EUROPEAN GROUP FOR THE STUDY OF
DEVIANCE AND SOCIAL CONTROL
ESTABLISHED 1973
Coordinator: Emma Bell
Secretary: Monish Bhatia
By: Samuel Ronquillo
SPRING NEWSLETTER II
Website administrator: Gilles Christoph
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I European Group 40th Anniversary
Conference
Conference fees & registration, photo
exhibition etc.
II European Group news
Geoffrey Pearson
Working Group on Prisons and Punishment
European Group Resolutions
III Comment and analysis
- Peter Squires and Author B* call for a
European-wide debate on how to challenge and
resist the neoliberal, market positivist, critical
research prevention culture
Australia
Canada
Denmark
France
Germany
Greece
Ireland
New Zealand
Spain
United Kingdom
USA
IV News from the Europe and the world
‘The Scream’ by Edvard Munch. The city of Oslo will be celebrating the 150th anniversary
of his birth in 2013. A whole host of Munch-related events are being organised throughout
the year. See http://www.visitoslo.com/en/your-oslo/edvard-munch-and-oslo/
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
I European Group Conference
Critical Criminology in a Changing World: Tradition and Innovation
University of Oslo, Norway
th
29 August to 1st September 2013
http://www.europeangroup.org/conferences/2013/Index.htm/
http://www.jus.uio.no/ikrs/english/research/news-andevents/events/conferences/2013/CCIACW/
Nils Christie, Professor Emeritus in Criminology at the University of Oslo, will be
speaking at this year’s annual conference. His most recent book is Limits to Pain
(2007).
Conference fees
Full fee for participants incl. dinner reception
2200 NOK 295€*
Full fee for students incl. dinner reception
1500 NOK 200€
Full fee for participants excl. dinner reception
1600 NOK 215€
Full fee for students excl. dinner reception
900 NOK 120€
Please note that fees in euros are approximate only and may vary depending on the exchange
rate at the time of registration. Fees are more expensive than usual this year due to the high
costs of living in Norway but they do include the proceedings, all coffee/tea breaks and
lunches during the conference (Friday – Sunday) as well as a welcome reception. In addition,
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
fees include the cost of participation in a number of social events from which delegates can
choose during the conference.
Conference places are limited to 200. Priority will be given to those who are presenting
conference papers. However, a number of places will be reserved on a first-come, first-served
basis for those who are not planning to present a paper. For those delegates, registration
is now possible. Please contact Per Jorgen at p.j.ystehede@jus.uio.no. He will send you a
code which you will need to log onto the registrations page on the university website.
For those of you who are planning to present a paper, please wait until you have
received confirmation that your abstract has been approved before registering. You will
have received an answer by the 15th of May 2013. If your abstract is approved, you will
receive a user-name and password to be able to log on to the ‘Registration Forms’ page on
the University of Oslo website where you will have to fill in some information (name,
country of origin, email + will be able to pay electronically). Please note that payment has to
be made upon registration. The registration is only valid after the payment has successfully
been carried out. Participants will receive a confirmation of their registration and a receipt for
their payment by email immediately after their online payment. As the payments are online
and the participants get a receipt from the credit card company as well, no other receipts will
be provided to guests.
A photo exhibition celebrating 40 years of the European Group will be organised at the Oslo
conference. If any of you have any photos that reflect the history of the Group, please send
these either electronically to p.j.ystehede@jus.uio.no or by mail to Per Jorgen, Postboks 6706
St. Olavsplass, 0130 OSLO.
II European Group News
Geoff Pearson, perhaps most famous as the author of Hooligan: A History of Respectable
Fears (1984), will be well-known to members of the European Group. Geoff sadly passed
away last month. Below are some tributes to him that were sent in by Group members:
Dear colleagues, many of you will be unaware that Geoff Pearson, author of such seminal
texts as Hooligan and the Deviant Imagination, died suddenly a week ago, his funeral is to be
held on Tuesday 16th at Kensal Green cemetery London at 3. I am sure you would like to
join me in expressing deepest condolences to his partner Marilyn. I was privileged to work
with Geoff and others on a project on multi-agency work back in the 80s. Aside from being a
brilliant writer and thinker, Geoff was possessed of a wicked sense of humour and, as anyone
lucky enough to spend an hour (or so) at the bar with him would know, a treasure-house of
stories. He was remarkably prescient, I remember him telling me and David Smith (the
Lancaster one) after Thatcher got in, we should abandon job titles with 'social' in them and rebrand ourselves as criminologists - astute advice which may have saved us from the
university knackers yard. I saw him about a year ago by chance in a restaurant in London and
he was clearly enjoying retirement, although he had been lured back to do some work for the
Welsh Assembly. We shall miss him
-Harry Blagg
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
Geoff was a fine person and all that you write Harry is exactly my memory of him He was
supportive, open, honest and kind. He was always fun to be with yet ready for an engaging
conversation at any moment. I first met him at a National Deviancy Conference where I was
giving my first ever paper which combined some hilarious research moments with examples
of the vicious policing of Irish Travellers by police and bailiffs. The room was packed as two
other parallel sessions had been cancelled. So many well-known people were in the session,
chaired by Mike Fitzgereald, and I was dead nervous. At the end a smart arse guy from
London commented that he thought my paper was 'slightly histrionic' and contested a quote
I'd used from Weber ... then proceeded to ask me a question in German. I looked at him and
said, 'Look mate, I'm from Liverpool and I've only just cracked your form of English, not
gorra chance with German'. At the end of the session this other guy came up and said 'Really
enjoyed that talk, keep up the great work and ignore fuckwits like him. If you ever need
anything here's my number'. It was Geoff, and I've never forgotten the moment. I'm sure
many others have similar stories. His work has stood the test of time and is as relevant now as
it was when first published.
-Phil Scraton
Geoff Pearson and his work was a huge influence on those of us , back in the 1970s, who
were witnessing and viewing football hooliganism at their respective grounds. Over the
weekend, we have seen a return of those forms of violence. I was at Manchester Victoria
Station on Saturday evening , as Rotherham supporters ran amok.........Is it temporary or will
it be the return of football violence from a post-industrial, alienated, macho youth culture?
Geoff Pearson is still our guide .
- Ste Higginson
I only saw Geoff Pearson a couple of times, but I always thought he was a really interesting
and valuable academic. He is a sad loss. Perhaps you could just add my condolences to
everyone else's.
-Mark Cowling
I was so sorry to hear about Geoff Pearson’s death, I had worked with him some years ago
and had the highest admiration for his work and his passion for social justice. Please do pass
on my condolences to his partner.
-Frances Crook
I knew Geoff mainly through the British Journal of Criminology, of which he was editor
when I first joined the editorial advisory board. The Deviant Imagination and Hooligan are
indeed fantastic books, groundbreaking at the time they appeared, and even more necessary
now that so much criminology/criminal justice is taught on free-standing programmes no
longer anchored in sociology. As well as always being impressed by his writings, I
remember him from singalong-round-the-piano sessions at ASC conferences. Lively and
penetrating thinker, talked good sense in meetings, and always good company, yet another
outstanding sociologist/criminologist who will be much missed.
-Barbara Hudson
Thanks for this sad information. It seems to be bad time for good people. I’m sad to know
this. Love from Ida
-Ida Koch
Thank you for the e-mail, please give my condolences to his family, and tell them to be
strong, and think of all the great times they had together.
-Sheila McGowan
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
Working Group on Prisons, Detention and Punishment
The manifesto for the new working group was adopted in April:
1. This European working group provides a network and database for teachers, researchers,
students and activists across Europe (and beyond) who have an interest studying prisons,
detention and punishment. The working group will provide an opportunity to share our
knowledge of sites of confinement and the operation of the penal rationale and help establish
new links with activists and academics worldwide who critically engage with the current
forms, extent and nature of detention and punishment. The working group will thus provide
an opportunity to connect local campaigns with a wider global network through which we can
collectively provide solidarity and support. The working group also aims to foster a greater
understanding of contemporary penality; offer possibilities for collaborative research; and
work towards emancipatory change. We recognise that, since the inception of the
confinement project in the eighteenth century, the boundaries between different sites of
detention have become increasingly blurred: prisons house foreign nationals and recalcitrant
mental health patients; high security hospitals hold the ‘criminally insane’; immigration
centres are run like prisons. The working group is committed to the abolition of penal
confinement and other sites of involuntary detention. We also aim to challenge the logic and
assumptions of the penal rationale and propose the development of non-repressive means of
handling social problems and conflicts.
2. In many countries around the world there has been a proliferation in sites of confinement.
More than ten million people are confined in prisons and many millions more are housed in
other forms of detention. However, the rise of global hyper-incarceration and the analytical
frameworks that underscore its assumptions have been challenged by a growing number of
academics in their teaching and research, and by social workers, anti-prison activists, social
justice-inspired social movements, members of the radical penal lobby, progressive members
of the public, socialist politicians and students. An increasing number of organisations all
around the globe are now directly challenging hyper-incarceration. The European working
group aims to contribute to the development of abolitionist and anti-prison activism and to
highlight the limitations of the current application of confinement. We acknowledge that the
mobilisation of grass roots activists is absolutely necessary for any sustained radical
transformation of current penal and social realities.
3. The working group aims to encourage members to formulate intellectual interventions and
direct activism that can systematically expose the brutal realities of detention, penal
confinement and community punishments and facilitate a reduction in the stigmatising effects
and collateral consequences of the application of the penal rationale. We recognise that it is
essential that the experiences and voices of detainees are given a platform to air their views
and that the brutal and inhumane realities of sites of confinement are brought to the attention
of the wider public and those in positions of power. The working group supports the rights of
activists and citizens, including those sections of the voluntary sector that are pursuing social
justice and penal reductionism, to pursue their goals without domination by governmental or
profit-making interests.
4. The working group prioritises the critical scrutiny of the justifications of the punitive
rationale; punishment in the community, semi-penal institutions and probation hotels; and the
wider moral and political contexts of the deliberate infliction of pain. The justification of
detention of people in the interests of others should be critically scrutinised and located
within its given social, economic, political and moral context. This does not mean we believe
that nothing should be done, or that all forms of detention or deprivation of liberty are
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
necessarily unjustified (especially those forms of detention provided for the best interests of
the detainee), but rather that imprisonment and many forms of detention are an illegitimate
response to wrongdoing, social harms and social problems. Sites of confinement fail to
uphold human rights, meet the demands of social justice or provide transparent or
accountable forms of state governance. The increasing reliance upon involuntary detention,
prisons and other forms of detainment in recent times also draws attention to its very real
threat to democracy. All forms of detention have faced consistently high death rates and
intentional self-injury; institutionalisation and disculturalisation; bullying and sexual
violence; staff moral indifference; institutionalised racism; masculinist hierarchies of power;
and broader vulnerabilities to systemic abuses through torture and inhuman and degrading
treatment. What the different institutions also seem to share is an historical broad inability to
satisfy the duty of care owed to those who they detain. We acknowledge also that detainees
are predominantly poor, in bad physical and mental health, unemployed, and badly educated.
It is the less fortunate, vulnerable and needy who are disproportionately detained and this
draws direct connections with the need for a more socially just world.
5. The organisation of the European working group on prisons, detention and punishment is
undertaken by a steering group that will consist of at least the following: a working group
coordinator; the coordinator of the European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social
Control; the secretary of the European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control.
Members of the working group may also be invited to join a steering group. The working
group will meet every year at the annual conference of the European Group for the Study of
Deviance and Social Control and members are encouraged to organise other events, meetings
and conferences throughout the calendar year to help generate ideas, networks and direct
interventions. Such events may be full meetings for the whole working group or specially
convened meetings of local activists in one given region / nation. A separate mailing list will
be maintained and other European Group media sources, such as facebook, youtube, twitter
and crim-space, will be used to disseminate information about the working group and its
activities. The working group coordinator will be elected at the European Group annual
conference and full details of the membership of the working group will be detailed on our
website www.europeangroup.org
6. Members of the working group are committed to the reversal of the proliferation of sites of
confinement and the utilisation of strategies drawing upon direct action and abolitionist
praxis to facilitate radical penal and social transformations. Though strategies of engagement
will vary from place to place depending upon local circumstances, we believe that to achieve
our aims we must propose a number of direct interventions that are feasible here and now and
that can exploit contradictions in the operation of penal power. We call for the following
general interventions as a means to facilitate a long-term and radical reduction in the
populations of those detained in sites of confinement.
i) An international moratorium on building new sites of confinement (prisons / asylums /
immigration centres) and on the allocation of existing buildings and spaces as locations of
involuntary detention
ii) An end to the privatisation of sites of confinement and the insidious expansion of the carceral
state via the voluntary and private sector
iii) A detailed and critical interrogation of existing state detention, followed by a systematic call
for governments to close the most inhumane, degrading and torturous sites of confinement
without opening new houses of detention
iv) A virtual end to pre-trial detention and the abolishment of the antiquated notion of bail except
for those who present a serious threat to society
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
v) The safeguarding and expansion of the legal rights of detainees. Post incarceration exdetainees must be recognised as full citizens and given full and uninhibited access to
employment, housing, other social and financial services and full access to political and civil
society
vi) The decriminalisation of victimless and harmless acts, such as alcoholism, deviant sexualities
between consenting adults, substance misuse and drug taking. The criminalisation of sex
workers (who are often from working class backgrounds) is harmful and victimising and we
propose alternative responses that protect and prioritise the safety of the men and women who
engage in this work.
vii) The decriminalisation of infringements of migration laws
viii) To raise the age of criminal responsibility in all countries in the world to the age of at least 16
ix) To divert people with mental health problems, learning disabilities, severe physical
disabilities, the profoundly deaf and people with suicidal ideation from the criminal process
whilst at the same time ensuring any alternative interventions are both ‘in place’ of a penal
sanction and are not merely forms of ‘trans-incarceration’ to other sites of confinement
x) To immediately remove those people most vulnerable to the inherent harms and pains of
confinement from places of detention
xi) To formulate and advocate radical alternatives to the criminal process and social injustices
for individual and social harms that are feasible and could be implemented immediately or
within a short period of time
xii) To propose that all governments prioritise meeting human need, recognising common
humanity and facilitating social justice as the most effective means of preventing / dealing
with human troubles, conflicts and problematic conduct
European Group Resolutions:
A. Prison, Detention and Punishment Working Group Resolution
Members of the Prison, Detention and Punishment Working Group (part of the European
Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control http://www.europeangroup.org/ ) would
like to express their solidarity with RISE (Refugee Survivors and Ex-Detainee
http://riserefugee.org/who-we-are ) in its struggle to end the inhuman and degrading
treatment of people caught up in the asylum and immigration system in Australia. We call for
an end to the criminalisation of refugees, migrants, and asylum seekers who are routinely
denied access to fair justice and the right of sanctuary. We offer our solidarity to activists
across the globe seeking to protect the rights and interests of migrants. The working group
condemns the record high levels of detention in Australia and the on- going inhumane and
degrading treatment of asylum seekers by the government and private security companies.
We believe that the number of people currently detained under immigration laws is
unacceptable and presents a serious danger to democracy. We believe as academics, students,
activists and members of the general public that it is important that a principled and practical
stand is taken immediately and call upon the government of Australia to make immediate
provision for a radical reduction in the number detainees. We also offer our full support to
activists and campaigners currently working to expose the brutal realities of detainment in
Australia and elsewhere and offer our solidarity with their struggles for a more socially just
society and the promotion of alternative means of dealing with so-called ‘security problems’.
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
This resolution was sent to the Australian immigration minister, Mr. Brendan O’Connor
(Email: brendan.oconnor.mp@aph.gov.au), requesting to release these refugees from
indefinite detention. It was also be sent as a letter to the local Australian embassy
(http://www.dfat.gov.au/missions/) and forms part of wider petition to the Australian
government to free these refugees. If you wish to express your concern, please contact Mr
Brendan O’Connor.
Further details about the hunger strike:
A hunger strike has been going on since 7th April at the Broadmeadows detention centre in
Melbourne, Australia. The 27 asylum seekers, mostly Tamil men, have refused to eat since
Monday to protest against their indefinite detention following adverse findings by the ASIO
(Australian Security Intelligence Organisation).These individuals have been given refugee
status and were then assessed by ASIO as being a “security threat”. The Intelligence
Organisation has not revealed the criteria or provided clear justification for these
assessments. The refugees are asking to be released into the community after being held
indefinitely for an average period of 48-72 months. They are refusing to accept medical
treatment stating that: “If the Australian Government does not release us, we ask that they kill
us mercifully.” Furthermore, according to the Australian law, the Human Rights commission
cannot investigate any human rights violations by ASIO. The mandatory and indefinite
detention of refugees and asylum seekers is legal and only Australia’s Minister for
Immigration and Citizenship, Mr. Brendan O’Connor, has the power to reverse the decision
to detain and order a release of these refugees. There are 56 refugees’ men and women held
indefinitely under the ASIO security measures and two women have given birth while being
held in detention. Neither of them has been convicted of ‘crime’ or subjected to trail
proceedings.
Also see: http://www.abc.net.au/local/audio/2013/04/11/3734697.htm
B. European Group Resolution offering solidarity with Barbara Muldoon in her
fight to protect the right to peaceful protest in Northern Ireland
The members of the European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control, the
largest world-wide network of critical academics, practitioners and activists working on
questions of and concerns about social control, would like to express their solidarity with
Barbara Muldoon, an anti-racism campaigner who is facing criminal charges for taking part
in a protest at the BBC offices in Belfast in 2009 against the decision to invite Nick Griffin,
leader of the racist British National Party, to participate in a televised political debate. The
Police Service of Northern Ireland (the PSNI) allege that the demonstration was unlawful
under the Public Processions (NI) Act 1998 which was introduced with the main aim of
regulating contentious parades. It has taken the PSNI and the Public Prosecution Service
three and a half years to bring the charges to the courts. On Friday 3rd May, Barbara’s
lawyers will make an ‘abuse of process’ application against the Public Prosecution Service.
Should this application fail to succeed, Barbara may face a criminal conviction and up to 6
months’ in prison. The European Group offers support for the ‘abuse of process’ application.
More generally, the Group highlights the political nature of the case and its wider
implications for the protection of the right to protest and to peaceful assembly. In reality, the
parades legislation has become a ‘catch all’ piece of law, meaning that everyone who
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
organises any type of march or ‘moving event’ has to notify the Parades Commission in
Northern Ireland. We fear that, if successful, the case will set the precedent for the use of
police powers and prosecutions under this legislation and lead to the ‘net widening’ of police
powers in the context of the right to protest in Northern Ireland. This is particularly
concerning in view of the fact that Northern Ireland is hosting the G8 meeting in June 2013
and the police and prisons are already making preparations to ‘deal with a large number of
protests’. It is important that the right to peaceful protest at such events is protected to the
greatest possible extent.
YouTube Channel:
Please subscribe to the European Group youtube channel. The number of subscribers is
directly linked to the length of the broadcasts allowed on the channel, so to help establish this
new initiative please subscribe (click at the top of the page 'subscribe') as soon as you can
http://www.youtube.com/europeangroup. Please send ideas for programmes and recorded
lectures that you would like adding to our youtube channel to Emma and Monish at
europeancoordinator@gmail.com. Please also let Emma and Monish know if you think you
might be interested in helping to maintain our YouTube channel.
III Comment and analysis
Peter Squires
Resisting ‘market positivism’ and the Research Prevention culture
Part of the current threat to critical social science has been the forward march of a culture of
‘market positivism’ across university campuses. In this neo-liberal vision, research – and its
findings, or ‘products’, become simply facilities to sell to business rather than vehicles for
public accountability, democracy and social justice. The recent launch of the Council for the
Defence of British Universities (Gibney, 2012) is one sign of some resistance to this process,
the rather longer running Campaign for Social Sciences organised by the Academy of Social
Sciences (AcSS) has ploughed a more cautious course intended to remind Government and
policy makers – in an age of Government demands for research impact assessment – that
social science can be ‘useful’. It may be more significant that, just as British research
institutions were gearing up to claim their policy impact, the Conservative Coalition
implemented its most regressive wave of welfare benefit cuts yet and, of course, entirely in
the face of social scientific evidence of the harmful social impact.
In truth, the writing has been there on the wall for a while. Research ‘concentration’, an
earlier model, has rapidly begun to turn rapidly turned into research prevention, particularly
as criminal justice agencies have begun drafting protocols effectively limiting research
opportunities around their own policies, interests and priorities. The hypocrisy of much of
this has been that these ‘research protocols’ are often justified on grounds of ethics, risk or
governance. Furthermore universities have often become increasingly complicit in a process
of selective research retrenchment, embracing ethical codes that especially marginalise
critical and qualitative research traditions while favouring the aforementioned culture of
‘market positivism’.
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
I first encountered a version of this a few years ago at a research council ‘sandpit’ exercise (a
form of intensive research project development collaboration that resembled the organised
chaos of the Big Brother TV show rather more than any recognisable academic process). The
aim was that at the end of the week up to £1 million was to be provisionally awarded to the
research development teams coming up with the ‘best’ and most innovative projects. The
research theme was ‘Preventing Gun Crime’, at the time a core Home Office priority.
Virtually all the research resources were subsequently devoted to new technologies: firearm
tracing and scanning equipment, smart CCTV systems designed to detect ‘weapon carrying
behaviour’ (if it walks like Clint Eastwood, it may be carrying a big gun!) and, finally, a
system of redesigning bullet cartridges so that they trapped and preserved DNA from the
person who loaded the bullets). Huge research funds were allocated to expensive
engineering-heavy projects unlikely to have much impact on gun crime in a generation. The
relatively simple, but undoubtedly old fashioned, research method of asking the police how
many cartridge cases were collected at crime scenes (not many); how much illicit
ammunition discovered in the UK was over 20 years old (most of it); and how much
ammunition was actually produced in the UK and therefore available for a production
redesign (almost none) might have led to a more effective distribution of research resources.
More generally, the crisis facing critical criminological work is already beginning to look
particularly acute, in the familiar sense that powerful organisations (Government
departments, private corporations) are always likely to be a little wary of researchers
burrowing away, finding inconvenient truths, but the issues go much deeper. Criminological
research, after all, is always likely to raise dilemmas, given that the very boundaries of
legality, concepts of right, and related notions of justice have far more than academic
significance. Many commentators voiced their scepticism about the discourse of ‘evidenceled policy making’ claimed by previous governments, but the democratic deficit arising when
Government agencies draft research protocols that comprise policy-led agenda setting,
precisely to deny access to researchers asking questions that have not obtained prior political
approval, is undoubtedly far greater. More than that, it amounts to an abuse of research and a
profound blow to Universities’ integrity and independence. Good research is being side-lined
in favour of compliant research.
A couple of illustrations reveal how far things have come. The recent (April 2012)
MoJ/NOMS research application guidance, notes that, ‘as a consequence of the sheer
volume of requests, NOMS must be selective when considering proposals’ before explaining,
‘research is encouraged whenever it has the potential to increase the effectiveness of
operational policy/delivery’ (page 7), although not, apparently, when it questions existing
policy and practice. Articulating the principles to be followed when reviewing research
requests, the guidance, drawing upon the Government Social Research Code
(http://www.civilservice.gov.uk/networks/gsr/gsr-code), notes: ‘the research must be aimed
at informing and improving policy formulation, analysis and delivery, clearly allied to
strategic priorities’ (emphasis added).
Aside from what this says explicitly about conforming to governmental priorities and
increasing the effectiveness of existing operational policy and performance (while
simultaneously asserting the need for objectivity) and there are further remarks about ‘sound’
methodologies and employing ‘established scientific principles’, there are serious problems
within this constrained and prescriptive model of research. Research is to be undertaken for
the benefit of existing policies, agencies, interests and priorities, rather than for service users,
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
clients, or detainees; furthermore this is an a priori requirement, to be demonstrated in
advance of obtaining research approval and access, let alone research findings.
This, the travelling companion of today’s ‘impact agenda’, demands that the ‘benefits’ of
research be known in advance, even as the Government Social Research Code states:
‘research must not be undertaken with a view to reaching particular conclusions or
prescribing particular courses of action’. Investigative and exploratory research, critical
research, the kind of research that cannot tell in advance what might be discovered because it
is not predicated upon a narrow and incremental hypothesis-testing model of usable scientific
outcomes – or narrow questions - in short, the kinds of inquiry that critical criminology has
best pioneered, becomes ruled out by the new research regime. Here, it is worth noting how
how Jock Young, in The Criminological Imagination (2011), encouraged readers to reflect
upon just how many of subject’s classic research studies simply would not have been
undertaken under the contemporary regime of social science research governance.
My colleagues and I recently had some direct experience of how these new constraints are
being interpreted and implemented at ground level. The outcome speaks volumes - not just
about research but also about inter-agency collaboration. We had been commissioned to
undertake a small scale evaluation on behalf of a local police division. As the project
evolved it became clear that a few exploratory interviews with local magistrates might prove
useful. When approached, the Bench were unclear about the appropriateness of their
participation. They took advice from their Senior Clerk and then wrote back to us spelling
out ‘we cannot get involved in any research for external agencies’ [emphasis added].
Expanding upon the reason for this refusal, the letter continued: ‘Professional researchers
who seek facilities for the conduct of research involving any member of the judiciary are
required in the first instance to submit their proposals for projects to the Judicial Office at
the Royal Courts of Justice. Each application should be supported by a formal business plan
which shows clearly how the research will benefit the judiciary of England and Wales and/or
HM Courts Service." (Personal communication).
What has become especially galling in this context has been the willingness of universities to
simply roll over and accept this culture of research prevention - or, even worse, become
complicit with it. An example came to light of a recent university discussion of research
ethics. Here, research with offenders was judged inherently more problematic than research
with other criminal justice subjects because, by definition, it was suggested, offenders are
more dangerous and ‘prone’ to dishonesty and they might not tell the truth (unlike,
apparently, police officers or criminal justice officials). In a similar vein, here reinforcing
stereotypes of criminals and criminality, offenders, it seems, also represent present either
greater risk or greater vulnerability. They are the ‘dangerous others’ of tabloid fame. The
infrastructure of research governance (which some colleagues have come to refer to as a
‘research prevention culture’) now surrounds intended researchers with ethical, risk
assessment and methodological stumbling blocks designed, as Jack Katz (2007: 804) has
argued, more to protect the managers, decision-makers, and resource allocators of criminal
justice agencies themselves than the unfortunate citizens most frequently encountering them.
For these reasons, it seems, they have become supposedly inappropriate subjects for
interview and, now, whole swathes of criminology students are denied an opportunity to
research the subject they have chosen to study even when – in the quest for work experience,
so many of them volunteer for community agencies working with young people, offenders
and victims. Universities welcome this as ‘community engagement’ but deny their students
the research opportunities that, naturally, would follow. Instead students are pushed towards
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literature reviews, media ‘discourse analyses’ and so on; safe, no humans involved. One has
to worry about the future of a discipline that has apparently become so accustomed to cutting
off its own foundations.
Foucault’s original complaint against criminology was essentially that most of its
practitioners had never entirely escaped the prison, yet today, having briefly seen the outside
world, the discipline is becoming increasingly and explicitly policed once again. It is also
becoming, irony of ironies, incarcerated once more so that now most of its practitioners have
trouble escaping the library. And because real crime, in the real world, is difficult and
dangerous Government would undoubtedly prefer that we left it alone while they get on with
the real job of criminalising and controlling. After all, as the Prime Minister Cameron noted
in the wake of the riots, criminality is really ‘simple’.
We hope this article will both start a debate about how to challenge and resist this neoliberal, market positivist, critical research prevention culture, whilst also soliciting
further examples of the ways in which it has spread across social science, criminology in
particular, in Europe.
Peter Squires
Professor of Criminology & Public Policy
School of Applied Social Science
University of Brighton
01273-643479
p.a.squires@brighton.ac.uk
http://www.brighton.ac.uk/sass/contact/details.php?uid=pas1
References
Gibney, E. (2012), ‘Council launches its bid to defend UK universities’, Times Higher
Education, 14 November.
Katz, J. (2007), ‘Toward a Natural History of Ethical Selection’, Law and Society Review,
Vol. 41, 4, pp. 797-810.
HM Government (2012), Government Social Research Code, available from:
www.civilservice.gov.uk/networks/gsr/ gsr-code
Ministry of Justice/NOMS (2012), Research Applications, available from:
www.justice.gov.uk/publications/ research-and-analysis/noms
Young, J. (2011), The Criminological
Imagination, Cambridge: Polity Press.
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
Risk Aversion and Unsuitable Sites of
Research
In a recent article (‘Research prevention and the zombie university’, Criminal Justice
Matters, 91: 4-5) Peter Squires calls for a debate over the impact of ‘market positivism’ on
criminological research in the UK. British universities, he warns, are developing a ‘research
prevention culture’ that is putting ethical, risk assessment and methodological stumbling
blocks in the way of, in particular, critical research. In support of this argument, Squires
focuses on the increasing emphasis in social science on producing ‘policy-led evidence
chasing’ studies. This, he explains, has major implications not only for criminologists’ choice
of methods (privileging quantitative over qualitative data), but also their access to
participants (privileging practitioner over offender voices) and, perhaps most controversial of
all, the questions that they ask (privileging hypothesis-testing ‘impact benefit’ over grounded
research). Squires gives a number of illustrations of how this latter insistence on
institutionally relevant, micro-level analysis has already impacted on the possibilities of
critical, exploratory research in the UK, from the Ministry of Justice encouraging applications
for research assessing the effectiveness of operational policy to local magistrates refusing
interview by university researchers for reason of not being allowed to get involved in
research by ‘external agencies’, to government funding of university research being
increasingly based on notions of ‘impactology’.
Unfortunately, market positivism is not only a British disease. In publishing this brief paper
in the European Group newsletter, I join Peter Squires in calling for a wider European and
world-wide debate. In the following paragraphs I reflect on some of the obstacles I have had
to overcome (or more truthfully, failed to overcome) in developing critical research at my
university. I choose not to identify the university at which I research in part because I have no
reason to believe that it is, as Squires puts it, actively complying with a “censorious mission
creep by criminal justice agencies”. Instead, my experiences of research prevention relate to a
second aspect of market positivism mission creep identified by Squires – risk avoidance –
that appears to me to be more organic and self-imposed than externally compliant, and
designed as much to protect university as criminal justice managers.
The examples that I share here centre on the role that my university research office and ethics
committees have played in setting boundaries to my work on Latin American prisons. A few
years ago I made the first of two applications to the university for ethnographic prisons
research. The prison I had chosen was overcrowded, understaffed and gang dominated, but
otherwise as orderly as any European prison. Understandably, I was asked to make a ‘full
assessment’ of risk to my own safety as well as that of my research participants. However,
feeling under threat of losing the project altogether, I made a last minute decision to restrict
my research to the administrative areas of the prison. It was never made clear to me that my
application would not otherwise have been successful, but in subsequent applications for
external funding for similar research I was advised that my research should not include
observations or interviews on the wings. I was left perplexed that the university would take
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such a restrictive approach irrespective of the procedures that individual prisons may have
had in place to ensure the safety of other visitors, for instance doctors or chaplains. I decided
that the university had fallen into the (Orientalist) trap indicative of so much human rights
and sociological literature of assuming that Latin American prisons are intrinsically
dangerous places, but perhaps naively felt assured that the university had at least my interests,
and those of my research participants, in mind.
Any such reservations ended when I made a second application to the ethics committee, this
time for research in a small, therapeutic community prison considered one of the most
humane on the continent and internationally recognised as a model for prison reform. I
therefore saw no possible reason for the university to be overly-concerned about my safety,
and as my previous application included observations and interactions with officers and
inmates across the prison in my research design. Nevertheless the ethics committee asked for
clarification that I would not be left alone with prisoners during interviews or would have
access to a panic button, and that I had been trained what to do if I were attacked. In
response, I offered to do some self-defence classes but insisted that it was not inherently
unsafe to interview prisoners alone in Latin America, and certainly not in this particular
prison. I supported my argument with the opinions of a number of experienced prison
researchers from Latin America and Europe. Before making a final decision on the proposal,
the committee sought advice on whether the project posed any risks to the university. I was
later informed that the research was not insurable and could not go ahead. As a result, the
ethics committee did not re-consider the proposal.
So what are we to make of these two decisions? First, I believe that I have been a victim of
the increasingly bureaucratic and risk averse rather than political nature of the research
application process. I do not find it necessary to question whether individuals in the
university hierarchy want to prevent my research – and I have received numerous messages
of sympathy, as well as formal offers to explore how I might re-shape my research
methodologies to enable the research to go ahead in the future (not that I have been
enthusiastic to take up these offers; informally, I have for instance been advised that I might
consider directing a team of local researchers to conduct the study on my behalf). In any case,
the only inconvenient truth I was likely to find was that Latin American prisons are not
necessarily as disorderly as might be expected – hardly a threat to European criminal justice
agencies, though potentially perhaps to international NGOs. What I do suspect is that the
university was looking after its own (legal) interests, and that in a growing atmosphere of
(self) risk prevention, a number of my colleagues were naturally concerned with covering
their own backs.
More broadly, I am concerned that my experience should serve as a warning to others
interested in qualitative prisons research, and to critical criminology more generally. I suspect
that university insurance policies may not cover prisons research in other parts of the global
South, or perhaps any research that involves personal contact with offenders or takes place in
areas operating under alternative legal orders. More widely, I sense a natural progression
towards a university risk aversion culture with potential implications for ethnographic
criminological research as a whole. As for what university-based critical criminologists
should be doing in increasingly hostile and cautious research environments, it has been
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suggested to me that we should be economical with the information we give to ethics
committees, or should avoid them altogether. Although I would prefer a more enduring
solution, part of me wonders whether some of our colleagues on ethics committees would be
perfectly happy not to know. Another member of the European Group has also suggested that
we may be able to circumvent our universities’ fear of litigation by taking out our own group
liability insurance policies. I am interested in learning more about this.
The author of this article wishes to remain anonymous.
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
IV News from Europe and the world
Australia
News/Activism:
A hunger strike has been going on since 7th April at the Broadmeadows detention centre in
Melbourne, Australia. On 12th April, the European Working Group on Prisons, Punishment
and Detention passed a resolution in support of the hunger strikers and calling for an end to
the criminalisation of migrants worldwide. The resolution is available to read above.
Canada
Conference: Call for Papers
The International Conference on Penal Abolition (ICOPA) is a bi-annual gathering of
activists, academics, journalists, practitioners, people currently or formerly imprisoned,
survivors of state and personal harm, and others from across the world who are working
towards the abolition of imprisonment, the penal system, carceral controls and the prison
industrial complex.The next conference – ICOPA 15 – is being held on Algonquin Territory
in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada at the University of Ottawa from June 13 to 15, 2014. See
http://www.actionicopa.org/
Campaign
Please find below a call for help for the ‘Hundred for Hassan Campaign’:
Dear European Group friends: As many of you are already aware my colleague Hassan Diab
PhD (Sociology) has been enduring the nightmare of being wrongfully accused in connection
with the bombing of a synagogue in Paris in 1980. Details of the case are available at
www.justiceforhassandiab.org
This Kafkaesque ordeal has been ongoing since the arrest of Hassan (a Lebanese born
Canadian citizen) in November 2008 at the request of French authorities who want him
extradited to France.
The judge hearing the case decided to commit Hassan to extradition (June 2011) even though
the judge described the evidence in the case as “very problematic”, “very confusing”, and
“suspect”. The Minister for Justice signed a surrender order (April 2012) despite the fact that
Hassan is not charged in France and is wanted only for questioning. Hassan and his lawyers
are currently appealing both the committal and the surrender orders.
Hassan’s extremely severe bail conditions include him paying about $2,000 a month for his
own electronic monitoring/GPS surveillance. Meanwhile Hassan has not been able to secure
a job since his contract as a sociology professor at Carleton University was terminated in July
2009.
Dismayed by Hassan’s unjust treatment I am among those promoting a ‘Hundred for Hassan’
fund-raising campaign (and hopefully it will eventually become a ‘Hundreds for Hassan’
campaign). We are encouraging people to pledge the equivalent of $20 a month for 12
months. Details can be found at www.justiceforhassandiab.org/hundred-for-hassan
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While Hassan Diab has numerous individuals supporting him it is also heartening to note that
organizations currently seeking intervenor status in the proceedings at the Court of Appeal
include Amnesty International, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, the British
Columbia Civil Liberties Association and the Canadian Association of University Teachers.
As many critics have observed it is difficult to reconcile the extradition process in Canada as
reflected in Hassan Diab’s case with democratic values concerning human rights and the rule
of law. Rights usually available to criminal suspects in Canada (e.g. full disclosure of
evidence to the defence, including exculpatory evidence) simply do not apply. For instance,
the judge ruled that evidence showing that Hassan’s palm and fingerprints do match those of
the suspect is inadmissible at the extradition hearing.
It would be great if European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control members
and supporters could consider supporting the ‘Hundred for Hassan’ campaign including the
option of adding your name to the list of those wishing to publically declare your support (see
www.justiceforhassandiab.org/hundred-for-hassan-statement )
Thank you very much!
Maeve McMahon.
Denmark
Conference: The Stuck, the Mobile and the Dislocated: Reflections on Life in Ghettos, Slums,
Camps and Prisons
The Conference will take place at Aalborg University’s Copenhagen Campus between
October 30 and November 1, 2013.
The conference will combine key note addresses and workshop presentations. Confirmed
keynote speakers will be:




Mary Bosworth, Faculty of Law, Oxford University
Elizabeth Povinelli, Department of Anthropology, Columbia University
Michel Agier, EHESS, Paris
Daniel Hoffman, Department of Anthropology, University of Washington
If you are interested in participating, please register and/or submit an abstract of no more than
250 words before May 15, 2013 to either Simon Turner (sturner@dps.aau.dk) or Steffen
Jensen (sje@dignityinstitute.dk).
For more information, see: http://www.dignityinstitute.dk/servicenavigation/nyheder-ogaktiviteter/aktiviteter/2013/10/konference-the-stuck,-the-mobile-and-the-dislocatedreflections-on-life-in-ghettos,-slums,-camps-and-prisons.aspx
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
France
News/analysis
Statewatch has published a report on the treatment of Roma people in France since the 2012
presidential elections. It highlights the continued expulsion of Roma people under the
direction of the punitive Interior Minister, Manuel Valls. See
http://www.statewatch.org/analyses/no-222-france-roma-expulsion.pdf
Conference
A GERN interlabo seminar ‘Between research, training and expertise: the experience of the
Regional Observatory of Crime in Social Context’ will be held on 21st June in the Maison
Méditerranéenne des Sciences de l'Homme’ in Aix-en-Provence. Contact Laurent Muchielli
at mucchielli@mmsh.univ-aix.fr
Germany
News/ legislation
Law strengthening the rights of victims of sexual abuse (Gesetz zur Stärkung der Rechte von
Opfern sexuellen Mißbrauchs - STORMG) passes German Bundestag (Lower Houses of
German Parliament). This law is to be considered as a result of round-table discussions after
several cases of sexual abuse of children/youth in asymmetrical relationships came to light.
The synopsis and the law are published on the homepage of the homepage of the Federal
Court of Justice in Karlsruhe:
http://www.bundesgerichtshof.de/DE/Bibliothek/GesMat/WP17/S/Stormg.html
German professors and students explore life in prison on the invitation of the chief of a
German prison-unit, and spend a weekend in prison. Read more :
www.spiegel.de/unispiegel/studium/jura-studenten-im-knast-a-895305.html
Statistics:
Interdisciplinary Prison Research in Switzerland offers Data and useful resources since 2006
http://prisonresearch.ch/ (via KrimG)
Law courses in Germany from 2012 are published here :
https://www.destatis.de/DE/Publikationen/Thematisch/Rechtspflege/Querschnitt/Rechtspfleg
eAusgewaehlteZahlen.html?nn=72374
Catalogue of the 18th German Symposium on Crime Prevention (Deutscher Präventionstag) 22nd to 23rd of April 2013 - Bielefeld, GER, published
http://www.praeventionstag.de/nano.cms/news/details/738
Greece
News/analysis
Ann Singleton and Tony Bunyan from Statewatch describe conditions in the Pikpa Centre for
asylum seekers in Mytilene in Greece: http://www.statewatch.org/news/2013/apr/02greecemytilene-asylum-seekers.html
Greek members of the Group have highlighted the following case: on 17th April, three Greek
foremen opened fire with hunting rifles on 200 Bangladeshi workers who asked for their
money. The incident began when hundreds of foreign growers went Wednesday afternoon to
the 41st kilometer of the Pyrgos-Patras highway to meet the three Greek foremen (21, 27 and
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
39 years old) and claim money they had earned over the past six months. They wrangled and
the supervisors took up arms and started shooting blindly into the crowd. The workers ran in
panic while being shot in their backs and body. Twenty of them ended up in regional
hospitals. There are reports that some of the injured men are in a serious condition. The 57year-old employer of the three foremen has been arrested. It is noted that this is not the first
time such an incident has taken place in Manolada.
Amilia Vouvouli has written a piece on a human rights conference organised in April in
Mytilene by European Group members Ann Singleton and Stratos Georgoulas and Tony
Bunyan from Statewatch: http://www.rednotebook.gr/details.php?id=9186
Documentary on the plight of migrants in Athens:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMOnuD0SQJs&feature=player_embedded
Ireland
Report
Paddy Hillyard from the European Group has written a report for Statewatch on continued
collusion and cover-up on the part of the security services and the British government in
Northern Ireland. See http://www.statewatch.org/analyses/no-221-perfidious-albion.pdf
Campaign
The European Group has expressed concern over the use of legislation seeking to regulate
parades in Northern Ireland to prevent peaceful protest. Anti-racism campaigner, Barbara
Muldoon, is currently facing a criminal conviction for her role in organising a peaceful
protest in Belfast in 2009. See the European Group resolution (under ‘European Group news’
above).
New Zealand
A critical article on penal punitiveness and exit strategies is available here:
http://justspeak.org.nz/escaping-prison-the-need-to-distance-ourselves-from-punitive-prisonpolicy/
Spain
Prison officers on trial in Catalonia
On Monday May 6 begins the trial in which nine prison officers face trial accused of
committing serious torture to a group of about forty prisoners after the incidents that took
place in the prison of Cuatre Camins on April 30, 2004. Human rights organizations and
prisoners support associations see those events as one of the worst episodes of human rights
violations in recent history.
Some of those imprisoned for the riot of 2004 and victims of torture and ill-treatment were in
solitary confinement for years.
There are many events and actions organized for those days:
- April 28th. Mass meeting in front of Cuatre Camins prison. (10 pm in the Municipal
Market, Vilanova del Valles)
- 2nd May. Unitary event (7pm at the Great Hall of the Humanities Campus of the
University of Barcelona)
- 3rd May. Presentation of the 2012 report on torture in Spain by the Coordinator for the
Prevention of Torture (7h Ateneu Flor de Maig, Barcelona)
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- 4th May. Demonstration against torture, ill-treatment and institutional impunity (5:30pm
Rambla del Raval, Barcelona)
- 6th May. Mass meeting against impunity (9am Audiencia Provincial (Courts Venue) c/
Lluís Companys 12-14 Barcelona)
More info: http://www.prevenciontortura.org/lang-pref/en/ aleforero@ub.edu
United Kingdom
News and analysis
European Group member Phil Scraton’s speech delivered at the memorial service held in
honour of the vicitms of the Hillsborough football disaster:
http://www.liverpoolfc.com/video/features/14519-phil-scraton-s-speech
Stuart Hall outlines a manifesto of resistance to the current neoliberal hegemony. The
manifesto was officially launched in London on 24th April:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/24/kilburn-manifesto-challengeneoliberal-victory
Less eligibility returns as the guiding principle of incarceration as Justice Minister, Chis
Grayling, promises to make prisons more austere:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/no-sky-tv-no-xbox-prisoners-perks-tobe-axed-as-chris-grayling-gets-tough-on-jails-8572490.html
In just ten years, there has been a 100% rise in the number of prisoners aged over 60 detained
in prisons in England & Wales. See http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/apr/23/olderprisoners-jail-population-inspector#start-of-comments
Duwayne Brooks, Stephen Lawrence’s friend, comments on continued police racism 20 years
after his murder: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/apr/23/older-prisoners-jailpopulation-inspector#start-of-comments Also see comments from the Metropolitan Police
Association: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/apr/21/metropolitan-police-institutionallyracist-black
Judicial reviews to be limited in immigration cases:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/23/chris-grayling-judicialreviews?CMP=twt_fd
Comment on legal aid cuts in the UK: http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/04/futureour-police-lawyers-and-jails-will-be-run-g4s and
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/apr/09/chris-grayling-criminals-legal-costs and
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/apr/04/prison-complainants-set-to-lose-legal-aidfunding
A judge’s decision to name three teenagers responsible for the murder of a homeless man has
been criticised by youth justice campaigners:
http://www.cypnow.co.uk/cyp/news/1076945/naming-liverpool-teenagers-not-publicinterest?utm_content=&utm_campaign=180413_YouthJustice&utm_source=Children%20%
26%20Young%20People%20Now&utm_medium=adestra_email&utm_term=http%3A%2F
%2Fwww.cypnow.co.uk%2Fcyp%2Fnews%2F1076945%2Fnaming-liverpool-teenagers-notpublic-interest
The High Court has ruled that treating 17-year-olds who are arrested and taken into custody
as adults is unlawful. See http://www.cypnow.co.uk/cyp/news/1077036/treat-olds-policecustody-children-court-
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
rules?utm_content=&utm_campaign=250413_YouthJustice&utm_source=Children%20%26
%20Young%20People%20Now&utm_medium=adestra_email&utm_term=http%3A%2F%2
Fwww.cypnow.co.uk%2Fcyp%2Fnews%2F1077036%2Ftreat-ol
Two Kent police officers charged with misconduct after man detained under the Mental
Health Act died in their custody: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/apr/24/police-officerscharged-misconduct-death-schizophrenic
Reports
Volume II of the UK Justice Policy Review covering the period May 20011-2012 is
available to download from the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies:
http://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/
'Young People and the Secure Estate: Needs and Interventions’ has just been published by the
youth justice board in the UK. 122 page report pdf available at the below link:
http://www.justice.gov.uk/downloads/publications/research-and-analysis/yjb/young-peoplesecure-estate.pdf
Conferences, seminars and lectures
The University of Durham will host a seminar entitled Criminalising Extreme
Pornography: 5 Years On on 8th May 2013, 14:00 to 17:30, Hogan Lovells Lecture
Theatre. 5 years on from the passing of legislation to criminalise the possession of extreme
pornography, this seminar will examine the effect of the 2008 Act. It will bring together
academics, activists, policy-makers and other regulatory authorities to evaluate the success or
failure of the legislation and to ask what, if any, reforms are necessary to secure progress
toward this objective. Registration opens at 1.30pm. Presentations will begin at 2pm and end
at 5.30pm. The event is free, but registration is required and places are limited. To book a
place, please contact law.events@dur.ac.uk. Contact n.j.evans@durham.ac.uk for more
information about this event.
How Corrupt is Britain?’ The Centre for Crime and Justice Studies and the University Of
Liverpool School Of Law and Social Justice have jointly organized a conference on Friday
10th May 2013. There will be an evening showing of the film `Who Polices the Police?' by
Ken Fero. For more details see: http://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/hcib.html
A conference focusing on Rape & the Criminal Justice System will be held all day on
Friday 28th June at The University of Bristol in room 2D3 - Social Sciences Complex, Priory
Road, Clifton, Bristol. The conference is hosted by the Centre for Gender & Violence
Research and a full programme will be circulated shortly.
The second GERN summer school for doctoral students will take place at the School of
Law, Bartolome House, University of Sheffield from Monday 9 September to Wednesday 11
September 2013. It is associated with the ‘Socio-legal/criminology’ and ‘Security, conflict
and justice’ pathways of the White Rose Doctoral Training Centre: http://www.gerncnrs.com/PDF/GERN_doctoral_seminar_2013.pdf
Call for Papers
Keble College, Oxford, will host an international two-day conference entitled ‘A Liberal
Tide: Towards a Paradigm Shift in Latin American Migration and Asylum What is
Justice? Re-imagining penal policy’ from 1-2nd October 2013. This conference forms part
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
of the symposium What is Justice? Re-imagining penal policy. The symposium is charged
with generating intellectual debate that can act as a springboard to contest the conventional
role of the penal system, ultimately promoting a new, achievable paradigm that will deliver a
reduced role for the penal system while maintaining public confidence, fewer victims of
crime and safer communities.
The Howard League for Penal Reform is looking for papers and posters from academics,
policy makers, practitioners, PhD students and researchers from within the criminological
and legal disciplines. We are also keen to include contributions from those working within
the fields of philosophy, geography, political science and economics. We will consider
theoretical, policy and practice-based contributions on a wide range of issues that encompass
the broad theme of What is justice? as well as papers on the themes of: local justice and
participation; social justice, human rights and penal policy; the role of the state.
Proposals should be titled clearly and should not exceed 250 words. Please include the
proposer’s name and contact details along with their job title or role. Please submit abstracts
via email to: Eleanor.Biggin-Lamming@howardleague.org by 20th May 2013.
Job Opportunities
A lectureship in criminology is available at the University of Keele. Closing date: 16th May
2013. See https://forums.keele.ac.uk/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=109366
USA
News
Hunger strike in Guantanamo: as of 26th April, at least 93 out of 166 detainees at
Guantanamo Bay were on hunger strike. See
http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/04/25/guantanamo-bay-and-indefinite-detention-hungerstrike-continues One hunger striker tells his story here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/15/opinion/hunger-striking-at-guantanamo-bay.html?_r=0
Allegations of race-based lockdowns in California prisons:
http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/04/25/guantanamo-bay-and-indefinite-detention-hungerstrike-continues
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
A BIG THANKS to all the European Group
members for making this newsletter successful.
Please feel free to contribute to this newsletter by
sending any information that you think might be
of interest to the Group to Emma/Monish
europeangroupcoordinator@gmail.com
Please try to send it in before the 25th of each
month if you wish to have it included in the
following month’s newsletter. Please provide a
web link (wherever possible).
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …