criminology in public

2011-11-24T18:15:00.004Z

There is much to be found in this Burglar's 'dumb' letter. It is reproduced below from the Daily Mail website.

It appears, on the face of it, to be an anti Restorative or Community Justice - indeed even Criminal Justice - but it seems also to have been a form of Governmental 'criminology of the self' (Garland).

The letter was never sent - though we only discover this part way through - but we, potential victims, are meant to heed the wise words of the 'dumb' burglar to ensure we don't become a vitim of crime.

The Mail's final par encapsulates the disgust but also the fascination we all have for crime news:

A spokesman for the UK Neighbourhood Watch Trust said the letter was ‘appalling’, but added: ‘Christmas is coming and people like to leave their curtains open so people can see their lights and their tree, but they need to realise the criminal is looking at their TV, radio, computer and the presents under the tree.’

Obviously in addition to the 'criminology of the self' the Mail adds the 'criminology of the other', the ill-bred and ill-educated burglar. Win win.

Criminology Journals: Different Tanks Same Lawn

2011-09-12T17:18:00.001Z

Different Tanks Same Lawn

Apropos my previous post, feedback on Twitter suggests some confusion but also scope for more info.

Graphic here shows top ten journals in Criminology according to Thomson Reuters in 2009 (seems to be the latest info revealed by Google search)

Criminology, the American Society of Criminology journal, is reassuringly first - though I often find it a bit too 'quanty' - and UK readers will know the BJC and Punishment and Society. The others though look a touch specialist and this is confirmed by the full list.

Reassuring to see, in addition to BJC and P&S (numbers represent position in alpha order):

2. AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF CRIMINOLOGY

SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD, 1 OLIVERS YARD, 55 CITY ROAD, LONDON, ENGLAND, EC1Y 1SP

4. CANADIAN JOURNAL OF CRIMINOLOGY AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE

UNIV TORONTO PRESS INC, JOURNALS DIVISION, 5201 DUFFERIN ST, DOWNSVIEW, TORONTO, CANADA, ON, M3H 5T8

8. CRIME MEDIA CULTURE

SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD, 1 OLIVERS YARD, 55 CITY ROAD, LONDON, ENGLAND, EC1Y 1SP

Social Sciences Citation Index
Current Contents - Social & Behavioral Sciences
13. CRIMINOLOGY & CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Bimonthly ISSN: 1748-8958
SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD, 1 OLIVERS YARD, 55 CITY ROAD, LONDON, ENGLAND, EC1Y 1SP
1. Social Sciences Citation Index
2. Current Contents - Social & Behavioral Sciences
14. DEVIANCE ET SOCIETE
Quarterly ISSN: 0378-7931
MEDECINE ET HYGIENE, CH DE LA MOUSSE 46, CASE POSTALE 475, CHENE-BOURG, SWITZERLAND, CH-1225
1. Social Sciences Citation Index
15. EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF CRIMINOLOGY
Bimonthly ISSN: 1477-3708
SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD, 1 OLIVERS YARD, 55 CITY ROAD, LONDON, ENGLAND, EC1Y 1SP
1. Social Sciences Citation Index
2. Current Contents - Social & Behavioral Sciences
16. EUROPEAN JOURNAL ON CRIMINAL POLICY AND RESEARCH
Quarterly ISSN: 0928-1371
SPRINGER, VAN GODEWIJCKSTRAAT 30, DORDRECHT, NETHERLANDS, 3311 GZ
1. Social Sciences Citation Index
2. Current Contents - Social & Behavioral Sciences
17. FEMINIST CRIMINOLOGY
Quarterly ISSN: 1557-0851
SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC, 2455 TELLER RD, THOUSAND OAKS, USA, CA, 91320
1. Social Sciences Citation Index
2. Current Contents - Social & Behavioral Sciences
18. HOMICIDE STUDIES
Quarterly ISSN: 1088-7679
SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC, 2455 TELLER RD, THOUSAND OAKS, USA, CA, 91320
1. Social Sciences Citation Index
2. Current Contents - Social & Behavioral Sciences
19. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LAW CRIME AND JUSTICE
Quarterly ISSN: 1756-0616
ELSEVIER SCI LTD, THE BOULEVARD, LANGFORD LANE, KIDLINGTON, OXFORD, ENGLAND, OXON, OX5 1GB
21. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPEECH LANGUAGE AND THE LAW
24. JOURNAL OF FORENSIC PSYCHIATRY & PSYCHOLOGY

Whose tanks on criminology's lawn?

2011-09-09T15:42:00.000Z

The table above from Thomson Reuters Science Watch is fascinating. If you were choosing to go to University for under graduate or post graduate study or to ask someone to do some criminological research you might reasonably chose the University of Birmingham. A google search for 'university of birmingham criminology' returns their Centre for Forensic and Criminological Psychology in the Psychology Dept which runs an appropriate Masters. A search of the University's website reveals no under graduate criminology provision. The next few results are for the many undergraduate and post graduate courses at Birmingham City University home to Professor David Wilson Britain's best known criminologist.

Similarly the University of Nottingham has no under graduate criminololgy and again only a very specialist post grad provision. This in the Law School. The criminologists at Kings are to be found in the Law School teaching a Masters but also contributing criminology modules to the under graduate degree programme. Cambridge hosts the Institute of Criminology focused on post graduate courses. It and Leicester, though fourth and fifth, most clearly fit my idea of the broadly criminological.

So what are all these publications from the University of Birmingham that Thomson Reuters have declared to be criminological? This is the list journals: CRIM JUSTICE BEHAV, AGGRESS VIOLENT BEH, PSYCHOL CRIME LAW, SEX ABUSE-J RES TR, J INTERPERS VIOLENCE, J FORENSIC PSYCHI PS, CRIMINOLOGY, TRAUMA VIOLENCE ABUS, SEX ABUSE-J RES TR, LEGAL CRIMINOL PSYCH, AGGRESS VIOLENT BEH, BRIT J CRIMINOL, LEGAL CRIMINOL PSYCH, AGGRESS VIOLENT BEH, INT J OFFENDER THER, CRIM LAW REV, POLIC SOC, J CRIM JUST, POLICING, PSYCHIAT PSYCHOL LAW, SOC LEGAL STUD. I only have knowledge of those in red.

Looking at the authors and topics we find at 10th, in the Birmingham list Coupe, (Cambridge) and Blake (Birmingham) in Criminology writing on Burglary. At 25 we find Garland (Leicester), Spalek (Birmingham) and Chakraborti (Leicester) in the British Journal of Criminology writing on Researching 'Hidden' Ethnic Minorities. Next up is 'The management of domestic violence cases in the mode of trial hearing - Prosecutorial control and marginalizing victims' by Cammiss a Law Lecturer at Birmingham in the British Journal of Criminology. In Policing and Society we find Best and 4 others writing on 'Gender differences in risk and treatment uptake in drug using offenders assessed in custody suite settings'. Four are psychiatrists from a hospital which is part of the University and one a police officer. In Policing Kebbell (Griffith University, Australia) and O'Kelly (Birmingham) writes on 'Police detectives' perceptions of giving evidence in court'. And finally from those picked out in red above we have Piacentini (Strathclyde), Pallot (Oxford) and Moran (Birmingham) in Social and Legal Studies on 'Gender in Russian Penal Colonies'.

So we learn that despite having few 'criminologists' doctors and lawyers can top the criminology charts and that by dint of co-authoring also get into echt criminological journals. I think a debate is needed.

Fessing up. I acted as validator of Birmingham City University's MA in Criminology and have connections with Kings College London. Though a sociological/cultural criminologist I have no problem with psychology even biology within criminology but a deep fear that they become seen as the only 'Criminology'. A recently elected member of the Executive Committee of the British Society of Criminology I write in my own capacity. As a part time sociology/media lecturer at St Mary's UC don't expect to be troubling the REF panel for any subject.

2011-08-17T19:24:00.001Z

It takes a riot

‘It takes a riot’ is how Michael Heseltine headed his first memo when he was appointed, as Environment Secretary, to deal with the aftermath of the Toxteth riots 30 years ago. He is now returning to the City for a three week check up tour with locally born, but Hertfordshire based, ex Tesco boss, Sir Terry Leahy (Liverpool Vision). One Nation Tories are already calling to relaunch such schemes (Understand a Little More, Condemn a Little Less
Rene Kinzett says the Conservatives would do well to follow the example of Michael Heseltine and try to understand troubled communities) in the aftermath of the most recent riots.
In 1985 Brixton, Handsworth and Broadwater Farm all had riots. Like Toxteth they had riots in 1981 too. The bad relationship of local communities with the police - and the death of black people in proximity to the police were common features then as now. The Specials ‘Ghost Town’ was recorded in 1981 but its mix of urban decay, unemployment and heavy-handed policing would be a madeleine moment for that decade were it not routinely used to underscore footage of any following British riot. Moreover 1984-85 was marked by the Miner’s Strike though best now remembered as the setting for film and musical, Billy Elliot. Times were troubled as was authority.

Around this time I was working as a junior Civil Servant in the Home Office making grants to charities that worked with ex-offenders. As part of my job I had to visit hostels around the country. I would meet the workers and residents and members of the local management committee. These committees were often made up of seniorish probation staff and socially minded magistrates and lawyers. Some had a religious connection.

I was not senior enough to know of plans in the Home Office, letalone those of the Department of the Environment - then post Heseltine but still focussed on urban deprivation - to deal with urban hotspots that had had riots or were on a list of symbolic locations. But in 1986 eight Task Forces were announced under the Government’s Inner City Initiative as part of the Urban Programme which also included City Action Teams and Urban Development Corporations. They were in: Handsworth, Bristol St Paul’s, Leeds Chapeltown, Leicester Highfields, North Peckham, North Kensington, Manchester Moss Side and Middlesbrough (well pre Ray Mallon, Robocop, and now elected Mayor). Another 13 were added in 1987-1989 though 2 were replacements for some wound up!

The National Audit Office Report Regenerating the Inner Cities gives more detail and a generously pusillanimous summary of the effectiveness of these programmes.

I was promoted at the time these were being set up and was appointed Deputy Task Force Leader of North Kensington Task Force (NKTF) on secondment. It covered the Ladbroke Grove and Notting Hill area. It is an extremely diverse area with a history of urban activism and disorder mixing trustafarians with a diverse black community with pockets of irish, moroccan, spanish and portuguese.

But as James Meek (In Broadway Market) says speaking of the East End in 2011 this:

is not the mixing city its liberal inhabitants would like to think it is. Loving the cultural diversity of London as a spectator-inhabitant is not the same as mingling with it. The yuppies don’t go to the white working-class pubs, and the white working class don’t go to the yuppie pubs. The Muslims don’t go to the pub at all and the post- Christians don’t go to the mosque or the church. The young don’t mix with the old. You don’t marry outside your income and education group. Parents segregate their school-age children by class and race.

Building on Meek Owen Hatherley notes:

Edinburgh might wall off its poor in Muirhouse or Leith, and Oxford might try not to think about Blackbird Leys, but in London, Manchester/Salford, Liverpool, Birmingham, Bristol, Nottingham—the cities that erupted on Monday 8th August- the rich live, by and large, next to the poor: £1,000,000 Georgian terraces next to estates with some of the deepest poverty in the EU.

North Ken was like that 25 years ago. Indeed my occasional sentimental journeys to Carnival suggests it still is. (I should also note that I did some fieldwork for my PhD in car crime at and near Blackbird Leys after I had left the Home Office)

The Task Force leader was a cigar smoking woman mid ranking civil servant and the only other staff was a locally recruited young woman of bajun extraction. The Task Force leader was eventually replaced by a young black man from the third sector. I, a white man, continued to go out and meet the community while the Leader met the Council and local business. I suspect our various inclinations to the maverick were seen to be useful in defusing local hostility.

All, bar NKTF, the other TFs were in Labour controlled local authority areas but it faced more opposition from the paternalistic Tory Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea than many. Local activists were wary but willing to engage with the TF. We could promise little money (pilots, seedcorn, exploratory assessments) but some ‘bending’ of current schemes (Community Programme and Youth Training etc) and the ear of Ministers (ours was Ken Clarke, now Lord Chancellor). So mini Merseysides.

So one day might be trying to broker the establishment of a Black Business Bureau, another talking to the local Housing Associations or visiting the many competing community groups - some divided by politics some by which mas camp they favoured in Carnival. And many meetings about the existence, route, policing and commercial potential of Carnival (plus ca change).

At that time local communities refused to countenance the formal Police Consultative Groups recommended in the Scarman Report but met with them once a month at a local church near the All Saints Rd (aka ‘the Front Line’ and then home to the Mangrove Restaurant and Community Organisation). Meetings leading up to Carnival were best attended and generally more of the various white communities might turn up. And yet most of the questions to police were hygiene ones - would there be enough portaloos to reduce tendency for people to piss doorways and gardens.

The Police and Local Authority representatives - and NKTF - could expect tough questioning. But some of the paranoia can be seen in that the Police were suspected of running undercover or extra patrols, that had not been cleared by back channels, because a white Nissan had been seen with no marking other than the word Patrol (It was a Nissan Patrol).

I’m not sure the TFs worked in any big sense but it enabled close connection between some sections of Government and civil service and the people. I might expect to meet the very people I’d been discussing a grant or a project with the next day when shopping for vegetables on the Portobello Rd. And it was clearly less damaging than harsh sentencing and ignoring communities in pain.

My greatest regret is that I was unable to help Brinsley Forde of Aswad set up a music studio for young people. He came by on the second day we opened. I was out of my depth, finding my feet and he never came back.

Not much recompense but, instead of replaying Ghost Town, I offer these lines’ from Aswad’s African Children.

African Children
In a concrete situation
African children
Wonder do you know where you’re coming from
All of the nation are living in these tenements
Precast stonewall concrete cubicals
Their rent increases each and every day
Structural repairs are assessed yet not done
Lift out of action on the twenty-seventh floor
And they work they smell

2011-08-17T18:29:00.003Z

40th Anniversary of the Stanford Prison Experiment

This is event getting some fairly kind coverage in media.

Zimbardo’s early 1970s Stanford Prison Experiment, is that college
students given sufficient power and a uniform can become tyrants. Less
well-known might be the BBC’s rerun of the experiment in 2002,
broadcast as The Experiment which called into question Zimbardo’s findings
and sparked related academic work (for instance Haslam and Reicher
(2003) and interviews with the Guardian and the Psychologist).

I rif on this and TV's Banged Up 'Reality TV' here.

2011-08-17T18:28:00.002Z

Apologies for not posting in last year but long form academic work, short form tweeting and facebooking have kept me away

2011-07-07T04:52:00.002Z

And particularly enjoyed this at BSC2011

Ms Sarah Lamble
QUEER INVESTMENTS IN PUNISHMENT: SEXUAL CITIZENSHIP, SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND THE EXPANDING PENAL STATE

Arguing that LGBTQ activists sucked into Punitiveness. For instance some nearly tricked into an EDL fronted 'Pride' March that was just an excuse to march through muslim areas.

(see my entry on Queer Theory in Sage Dictionary of Criminology too)

2011-07-07T04:46:00.003Z

More greenery at BSC2011

Ms Lieselot Bisschop
FLOWS OF TRANSNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME: CASE STUDY RESEARCH ON E‐WASTE AND TIMBER

Dr Gary Potter
RESISTANCE IS FERTILE

Environmental Activism as (potentially) criminal

Miss Hanneke Mol
SOCIAL AND ECOLOGICAL JUSTICE FROM AN ECOCENTRIC PERSPECTIVE: A (RE‐)CONSIDERATION OF HARM

perils of palm Oil in columbia

2011-07-07T04:39:00.003Z

A green session at BSC2011

Transnational Context of Local Environmental Crimes Professor Nigel South
WATER AS A LOCAL AND GLOBAL RESOURCE: ISSUES FROM THE PERSPECTIVES OF GREEN AND CULTURAL CRIMINOLOGIES

Our locally bought water bottles unnecessary, potentially unhealthy and end up in pacific

Professor Rob White LOCALISM AND TRANSNATIONALISATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL
HARM

Toxic Towns in Tasmania

Dr Tanya Wyatt
TRANSNATIONAL WILDLIFE TRAFFICKING IN OUR BACK GARDEN: A PHOTOGRAPHIC EXPLORATION OF THE HEATHROW ANIMAL RECEPTION CENTRE

Heathrow a hub for legal and illegal animal trade and some animals end up imprisoned there without parole.

2011-07-07T04:34:00.002Z

Obviously presented my own paper

MATTER ALL OVER THE PLACE: LITTER, CRIMINOLOGY AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE

a contribution to green criminology that i hope will see the light of day in Routledge International Handbook of Green Criminology

I argue criminology, including green criminology, fails to take litter seriously and that the 'litterature' is too punitive or unknowing of criminological issues etc.

2011-07-07T04:28:00.001Z

And another session.

Arts, Sex Work and Sexual Exploitation: Visualising Sex Work
Professor Maggie O’Neill, Ms Rosie Campbell and Mr Michael
Atkins
SEX WORK, VISUAL ETHNOGRAPHY AND PARTICIPATORY
METHODS: TOWARDS A RADICAL DEMOCRATIC IMAGINARY
Presentation of Dr Nick Mai’s film
NORMAL: FILM, ETHNOGRAPHY AND SEX WORK
Dr Teela Sanders
SEEING IS BELIEVING: LAP DANCING UNCOVERED

2011-07-07T04:20:00.003Z

Another session attended at BSC2011.

Dr Jo Buckle and Professor Hazel Croall
CRIME AND THE ARCHERS: FROM POST‐WAR TO ‘FARM NOIR’ (But also see my work on this here)

Dr Angus Nurse
POLICING WILDLIFE: PERSPECTIVES ON CRIMINALITY IN WILDLIFE
CRIME (Glad to see this, I was his external examiner for PhD)

2011-07-07T04:03:00.004Z

Sessions I attended included:

Creativity in the Criminal Justice System
Ms Laura Caulfield and Mr Dean Wilkinson
THE USE OF THE ARTS IN A THERAPEUTIC COMMUNITY PRISON

Ms Charlotte Bilby and Ms Louise Ridley
IN/OUTSIDER ART: CRIMINOLOGISTS CURATING A PRISONER ART EXHIBITION

Here are some pictures.

2011-07-07T03:57:00.004Z

Have just been at British Society of Criminology Conference at Northumbria Uni. Tweeted extensively as @criminology4u under hashtags #BSC2011 and #criminology. Over next few posts/days will post more reflective highlights.

2011-02-20T11:29:00.002Z

Rio de Janeiro appoints first female police chief

Guardian report here.

A hard job - not least the gender stereotypes - which she embraces: "I will be a severe mother. I will punish when necessary and distribute hugs when they are deserved," Very Gene Hunt! But we are reassured, 'Rocha told the newspaper, which described her as a fan of Issey Miyake perfume, high heels and cooking.'

Guessing from this quote most of her officers are men, 'In an interview with O Globo she said she wanted her officers to be "polite, clean-shaven, good-humoured and kind".'

2011-02-20T11:21:00.003Z

Perp Walk Staged

There are diplomatic and legal issues surrounding the case of Florence Cassez. My concern here is with the suggestion that her arrest was staged for the cameras a day after her arrest.

See this report from Time mag.

2011-02-17T13:01:00.004Z

UK cyber crime costs £27bn a year - government report

So says BBC report here.
But not only is this figure often self -reported (so some under-reporting as report acknowledges) but also self-evaluating. So we discover late in the piece that the headline figure is made up thuswise.

'Intellectual property theft cost £9.2bn, industrial espionage £7.6bn, this was followed by extortion, which cost £2.2bn, and direct online theft, which cost business £1.3bn. Some £1bn was lost through theft of customer data.'

They mention old-fashioned bank robbery but in those you knew exactly how much you had lost - or said you did.

So the lowest figures likely to be more accurate with the higher figures plucked from the counter-factual air.

2011-02-16T15:43:00.001Z

Hollyoaks rape trial to use viewers' 'jury'

Outcome of Channel 4 soap's ongoing storyline to be decided off-screen by members of the public

see Guardian article here

2011-02-16T07:49:00.002Z

Alcohol and Media

"In reality, we see a fairly deep-rooted decline in alcohol consumption which dates back to 2004. That's not something you see acknowledged in the media."

"With newspapers, the headline is always the same: 'Shock rise in binge drinking'. But you look at the figures, and you see alcohol sales are declining.

This BBC report contrasts falling alcohol sales with continued shock reporting rightly seeing it as part of an anti-Labour (their then Licensing Bill) bias in some papers, particularly Daily Mail

2011-01-09T16:40:00.002Z

John Lewis continues to be the metaphorce of choice. Police to be taught politeness by JL staff. See this article on police friendly site.

2011-01-02T14:30:00.005Z

The Campaign for Plain English attack the waste of time and space of police slogans on websites and sides of cars etc. Read the Guardian report here.

These are described as meaningless and sometimes nonsensical:

"Some are just meaningless. Northumbria's slogan is 'Total Policing'. What does that mean? Do some police forces operate 'partial policing'?

They playfully suggest we chose who to report our crime to:

"Or is it being suggested that victims of crime should shop around? Is it better to be mugged in Suffolk because the police there are 'Taking Pride in Keeping Suffolk Safe' than in Northamptonshire, where they are 'Putting Communities First'?"

No criminologist, or indeed police source is quoted. So here goes.

It is just as likely that this 'marketing' comes in the wake of rampant 'managerialism' (see McLaughlin, E. and Murji, K. 2001. Lost connections and new directions: neo-liberalism, new public managerialism and the modernization of the British police).

And 'ordinary coppers' likely to be fairly dismissive of it too.

So have to agree with CPE so let's get some community servicers to rub slogans off for them. Sure some scallies might do it for free, if a little roughly.

2010-10-04T19:06:00.003Z

Fascinating Post on Crime and Criminal Justice by right-wing commentator Peter Hitchens - brother of the more famous Christopher. The full text is below. He makes an interesting point about the force used by police against Mark Saunders (but might have mentioned others, like Jean Charles de Menezes) and points out that hanging - of which he is an ardent supporter - followed trial and appeal etc. I think he is right on the judge dredd/robocop developments (though he's not used nor would understand such popular cultural references) but wrong to think the corollary of his argument would be bring back hanging end police 'executions'. It seems as likely now that we'd end up with judicial and extra-judicial deaths.

A good example of nostalgic conservative 'criminology'.

So this is Liberal Britain: execution by masked gunmen

The masked avengers of the Metropolitan Police’s firearms squads scare the pants off me. It’s not just the street-fighting gear they sport, clothes designed to give the wearer a feeling of irresponsibility.

It’s not just the IRA-style facewear. It’s not just the huge numbers of them – enough to invade Sierra Leone once the Army’s been disbanded by George Osborne. It’s not even the anonymity most of them are granted, like something out of the Middle Ages.

It’s the fact that nobody notices. Liberal fanatics abolished hanging in this country nearly 50 years ago. Yet when we had the gallows, our police were unarmed. And if the state wanted to kill someone, it could only do so after a jury trial, an appeal and
the chance of clemency. This was called ‘obscene’ and ‘barbaric’.

Now we have a heavily-armed police force whose members, masked like Henry VIII’s headsmen, deal out death as helicopters thunder overhead – no jury, no judge, no appeal. And those who said capital punishment was wicked refuse to see the connection.

Oh, and please note the crazed, shotgun-wielding barrister Mark Saunders was taking ‘anti-depressants’ – another connection everyone refuses to see.

2010-09-06T14:30:00.004Z

CCTV - Police Brutality captured but not prevented

With the conviction of Custody Sergeant Mark Andrews for his assault on Pamela Somerville we might think that CCTV had worked. On the contrary it failed completely to prevent his crime.

This Daily Mail article has details. One suspects that had she not been older, small and a woman - or, perhaps more tellingly, 'middle class' - less fuss might have been made.

2010-06-30T08:47:00.002Z

CCTV

I do love a CCTV advert me

2010-05-18T19:21:00.002Z

Football Shirt Ban

A campaign appears to be building on Facebook (sometimes with a racist or at least anti-PC tinge) and in media (Daily Star). This gives a bit more detail. It seems no more than advice to pubs in Croydon. Many pubs already impose rules against soccer shirts anyway. Whilst it may be good advice. It may also be bad advice if many fans turn up in team colours - including those of other teams (Brazil favoured by many as a second stylish alternative to one's own) - then kick off when refused entry.

Let's see how this turns out.

2010-01-10T15:18:00.001Z

Compare HO report on improving confidence in police with news coverage of it. The report does mention not overdoing gloomy crime talk but many other things too.

2009-12-14T19:38:00.003Z

some interesting photos. Of the mafia?

see Guardian article here.

2009-12-04T22:51:00.002Z

Open Circuit TV fuss

many years ago it became obvious we could not stop the spread of CCTV so opening the cameras up was a possible way forward that i could countenance but not in private hands. This company turns it into a game with prizes. Interestingly the plot in Ben Elton's Dead Famous (a pisstiche on Big Brother Reality TV show) has viewers watching the live feed spot the murder at the centre of things

2009-11-26T12:34:00.000Z

Fascinating crime and media story

Taiwan fines newspaper for motion crime news

2009-07-19T10:30:00.003Z

Crime science criticised by scientist.

I'm no big fan of crime science but do have science A levels so was hugely amused by Ben Goldacre's attack on the latest from the Jill Dando Institute for the HO.

2009-07-14T12:23:00.002Z

Top Criminologist for 2008 announced

David Wilson of Birmingham City University came top in a survey of criminologists cited in newspapers in the UK in 2008.

Fergus McNeill came second and Marian Fitzgerald third. Full details here.

2009-03-16T18:27:00.001Z

Media Wise

The Centre for Crime and Justice Studies do a piece of research. It is reported in the Times as supporting a crackdown on knife crime. They beg to differ.

2009-03-03T20:57:00.001Z

Play Ethic bigs up my videogames work

On the Play Ethic blog I’ve been done the enormous honour of a full engagement with my work on (video)games and criminology. This is by way of a response.

I came to criminology late having first gone to teacher training college then getting stuck in the Home Office for nearly 20 years as an administrator/policy person. I might cite the emphasis on play in child development that the Froebel College gave as an inspiration. I did some sociology there but couldn’t see my future teaching primary children – though I did help at my son’s primary school.

My parents were a fraction off conventional and whilst I loved learning, still do, hated school with its petty rules. The Head said I grew a beard I said it grew, secondary sexual characteristic, I just not good at or inclined to cut it. Still have beard or stumble as can’t often be bothered to shave and no good at it – curly follicles.

Through education, thank you OU, I now find myself teaching criminology and media at Uni. As part-timer in non-research intensive college I can research whatever access to computer permits or serendipity prompts. My son is interested in computer games, we discuss them and I’ve tried them but not over keen – my vice is writing.

I was aware from both criminology and media that games were that latest thing – from a translated Bible, US horror comics to women attending University – to have been blamed by sections of the media and the moralistas for the end of the known Universe being trundled of to Hell in a cliché. Much of this was poorly conducted politically motivated psycho bollocks but clearly some effects were evident – if only their attraction.

Sometimes the shocked commentator would allude to the amount of sex or crime (and indeed sex crime) in the games as if that enough to condemn them. Some criminologists had started to look at internet crime and even in communities in cyberspace, but none at the actual criminal content or even the rule-based nature of these games and third spaces. My paper attempts to kick start the process but does so ludicly. The lack of ‘academic’ rigour meant a rewrite before it could be published but two versions are online to compare at my site (closer to the first draft called JPlod after our constables and Douglas Coupland’s novel) and on BSC website.

The paper and response also talk about joyriding – the subject of my PhD – and I’m going to return to it for a conference presentation this year. It seems that the practice still continues, the media still use the term but seems less exercised by it now but little has been written theoretically about it. There is, though, a developing sociology of mobility which takes in auto(mobility) so I shall enjoy playing with that.

Obviously as a car driver of nearly 40 years I am ambivalent about cars but the green and safety arguments usually keep my joydriving (as the ads promise) in check.

I also see some playfulness in the battles against CCTV, the avoidance or accommodation strategies of those under its gaze and even in the joystick heaven that is a full 40 screen digital colour tilt, pan and zoom system. We’ll leave side that the money might be spent better.

2009-02-19T20:41:00.002Z

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.

2009-01-27T08:20:00.002Z

Still can't get enough of the Krays?

Guardian article on forthcoming auction of Kraymebilia. I know I'm supposed to love them and I won't rant about them either but can't we move on?

2009-01-16T15:06:00.002Z

Sad to see death of John Mortimer

I became aware of him first defending in the Oz obscenity trial. I read the Mag; and had even thought of applying to be an editor of that now notorious edition. I next came across him as President of the Howard League for Penal Reform whose conferences i attended. He seemed at home in Oxford College's and we forgave him his 'Penal League for Howard Reform' jokes (twice). Only later did i discover that with so few male staff at the League i was a reserve to do up his flies after the dinner.

The Telegraph has a decent obit here.

2008-12-08T20:46:00.000Z

I am the very junior co-author of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies report `Criminal justice resources staffing and workload'. The full press release reads:

Embargo: 00.01 Hours, Monday, 8 December 2008

Government approach to criminal justice ‘contradictory’, new report from the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies suggests

The criminal justice system faces major pressures in the coming years, with contradictory government policy placing staff under enormous strain, suggests a new report from the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at King’s College London. The report, Criminal justice resources staffing and workloads, argues that workload and staffing pressures have grown alongside the increases in criminal justice budgets (1). As the government seeks to cut costs in the coming years, the report suggests, the key criminal justice agencies face a grim future of staffing cuts, wage freezes and increased work for those that remain. The report will be formally launched at the Palace of Westminster on Monday, 8 December 2008 (2).

Since 2001 the police, courts and Probation Service have benefited from above inflation budget growth. The Courts Service budget has grown by six per cent in real terms. The police budget has grown by 18 per cent and the Probation Service budget by 21 per cent. However, the report argues that once increases in staff levels and workloads are taken into account, as well as structural upheaval, these real terms budget increases are far less generous than they appear. In some cases the costs of structural change and increased workloads have outstripped budget growth.

The Prison Service has experienced a real terms fall of seven per cent in its budgets since 2001. This has placed the Service under huge strain, the report argues, given the rapidly rising prison population and the additional demands that have been placed on prison officers. As a result, government policy on prison is ‘mired in contradiction’, the report argues. It is difficult to see how such an approach can be sustained in the long term, it suggests.

The report concludes that the pressure on criminal justice budgets in the coming years offers the government an opportunity to take stock and reflect on what the criminal justice agencies can realistically achieve, and what their size and reach should be, given the likely resources that will be available.

Richard Garside, director of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at King's College London and co-author of the report said:

'The government looks set to pursue the contradictory policy objective of placing ever greater demands on the criminal justice system while cutting budgets and shedding experienced staff. It is difficult to see how this amounts to a coherent policy framework. The opportunity now exists for the government to rethink the demands it is placing on the criminal justice system and the staff working in it, bringing this more into line with the likely resources that will be available in the coming years.'

Dr Nic Groombridge, a criminologist, former Home Office civil servant and co-author of the report said:

'Neither as a criminologist nor as a former civil servant would I recommend simply increasing expenditure. However, the strains placed upon society by the current economic events and the stress placed upon criminal justice workers mean that the criminal justice system should not be overloaded and must receive adequate resources. Nothing to date or in the current plans gives me confidence that this will be the case.'

The Press Association picked it up and said:

'Fewer frontline police officers'

The number of frontline police officers is falling, according to new research.

Academics found there were nearly 1,500 fewer police constables in England and Wales last year compared with 2006 - a fall of more than 1%.

In the same year, the number of Police and Community Support Officers (PCSOs) doubled.

Researchers at the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at King's College, London, said cheaper staff were being recruited to give the impression there were more police.

They said the figures showed "the way in which the Home Office has relied on the recruitment of less qualified and lower paid auxiliary staff to boost the visible policing presence".

Until last year, Pc numbers grew every year from 2002. But the growth in beat officers was far outstripped by the number of higher-ranking officers. In the last five years the number of superintendents grew by 16% and chief inspectors by nearly 20%.

The report's authors examined funding and workload in the police, prisons, probation and courts systems. They found total spending on the criminal justice system was one third higher last year than in 1997. Police funding was up nearly 20% in real terms in the last five years, they said. But tighter budgets in the future were likely to mean future staff cuts, they warned.

The report found the number of administrative staff in the prison service had risen 20% in five years, despite budget cuts.

Co-author Richard Garside said Government policy was "mired in contradiction" with cuts coming despite an increase in the prison population. "The Prison Service is probably facing the greatest pressures of the criminal justice agencies examined in this report," he wrote.

"If the Government continues to increase the demands it places on the criminal justice system, and the staff working in it, the coming period of budget cuts will be an exceedingly challenging one. It is difficult to see how service quality will not decline in such circumstances. In particular, reductions in staffing seem almost inevitable if budgets are to be balanced."

This lead to a variety of stories, few of which do justice to the many facts and opinions in the report. The DailyExpress page7 takes the PA line. The Sun page 7 says `Blue line is thinner’ giving an even shorter précis. Readers of Nick Davies’s Flat Earth News won’t be surprised at such ‘churnalism’. However, nothing in these reports is false just does scant justice to our work. It is clearly the ‘police’ issue that has legs.

The Daily Mail page 30 goes with `More police funding but fewer frontline officers' and appears to write own article backed up with quotes from all political sides as follows:

Shadow Home Secretary Dominic Grieve said: 'This undermines all Labour's rhetoric about record police numbers.

The fact is that because of Labour's target culture our police spend just 14 per cent of their time where the public want them, which is on the streets.'

Liberal Democrat justice spokesman David Howarth said: 'The report rightly points out how incoherent policy from a Government obsessed with looking tough has left staff at the sharp end of the criminal justice system confused and overworked.'

But the Home Office insisted that spending on additional staff has meant fully-qualified officers can spend more time combating crime.

A spokesman said: 'Time spent by officers on frontline duties has increased each year since 2003 - equivalent to 5,340 more police officers. ‘

The Daily Telegraph page 2 `Police shortfall "hidden" by use of support officers' gives a similar story to the Mail. The use though of “hidden”, even with the quotes is clever since we don’t say this, indeed all the figures we use come from official sources and would be available to an assiduous journalist. Ironically the picture editor has chosen a picture of many officers to talk about the growth of PCSOs.

Only two online sources were truer to the report’s intentions. Thus Public Servant Online headlined a short piece highlighting the issues for the Prison Service “Criminal justice system 'under strain'”. InTheNews website called the, ‘Govt's approach to criminal justice 'contradictory'. They were the only one to run the quote I had provided for the press release.

However, I did have a number of press contacts in the days before and on the day of launch. On the Friday Sky News contacted me and set up a pre-record for the Sunday at there studios. BBC Wales also said they wanted a live interview from Millbank Studios for the Monday morning but, like the BBC’s Breakfast show, who’d phoned on Saturday night, they never came back to me. Later Sky Radio – they have no station but provide news for local commercial stations – also contacted me so visited them after doing Sky News.

I have had limited media contact but teach Crime and Media and have an MA in Journalism Studies. Richard and I had not thought our ‘findings’ that interesting and wondered if the fact that I had worked for the Home Office had piqued some interest so were surprised when all the questioning centred on the police numbers question. I don’t think I did that well and have not seen or heard the output. Indeed I don’t currently know if any of it was used.

However, after the launch – and before I got home – BBC Radio Five Live asked for a live interview at 4:20 on the Drive Time programme. I declined the offer to go into the studios at Millbank but elected to go home where I readied myself at my computer with a sort of script to move on from police figures – the researcher had mentioned them – to get back to the report and the problems faced by all the criminal justice workers even where they appeared to have done well and speculated a little on the future in the light of the credit crunch.

2008-10-08T15:46:00.001Z

What is Crime? Photo Competition

Very pleased to join the judging panel for this event organised by Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at King's.

Enter now!

2008-08-26T07:25:00.001Z

Race, Crime and Media

I've only just come across this report. Well worth a look. I'll be using it in my teaching.

2008-08-25T10:40:00.003Z

We may not like it but Myra Hindley has become a cultural icon and Marcus Harvey's portrait explores that. But no surprise that politicians and media seek to show their instincts are as repressive as the Chinese in their condemnations. See part of the offending video here.

2008-08-17T16:40:00.002Z

Ben Goldacre continues to tell it like it is on science and media. Here he examines the good news of the reduction in murders by the mentally ill - already lower than many think - and the lack of interest by the media in that news.

2008-07-14T13:03:00.001Z

'criminology' rubbished again

this article in Times Higher suggests return to medical model for crim

obviously i'm not convinced

2008-07-04T10:39:00.001Z

Billy Bragg is the 'man in black' see this guardian article on music in prison

2008-07-01T19:43:00.001Z

I'm participating in this inter-disciplinary discussion on Surveillance and CCTV etc on 18 July

2008-06-10T13:20:00.003Z

knife or 'wife' crime?

Media coverage of knife crime against and between teenagers to date ensured that the case of Arsema Dawit was framed as 'knife' crime - which is bad but not completely out of control - rather than the more prosaic crimes against women -rape, 'honour' killing, stalking, domestic violence etc.

2008-05-06T13:39:00.002Z

CCTV fiasco

Det Ch Insp Mike Neville has called CCTV usage in UK a fiasco. In 1994 I warned against the unthinking application of CCTV to all crime (letalone social) problems instead of being part of a strategy. Home Office research appears to confirm this and I wrote again about it recently on the money that has been wasted.

2008-03-22T16:30:00.000Z

David Cameron runs lights on bike

Some are treating this as a political story or a cycling story. It is a surveillance story. One day we will all have someone following us. Celebrities already do.

2008-03-10T12:18:00.001Z

Broadcasting UK courts

As the Government is such a fan of CCTV cameras it comes as a surprise that they are not to be allowed in Court rooms ('TV cameras to be kept out of court as Straw kills of Falconer initiative' 10 March). It is also a shame that broadcasting the courts comes down to TV. Radio would have been the ideal medium to test the idea as it was with parliament - the home of 'grandstanding'.

2008-02-06T19:26:00.000Z

Nick Clegg's contention at PMQ that we are most spied on.

I've just published in Surveillance and Society on the value for money of CCTV (though i have written on other elements of this and can claim to be one the earliest publishers on the topic, 1994) and indeed have just spent this afternoon standing outside the Home Office - my one-time employer - being interviewed for the Politics Show on this.

I actually can't answer the question and i don't think any one can in truth since the total amount of 'spying' is unknown given that much of it will be covert or by-the-by. Even the overt element - CCTV cameras - are the subject of a number of claims. When our life is in danger we may well want to be spied on but might call it intensive care. Worse we may give up our civil liberties yet still get beaten up only to be memorialised months later on Crimewatch and not aided one jot by the impassive eye of the camera. Remember too that like contestants on Big Brother we often want to be watched and that Facebook can be seen in this light. When i joined it i did so knowing that it could be open to spying - indeed that is one of its pleasures - but find it the best way to communicate with students.

So rhetorically fine for Clegg to make such claim, many others do, and he should be safe from point by point rebuttal as a i guess Home Office don't know and MI5/6 won't say.

2008-02-05T14:24:00.000Z

CCTV - Home Office wastes money

In this rant I examine the effectiveness and value for money of CCTV using the Home Office's own research and find it wanting.

2008-01-16T14:20:00.000Z

CSI - Georgian London.

No that's not what they call it. It's really called City of Vice and its on Channel 4 at moment. As a criminologist i'm not able to comment on the historical accuracy and many would take issues with whether the work of the Fielding brothers amounted to a police force. From one episode though I like the apparently very modern nature of the crimes and lifestyles depicted. This sits well with my belief there was no 'golden age' that was crime free. In the week the Ipswich murders of prostitutes coming to trial it is a sad coincidence that the first episode ws about just that.

2007-12-03T12:57:00.000Z

nearly panicking about murder rate in london

A recent article in the Times concentrated in its headline and trail on the claim that the Met now believed that the majority of murders in London were committed by foreigners. The text was less panicky though yet only in the final par and closing sentence does it reveal:

'Nor do the figures suggest any migrant-fuelled wave of killings.

Murders in the capital had fallen from 176 in 2003-04 to 127 in 2006-07.'

2007-11-11T19:52:00.000Z

ex offender does well

i wish jonathan aitken well in his new job

2007-11-05T17:33:00.001Z

'Criminologists Say' Howard Journal of Criminal Justice

An article of mine appears in December issue of HJCJ arguing for criminology to be more public. I may get my wish as the journal is to press release it.

Watch this space.

2007-09-20T18:51:00.001Z

british criminology conference

some pictures of this can be found on facebook

2007-09-20T18:49:00.000Z

CCTV

just been interviewed for a documentary on Surveillance by some Italian guys whose website is visitor@visitorq.net.

So I'll probably never see it.

2007-09-18T06:58:00.000Z

british criminology conference

I'm giving a paper today at the British Criminology Conference at the LSE. The paper is on why some criminology is ambivalent, too close to its subject etc.

2007-09-05T15:11:00.000Z

Crime and Media Students at St Mary's University College

I've just created a group on Facebook for my crime and media students this year. Let's see if this is better than trying to use the College's own VLE.

2007-06-29T11:46:00.000Z

Woman Home Secretary

Jacqui Smith is to be the new Home Sec. Once upon a time I had hoped this might have gone to Clare Short. She looks set to be as 'tough' as recent Labour Home Secs i.e. painting herself further into a corner where only the 'naughty' step is.

2007-06-11T21:11:00.001Z

2007-06-11T17:08:00.000Z

Crime. What can I tell you about crime? Not a lot obviously as I’m only a criminologist. I’ve worked in the Home Office, I’ve lectured on criminology for over 13 years and researched and published yet am rarely asked about crime.

Yet plenty of other people do get asked about crime. Some of them are criminologists. There are a few ‘celebrity’ criminologists but the number of times they get asked to comment on crime is still small compared to who else does get to comment on crime. Obviously police officers have something to say about crime as should Home Office Ministers. You might expect them to have sound criminological advice, though their utterances often fly in the face of criminological knowledge or hopelessly mangle it. My research into the use of criminologists in the media shows they are rarely quoted on crime and often in ‘sound bites’.

Not that I’m professionally prissy. Clearly in a democratic country everyone is entitled to an opinion about crime and few now have escaped its effects. Criminology is booming in Universities at the moment. There are arguments about the extent of media influence on crime but many agree that ‘crime shows’ like CSI have encouraged students to see that crime fighting might pay.

Much of the debate about crime – and the media have some responsibility here – is carried on at the level of the immediate and common-sensical in which the brilliant politics of Labour’s, ‘tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime’ glosses over the criminological contradictions. If crime has fallen – and it might have – during their time in office it will not be down to ‘toughness’.

So here is what a criminologist does say about one current crime story. Some of the British media are scandalised that the German media had the insensitivity to raise with the McCann’s the possibility that they had a hand in Madeleine’s abduction. Yet parents and carers are the most likely person to harm a child of that age as they have the opportunity and the motive. We may never find out who did kidnap their daughter but they are responsible, in part, for the media storm. This may not restore their daughter to them but continues to frighten parents when other research shows children need to get out more.

2007-01-22T18:22:00.000Z

Policing Northern Ireland

Police Ombudsman publishes report showing collusion between the old RUC and Loyalist killers.

2006-12-02T17:09:00.000Z

racist police?

I usually delete emails that go the rounds with amusing jokes and videos. Seemingly 300 out of 400 officers and staff and Hertfordshire Police (no mention on their website) did too when they received an emailed video of a police chase in America ending in the decapitation of the suspect. Those who forwarded it on have been disciplined. Further details here.

2006-12-02T17:04:00.000Z

not buy-to-let but buy and throw away the key

Obviously I'm rushing to buy shares in 'I'm a thoughtless bastard happy to make money out of the new prison buy-to-let scheme' Incorporated. See details in Guardian.

2006-10-10T10:15:00.000Z

Muslim Police

Much huffing and puffing in the media over news that a muslim police officer had been given permission not to guard the Israel Embassy. Also even more on Jack Straw's comments on finding the niqab and other veils worn by Muslim women unnerving.

We are left waiting for two other pieces of news. First that, in the light of the perceived need for total surveillance, everyone will have to go naked in public. Second the fuss that will ensue when a Muslim woman police officer seeks to wear a veil.

2006-09-24T16:37:00.000Z

Criminology and Music

Roaming round the web - it's called research - came across UK born hip hop artist Criminologist aka the Truth. And old Raekwon album 1995 called Criminology. Raekwon part of the Wu Tang Clan.

2006-09-15T11:47:00.000Z

Forensic Science and certainty

In an article in the Guardian 14 September Prof David Wilson makes some good points about the use of the forensic science service and criminal justice. But he might have widended out to some sociological themes . Not only does the english criminal justice system demand certainty - not allowing even Scotland's 'not proven' verdict - but in life many people crave certainty. An aspect of the risk society is the attempt to eliminate risk, even of being wrong. Hence we get it wrong - the courts and the experts.

A mature society would be more tolerant of uncertainty.

2006-09-13T11:14:00.000Z

Policing a concern at the moment with two stories. One concerns the promotion of Cressida Dick at Scotland Yard despite being on duty the day that Jean Charles de Menezes was shot by police and proposals for changes in policing of roads.

Very different stories but illustrative of some issues. Need to think this through.

2006-09-08T11:42:00.000Z

CCTV is widely claimed to be a success. However the Home Office's own research presents a much less clear picture even when the maximum spin is applied. Some of my earliest work was on CCTV and it is amongst some of the earliest work on CCTV. Sometimes my work is cited, more often not. I hope it is not too obvious that I'm upset that the latest Home Office work did not mention my work. What should concern all is the extent to which the lessons pointed out in that early work have been ignored and money wasted on more schemes and unnecessary research. On my website is a response to the Home Office's research. It needs work on issues around policy formation and politics and should not be regarded as the last word. I believe that the Home Office and the researchers have not been Stars of CCTV.

2006-09-08T09:53:00.000Z

Cultural Criminology has had a bit of a revival recently and has come under attack. I believe some of that criticism is unfair but also some of it is fair. The name is too portentious but in trying to think some of these things through I came up with the term cultured criminology to suggest a more rounded approach. My short paper takes issue with O'Brien and the British Journal of Criminology. You decide - the peer reviewers hated it.

2006-09-07T21:17:00.000Z

Sad to see the death of Una Padel recorded in the Guardian Obituary pages today. She did a lot for progressive thinking on criminal justice through the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at King's College, London and through the magazine Criminal Justice Matters.

2006-09-07T16:44:00.000Z

so fed up with my old website that new one started see link or follow this.

2006-09-07T15:16:00.000Z

this is me

2006-09-07T15:03:00.000Z

As I say my website is not happy - the web-authoring and file transfer programme don't seem to like each other. However you can still find things like my work on radio and crime. There is quite a lot of stuff out there on TV, movies and games and crime but little on radio. Broadly I conclude that radio - particularly British public service radio - holds potential for good communication about crime. Clearly I also hope that this and other blogs may also perform a useful function.

2006-09-07T12:44:00.000Z

I've been working on what the media says about criminology - rather than crime or criminal justice - and trying to relate that to debates about the need for a public sociology and criminology.

I believe that whilst the media has many ills it can't be blamed for everything. 'ologists need to get their hands dirty and do some journalism. The internet is the forum for such journalism as journals are too fussy and take two years to publish.

I intend to post short items of interest but also some longer journal length articles to spark debate or be a resource to colleagues, students or those who stumble across this stuff.

I have a website at www.groombridges.freeserve.co.uk but it's not performing well at the moment so feel that blogging may be the answer.