theory to the way a felony conviction functions outside of the criminal justice system, this book explores the evolution of a felony conviction, the common understanding of it, and the way it became shorthand for criminality and deviance specifically linked to black skin. On the basis of social practices, politicians took the common understanding of a felony conviction and extended its function beyond the boundaries of the criminal justice system so that a felony conviction is now embedded in policies that deny felons access to public housing, educational grants, and employment opportunities. Unique ethnographic and interview data reveal that because felons no longer can be physically exiled to faraway lands, a form of internal exile is performed when a felony conviction intersects with public policies, resulting in contemporary outlaws. The book argues that the punitive discourse around a felony conviction allows for the extension of the carceral state beyond the penitentiary to create socially disabled felons, and that the understanding of who and what a felon is shapes societal actions, reinforces the color line, and is a contributing factor undermining felons’ ability to reenter society successfully.


2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 241-281
Author(s):  
Aaron J. Palmer

AbstractSouth Carolina's highly centralized and effective criminal justice system was an important extension of elite political power throughout the colony. It served two major functions: first, it served to protect property, the ultimate source of political power for the planter and merchant classes who ruled South Carolina as it supplied wealth, social status and the opportunity to hold high office. Second, by protecting property (even though the system often focused on elite property) and upholding order, the lowcountry elite united their interests with the interests of the general population who would also benefit from protection against property crime and disorder. Since the lowcountry elite also had to control a vast number of slaves and had to rely on all of the colony's white population to do so, providing effective government could serve as an important way to cultivate popular support. This paper examines the workings of South Carolina's criminal justice system and that system's priorities. By studying patterns in prosecution and punishment, one can see that the courts successfully attended to elite priorities.


Author(s):  
Erika Rackley ◽  
Clare McGlynn ◽  
Kelly Johnson ◽  
Nicola Henry ◽  
Nicola Gavey ◽  
...  

AbstractDespite apparent political concern and action—often fuelled by high-profile cases and campaigns—legislative and institutional responses to image-based sexual abuse in the UK have been ad hoc, piecemeal and inconsistent. In practice, victim-survivors are being consistently failed: by the law, by the police and criminal justice system, by traditional and social media, website operators, and by their employers, universities and schools. Drawing on data from the first multi-jurisdictional study of the nature and harms of, and legal/policy responses to, image-based sexual abuse, this article argues for a new joined-up approach that supports victim-survivors of image-based sexual abuse to ‘reclaim control’. It argues for a comprehensive, multi-layered, multi-institutional and multi-agency response, led by a government- and industry-funded online or e-safety organisation, which not only recognises the diversity of victim-survivor experiences and the intersection of image-based sexual abuse with other forms of sexual and gender-based violence and discrimination, but which also enables victim-survivors to reclaim control within and beyond the criminal justice system.


Author(s):  
Jordan Blair Woods

This chapter reviews a limited but emerging body of research on biases that arise and affect lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) jurors as well as juror decision-making when LGBTQ individuals are involved in criminal cases. The chapter also discusses recent research and legal developments surrounding jury selection and LGBTQ identity and describes debates over best practices to identify and combat anti-LGBTQ juror biases. Finally, the chapter reviews gay and trans “panic” defenses in cases involving the murders of LGBTQ individuals and examines other challenges that LGBTQ defendants and victims face in different criminal contexts. Although there is a need for future studies, the available research illustrates how challenges linked to sexuality and gender identity in the criminal jury system can compromise legitimacy and fairness in the criminal justice system more broadly.


Author(s):  
Jonathan Schwartz ◽  
Jennifer Bahrman

This chapter takes the theoretical perspective of the psychology of men to describe how the criminal justice system operates in ways that perpetuate men’s dominance and reproduce gender bias. Prostitution and human trafficking are used as examples to discuss men’s role in the judicial management of these key social issues. The concepts of hegemonic masculinity, gender role socialization, and gender role strain are discussed in relation to men’s attitudes and behaviors towards women involved in prostitution. They also help to explain men’s legal invisibility and lack of legal accountability in the sex trade. This chapter examines current efforts to involve male consumers of illegal sex services in the prevention of prostitution and sex trafficking. It also argues for a preventative, male-focused approach to women’s crimes that places responsibility on men to change their beliefs about gender roles.


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