Public Criminology in Ireland

On Tuesday 17 Feb I gave a seminar at the Institute of Criminology at University College Dublin on Public Criminology. The Power Point presentation can be found on my website here. In the Q&A and in discussion with the Faculty afterwards I felt some specific points about public criminology in Ireland might be made.

My presentation mentions Burawoy's idea of an interdependent set of sociologies: professional, policy, critical and public. But basically I transmute 'public' into 'engage with the media' and 'bring your work to the attention of the greatest numbers; even if that means ignoring the 'professional' route. But that does presume a healthy professional, critical and policy 'ology to be in place. That may not be the case in Ireland so whilst i still argue for the importance of criminology being done in and for the public the institutions of criminlogy in the case of Ireland those aspects need developing. Indeed given the small academic base and close knit nature of the elites - even contending ones - many of the criminologists i met had higher public profiles than most Brits or Americans but longed to do more sustained professional, policy or critical work.

I had a good time and wish them well in it.