“When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home” (Hinton, p.1) This opening line will resonate for many who read The Outsiders (London: Penguin Books, 2016; originally USA: Viking Penguin, 1967) as a teenager andContinue reading “05-Oct-20 The Outsiders and Youth Justice”
Author Archives: CriminologyTales
27-Sept-20 Marshals and Police
Like all significant social events, COVID-19 has its own lexicon of words and phrases that we find ourselves hearing and using – ‘test, track and trace’, ‘a V-shaped recovery’, ‘asymptomatic’, ‘lockdown’, ‘second spike’, and so on. One word doing the rounds currently is ‘marshal’. To ensure that the public are following social distancing rules, BorisContinue reading “27-Sept-20 Marshals and Police”
11-Sept-20 Prisoners on Remand
While media and public attention has understandably been focused on the NHS and education, the already strained criminal justice system is now struggling to address the backlog of court cases delayed by the pandemic. As a result, the number of prisoners on remand has increased 25% since this time last year to around 11,500, aroundContinue reading “11-Sept-20 Prisoners on Remand”
10-Sept-20 Stepford Wives
This week I read for the first time ‘The Stepford Wives’ by Ira Levin (1972, my edition is 2011, published by Corsair). In just 139 pages, Levin weaves a gripping story about Joanna Eberhart who moves with her husband and two children to the perfect suburb of Stepford, full of beautiful home-loving wives and successfulContinue reading “10-Sept-20 Stepford Wives”
25-Aug-20 Privilege
How do we decide when the actions of the privileged are harmful? When do they also become criminal? On Friday 21 August 2020, US actress Lori Loughlin was handed a two-month jail sentence, fine and community service for her part in a college admissions scandal. Around 50 individuals have been charged following Operation Varsity Blues,Continue reading “25-Aug-20 Privilege”
12-Aug-20 Nordic Noir
In recent years, many of us will have enjoyed TV series such as The Killing, The Bridge or Borgen or read Larrson’s Millennium series or Mankell’s Kurt Wallander books. They form part of cultural genre known as ‘Nordic noir’, a term believed to have been coined by Guardian critic Sam Wollaston in 2012. In JulyContinue reading “12-Aug-20 Nordic Noir”
10-Aug-20 Abuse in Religious Organisations
On 5 August 2020, the BBC reported leaked excerpts from a forthcoming report by independent investigator Vicky Lawson-Brown into abuse of women and children within the ‘Jesus Army’ or ‘Jesus Fellowship’. Established in 1969 at a chapel in Northamptonshire, the Jesus Army grew quickly, drawing in the homeless and substance misusers, among others, to liveContinue reading “10-Aug-20 Abuse in Religious Organisations”
4-Aug-20 Changing Laws
For those UK citizens who have not lived through conflict, authoritarianism, pandemic or social unrest, coronavirus has presented us with a novel legal context. Since March 2020, we have experienced multiple changes to our ability to meet with friends and family, to go to work and school, to buy and sell goods and move aroundContinue reading “4-Aug-20 Changing Laws”
24-July-20 Achebe and retributive justice
My current read is Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (first published by William Heinemann, 1958 though my copy is Penguin, 2001). Born in 1930 in Nigeria, Achebe studied in London and worked for the BBC, later becoming Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The book has a great back story.Continue reading “24-July-20 Achebe and retributive justice”
17-July-20 COVID Politics
Two interesting developments at the end of this week which relate to earlier posts here under COVID Criminology. First, in my blog post 14-Jul-20 COVID-19 and Accountability, I talked about the role of a public inquiry in understanding the successes and failures of the UK Government’s handling of the pandemic. On 15 July 2020, underContinue reading “17-July-20 COVID Politics”
14-July-20 COVID-19 and Accountability
Initially there was scepticism from the UK Chief Medical Officer and his colleagues about the value of wearing face masks. People might not wear them correctly, may become complacent and forget to prioritise handwashing and social distancing. In the US, Trump said in April 2020 that he would not wear a mask and mocked hisContinue reading “14-July-20 COVID-19 and Accountability”
13-July-20 Capital Punishment and Victims
The BBC website reports this morning on the case of Daniel Lewis Lee who will be subject to the first federal execution in the United States in more than 17 years. Lee and an accomplice were convicted of murdering three members of the same family. Two details stand out in the report. First, the murdersContinue reading “13-July-20 Capital Punishment and Victims”
26-June-20 Lady Macbeth and Double Deviance
Lady Macbeth. […] Come, you spiritsThat tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,And fill me from the crown to the toe top-fullOf direst cruelty! make thick my blood;Stop up the access and passage to remorse,That no compunctious visitings of natureShake my fell purpose, nor keep peace betweenThe effect and it! Come to my woman’s breasts,AndContinue reading “26-June-20 Lady Macbeth and Double Deviance”
22-June-20 Alfred Fagon, Policing and Race
Alfred Fagon was a Jamaican-born playwright who came to England in 1955 at the age of 18. He worked on the railways and joined the army, where he became a boxing champion. Leaving the army in 1962 to travel and sing calypso, Alfred settled in Bristol, learning the welding trade and starting to act part-timeContinue reading “22-June-20 Alfred Fagon, Policing and Race”
17-June-20 Interview with a Crown Court Judge
Today’s blog is an interview with a ‘Circuit Judge’ who acts as a Crown Court Judge in England and Wales. The interview explores a typical day; route into the job; enabling justice for victims and defendants; and the impact of the COVID-lockdown. My sincere thanks to the contributor for their time in preparing this. WhatContinue reading “17-June-20 Interview with a Crown Court Judge”
12-June-20 Solving Crimes
I have been reading Martha Gever’s chapter (reproduced in McLaughlin and Muncie, 2013) on the ‘spectacle of crime’ in relation to the American TV series CSI: Crime Series Investigation. One phrase in particular set me thinking. Gever talks of “…the flux of visual imagery that harnesses the quest for scientific truths to scenes of veryContinue reading “12-June-20 Solving Crimes”
8-June-20 The Impact of COVID-19 on Sex Workers
This was first published by the author on 8 June 2020 in LSE COVID-19 Social Policy, a blog by the London School of Economics and Political Science. In 2019, I co-authored a Home Office-commissioned report with colleagues at the University of Bristol on the nature and prevalence of prostitution and sex work in England andContinue reading “8-June-20 The Impact of COVID-19 on Sex Workers”
5-June-20 Victim-blaming
I read this morning the BBC article by Nduka Orjinmo about campaigning by women in Nigeria for police, the state and the public to take seriously rape and sexual violence, and bring perpetrators to justice. The brutal rape and bludgeoning to death of 22-year old student, Uwavera Omozuwa, known as Uwa, is one of aContinue reading “5-June-20 Victim-blaming”
1-June-20 General Crime Theory
There is something intrinsic to our nature to seek to explain the world around us. It is particularly satisfying to identify one simple explanation for a given scenario, and better still if that explanation can be applied to a number of similar scenarios. In a 2000 piece (reproduced in a reader by McLaughlin and Muncie,Continue reading “1-June-20 General Crime Theory”
27-May-20 Words, Ideas, Harm
In my last post (Crimmigration 20-May-2020), I said that “a simple stroke of the bureaucratic pen” can create significant suffering. This suffering may ripple through lives and communities for some time, much of it undocumented. In my own research (working also with colleagues at the Centre for Gender and Violence Research), I record and seekContinue reading “27-May-20 Words, Ideas, Harm”
