British Journal of Criminology - recent issues

Scandinavian Exceptionalism in an Era of Penal Excess: Part II: Does Scandinavian Exceptionalism Have a Future?

Pratt, J. — 2008-04-17

Part II of this paper examines the current for prospects for Scandinavian exceptionalism. It argues that Finland, Norway and Sweden have all experienced, to a degree, declines in earlier levels of social solidarity, security and homogeneity, jeopardizing the future of their low levels of imprisonment and humane prison conditions. These experiences have not, though, been uniform—Sweden is now most at risk, the other two less so. The paper goes on to discuss the broader political and sociological implications of Scandinavian exceptionalism in the contemporary era of penal excess.

Measuring the Impact of Fraud in the UK: A Conceptual and Empirical Journey

Levi, M., Burrows, J. — 2008-04-17

This article examines the conceptual and empirical underpinnings of data on the cost of fraud—collected for a study conducted for the Association of Chief Police Officers and summarized in the article—and reviews the strengths and weaknesses of the data collection processes. It also raises broader questions about the relationship between crime control ideologies, institutional responsibilities, and what data on crime are kept and not kept; and concludes by reviewing the implications of recent strategies for enhancing fraud data collection.

Prisoners, Politics and the Polls: Enfranchisement and the Burden of Responsibility

Behan, C., O'Donnell, I. — 2008-04-17

In 2006, the Irish Government introduced legislation to allow prisoners to vote. Drawing on international developments in jurisprudence and criminal justice, this article examines the background to, and wider significance of, this change in the law. A lack of political and media opposition ensured the relatively unnoticed passage of this reform through Parliament. Prisoners had their first opportunity to exercise the franchise in 2007. While the number who registered was small, the turnout was relatively high. The seemingly benign desire to restore a measure of civic engagement to prisoners may conceal a narrow desire to see them lead law-abiding and ‘responsible’ lives rather than encouraging them to engage in a process of personal transformation or become reflective agents for change.

Reducing Recidivism: A Task for Restorative Justice?

Robinson, G., Shapland, J. — 2008-04-17

In this paper, we draw on our experience as evaluators of three restorative justice schemes in England and Wales which were funded under the auspices of the Home Office's ‘Crime Reduction Programme’ to reflect upon the theoretical and empirical potential of restorative justice (in particular, conferencing) to bring about reductions in reoffending on the part of participating offenders. We propose that there is a case to be made for a subtle shift in ways of thinking about the recidivism reduction potential of restorative justice: that is, as an opportunity to facilitate a desire, or consolidate a decision, to desist.

Restorative Justice and Child Sex Offences: The Theory and the Practice

Cossins, A. — 2008-04-17

Restorative justice advocates have made a number of claims about the effectiveness of restorative justice in relation to sexual assault crimes, such as its ability to defuse power relations between the parties and heal the harm. This article examines whether or not restorative justice is one of the ways forward in the difficult area of prosecuting child sex offences by re-analysing some of the data reported in Daly (2006) and comparing restorative justice with other reforms to the sexual assault trial. It concludes that there is insufficient evidence to support the view that there are inherent benefits in the restorative justice process that provide victims of sexual assault with a superior form of justice.

Anti-Social Behaviour, Behavioural Expectations and an Urban Aesthetic

Millie, A. — 2008-04-17

In recent years, the phrase ‘anti-social behaviour’ (ASB), as understood in a public order enforcement context, has gained prominence in the United Kingdom, to the extent that it is claimed we now live in an ‘ASBO nation’. In this article, the meaning of ASB is explored as a contested concept. The focus is on urban spaces, where it is argued that understandings of ASB are very much dependent on people's behavioural expectations for a particular space and time. Moreover, what is regarded as anti-social is also determined by social and cultural norms of aesthetic acceptability. A differential interpretation perspective is suggested, in which the same behaviour can be censured as ASB (or crime), tolerated, or even celebrated. The consequences are discussed.

Educational Attainment and Juvenile Crime: Area-Level Evidence Using Three Cohorts of Young People

Sabates, R. — 2008-04-17

This paper provides an estimate of the impact of educational attainment on juvenile conviction rates using information at the Local Education Authority in England. The empirical analysis uses aggregate conviction rates over time for three cohorts of young people, born between 1981 and 1983, and their corresponding educational attainments, poverty indicators, time away from school and school resources. Results using mixed-effects models show that the increase in educational attainment between cohorts is associated with reductions in conviction rates for most offences (burglary, theft, criminal damage and drug-related offences) but not for violent crime. Reductions in poverty are associated with decreasing conviction rates for violent crime, criminal damage and drug-related offences, whereas increasing unauthorized time away from school is associated with higher convictions rates for theft. The results are important, as they complement current empirical studies by looking at the impact of education on cohort-specific conviction rates over time and at the impact of education on different types of offences.

On the Game

Robinson, A. — 2008-04-17

Interrogating the Images: Audio-Visually Recorded Police Questioning of Suspects

Hayman, S. — 2008-04-17

Drugs and Popular Culture: Drugs, Media and Identity in Contemporary Society

Olley, N. — 2008-04-17

Criminal Enterprise: Individuals, Organisations and Criminal Responsibility

Minkes, J. — 2008-04-17

Refocusing Crime Prevention: Collective Action and the Quest for the Community

Schneider, J. L. — 2008-04-17

Forensic Identification and Criminal Justice: Forensic Science, Justice and Risk

Jones, I. — 2008-04-17

Scandinavian Exceptionalism in an Era of Penal Excess: Part I: The Nature and Roots of Scandinavian Exceptionalism

Pratt, J. — 2008-02-15

This is the first of a two-part paper on penal exceptionalism in Scandinavia—that is, low rates of imprisonment and humane prison conditions. Part I examines the roots of this exceptionalism in Finland, Norway and Sweden, arguing that it emerges from the cultures of equality that existed in these countries which were then embedded in their social fabrics through the universalism of the Scandinavian welfare state.

Performative Regulation: A Case Study in How Powerful People Avoid Criminal Labels

Mackenzie, S., Green, P. — 2008-02-15

This paper explores the role of invested powerful business actors in the criminalization process as applied to the illicit antiquities market. We present a case study of the precise mechanics of the role played by trade interests in the formation of the Dealing in Cultural Objects (Offences) Act 2003. This process involved the trade's entering appearance in the legislative process and neutralizing the possible constraining effects on its members of the new criminal offence which was to be created. We begin by exploring the political, historical and economic context in which discussion of the terms of the 2003 Act first began. We then follow the Act from its genesis through its various stages of drafting and re-drafting to its enactment. This case study of a single piece of legislation provides further data to add to the line of prior research that illustrates that powerful white-collar criminals, as well as sometimes preventing criminal legislation entering the statute books, can also influence the design of criminal legislation that does enter the statute books in order to protect themselves and their own business interests. We also use this case study of a process of contemporary lawmaking to outline the concept of performative regulation: broadly, that which in appearance serves political ends but in practice effects an inconsequential level of control.

The Role of Money in Economic Crime

Engdahl, O. — 2008-02-15

This article considers how money can motivate crime, influence the opportunity structure governing its occurrence, and serve as a practical instrument facilitating it. Existing theories are engaged based on their assumptions that money (1) fosters attitudes that reduce moral questions to technical problems; (2) gives rise to feelings of self-sufficiency that cause people to become detached from one another and from the webs of social obligation that counteract crime; and (3) diminishes the risk of being caught and makes illegal transactions easier. In addition, the argument also introduces the notion of money as a manoeuvre by which to evade entanglement in emotionally straining and risky social relations in which openness can negatively affect status and life project.

Changing Prosecution Practices and their Impact on Crime Figures, 1857-1940

Godfrey, B. — 2008-02-15

This article examines the changes in prosecution practices and policies that shaped crime trends between the mid-nineteenth and the mid-twentieth centuries. It concentrates on two processes which took place over this period: the disappearance of the victim as an active participant in the prosecution process; and the increasing dominance of both public and privatized agencies over the prosecution process. Victims were active participants in the prosecution process until the end of the nineteenth century. If it were not for the persistence of complainants in securing the offender and pressing their cases in court, rates of recorded crime would be much lower. However, by 1880, the police had in many cases assumed the role of prosecutor. The first part of this article questions how this change affected recorded rates of violent crime. The second part of the article explores the rise of private prosecutors of regulatory style offences (which constituted over half the business of local magistrates courts from 1880 to 1940). It concludes that from 1880, crime rates were increasingly subject to the policies and practices of the police and other appointed officials, and that the role of the victim as active prosecutor had become almost redundant by the First World War.

Keeping A Safe Distance: Individualism and the Less Punitive Public

King, A. — 2008-02-15

This article will address individual differences in punitiveness or ‘get tough’ attitudes towards lawbreakers, but will do so by looking in depth at the nature of worldviews that have been identified as decidedly forgiving. The aim is to generate new hypotheses through a grounded narrative analysis regarding a dimension of public sensibilities towards crime—leniency—about which we know very little. I conclude that social identity is an important aspect of merciful worldviews, and that a precondition of a forgiving orientation may be a focus on individual agency. This analysis is supported by quantitative tests of new hypotheses to emerge. This article contributes to the more complex picture of differentiated public opinion to crime and criminal justice that has emerged recently in the literature.

How Scared are We?

Walklate, S., Mythen, G. — 2008-02-15

This paper provides a historical overview of criminological uses of the concept of fear in relation to crime and criminal victimization. In it, we trace the developments of the ‘fear of crime’ debate, identify its strengths and weaknesses, and consider the extent to which historical and current discussions of it are able to adequately reflect the contemporary social condition. We go on to distinguish four different ways of interrogating victimhood—the cultural, political, interactional and the existential—that cast some light on the contemporary inadequacies of the fear-of-crime debate. In the conclusion, we advance a more holistic approach to fear that involves decentring crime and urges further research into interplay between local fears and global vistas of fear.

Globalization, Conduct Norms and 'Culture Conflict': Perceptions of Violence and Crime in an Ethnic Albanian Context

Arsovska, J., Verduyn, P. — 2008-02-15

The paper examines whether violence in contemporary Albania is a structured phenomenon linked to Albanian customary laws, such as the Kanun of Lek Dukagjini, or whether it is a product of social confusion and ‘culture conflict’. It argues that the expansion of Western legal norms in the Albanian territories has caused a ‘culture conflict’ within the society, which has subsequently led to an increase in crime. The conclusions drawn are based on a cross-national survey with ethnic Albanian respondents from Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia, carried out during 2006.

Governing Through Crime: How The War On Crime Transformed American Democracy And Created A Culture Of Fear

O'Donnell, I. — 2008-02-15

Policy Transfer and Criminal Justice: Exploring US Influence over British Crime Control Policy

Simon, J. — 2008-02-15

From Mercenaries to Market: The Rise and Regulation of Private Military Companies

O'Reilly, C. — 2008-02-15

Transforming Youth Justice: Occupational Identity and Cultural Change

Case, S. — 2008-02-15

Young Men in Prison: Surviving and Adapting to Life Inside

Devlin, R. — 2008-02-15

Captive Images: Race, Crime, Photography

Voruz, V. — 2008-02-15

Belfast: Segregation, Violence and the City

Vaughan, B. — 2008-02-15

French Criminal Justice: A Comparative Account of the Investigation and Prosecution of Crime in France

Roberts, P. — 2008-02-15

Sentinels in the Banking Industry: Private Actors and the Fight against Money Laundering in France

Favarel-Garrigues, G., Godefroy, T., Lascoumes, P. — 2007-12-10

Private actors in finance, especially in the banking industry, have played a leading role in the campaign, institutionalized during the 1990s, against money laundering. Assigned the duty of detecting dubious transactions in their establishments, they are supposed to inform Tracfin—a finance intelligence unit located in the French Ministry of Finance—of their suspicions. The latter decides whether to alert judicial authorities. A set of interviews conducted with the ‘compliance officers’ in banks who supervise the implementation of regulations against money laundering are analyzed in order to understand how persons whose normal duties are oriented toward commercial activities based on a high regard for privacy are being led to assume police duties and how they are performing in this new role.

'Alter Reality': Governing the Risk of Identity Theft

Marron, D. — 2007-12-10

This article examines the recent development of identity theft as a crime within the United States, specifically the appropriation of personal information for the fraudulent adoption of consumer credit accounts. It is demonstrated that identity theft, conceptualized within a discourse of risk, has a realist dimension as an unintended consequence of the deployment of information technologies in the securitization of consumer identities. However, the risk of identity theft is also operationalized in specific ways by an array of authorities who seek to govern the activities of consumers. This occurs through providing tactical advice to victims in coping with the indirect costs and uncertainties of the crime, and educating consumers on the need to adopt prudent risk minimizing and harm-reduction practices.

What is to be Done About Violence Against Women?: Gender, Violence, Cosmopolitanism and the Law

Walklate, S. — 2007-12-10

The title of this paper is borrowed from a book written by Elizabeth Wilson and published in 1983. It is now almost 25 years since its publication and the purpose of this paper is to consider what has changed and what has remained the same in the intervening years with respect to responding to and dealing with violence against women. In examining the recourse to law as a strategy for responding to violence against women, the paper will consider not only the gains and losses that have been and are incurred by this strategy, but also the problems and possibilities that are inherent within it. In particular, it will consider the extent to which the shift towards cosmopolitan ideals, taking account of ‘the other’ anticipated in the recourse to law, can offer an appropriate answer to the question posed by Elizabeth Wilson's book all those years ago: what is to be done about violence against women?

Consumed With Sex: The Treatment of Sex Offenders In Risk Society

Lacombe, D. — 2007-12-10

This ethnography of a prison treatment programme for sex offenders examines the meaning of rehabilitation in the context of the ‘new penology’. As it explores how cognitive–behaviourism structures treatment, it uncovers a therapeutics grounded in risk that actively constructs the identity of the sex offender. It shows how the management of risk relies on techniques of introspection and self-discipline—a patient's internalization of his crime cycle and relapse prevention plan—that target primarily sexual fantasies. These self-policing techniques radically transform the sex offender into a species entirely consumed by sex.

Changing Patterns of Offending Behaviour Among Young Adults

Soothill, K., Francis, B., Ackerley, E., Humphreys, L. — 2007-12-10

This paper focuses on the offending behaviour of different generations. It considers the convictions of six cohorts involving 31,456 young adults aged 16–20 in the early 1970s, the late 1970s, the early 1980s, the late 1980s, the early 1990s and the late 1990s. Using latent class analysis, 16 offence clusters for males and five offence clusters for females were identified. For both males and females, the proportions of the population convicted in the 16–20 age group have declined. Among the males, ‘versatile’ clusters are increasing and ‘specialist’ clusters, with some exceptions, are rapidly declining. Among females, the proportions in the versatile cluster have increased appreciably, while the specialist cluster of violence has increased and that of shoplifting has decreased. We suggest that the impact of these changes has not been fully understood by important official definers of crime, such as judges and magistrates.

Civilizing Security

Grabosky, P. — 2007-12-10

Narratives of Neglect: Community, Regeneration and the Governance of Security

Hughes, G. — 2007-12-10

Crime, Police, and Penal Policy: European Experiences 1750 1940

Deflem, M. — 2007-12-10

Prison Governors: Managing Prisons in a Time of Change

Crawley, E. — 2007-12-10

Drugs and Democracy in Rio de Janeiro

Hudson, B. — 2007-12-10

Plural Policing: A Comparative Perspective

Waddington, P. A. J. — 2007-12-10

The Victim in Criminal Law and Justice

Doak, J. — 2007-12-10

European Street Gangs and Troublesome Youth Groups

Campbell, L. — 2007-12-10