EUROPEAN GROUP FOR THE STUDY OF
DEVIANCE AND SOCIAL CONTROL
ESTABLISHED 1973
Coordinator: Emma Bell
Secretary: Monish Bhatia
WINTER NEWSLETTER III
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I.
Annual Conference Tallinn
2015
Call for Papers
Assisted Places
Accommodation
REGISTRATION
II.
European Group News
Crimes of the Powerful Working Group
Event
Call for Papers: European Group Journal
Video with Phil Scraton
III.
Comment & Analysis
G.S. Rigakos and G. Papanicolaou discuss
the possibility of democratising the police
IV.
News from Europe and
around the world
Belgium
Croatia
Cyprus
Greece
UK
International
I. European Group Conference
Social Divisions, Surveillance and the Security State
43rd Annual Conference of the European Group for the Study of
Deviance and Social Control
26th - 29th August 2015
Faculty of Law
University of Tartu
Tallinn
Estonia
CALL FOR PAPERS
Despite the existence of widespread public discourse about equality and human rights,
social, racial, sexual, ethnic, religious, political and economic divisions continue to mark
societies across the globe. In many countries, these divisions have even widened under
the pressure of competing nationalist and populist discourses which highlight
difference rather than common humanity. Today, new technologies of surveillance are
used on both a national and supra-national level to classify, segregate and control all
those who are thought to threaten the mythical cohesion and security of nation-states.
Whilst it was thought that the end of the Cold War and the spread of globalisation would
lead to the erosion of boundaries of all kinds, on the contrary old boundaries are being
rebuilt and new ones created. These boundaries have spread far beyond the traditional
borders of nation state as surveillance and security have come to dominate the agendas
of international organisations.
This conference will be particularly interested in exploring the rise of security
obsessions on a micro and macro level, examining what the future holds in terms of
surveillance practices. It will look at the consequences of these trends in terms of
exacerbating social divisions. It will seek to examine forms of resistance and to propose
practical ways out of the current security impasse. As has traditionally been the case
with European Group conferences, the conference will connect with local problems and
activist groups. Papers connecting the conference theme with local issues in Eastern
Europe will be particularly welcome.
Academics, activists and all those targeted by mechanisms of state control and
segregation (people in prison, migrants, people who have come into conflict with the
police etc.) are encouraged to participate.
We welcome papers on the themes below which reflect the general values and
principles of the European Group.
Further information on the 43rd annual conference may be found at
http://www.europeangroup.org/?q=node/3. Please submit all abstracts by 31 March 2015 to
the email contact provided under the stream you wish to present at. For all general enquiries
please contact Anna Markina at anna.markina@ut.ee. For questions about the European Group,
please contact the current co-ordinator, Emma Bell at europeangroupcoordinator@gmail.com.
Processes of Violence and
Victimisation
Contact: Alejandro Forero
Email: aleforero@ub.edu
and Rita Faria
Email: rfaria@direito.up.pt
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Surveillance futures
Contact: Alberto Testa
Email: alberto.testa@outlook.com
Assisting: Maryja Supa/ Steve
Wright
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Futures of social control
Extra-national surveillance
Fortress Europe
Dataveillance and data flow
Social sorting
The rise of the security state
Contact: Paddy Rawlinson
Email:
paddy.rawlinson@monash.edu
Assisting: Georgios Papanicolaou,
Francesca Vianello, John Moore,
Scott Poynting, Luca Follis, Antonio
Munoz
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Imperialism/post-colonialism
The harms of policing
State-corporate control
Incarceration and control
Governance and security
Social divisions and
classification
Contact: Monish Bhatia
Email: m.bhatia@abertay.ac.uk
Assisting: Tunde Zack-Williams/
Andrea Beckmann
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The demonisation of young people
The criminalisation of poverty
Gendered critiques of the application of criminal
law and criminal /social policy
Identity, diversity and criminalisation
Immigration control
Resistance and radical
alternatives
Contact: Gilles Chantraine
Email: gilles.chantraine@univlille1.fr
Assisting: Samantha Fletcher,
Nicolas Carrier
Policing and Security Working
Group Stream
Contact: Georgios Papanicolaou
Assisting: Will Jackson, Waqas
Tufail, Joanna Gilmore
E-mail:
g.papanicolaou@tees.ac.uk
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Global crime
State-corporate crime
The social and environmental harms of neoliberal
capitalism
Collective harms
Gendered harm
Abolitionist approaches
Unsilencing the silenced
Collective action and collective resistance
The new politics of the Left
Legacies of radical thinking about the police
Capitalism, pacification and the police
Democratizing the police: problems and prospects
Organisational change: beyond militarism and
bureaucratism in policing
Alternatives to policing
Activist and community resistance movements:
possibilities for autogestion in security
Challenging for-profit policing
experiences and prospects of security cooperatives
Photography: Gen Vagula (www.genvagula.com)
ASSISTED PLACES
Please note that there will be at least one assisted place available for the conference. This will
be allocated in priority to applicants who meet some / all of the below criteria:
* Does not have a tenured position in academia or has no means of providing alternative
means of support through employment schemes.
* An MA / PhD student / part-time member of staff who is ineligible for university
department/school/faculty funding to attend conferences.
* Is confronted with other significant difficulties which would merit special support to
attend the conference.
* Is currently undertaking research or activism in an area that reflects the themes and
values of the European Group
* Is planning to deliver a paper at the conference on a theme that reflects the work of
Stan Cohen. It may, for example, reflect on the concept of moral panic, social control, the
psychological impact of atrocities and imprisonment…
The deadline for applications is 31st March. Those wishing to apply should write a
150-300 word statement in support of their application. A copy of the conference paper
abstract should also be included in the submission. The conference place is free and the
European Group will help support travel and accommodation costs. Please send all
applications and enquiries to Emma Bell: europeangroupcoordinator@gmail.com
ACCOMMODATION
Rooms have been pre-booked at the following hotels for four nights (arriving 25th
August, leaving 29th August). In order to guarantee your place, you will need to reserve
one month before the conference at the very latest.
Nordic Hotel Forum (upscale) (upscale) 105€/room/night.
Viru väljak 3, Tallinn, Estonia
15 min walk from the university
Tallink City Hotel (mid-range) 60€/room/night
15 min walk from the university, just 100 m form the Nordic Hotel Forum.
Park Inn by Radisson Central Tallinn (mid-range) 65€/room/night
17 min walk from the university
See our website for more details: http://www.europeangroup.org/?q=node/47
CONFIRMED SPEAKERS
Kristina Kallas from the Institute of Baltic Studies (http://www.ibs.ee/en) and active
member of the Estonian Refugee Council (http://www.pagulasabi.ee/en/about-us)
Monika Platek, Professor of Law, Warsaw University, Poland.
May-Len Skilbrei, Professor, Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law, University of
Oslo.
REGISTRATION
Conference registration is now open. To register, please go to the conference page on our
website (secure payment with Paypal) at: http://www.europeangroup.org/?q=node/3 Please
note that any profits will go directly into European Group funds.
Please note that we have three different rates this year. The funded rate of 250€ is for those
who will receive funding from their institutions to attend the conference. The rate of 150€ is for
those who have no institutional funding but are nonetheless in employment. The 60€ rate is for
the unwaged, seniors (over 65s without institutional funding), students and activists. ALL rates
include lunches, coffee breaks and the conference dinner. Please note that those delegates who
wish to bring a friend/partner along to the conference dinner may purchase an extra place for
40€. Please choose your meal options when booking. Registration will be open until 31st May
but please book your places as soon as possible to facilitate conference organisation.
II. European Group News
CRIMES OF THE POWERFUL WORKING GROUP EVENT
Crimes of the Powerful Working group: Launch Event Friday 5th June 2015 at
Abertay University, Dundee
We are pleased to announce that this year we will be launching the Crimes of the
Powerful working group with a 1 day conference 9.30am (until approx. 6pm) on Friday
5th June 2015 at Abertay University, Dundee. The event will include a series of panels, Q
and As and workshops entitled:
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Crimes of the Power: Where are we now?
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Researching the Crimes of the Powerful
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Resisting and Contesting the Crimes of the Powerful
We are delighted to be able to confirm the following speakers: Monish Bhatia (Abertay
University) Graham Campbell (Secretary of the Ethnic Minority Civic Congress Scotland
and Convener of Black Lives Matter, Glasgow), Victoria Canning (The Open University)
Hazel Croall (Emeritus Professor of Criminology), Will Jackson (LJMU), Tobias Kelly
(The University of Edinburgh), Helen Monk (LJMU) and Steve Tombs (The Open
University) with additional speaker announcements forthcoming from various
academic institutions and activist groups.
The event will also include the development of the draft Crimes of the Powerful
Working Group Manifesto through contributions from attendees on the day, which was
kindly drafted by Steve Tombs (Open University) and David Whyte (University of
Liverpool) last year. To summarise some of the key aims of the group at this initial
stage:
The Crimes of the Powerful working group seeks to provide a network and database for
teachers, researchers, students and activists across and beyond Europe who have an
interest studying and confronting corporate and state crimes and harms – in their various
forms. The working group will provide an opportunity to share our knowledge of
corporate and state harm and help establish new links with activists and academics who
critically engage with the current forms, extent and nature of such crimes and harms. The
working group will thus provide an opportunity to connect local campaigns with a wider
network through which we can collectively provide solidarity and support. The working
group also aims to foster a greater understanding of criminal and harmful corporate and
state activities; offer possibilities for collaborative research; and work towards
emancipatory change.
Please note that the event is free but we would ask that you please register your
attendance through the Eventbrite web address which will be circulated, alongside a full
schedule of the day, via the EG mailing list and Facebook group within the next week or
so.
If you have an queries at this initial stage please do not hesitate to ask by emailing:
Any queries relating to the Crimes of the Powerful Working Group to:
Samantha Fletcher e: samantha.fletcher@staffs.ac.uk
Any queries relating to the event venue including questions about travel and
accommodation to:
Monish Bhatia e: m.bhatia@abertay.ac.uk
With very best wishes
Samantha (Fletcher) and Jessica (Dietzler) Co-ordinators for the inaugural meeting for
the Working Group for the study of the Crimes of the Powerful c/o European Group for
the Study of Deviance and Social Control and Monish (Bhatia) Secretary for the
European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control
CALL FOR PAPERS: EUROPEAN GROUP JOURNAL
The European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control will launch its very
first peer-reviewed international journal in summer 2016. It will publish high quality
original essays, book reviews, and scholarly and creative narratives whilst providing a
platform for the voices of activists and people embroiled within state institutions.
Following the work of Erik Olin Wright (2010), the first issue of the journal will be
dedicated to the theme of non-penal ‘real utopias’. Wrights’ (2010) real utopia draws
upon the insights of Marxist and Anarchist philosophies to visualise historically
immanent radical alternatives to current manifestations of repression, domination and
exploitation. Building upon the long tradition of penal abolitionism (Christie, Hulsman,
Mathiesen) we would particularly welcome papers exploring feasible alternatives to
incarceration and other contemporary penal practices which respect human dignity
whilst repairing the harms caused by problematic behaviour in a spirit of solidarity and
inclusiveness. Rather than taking a theoretical approach, this special journal edition
seeks to present innovative, practical measures that may provide a blueprint for future
alternatives to punishment. A social harm approach (Hillyard et al., 2004) may be
followed, encouraging contributors to focus on the responses which may be adopted
towards all forms of harmful behaviour, whether they are officially recognised as
‘criminal’ or not.
Contributions are welcomed from academics, activists and those with lived experience
of penal systems. They ought to respect the core aims and values of the European Group
(see http://www.europeangroup.org/?q=node/6).
Proposals should be submitted for consideration by 1 May 2015 to Emma Bell
(bell.emma@neuf.fr) and David Scott (D.G.Scott@ljmu.ac.uk). Final papers of no more
than 6,000 words must be submitted by 11 January 2016.
PHIL SCRATON VIDEO
Watch the European Group’s Phil Scraton discussing his views on crime & punishment
here: http://www.europeangroup.org/?q=node/4 (26 minute video).
III. Comment & Analysis
Democratising the police: elements
of a left strategy1
G.S. Rigakos, Carleton University & G. Papanicolaou, Teesside University
Over the past 20 years the aggressive reassertion of neoliberalism, the renewal and
expansion of repressive state capacities and the effort of the establishment to contain
growing popular unrest in the wake of the current financial crisis has resulted in an
inevitable escalation of conflict between the Left and policing organisations throughout
Europe. These developments raise serious questions about the evolving nature,
direction and intensification of police coercion. The current conjuncture has also
produced the very real possibility of electoral majorities by progressive Left parties on
the heels of wider popular mobilizations. This necessitates reflection on the possibility
of progressive police reform as part of a strategy of the Left, whether in opposition or in
government.
What complicates this task is that, despite considerable advances in Leftist and Marxist
state theory, the police remain the least theorized and understood state institution
among the Left. Undoubtedly, the practical experience of the police role in political
struggles has forced the Left into a reactive and instrumentalist theoretical stance
according to which the police merely dispense coercion on behalf of the ruling class and
must therefore be challenged unambiguously on every possible occasion. The grave
political implications of this stance are not limited to a self-perpetuating state of mutual
suspicion and hostility, but they also compromise the Left's ability to address
consistently and persuasively questions of policing, law and order. In short, this stance
stifles the Left’s ability to build a dialogue about the future and proffer a vision of a postcapitalist policing system that is safer and more democratic.
Various political audiences that are potentially open to the political message of the Left
and are key to its electoral success are unwilling to endorse a negative view of the police
role that offers no vision of order and public safety. Working-class citizens rely on the
police for the performance of critical peacekeeping functions in everyday life. The irony
is that the Left, by being confined to a form of permanent opposition against the
practices of the actually existing police end up reifying and reinforcing paramilitarised
1
Summary of G. Papanicolaou & G. S. Rigakos (2014). Democratizing the police in Europe, with a particular
emphasis on Greece. Vienna: Transform! European Network, Nicos Poulantzas Institute and Rosa Luxemburg
Stiftung. The essay was commissioned by Transform! in the frame of their Left Strategy project. See:
http://www.transform-network.net/blog/blog-2014/news/detail/Blog/-eeb41c0394.html
police bureaucracies and missing the connection between the bourgeois notion of police
science in capitalist society that subtends the entire global economic system. We argue
that the Left should interrogate and seek to replace this bourgeois understanding of
police in a democratic transition to socialism. In fact, we would argue that the Left
ought to make public safety the centre of their strategy to wrest the police mechanism
from the effective control of the interests of the capitalist class.
'Police science' as a broad vision of social order had been a key preoccupation of
bourgeois intellectuals throughout the period of the emergence of capitalist social
relations. So much so, that we can say that it ought to be considered the foundational
science of capitalism parallel in significance and meaning to political economy. The
issue for such intellectuals as William Petty, Nicolas Delamare, Patrick Colqhoun or even
Adam Smith was, from the beginning, how to forge a social order conducive to capitalist
economic growth and the pacification of the newly disenfranchised and increasingly
unruly subordinate populations during the transition from feudalism to capitalism.
'Police' in this sense had been a much wider concept, at once applying to collective
welfare, an ordered political body and the forging of a productive labour force.
In short, early and classical bourgeois thought developed a police science intended to
support a process of pacification within the contours of capitalist social organisation.
Even though the concept of police was subsequently narrowed down to denote a
particular type of bureaucracy, the broader projects of fabricating a social order
conducive to capitalist production and consumption still underpin the dominant
discourse on security. 'Security' today is hegemonic precisely because it encompasses
visions and strategies pertaining to the reproduction of capitalist social relations in
their entirety. In the same way that bourgeois police science once fabricated a new
order for the transition to capitalism, the challenge for the Left is to build a new
understanding of security that represents nothing less than a police system that
facilitates a transition to a new democratic social and economic order—to think through
a socialist police science.
As in all complex organizations, dissent and political ruptures are present within police
organizations. In the present context of austerity, fiscal constraints and privatisation an
opportunity exists to undercut the historic alliance between the police and the Right, in
so far as neoliberalism systematically undermines the very notion of public good which
the police are employed and sworn to uphold. A prerequisite for the successful pursuit
of this opportunity is to acknowledge police labour and develop strategies and policies
empowering the police as workers: a successful strategy for the progressive reform of
the police does not merely consist in besieging the police mechanism from outside by
introducing elements of democratic oversight and control, but also to democratise the
division of labour and the systems of work within the police organisation. The same
applies par excellence to corporate security where, we suggest, the most precarious and
alienated forms of policing labour exist today.
While we emphasize that Left strategies for policing reform will depend on the
particular characteristics of the national context in each case, we propose six general
tenets encompassing the prioritisation of security as public good, of social fairness,
integrity and democratic control. A Left strategy for police reform should seek to:
1. Reframe public safety: the police today have an extremely wide mandate that
encompasses a variety of tasks ranging from everyday peacekeeping to crime
control and state security. Nevertheless, the bulk of police services depend
heavily on front-line personnel and pertain to upholding the conditions of
peaceful social coexistence without recourse to the use of force. At the strategic
policy level, the Left must seek to instil in the police mandate the prioritization of
public safety above all else - understood as a preoccupation with the
minimisation of harmful outcomes in everyday life. This may entail both an
intensification of police activity in certain areas of social life, and, importantly a
contraction or complete withdrawal from others.
2. Redefine the police professional: the Left must pursue a break with
established notions of police professionalism which have given rise to the
dominant model of police organisation characterised by militarism and
bureaucratism. It must force a re-envisaging of the police service bringing the
qualities and abilities of police personnel to the forefront and encouraging
organizational designs and systems of delivery that promote social awareness,
expertise, initiative and sound decision- making among police personnel. These
should be supported by the development of professional knowledge and
standards pertinent to community needs, and by systems of initial and careerlong learning and training conforming to and nurturing such knowledge and
standards.
3. Establish a dense network of external controls: a Left strategy for police
reform must actively seek to establish a decentralised system of citizen
consultation, oversight and control that will complement the system of
legislative and judiciary controls that typically exists under conditions of liberal
democracy and which will aim to enhance local responsiveness and
accountability of the police. Such a system can involve the establishment of
elected police boards at national and local levels. Internal police procedures
should also be integrated with this system of external controls so as to offer a
higher degree of protection and autonomy to individual police officers.
4. Implement democratic restructuring: democratic restructuring of the police
organisation should generally follow the principles of geographical and
administrative decentralisation. It should involve a reallocation of police
resources towards front-line units responding to community needs and
priorities, as well as a strengthening of the ability of front-line personnel to take
initiative and formulate effective responses in consultation with communities.
5. Facilitate citizen participation: in line with the previous tenet, a Left strategy
for police reform should actively explore ways to strengthen and generalise
citizen participation in police decision making, and even operations. These
participatory structures could involve the introduction of local meetings
between police, citizens and other organisations during which formal decisions
about local policing priorities should be made and subsequently reviewed. A
further step may involve the introduction of part-time and auxiliary personnel
which will be recruited from the local citizenry and will be integrated with police
operational units as much as feasible; and,
6. Engage directly with private policing: the Left must acknowledge that even an
extensive restructuring and reallocation of public police resources may not
immediately eliminate the reliance on private security, which is an important
and perhaps irreversible characteristic of contemporary policing. The Left
should pursue the introduction of a regulatory regime that renders the functions
of private security compatible with the principles and priorities of the public
police system as they emerge from the preceding tenets—in this respect, there
exists a considerable margin for intervention in the structure of private security
organizations, encouraging more democratic forms of ownership such as
worker-owned security cooperatives, division of labour and accountability.
Author biographies
George S. Rigakos is Professor of the Political Economy of Policing at Carleton
University. He is author of The New Parapolice (2002), Nightclub (2008), and co-editor
of A General Police System (2009) and Anti-security (2011). His forthcoming book is
entitled Police/Capital which examines the growth of the international securityindustrial complex.
Georgios Papanicolaou is Reader in Criminology at Teesside University. He maintains
an active interest in the sociology of the repressive state apparatuses, particularly of the
police. His book Transnational Policing and Sex Trafficking in Southeast Europe: Policing
the imperialist chain was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2011.
Group members who are interested in this and the wider debates about the meaning of
democratic policing are encouraged to join the Policing and security working group. You
may also consider contributing to the conference stream “Rethinking policing in the
radical tradition” 43rd Annual Conference, Tallinn 26-29 August 2015.
IV. News from Europe and around the world
Australia
As criminologists, we join to speak out against the impending and tragic execution of
our fellow citizens in Indonesia. We do not see this punishment as either an issue of
national sovereignty or of just deserts.
The Australian police gave up these two men to a capital punishment jurisdiction as
part of a ‘sting’ operation which could have led to prosecutions and trials in Australia
where the death penalty is not an option. Capital punishment is said to be qualified by
mercy. In ultimately deciding on clemency, we believe the Indonesian Government
should give strongest consideration to the remarkable rehabilitation history of the two
condemned men.
In opposing these executions we are not seeking to criticise the judicial process of
another country. However, we want to see justice tempered with humanity. Rightminded Australians share the abhorrence of misery and addiction associated with drug
abuse and the shameful drug trafficking trade. That said, nothing in our view can justify
the killing of two men in circumstances such as these.
At this final hour we add our voices to the calls for the death sentences to be commuted
and for Australia and Indonesia to join in other ways to fight the harmful health
consequences of drug abuse in all its forms.
(Professor Rick Sarre ; President, Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology
(ANZSOC) School of Law)
Belgium
The ninth annual conference of the International Society for the Study of Drug Policy
(ISSDP) will be held in Ghent (Belgium), from Wednesday 20th to Friday 22nd May,
2015. The event will be hosted by the Institute for Social Drug research (ISD), Ghent
University. Visitwww.issdp2015.ugent.be
Croatia
Conference:
ETHICS OF INCLUSION: The role of social work in social transformation and innovation,
Dubrovnik, 21-26 September 2015. See http://dialogueinpraxis.fsd.unilj.si/index.php?id=44&lang=en
Cyprus
1st Cyprus Conference on Criminal Law and Criminology
Παγκύπριο Συνέδριο Ποινικού Δικαίου & Εγκληματολογίας 6-7 Μαρτίου 2015
Το Tμήμα Νομικής & το Ινστιτούτο Ποινικών Σπουδών και Εγκληματολογίας (ICSC)
του Πανεπιστημίου Λευκωσίας (UNic)
και το Εργαστήριο Ποινικών και
Εγκληματολογικών Ερευνών (ΕΠ&ΕΕ) του Εθνικού Καποδιστριακού Πανεπιστημίου
Αθηνών (ΕΚΠΑ)
έχουν την τιμή και την χαρά να σας προσκαλέσουν στο Πρώτο Παγκύπριο Συνέδριο
Ποινικού Δικαίου και Εγκληματολογίας
Θεματολογία του Συνεδρίου
Σεξουαλική Εγκληματικότητα, Πορνεία και Trafficking, Οργανωμένο Έγκλημα,
Κυβερνοέγκλημα (CyberCrime), Κράτος και Διαφθορά, Νεανική Παραβατικότητα,
Ποινή και εναλλακτικοί τρόποι έκτισης, Απόλυση επ’ αδεία/υφ’ όρον Aπόλυση.
Παρακαλείστε για την συμμετοχή σας με εισήγηση/παρέμβαση ή/και υποβολή
εκδήλωσης ενδιαφέροντος, όπως επικοινωνήσετε στο: law.helpdesk@unic.ac.cy
Προθεσμία υποβολής δηλώσεων συμμετοχής (εισηγήσεων και παρεμβάσεων): 10
Φεβρουαρίου 2015 Προθεσμία υποβολής abstract και σύντομου βιογραφικού
σημειώματος: 25 Φεβρουαρίου 2015 Προθεσμία υποβολής των κειμένων εισηγήσεων:
6 Μαρτίου 2015
Χώρος διεξαγωγής: Πανεπιστήμιο Λευκωσίας
Για την Επιστημονική Επιτροπή Δρ. Νέστωρ Κουράκης Δρ. Δήμητρα Σορβατζιώτη Δρ.
Αντώνης Μαγγανάς Καθ. Παν/μίου Λευκωσίας Επ. Καθ. Αντιπρόεδρος Νομικής Ομοτ.
Καθ. Παντείου Ομοτ. Καθ. ΕΚΠΑ Παν/μίου Λευκωσίας Πανεπιστημίου Δ/ντής ΕΠ&ΕΕ
Πρόεδρος ICSC
Για την Οργανωτική Επιτροπή
κ. Κάλια Λοϊζίδου, ΜΑ,
Σχολική Ψυχολόγος Υπεύθυνη Ερευνητικής Ομάδας ICSC
Θα χορηγηθούν
πιστοποιητικά συμμετοχής και παρακολούθησης
Greece
Media
An update on Syriza's plans for police reform in Greece :
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/02/greece-syriza-police-reform/
Corporate Watch report on the Greek debt issue – debunking the myths :
http://corporatewatch.hosted.phplist.com/lists/lt.php?id=NkpTB1RMCw9bTAlTCgBR
Red Pepper comment here : http://www.redpepper.org.uk/no-syriza-has-notsurrendered/
UK
Activism
Prison Abolition UK
A National Conference on Prison Abolition is being organised to take place in London in
2015.
The aim of the Conference is to bring together:
Ex-prisoners, friends, families & partners of those harmed by the prison
industrial complex in the UK
 Those organising in diverse ways around prisoner support and prison related
issues
 Input & ideas from current prisoners before and after the event
The UK should be at the forefront of prison-abolition organising with the number of
people we have incarcerated. We have the most privatised prison system in Europe,
which without resistance will only continue to grow in allowing companies to profit
from caging human beings.
We believe there are thousands of people in the UK that care about dismantling the
prison system, that are fed up of visiting their loved ones every week, that cannot stand
to witness any more injustice. This conference is for you.
This is an opportunity to explore how we can dismantle the prison industrial complex
and build relationships that can create a world without prisons.
Interested in participating, speaking, leading a workshop? Send us your ideas at
info@prisonabolition.org

Jobs/Student Opportunities
Head of Division of Sociology (which includes Criminology), University of Abertay,
Dundee. Deadline 12th March:
http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/AKN675/head-of-division-sociology/
Media
On Friday 5 and Saturday 6 February 2015, the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies and
The Monitoring Group held the 'Police corruption, spying and racism' conference at
Conway Hall, London. Video footage from many of the sessions are now available to
view online. http://ow.ly/JASfh
"Take a stick with you and beat them up.” Channel 4 news exposes culture of racism,
sexism and violence in British immigration detention centres. Officers filmed
encouraging violence, admitting to “headbutting the bitch", talking about their "tits" and
complaining a bleeding woman miscarrying who had to wait 3 hours to see a doctor was
“refusing to wait her turn.” http://converseprisonnews.com/shocking-prison-officerundercover-footage-let-them-slash-their-wrists/
http://www.channel4.com/news/yarls-wood-immigration-removal-detention-centreinvestigation
Seminars/conferences
Criminal justice since 2010. What happened? What next? March 23rd, 2015 This
conference organised by the CCJS will assess the major changes to criminal justice
across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland since the 2010 General Election
and examine the challenges facing an incoming government following the May 2015
General
Election.
See
http://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=167
6&qid=179204
What are the alternatives to prison? CCJS conference April 21st 2015. This event will
consider what radical alternatives there might be to imprisonment. Participants will be
invited to discuss opportunities for building practices and policies to make sure that
criminal justice responses are no longer required. See
http://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=66
Evolving understandings of racism and resistance – local and global conceptions
and struggles Friday 1st May 2015 Keynote speakers to include: Stephen Small
(Berkeley), John Solomos (Warwick) One-day conference at the Centre for Migration,
Refugees and Belonging, University of East London in conjunction with the BSA Race
and Ethnicity Study Group. We welcome papers relating to any of these questions and
debates and, in particular, would welcome papers that examine: - contemporary and
historical examples of movements against racism and the role of ethnic mobilisation
within such movements; - the role played by ethnic mobilisations in wider movements
for social justice; - changing terrains of racism and new articulations of anti-racist
resistance. Please send an abstract of 200 words to g.bhattacharyya@uel.ac.uk,
satnam.virdee@glasgow.c.uk, a.winter@uel.ac.uk by 13/2/15.
Justice matters for women: Time for action!
Following the CCJS’ call to action to 'Empower women, resist injustice and transform
lives', the Centre is hosting a one-day event with Women in Prison on Wednesday 20th
May to foster collective action to challenge criminal justice failure and build socially just
alternatives.
The Political Prison: Incarceration, Dissent, and Penal Regimes, University of
Dundee, Scotland, DD1 4HN, UK, 18-19 June 2015
This event seeks to draw together researchers working across disciplines to explore
how prison and other carceral institutions can function as a site of political
repression and dissent. In doing so, it aims to create a comparative context within which
attendees can explore larger questions of prisoners’ agency and their capacity to shape
power relations within and outside the prison. In this respect, political protest is
defined in its widest sense. It includes examples of overtly political or collective acts of
protest; for example, political education, rioting, work and hunger strikes. However,
researchers are also invited to explore everyday or passive examples of resistance by
prisoners. The meeting seeks to cover cases where prisoners have been incarcerated as
a result of their political activity and are therefore deemed “political prisoners,” but also
where “ordinary prisoners” have been politicized during their incarceration. For further
information, please contact the organiser, Dr Zoe Colley, z.a.colley@dundee.ac.uk.
Challenging state and corporate impunity: is accountability possible?
The CCJS and the University of Liverpool are hosting a conference on Friday 19 June to
bring people together from a range of organisations to discuss how to hold state and
corporate institutions to account. Places are limited, so book now to avoid
disappointment.
Report
Relatives for Justice Report: Dealing with the Past in Ireland: Where are the Women?
Women's experience of conflict and the need for implementation of United Nations
Security Council Resolution 1325. The Project, on which the Report is based, comes from
three years' focus on the conflict-related harms experienced by women who use
relatives for justice. The Project was participatory, involving women in a range of
programmes designed to identify the harms they had suffered, and the mechanisms that
support
recovery
from
harm
See:
http://relativesforjustice.com/wpcontent/uploads/2015/02/Dealing-with-the-Past-Where-Are-the-Women.pdf
International
Activism
The Italian abolitionist organisation ‘No More Prison’ seeks to strengthen the case for
prison abolition across Europe. Its manifesto is available to read in several languages:
http://www.noprison.eu/homepage_eng.html
Call for contributors
Please contact me at pamugwudike@gmail.com if you are interested in co-authoring a
Critical Criminology textbook with me. The book will be published by Routledge
publishers, and it will cover a range of topics that include: critiquing mainstream
theories of crime; analysing media representations of crime; and evaluating
criminological research from a critical perspective. For more information, please send
me an email.
Media
Interesting article on the worrying state
http://www.socialjusticejournal.org/?p=2888
of
the
anti-prison
movement:
The third "episode" of Alessandro di Giorgi ethnographic blog series "Reentry to
Nothing: Urban Survival after Mass Incarceration" is out now. You can read "Reentry to
Nothing #3: Home, Sweet Home" on the webpage of Social Justice: A Journal of Crime,
Conflict, and World Order:http://www.socialjusticejournal.org/?p=2855
As Obama's Task Force on 21st Century Policing gets ready to release its report, Tony
Platt reflects on the long history of racial police violence in the United States. Read
here: http://www.socialjusticejournal.org/?p=2924
Tallinn
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