Mannheim Matters
Meet….Peter Ramsay
November 2011
fortune that I decided to take the old
London LLM. Among the opportunities
that gave me was to be taught human
rights by Conor Gearty, who introduced
me to the LSE tradition in public law. I
also stumbled across a course in
Theoretical and Comparative Criminal
Law. At the time I decided to take the
course, I did not know what a privilege it
would be to be taught criminal law theory
by Ian Dennis, Nicola Lacey and Alan
Norrie. Not only did they introduce me to
a broad range of perspectives, but, in
My research to date has been motivated
Nicola Lacey and Alan Norrie, I
by curiosity about the expanding scope of
discovered two criminal law theorists
the criminal law. So I have been working
whose work was methodologically right
on an explanatory theory of the form and
up my street.
content of the substantive criminal law. In
particular I have sought to explain the
Alan Norrie agreed to supervise my PhD
public wrongs defined by criminal law as
thesis. I thought a theory of the ASBO
one of the forms taken by the duties of
would be interesting to do. The notorious
citizenship.
measure was both the flagship New
Labour criminal justice policy and very
I have applied this political sociology to
distinctive in its legal form. I wanted to
New Labour’s criminal legislation in a
know why it enjoyed such a high degree
book that will be published next year by
of political legitimacy notwithstanding the
OUP. It is called The Insecurity State:
fierce criticism of it from criminal justice
Vulnerable Autonomy and the Right to
experts. Early on I realized I would need
Security in the Criminal Law.
to work out where I stood in a debate
I returned to higher education in early
middle age. After a brief period making
the mistake of imagining that I would like
to be a practicing lawyer, it was my good
between Norrie, Lacey and Lindsay
Farmer about the history of the
substantive criminal law. In so doing I
stumbled on a citizenship theory of the
1
criminal law that provided a historical
and Imprisonment for Public Protection).
framework for the political sociology of
I also briefly explore why the state should
the ASBO. It also allowed me to write a
have suffered the decline of political
couple of decent articles and get them
authority that leads to these security laws
published which in turn played a big part
and what might be done about it.
in getting me my current job as a lecturer
in the law department.
With the book out of the way, I am now
working on some papers exploring the
In the thesis I explained the emergence
relationship of criminal law to
of the ASBO by using a method that goes
representative government. And when I
by the name of immanent critique. It boils
am not doing that I have the privilege of
down to:
teaching criminal law and penal theory to
LSE’s clever and hard working students.
1) analyzing the legal liabilities that the
ASBO creates so as to identify the
interests it seeks to protect (the
freedom from fear of crime); then
2) identifying the normative justifications
for the protection of these interests
with penal law (the vulnerability of
autonomy that is axiomatic to
recently influential political theories—
the Third Way, communitarianism
and neoliberalism); and finally
3) explaining what sort of political order
could possibly institutionalize these
norms (a post-democratic, postsovereign order).
Feature
The Detroit Riot Study
Curiosity about the Detroit Riot study
mentioned as the model for Tim
Newburn’s ’reading the riots’
investigation, led me to look up some of
the original papers as I had not heard of
this collaboration between the media and
academia.
Philip Meyer, the journalist and Nathan
The analysis took me in a direction that I
had not expected to go. I suppose at the
beginning I had expected to find illiberal
authoritarianism but what I found was
stranger—an absence of political
authority as such.
Caplan, the academic, met through a
mutual friend as both were investigating
the aftermath of riots occurring in Detroit
in July 1967. They drafted a
questionnaire drawing on one which had
measured a previous riot, and trained 30
The book reworks the theory of the ASBO
field interviewers who collected 437
in the language of the ‘right to security’
accounts from residents drawn by means
and applies it to a wider range of New
of a random probability sample. Of this
Labour’s criminal legislation. I take
sample only 11% admitted being rioters.
account of the Coalition’s government’s
basic endorsement of New Labour’s right
to security and its retreat from the most
extreme manifestations of the insecurity
state (the Vetting and Barring Scheme
2
Profile of rioters dealt w ith by the courts
Detroit
1967
Clapham
2011
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
w hite
non w hite
juvenile
adult
m ale
fem ale
Detroit 1967
UK 2011
In both Detroit and UK about the same
proportion were arrested for acquisitive
crime (around 65%) but more were
arrested in the UK for violence.
They compared their respondents to the
Crime type dealt with by the courts
profiles of those arrested in various cities
and found the demographics similar to
their sub sample of rioters. Sidney Fine
80
60
wrote an article describing the criminal
justice system’s response to the riots and
Detroit 1967
40
UK 2011
provided a demographic profile of those
20
arrested. It is interesting to compare this,
0
Acquistive
violence
and the offences, with data recently made
available by the Ministry of Justice and
In trying to explain the Detroit riots,
Home Office on the UK rioters. Fine
Caplan drew on three theoretical
(1987) reported that 7,231 individuals
formulations: riffraff theory; relative
were arrested after the Detroit riots (3927
deprivation; and blocked opportunity with
arrested after UK riots). In Detroit the
the data supporting the last of these. The
rioters were largely black adult males. In
riffraff theory best fits the prevailing
the UK, the ethnicity of rioters was more
political rhetoric, then and now, that
mixed (42% white and 46% of black or
rioters are members of a criminal,
mixed heritage). The gender balance was
deviant underclass or those for whom
virtually the same around 10%, but the
rioting affords the opportunity to become
age profile was different. In Detroit only
momentarily freed from constraint and is
10% were classed as juveniles whereas
a temporary aberration. This resonates
the corresponding percentage for the UK
with the contagion theories offered to
is 26%.
explain middle class looting in the 2011
riots. What the Detroit data suggested
were that the rioters were actually angry
3
at their exclusion from job and life
The recent Home Office and Ministry of
opportunities.
Justice reports;-
In a rather later paper, Caplan and
Nelson (1973) discuss the nature and
consequences of research into social
problems and issue these instructive
cautions in developing person centered
blame models to explain protest or rioting
behaviours:
1. person centred blame offers
Government a convenient apology for
the causes of rioting;
2. if intuitions are not held to be the
cause of the problem they cannot be
held responsible for amelioration;
3. proposed initiatives are person
changing rather than systemic
changing;
4. allowing the melioristic interpretation
to consolidate managerial and
custodial interventions;
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/scie
nce-research-statistics/researchstatistics/crime-research/overview-disorderaug2011/overview-disorderaug2011?view=Binary
5. perpetuating social myths about
control over one’s fate and increasing
a public complacency about the plight
of those not having made it on their
own.
For those interested in more details see
Caplan, N., and Paige, J. (1968) A study of
ghetto rioters. Scientific American 219,2, 1521.
Caplan, N. (1970) The new ghetto man; a
review of recent empirical studies. Journal of
Social Issues, 26,1 59-73.
Caplan, N., and Nelson,S. (1973) On being
useful; the nature and consequences of
psychological research on social problems.
American Psychologist, March 199-211.
Fine, S. (1987) Rioters and judges; the
response of the criminal justice system to the
Detroit riots of 1967. The Wayne Law Review
33, 5,1723-1763.
http://www.justice.gov.uk/downloads/publicatio
ns/statistics-and-data/mojstats/august-publicdisorder-stats-bulletin-241011.pdf
4
News
Recent publications
Sharon Shalev’s Sourcebook on Solitary
Confinement, which was published as a
Mannheim publication, has been
Chapter Four: Developing measures of multiple
forms of sexual violence and their contested
treatment in the criminal justice system. Sylvia
Walby, Jo Armstrong and Sofia Strid
Chapter Five: Developments in investigative
approaches to rape and domestic violence: the
investigative heritage. Miranda Horvath and Mark
Yexley
Chapter six: Practitioner commentary; a police
perspective. Sharon Stratton
translated by the International
Committees of the Red Cross (ICRC) into
French and Russian.
Chapter Seven: Psychological perspectives on
sexual violence; generating a general theory.
Jennifer Brown
Chapter Eight: On Sociological Perspectives.
Helen Jones
Chapter Nine: Family violence and family safety;
working therapeutically with victims, perpetrators,
survivors and their families. Arlene Vetere
Chapter Ten: Violence and prostitution; beyond the
notion of a ‘continuum of sexual violence.’ Jo
Phoenix
Chapter Eleven: Practitioner commentary, treating
the perpetrators of sexual violence-an applied
response. Ruth Mann
Chapter Twelve : Silencing rape, silencing women.
Jan Jordon
More information on the Sourcebook and
a copy in English (and Russian, and
French) can be found on Sharon’s
website,
www.solitaryconfinement.org
Chapter Thirteen: Co-ordinating responses to
domestic violence. Nicole Westmarland
Chapter Fourteen: Destroying women; sexual
murder and feminism. Annete Ballinger
Chapter Fifteen: Violence, sex and the child.Steph
Petrie
Chapter Sixteen: Under their parents noses-online
solicitation of young people. David Shannon
Chapter Seventeen: practitioner commentary,
working with sexual violence. Stephanie Kewley
Chapter Eighteen : Bullying, harassment and
sexual orientation in the workplace. Helge Hoel and
Duncan Lewis
Chapter Nineteen: Public sector and voluntary
sector response; supporting victims. Kate Cook
Chapter Twenty: Public sector and voluntary sector
responses; dealing with sex offenders. Hazel
Kemshall
Chapter One: Sexual Violence in history; a
contemporary heritage? Shani D’Cruze
Chapter Two: Sexual violence in literature; a
cultural heritage? Liam Bell, Amanda Finella and
Marion Wynne Davies
Chapter Twenty-one: Changing the community
response to rape; the promise of sexual assault
nurse examiner (SANE) programmes. Rebecca
Campbell
Chapter twenty-two: Practitioner commentary,
response from South Essex Rape and Incest Crisis
Centres. Sheila Coates
Chapter Three: The legal heritage of the crime of
rape. Joan McGregor
5
People
Mike Shiner
precipitating event which contests that
precipitation is some deep inner turmoil.
Intentions are rarely clear cut and the
Mike’s book with Ben Fincham,
wish to die is overlaid with great emotion.
Susanne Langer and Jonathan
Thus it is important to connect the social
Scourfield,“Understanding suicide; a
context with the person’s psychological
sociological autopsy” published by
state of mind which is what he said
Palgrave Macmillan was officially
launched at LSE on 20th October.
“Understanding Suicide” addresses.
Suicide he thought is often an act of
aggression or vengefulness against
somebody else and that the
Jon Scourfield said on researching this
topic it was difficult to remain morally
neutral and that he hoped an outcome of
its publication would help to prevent
suicide. He was particularly proud of
using mixed methods and also their
taking an intersectional approach which
combined sociology, social psychology,
social policy and anthropology.
consequences become part of a family’s
history. He particularly mentioned the
book’s analysis of suicide notes were
very moving “poetry in acts of
desperation”.
Post graduate update
Marianne Colbran
Lord Tony Giddens congratulated Mike,
Ben and Suzanne on making a major
contribution to understanding suicide that
that the book will have a significant
impact. When he himself undertook a
study of suicide he said his aim was to try
and understand what drives people to
want to escape from life and also why
they may want to cling to life. “Suicide”,
he said, “teaches us a lot and that life is
an affair which one values.” It is a difficult
subject to study not least because one
cannot interview the successful suicide.
One interesting question is whether the
intention for self destruction was meant or
not. He mention a remarkable study of
surviving suicides who jumped from the
Golden Gate Bridge which revealed the
sometimes trivial nature of the
The few weeks have been very hectic
and very exciting. On 30th September I
submitted my Ph.D, “Watching the cops:
a case study of production processes on
The Bill”. The study looks at the effect of
working processes and commercial
imperatives on representation of the
police over The Bill’s twenty-six year
history and was supervised by Professor
Robert Reiner, Professor Paul Rock and
Dr Janet Foster. They were all immensely
supportive and helpful throughout the
process but never more so than in the
6
last few weeks when I bombarded them
affect the news that is being made – and
with endless drafts of chapters, which
in turn, how such stories influence public
they returned without fail within a day –so
understanding of issues relating to the
huge, huge thanks to them for giving up
criminal justice system. I am very excited
so much time to help me and make sure I
about this project and very grateful to the
submitted on time.
Centre for Criminology and the Howard
League for giving me the chance to
The reason for the urgency was that I
was lucky enough to have been awarded
develop my work. I am very much looking
forward to working with them.
the second Howard League PostDoctoral Fellowship at Oxford University
Aleksandra Majchrzak
and I was due to start my fellowship the
following Monday. The fellowship is a
unique chance for early career
researchers to have the time to develop
their thesis into a monograph, but also to
set up new projects in conjunction with
I have been asked to write a small piece
on my experience as a new LSE student.
My adventure with LSE started much
earlier, at the time I began my
undergraduate course at another UK
the Centre for Criminology and the
Howard League – and in particular,
projects with a policy-based output. The
project I am planning builds on my
doctoral work and will be an ethnographic
study of the production of stories about
the penal system in a national newsroom.
Just as I did in my doctoral work, I aim to
explore how commercial imperatives and
organizational features, such as time,
need for source co-operation and
constraints of the medium affect the
news-making process – and in particular,
why so few stories about the penal
system are broadcast or printed in the
media.
university. This was where I first heard
about The LSE and its reputation as one
of the leading institutions both in the UK
and the world, with well-known lecturers
and great achievements. Over the first
year as an undergraduate student I
learned more about the LSE and
developed a strong opinion about the
At a time when the news media has
university. I decided that I wanted to be
never been more complex or
an LSE student. I knew that getting into
unpredictable and when changes in
the LSE was not going to be easy, but I
technology have allowed citizens
knew I had to do it. I also knew that I
themselves to make news, it seems more
would have to work very hard not only
timely than ever to investigate changes in
because English is not my first language,
the news-making process, how these
but also because I had to meet the
7
criteria required by the LSE. Now I am
Masters in Social Research Methods at
here, with my ambition fulfilled and I can
the LSE between 2003 and 2005, for
proudly say that I am an LSE Masters’
which I repaid them by leaving on a
student. It is great being lectured and
career break the following year to start a
taught by such leading academics in the
PhD at the LSE and in the end never
field as Robert Reiner and Tim Newborn,
returning.
whose books I have studied. All my hard
work has paid off and it is really nice to
My route into criminology was via my
see the proud look on my parent’s faces
Masters’ thesis, which looked at the
when people ask them where I am
differential experience of police stop and
studying and they can reply ‘She is an
search activity among different ethnic
LSE student’.
groups in London using survey data (the
2000 Policing for London study) rather
Letter from… Oxford
than police administrative data. Jon
Jackson, still at the LSE and featured in
By Ben Bradford
Ben joined the Centre for Criminology in
September 2011. He was previously
Fellow at the LSE Methodology Institute.
Prior to that, he
was a Research
Fellow at the
Scottish Centre for
Crime and Justice
Research. His
research focuses
on public opinions
of the police,
last
month’s
Mannheim
Matters,
encouraged me to apply for funding for
PhD that I was lucky enough to obtain.
My thesis examined the point of contact
between police and public, again from the
point of view of survey respondents, this
time in the British Crime Survey and the
Metropolitan Police’s Public
Attitudes
Survey, and it went on to consider the
implications of such contact in terms of
trust, legitimacy and cooperation.
I am therefore one of the regrettably
particularly as these related to issues of
small
trust, legitimacy, cooperation and
criminologists
compliance.
although there are signs that our number
It seems slightly strange to be writing this
letter as I never set out to be a
criminologist. I worked at the Office for
National Statistics for many years, ending
up in the Social Statistics directorate
researching and thinking about how to
measure
ethnic
group
and
religious
identity (for example in the Census). The
ONS funded me to do a part-time
number
of
quantitative
working in the UK
might be growing somewhat!
–
I am
definitely not a statistician though, and
my concerns are primarily in theoretical
and substantive issues rather than in the
‘nuts and bolts’ of the analysis, as
important as these are. I am interested in
what people think about the police and
the criminal justice system, why they
think the way they do, and what are the
8
implications,
in
terms
both
of
our
public
I’ve been enormously helped in all this by
behaviours in relation to criminal justice
the support and advice of Jon Jackson
institutions and the law, and of our
and others at the LSE Methodology
normative understanding of the way in
Institute, particularly in relation to helping
which, for example, the police should ‘do’
me think like a social scientist, someone
policing.
who
empirical
understanding
of
generates
(or
more
accurately
appropriates) theories and tests them
Like others working in the UK at the
against
moment I have been particularly inspired
scientific
by
model
quantitative research in particular is often
developed in the US by Tom Tyler and
not popular among British criminologists,
colleagues. Understanding, applying and,
as anyone who has read Jock Young’s
perhaps, extending this model has been
recent book can testify, I don’t think a
a key feature of my work to date, and that
more
certainly looks set to continue in the
criminological
future. In particular I’m keen on the idea
necessary
of combining Tyler’s social psychological
empiricism. Steven Pinker’s new book,
model with a more sociological viewpoint,
Wilson and Pickett’s The Spirit Level, and
although my attempts to do so thus far
Danny Dorling’s take on injustice all
have had mixed results at best. On the
follow a broadly scientific agenda, and all
one hand the symbolism of the police
address key criminological questions in
detailed by people like Robert Reiner and
ways that are exciting, relevant and
Ian Loader speaks directly to Tyler’s idea
above all interesting. There is much we
that the police are ‘prototypical group
as criminologists could learn from these
representatives’, and that their behaviour
and similar authors, and I hope the
powerfully communicates messages of
research Jon, I and others will be
belonging or, alternatively, exclusion. On
undertaking using the recently released
the other hand, the theory of crime
European Social Survey ‘trust in justice’
causation put forward by the procedural
module will follow their lead.
the
procedural
justice
empirical
data. While
reasoning
‘scientific’
in
general
approach
research
retreat
social
into
means
and
to
a
dustbowl
justice model – to massively oversimplify, that people are less likely to
Another key influence on my career to
commit crime if their hold the police and
date has been Betsy Stanko, currently
other criminal justice agencies to be
head of research at the Met. In terms of
legitimate – seems plausible to me only if
help and advice; and in relation to
combined with other theories that are
providing huge amounts of data from the
more attentive to the social contexts
Met’s various surveys and even, on
within
which people act; those put
occasion, allowing the placement of the
forward by people like Robert Sampson,
odd item or three in the questionnaires.
for example.
The amount of survey and other data
9
held by the Met and other policing
organizations is I think one of the great
untapped resources in British and indeed
world criminology. Entire careers have
been built on analysis of far less data
than is currently ‘out there’, under-
B. Bradford, 'Voice neutrality and respect: Use of
Victim Support services procedural fairness and
confidence in the Criminal Justice System' (2011)
Criminology and Criminal Justice
Recent events
27th October
analysed and often barely known outside
the organisation that collected it. A full
Howard League of Penal Reform and
Mannheim Centre What if..lecture
discussion of why such data is under
if I had to pick two reasons I would say,
In Praise of Fire Brigade Policing:
Challenging the Police Role by
Professor Robert Reiner
first, a woeful lack of confidence among
“In both popular and police culture the
criminology
role of the police has always been seen
used would probably fill a small book, but
quantitative
students
data,
in
and,
tackling
second,
a
in narrow crime control terms. The cops
reluctance to engage with the police in
are there to catch robbers, the more the
the kind of dialogue that would lead to
merrier. But until fairly recently this
access and useful research. By ‘useful’ I
conception was challenged by official
definitely do not mean ‘research that
designations of the police role (from Peel
follows a police agenda’, but rather the
to Scarman), as well as by many senior
type of study that engages with the real
officers and researchers. These voices
world of policing and which offers the
argued for a much wider onceptualisation
possibility for changing it in some way.
of police responsibilities in relation to
crime, as well as noting the much broader
Looking forward, in the immediate future
social role of the police. In popular culture
I’ll be concentrating on getting settled in
this can be dubbed the Dirty Harry vs.
Oxford,
teaching
Dixon debate, and until the last two
research
decades it was active and vigorous – as
getting
criminology
used
rather
to
than
methods, and actually publishing papers
shown for example by the 1990
rather than just starting them. In the long
‘Operational Policing Review’ conducted
term I hope to soak up some knowledge
by the three staff associations. But since
from my new colleagues and use this to
then (starting with the 1993 White Paper
open
Police Reform and the legislative and
up
some
new
directions
for
research. Precisely which direction, at
managerial changes flowing from it) the
this point, is rather unclear.
crime control conception of the police role
has achieved almost complete
Some recent publications by Ben Bradford
B. Bradford, 'Convergence not divergence? Trends
and trajectories in public contact and confidence in
the police' (2011) 51 The British Journal of
Criminology 179-200
hegemony. This is a crucial component of
the general domination of the criminal
justice policy agenda by the politics of law
and order, reflecting the neoliberal
consensus of the last two decades.
10
Fire-brigade policing was originally
Forthcoming Events
coined in the 1970s as a critical term,
regretting that the transformation through
Mannheim/BSC Wednesday
technology of the police response to calls
Seminar
for service had supposedly distanced
them from the public. This paper claims
that the pejorative usage of ‘fire-brigade
policing’ is largely misplaced. The crucial
7 December 2011 - BSC SEMINAR - 'Erich
Fromm and the Political Economy of
Punishment: A Freudo-Marxist Approach to
Neoliberal Penality'
core role of the police is as an emergency
service, responding to a sea of urgent
troubles of which crime is an important
part but far from the whole story. This
paper argues for a rediscovery of the
social role of policing, beyond crime
control, and a frank recognition that they
Dr Leonidas Cheliotis (Queen
Mary University of London)
The seminar will start at 6.30pm, with wine
from 6.15pm, and we recommend arriving
early to be sure of a seat. We hope you will
also be able to stay for drinks with the
speaker after the talk.
are primarily there as a first line response
to people in distress. Their performance
Specialty Seminar
should not be judged in terms of the
overall crime rate, on which they can
have only a marginal impact. Nor should
crime detection be a crucial indicator of
policing, as it is more a function of crime
levels than the quality of investigations.
Managerial accountability and
assessment require the much more
difficult task of assessing the quality of
emergency service delivery”.
The Mannheim Centre for Criminology is
holding a specialty seminar to mark the
publication of Children of the Drug War
by Damon Barrett.
When? Tuesday, November 22, 2011,
6 :00-7 :30 pm.
Where? Moot Court Room, 7th floor,
New Academic Building, Lincoln’s Inn
Fields
Chaired by Damon Barrett (Senior
Human Rights Analyst at Harm Reduction
International)
Speakers :
Jennifer Fleetwood (Lecturer in
Criminology at the University of Kent) Mothers and Children of the Drug War : A
View from a Women’s Prison in Quito,
Ecuador.
Tim Newburn and the speakers at the What if
event
Steve Rolles Information Officer at the
Transform Drug Policy Foundation )After the War on Drugs : How Legal
Regulation of Production and Trade
Would Better Protect Children
11
Michael Shiner (Senior Lecturer in
Criminology and Social Policy at the LES)
- Taking Drugs Together: Early Adult
Transitions and the Limits of Harm
Reduction in England and Wales
About the book
Children of the Drug War is a unique
collection of original essays that
investigates the impacts of the war on
drugs on children, young people and their
families. With contributions from around
the world, providing different perspectives
and utilizing a wide range of styles and
approaches including ethnographic
studies, personal accounts and
interviews, the book asks fundamental
questions of national and international
drug control systems:




What have been the costs to
children and young people of the
war on drugs?
Is the protection of children from
drugs a solid justification for
current policies?
What kinds of public fears and
preconceptions exist in relation to
drugs and the drug trade?
How can children and young
people be placed at the forefront
of drug policies?
beer has the same numerical value as the
robbery of a jeweller’s shop.” To counteract
this leveling tendency, other figures are
sometimes published which show the value of
property stolen. No corresponding figures
exist, however, for false pretences and frauds,
although it is here that the greatest value may
be involved. the more large-scale offences of
this kind are committed, the more are the
statistical figures in danger of losing any
significance as a means of measuring the real
role played by crime in the economic and
social life of the nations.
Mannheim. (1940) Social aspects of
crime in England and Wales between
the wars. London: George Allen &
Unwin. p89.
Forensic Psychological Services at
Middlesex University
For more than 20 years, Middlesex
University’s interdisciplinary research
centres have led the way in independent
evaluation and multi methodological
approaches to complex problems in
Britain, Europe and beyond. Middlesex
University is a national centre of
excellence for work based learning and
has been at the forefront of work into
community engagement, minimising
exclusion and assessing the impact of
For further details see
http://www.childrenofthedrugwar.org/
national strategies on local areas.
RSVP: If you are planning to attend
please let Michael Shiner know
(m.shiner@lse.ac.uk)
Forensic Psychological Services (FPS) at
Hermann Mannheim
quote of the month
“There is one final point we should bear in
mind when dealing with the Criminal statistics:
it is the obvious fact that for them all offences
of the same legal type count alike irrespective
of their gravity. It has often been emphasized
in official documents, and quite rightly, that “ in
these statistics the theft of a bottle of ginger
Middlesex University builds on these firm
foundations to offer continued
professional development; evaluation;
research; consultancy and supervision to
those working in and around criminal and
civil justice. FPS supports a wide range of
organisations including: local authorities,
prisons, police, probation, government
departments, youth offending teams,
charities as well as individual
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practitioners and those training to
design with a small sample of interviews
practice. We work to standards set by
to be conducted retrospectively. The
professional bodies (such as the British
evaluation is based in two adult prisons
Psychological Society), statutory
and one mixed adult and youth institution.
requirements (such as the Health
Professions Council) and legislation. Our
In collaboration with Georgie Parry-
services are under pinned by Middlesex
Crooke from London Metropolitan
University’s academic framework to
University we are currently evaluating the
safeguard quality assurance.
Primrose Programme, which is for
women diagnosed as having Dangerous
General introduction to FPS
and Severe Personality Disorder and is
Forensic Psychological Services at
run at HMP and YOI Low Newton. Also
Middlesex University is directed by Dr.
between 2010 and 2013 we are
Joanna R. Adler with Dr. Miranda A.H.
evaluating the Stella Project Mental
Horvath as her deputy. They are guided
Health Initiative which is run by and
by an advisory board consisting of
organisation called Against Violence and
leading practitioners and researchers
Abuse (www.avaproject.org.uk). The
from the criminal and civil justice fields
evaluation is funded by the Department of
and have a pool of over 20 freelance
Health. During the same time period we
consultants with whom they work closely
are also conducting research on the
to deliver a range of services and
overlaps between problem substance use
projects. FPS is based in the Psychology
and domestic and sexual violence
Department of the University and has
experienced by young women with the
close links with colleagues in other
same organisation, this time funded by
departments including Criminology,
the John Paul Getty Jnr Foundation.
Sociology and Social Policy. We
contribute significantly to the MSc in
Other examples of work undertaken
Forensic Psychology; the Forensic
include large and small projects for
Psychology Research Group and
organisations such as:
supervise a number of PhD students.

Some examples of evaluation work:
FPS are currently evaluating the impact
of The Forgiveness Project (TFP) in

prisons. TFP is a broadly restorative
intervention aimed at working with
offenders at early stages of their

sentence and with short term sentence
servers. We have adopted a mixedmethods, prospective, matched control

The Safer London Foundation: A
series of independent
assessments of projects that they
had funded and an overall
evaluation of their work. (20082010)
Evaluation of the work of
Escaping Victimhood (a charity
working with bereaved victims of
crime). (2010)
Evaluation of the London
Probation Trust’s partnership
working with released “TACT”
offenders. (2010)
Assessment of a new module
(Girls, Gangs and Consequences
) in the Growing Against Gangs
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Programme, a training package
for delivery in secondary schools
funded by the Lambeth Summer
Projects Trust (2011)
the Rugby World Cup. In the masterclass,
there was discussion of how the program
addresses best practice principles of
violence prevention education, and how
Conferences and Training:
One of FPS’s great strengths is the ability
to bring together academics, practitioners
and policy makers to ensure that
knowledge transfer becomes a dynamic,
meaningful exchange with the opportunity
to contribute to both theory and practice
development. There are two areas that
the program has been refined since its
inception to meet the needs of local and
diverse communities. The class
concluded with a discussion of the policy
and practice implications for sexual
violence prevention in the UK. FPS is
planning to bring the Sex and Ethics
Violence Prevention Program to the UK.
stand out: the 2008 and 2010 Hate Crime
Conferences and our most recent
conference: 2011, Sexual Violence
Conference.
On the 8th September, FPS hosted its
inaugural Sexual Violence Conference,
organised by Drs Miranda Horvath,
Jackie Gray and Susan Hansen. The
conference brought together over 120
key practitioners, leading strategists,
policy makers and academics working in
this field from around the world. During
Sexual Violence Conference Organisers
(from L-R) – Dr Jackie Gray, Dr Miranda
Horvath and Dr Susan Hansen
the one day event, 4 keynote speeches, 4
debate sessions, 31 papers and 12
posters were presented and artist, Alex
Brew showed a video installation she had
created in response to the conference
theme entitled “Not for the faint hearted”.
The following day, we hosted a half-day
masterclass with Professor Moira
Carmody (University of Western Sydney)
about the Sex + Ethics Violence
Prevention Program that she developed
In 2012 FPS will be running two British
Psychological Society, Division of
Forensic Psychology, Continuing
Professional Development Seminars. The
first on The Psychology of Sexual
Violence will be held on the 15th May and
the second on Sexual Violence
Prevention on Thursday 13th September
in London (see http://bps-learningcentre.bps.org.uk/ for more information).
in Australia, and which has since been
adopted in New Zealand. At the time of
writing, it was being used in an innovative
public health campaign to combat an
expected rise in sexual assaults during
FPS seeks to contribute to the ongoing
theoretical and practitioner development
within forensic psychology. For example
with a colleague at Birmingham
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University (Dr Jessica Woodhams)
And Finally…
Miranda Horvath is currently running a
seminar series titled ‘Multiple Perpetrator
Rape: Setting the Research Agenda’
Some November images
funded by the British Psychological
Society. One output of the seminars will
be an edited collection titled ‘Handbook
on the study of Multiple Perpetrator Rape:
A Multidisciplinary Response to an
International Problem’ which will be
published by Routledge in 2013.
Information and feedback from the
seminars, as they occur, can be found on
the forums of the Sexual Violence
Research Initiative (see www.svri.org).
Another example would be that the MSc
Forensic Psychology was the first
Forensic Psychology programme to teach
and engage students in consideration of
genocide and other crimes by the state.
These matters, along with hate crime are
now routinely included in Forensic
Psychology texts, including the 2nd edition
of Forensic Psychology: Concepts,
debates and practice. Which was edited
by Joanna and Jackie and picked by THE
as the exemplar Forensic Psychology
book in the text book roundup of 2010.
Contact Details
Dr Joanna R. Adler – J.Adler@mdx.ac.uk
Dr Miranda Horvath –
M.Horvath@mdx.ac.uk
www.mdx.ac.uk/fps
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