A guest blog, anonymized to protect the writer’s identity. This is a summarized account of my previous life of a hell on earth in the dark unpublicized shadows of the prison system. It is a journey from abuse to anarchy and finally normality: a path shared by many of my generation. In 1970, as aContinue reading “21-October-22 Strangeways, A Nightmare Revisited“
Author Archives: CriminologyTales
24-May-22 MI5, Abuse and the Patriarchal State
Last week, the BBC published details of a long-running investigation into an MI5 agent who, it is alleged, terrorised, abused and attempted to kill an intimate partner. The BBC had further located an intimate partner in another country, with similar experiences, and suggestions of active targeting of young women, by this agent, for exploitation. TheContinue reading “24-May-22 MI5, Abuse and the Patriarchal State”
26-Apr-22 Sanctions for Sexual Violence in War
Reports from Ukraine in recent weeks evidence that, as in other conflicts around the world and through time, rape is being used as a tool of war. Traditionally, this issue has received minimal attention in the history books. Writing in 1995, Copelon (p.197) observes that: When war is done, rape is comfortably filed away asContinue reading “26-Apr-22 Sanctions for Sexual Violence in War”
25-Apr-22 Accountability Re-visited
On 14 July 2020, I wrote a blog here on COVID-19 and accountability, thinking through how we monitor real-time and later review governance of the pandemic. I wrote elsewhere about the difficulties of securing compliance with COVID laws. I would not have imagined at that time that the UK Prime Minister himself would be foundContinue reading “25-Apr-22 Accountability Re-visited”
24-Apr-22 Returning, and ‘Rough Sex’
Well, it’s been a year since my last blog which tells you something about juggling work and home life. I am actually towards the end of three months research leave, a period which should involve a great outpouring of thinking and writing. But, as other wiser colleagues had told me, and I now realise, youContinue reading “24-Apr-22 Returning, and ‘Rough Sex’”
9-Apr-21 Escalation mentality
On Monday, I was listening to Eric Nelson, defence attorney for Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer who faces three charges of second and third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter for the killing of George Floyd. Nelson was questioning prosecution witness and Chief of the Minneapolis Police Department Medaria Arradondo, who had fired all four policeContinue reading “9-Apr-21 Escalation mentality”
30-Jan-21 Beads
I am currently reading David Olusoga’s book ‘Black and British’ (Pan, 2016). The book is brilliant and shocking and it is the author’s ability to pick out the human detail from his research that makes the narrative so vivid. Olusoga takes us first to Bunce Island, at the mouth of the Sierra Leone River. Here,Continue reading “30-Jan-21 Beads”
14-Jan-21 Catcher in the Rye
In the week before Christmas, I read ‘Catcher in the Rye’ by J.D. Salinger (1951). I can remember my old copy, which was the silver cover 1969 Penguin Modern Classics edition. It had the spine ripped away and the front cover hanging precariously: I had probably picked it up in the thrift basket of aContinue reading “14-Jan-21 Catcher in the Rye”
31-Dec-20 Criminal Conduct Authorisations
On 24 September 2020, the Government introduced the Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Bill 2019-21. The Government explained the Bill rationale as follows: Undercover operatives and agents play a crucial role in preventing and safeguarding victims from the most serious crimes, including terrorism and child sexual abuse. In order to gain the trust ofContinue reading “31-Dec-20 Criminal Conduct Authorisations”
8-Nov-20 Containment
This week with my first year Criminology students, we are looking at protest and resistance through art and we have been reading, amongst other things, about border walls. From the Berlin Wall to the Derry walls, from the US-Mexico border to the West Bank wall, border walls are sites where people have come to protest,Continue reading “8-Nov-20 Containment”
27-Oct-20 Body Snatchers
In a Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (2003 [1859], Penguin), there is a character called Jeremiah (“Jerry”) Cruncher, who is a porter at Tellson’s Bank in London. Reading the book last year, it took me a while to twig the nature of the business that he and his young son engaged in atContinue reading “27-Oct-20 Body Snatchers”
05-Oct-20 The Outsiders and Youth Justice
“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”
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”
Criminology Tales 