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EUROPEAN GROUP FOR THE STUDY OF DEVIANCE AND SOCIAL CONTROL ESTABLISHED 1973 Coordinator: Emma Bell Secretary: Monish Bhatia A view of Liverpool waterfront taken from the Mersey ferry by Gerard Hodge SUMMER NEWSLETTER II Pringle

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EUROPEAN GROUP FOR THE STUDY OF DEVIANCE AND

SOCIAL CONTROLESTABLISHED 1973

Coordinator: Emma Bell Secretary: Monish Bhatia

A view of Liverpool waterfront taken from the Mersey ferry by Gerard Hodge

SUMMER NEWSLETTER II

Website Administrator: Kirsty Ellis

Pringle

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. European Group 42nd Conference

European Group Collective Book LaunchConference Fees & BookingAccommodation and local guide to Liverpool *new*

II. Comment and Analysis: Special Edition

Papers from the European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control First Undergraduate Conference in association with Liverpool John Moores University

III. European Group News New EG publications

Call for Interest: European Group Press Editorial Collective

Call for Papers (Newsletter)

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IV. News from Europe and around the World Australia

Greece: special comment by Stratos Georgoulas Austerity, ritualism and the rise of the Neo-Nazis in contemporary Greece

Norway

The Netherlands

UK: report on G4S AGM by David Scott

USA

International

I. European Group Conference

Further information on the 42nd annual conference may be found at http://www.europeangroup.org. The deadline for abstracts has now CLOSED. For all general enquiries please contact Anne Hayes at [email protected].

European Group Collective Book LaunchThe organisers of the 42nd Annual Conference of the European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control, to be held in Liverpool, 3-6 September 2014 would like to hold a collective book launch to celebrate the publication of books by members since September 2013.  The invite is open to all members, although we can only guarantee inclusion for those who are attending our annual conference.  For further details please contact David Scott – [email protected]

Fees and registration: Please note: it is still possible to register until 18th July (http://buyonline.ljmu.ac.uk/). Unfortunately, it will not be possible to accept registrations after this deadline. The combined conference fee/ accommodation offer is now closed. Further info on accommodation is available below.

£ €*Full delegate fee including conference dinner 145 175

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Full delegate fee 105 12735 42

*€ prices are quoted at time of publication. These are subject to change according to fluctuating exchange rates

Accommodation details Accommodation booked with the conference fee is at: Vine Court, 35 Myrtle Street, Liverpool University L7 7AJ. See link for details and map of accommodation: http://www.liv.ac.uk/accommodation/halls/on-campus-accommodation/vine-court/

Other accommodation options:

Aachen Hotel: Situated on the same street as most of the conference events, this is a small hotel with a good reputation. Lots of cafes nearby, and close to the centre and all main train stations. Around £55-80 per room per night: http://www.aachenhotel.co.uk

Best Western Feathers Hotel: Directly across the road from the Mount Pleasant Campus where most activity will be taking place. Rooms around £70 per twin per night: http://www.bestwestern.co.uk/hotels/feathers-liverpool-hotel-liverpool-83930/hotel- info/default.aspx

Hard Day’s Night Beatles Boutique Hotel: This fairly new hotel is situated close to the Cavern Quarter, and around a 20 minute walk to the conference. Rooms are more expensive, at around £90 per double/twin per night, but would suit any Beatles fanatics! http://www.harddaysnighthotel.com

Hatters Hostel Liverpool: This is a cheap and reasonable place to stay, very close to the conference and the centre as well as main transport links. From around £14 per person per night: http://hattersgroup.com/liverpool/liverpool-hostels/hatters-hostel-liverpool

Hope Street Hotel: This is approximately five minutes’ walk from the venue, on the same street as the two Cathedrals and close to the city centre: http://www.hopestreethotel.co.uk

International Inn (Cocoon): This youth hostel is practically on the premises of the conference! It is about around a two minute walk to the John Foster building entrance, can be booked in dorms or as singles and has a number of bunkbeds etc. ranging from £17-40: https://www.internationalinn.co.uk

Parr Street Hotel: This boutique hotel is within Liverpool's Parr Street Studios, a mix of creative offices, recording studios, a bar and restaurant. Around £60-£100 per room per night. http://www.parrstreet.co.uk/Hotel.html

The Liverpool Inn Hotel: On the same street as the conference venue and very close to the main train centres and city centre. Around £50-70 per room per night: http://www.liverpool-inn.co.uk/index.htm

The Print Works Apartments: This is around 10-15 minutes from the conference venue, and is more suitable for people staying in pairs or groups. Can be as cheap as £100 for four people if booked in advance: http://www.printworksliverpool.co.uk

See http://www.europeangroup.org/content/accommodation Local guide to Liverpool:

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An indispensable local guide to Liverpool is available to download on our website. Thanks to Vicky Canning at LJMU for putting this together. See: http://www.europeangroup.org/content/liverpool-2014

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II. Comment and analysis: Special edition

Papers from the European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control First Undergraduate Conference in

association with Liverpool John Moores University

The very first European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control undergraduate conference was held at Liverpool John Moores University on Monday 7th

April 2014.  The conference was organised by students and staff at Liverpool John Moores University and provided an opportunity for undergraduate studying ‘crime’, deviance and social control at a number of universities in the North West of England to present papers based upon research undertaken for their dissertations. We would strongly encourage members across the world to consider launching similar initiatives in their home countries. If you are interested in hosting such an event, please get in touch with the European Group Coordinator:

[email protected]

Papers from the European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control First Undergraduate Conference in association with Liverpool John Moores University.

IntroductionAnne Hayes and David ScottConference Overview:

The 7th April 2014 saw the introduction of the 1st Undergraduate Conference for the European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control, in conjunction with Liverpool John Moores University. This conference was convened in order to provide an opportunity for undergraduates studying ‘crime’, deviance and social control at a number of universities in the north west of England to present papers based upon research undertaken for their dissertations. Alongside final year undergraduates, there were also presentations from MA/MRes and PhD students talking about their research and the transition to postgraduate study.

The day opened with David Scott providing an overview of The European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control. He explained how the group is an international

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network for academics, practitioners, and activists working towards social justice, state accountability and decarceration and how it provides an open forum promoting critical analysis and connecting theory, politics and activism. As the student papers broadly reflected the key principles and priorities of the European Group, he encouraged all the participants to join the broad range of delegates – students, local advocacy and activist groups, academics, researchers, and practitioners – who are already members.

Whilst many of the students were extremely anxious about taking part in the event (and we nearly lost one or two on the day with nerves!), it was very important to the conveners, Anne Hayes and David Scott, that the atmosphere would be very supportive and nurturing and that the day was about introducing a dialogue between presenters and the audience in a very relaxed way. All present agreed that this was achieved and many of the students have already applied to present elsewhere because they found the experience so rewarding, with one undergraduate, John Welch, intending to deliver a paper at the forthcoming European Annual conference in Liverpool in September.

The day got off to a flying start with three papers delivered by students from the University of Central Lancashire. Alma Agostini started proceedings with a paper brimming in scholarship – her relaxed, yet knowledgeable, delivery set the benchmark for the day. The subsequent paper by Valeriya Pogorelova sustained the high standard that had been set as she explored the function of language. Shaun Whelan followed and appeared at ease as he delivered a very interesting paper about status dogs, in a confident manner which exhibited both sound research and humour.

After refreshments the baton was passed on to three students from Liverpool John Moores and first up was Ed Burtonshaw-Gunn. Ed presented a confident paper illustrating how he has used the technique of mapping to establish patterns in relation to student’s perceptions of crime. Subsequently, John Welch delivered a very thought-provoking and theoretically-established piece relating to Gypsy Travellers in the UK. To conclude the undergraduate papers, Antoinette Huber offered a very articulate and analytical account of gendered representation within the media.

All the undergraduate students, now feeling able to breathe again, took part in a panel discussion in relation to undertaking an undergraduate dissertation. Delegates, who were mostly levels four and five students1, commented on how they had found this debate particularly useful because they could hear what the process was like from a student’s perspective.

Lunch provided an opportunity to network and to discuss the poster presentations which some of the level six LJMU students undertaking the module ‘Green Criminology’ had completed as part of their assessment.

The postgraduate stream of the conference was opened by Laura Margaret Kelly, a PhD student from the University of Central Lancashire. Laura gave an engaging paper, reflecting on doing a PhD, which was both insightful and honest. Holly White, undertaking a PhD at Edge Hill University, followed with a very eloquent and thought-provoking discussion about policing the neo-liberal crisis. Two Liverpool John Moores students concluded the presentations. Kirsty Greenwood, a Masters student at LJMU, delivered a sophisticated,

1 Level 4 equates to the first year within an Undergraduate degree programme in the UK and level 5 is the second year

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historical examination of ‘deviant’ women in Liverpool, followed by Carly Speed, who provided a passionate overview of her PhD thesis in relation to deaths in psychiatric detention.

Helena Gosling provided a thoughtful and reflective element to proceedings as she discussed her feelings on completing her insightful PhD in relation to Therapeutic Communities before chairing a very lively session wherein all the postgraduate students debated the transition to postgraduate study and discussed some of the joys and pitfalls of this journey. They fielded many questions and there was a real sense of connection between the members of group. This was of much interest to the delegates applying for further studies and several of them commented on how they were intending to follow up conversations after the conference had closed.

The day concluded with Anne Hayes thanking all delegates for their participation and paying a special tribute to Professor Joe Sim, who it was felt deserved particular recognition for his life-long dedication to developing not only the under-belly of critical criminology per se but also forging and nurturing the research culture within this sector. It was acknowleged how he is always available for both students and fellow staff (within his home institution and beyond) and how the careers of many critical criminologists would not have ocured without his careful guidance and thoughtful support. Anne contended that this conference was developed with this supportive ethos at its core and she hoped it would continue Joe’s supportive framework and the development of critical criminologists in future years.

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Conference Feedback:

“Originally I was very nervous about presenting my research results but it proved to be a brilliant experience as it provided me with some valuable presentation experience and gave me more confidence in public speaking. It was also great to have my research recognised by other academics within the field of criminology and it was an excellent opportunity to network with both students and staff from other universities, which is great when perusing postgraduate study.”

(Antoinette Huber, Undergraduate student, Liverpool John Moores University)

“If I was to choose what I gained most from the conference it would be confidence, both in my own studies and speaking for an audience.”

(John Welch, Undergraduate student, Liverpool John Moores University)

“The undergraduate conference was a fantastic experience. Not only did it allow me to present my research to others, but it also gave me the opportunity to meet lots of lovely post-graduate students, and to share my PhD related highs and lows with people who really understand.”

(Laura Margaret Kelly, PhD student, University of Central Lancashire)

'The conference was a great opportunity to present my work for the first time in a comfortable environment. Thanks to all who attended’

(Alma Agostini, undergraduate student LJMU)

“At the time I presented at the conference I was in the very early stages of my PhD. The conference gave me the opportunity to discuss my initial ideas for my research, resulting in feedback and guidance which I have and will continue to utilise as my research progresses.”

(Carly Speed, PhD student, Liverpool John Moores University)

“I thought it was an outstanding success in terms of the quality and professionalism of the student presentations. Indeed, it was one of the most stimulating and enjoyable conferences I have ever attended. I think this was also a great step forward in terms of widening the participation of the European Group and engaging with the increasing number of its Undergraduate members.”

(Dr David Scott, Liverpool John Moores University)

“Whilst I felt strongly that students should only engage in the process if they felt comfortable and supported enough to do so, I must admit that I had a tendency to ‘push’, ‘cajole’ and ‘persuade’ when I thought students were more than capable but lacking in confidence. This approach reaped dividends as we saw students literally blossom before our eyes on the day. Notwithstanding the scholarship, professionalism and critical engagement of the students, to me there was nothing more rewarding than drying tears in the morning (due to anxiety) and receiving hugs in the afternoon, brimming with pride and thanking us for the opportunity – days like this are why I entered academia”.

(Anne Hayes, Liverpool John Moores University)

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“This was an excellent conference in every way.  To begin with it was really well organised.  The quality of the papers from the students who presented was also uniformly excellent: clear, articulate and analytical.  They utilised a range of key critical criminological concepts and theories, which allowed them to critique common sense and state-defined ‘truths’ around their research areas.  The discussions were also very good and were conducted in a highly supportive and positive manner.  Overall, it was a real pleasure to have attended the conference and I hope to see it repeated next year.”

(Professor Joe Sim, Liverpool John Moores University)

Overview of Papers in the Special Issue:

In ‘Policing the Neoliberal Crisis’ Holly White utilises the theoretical insights of Stuart Hall to explore how neoliberal elites have seized upon the current economic crisis to legitimise an increasingly punitive welfare system and a broader ideological narrative of a ‘ war against the poor’. Drawing upon her experience as a volunteer for the Citizens Advice Bureau, Holly White makes explicit connections between changes in the macro political economy and micro policy developments in the UK concerning homelessness and the ‘Bedroom tax’. As her conclusion indicates, her work is interventionist, focusing upon the current operationalization of neoliberal hegemony and how alternative critical imaginaries and social movements are being either nurtured or suppressed.

In her article Alma Agostini explores, from an anarchist perspective, the role that state bureaucracy performs in the dehumanisation of ‘the Other’.  Alma Agostini starts her article by explaining the reasons why she has adopted an Anarchist position.  Her focus on hierarchies of power, authority and dehumanisation is then illustrated through a case study looking into the construction of the Other in the USA PATRIOT ACT (2001).  Then, drawing upon the insights of Zygmunt Bauman, Emanuel Levinas and Stan Cohen, the moral indifference underscoring such processes of Othering is theorised through a consideration of social distancing and a denial of responsibility for ‘the Other’ by state agents.  The article concludes with the above themes being connected to the thought of a number of classical anarchist thinkers.

Drawing upon a Foucauldian Feminist theoretical approach Kirsty Greenwood brings together some of her findings from her archival research on the Liverpool Female Penitentiary, a ‘semi-penal institution’ which housed ‘deviant women’ from 1809-1921. Her paper highlights five key themes that characterised institutional practice: controlling wayward women; religious instruction; feminisation; prisoner resistance and contestation; and the strict and disciplinary governance of staff. Kirsty Greenwood concludes her paper by drawing connections to practices within contemporary semi-penal institutions, noting that contemporary ‘judges of normality’ continue to impose “feminising, infantilising and moralising discourses” on those they contain.

In her article “Gender in Media Representations of Violent Offenders” Antoinette Huber utilises Critical Discourse Analysis and a Foucauldian Feminist Framework to explore how men and women offenders are portrayed differently in both broadsheet and tabloid newspapers in the UK. Antoinette Huber illustrates her method and the theoretical imperatives of her undergraduate dissertation through a detailed analysis of one case study: the ‘Moors Murderers’ Ian Brady and Myra Hindley. Through her careful and detailed analysis Antoinette Huber identifies three key themes more associated with Myra Hindley – agency, devotion and religion – which she argues were used to reinforce a particular construction of feminine identities.

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Valeriya Pogorelova focuses on the role that language performs in the construction of criminal identities. Drawing upon her multi-disciplinary analysis of linguistics and discourse analysis in her undergraduate dissertation, Valeriya Pogoelova explores how meanings are produced, world views constituted and social divisions perpetuated through language. As a case study, Valeriya Pogorelova then focuses upon the use of language within the prison, illustrating her arguments through examples of stigmatisation, prison culture and prisoner masculinities. She concludes by reminding us that the use of language must always be located with the hierarchical discursive structures of society and their subsequent reproduction.

In “Imprisoned by Deafness: The experiences of deaf prisoners” Laura Margaret Kelly presents an outline of the justifications for, and provisional findings of, her PhD research. Drawing upon her literature review, Laura Margaret Kelly identifies how the experiences of d/Deaf people in prison have been largely neglected in prison policy and academic literature alike. This seems to be a significant omission in both penology and Deaf studies and her analysis attempts to bridge the gap between these two disciplines. Laura Margaret Kelly makes connections between her research and the requirements of recent equality legislation as well as highlighting how the harms and pains of imprisonment for d/Deaf prisoners are exacerbated under existing penal regimes and thus may be subjected to disproportionate punishments because of their disability.

Carly Speed provides a brief overview of her work from a critical criminological perspective on the deaths of people detained under the Mental Health Act in the UK. She starts by revealing that deaths in psychiatric detention account for 60% of all deaths in state custody and yet this hugely controversial issue is largely neglected in the academic literature and official discourse. Identifying important concerns about the lack of independent investigations into such deaths and the failings of the current process for bereaved families, Carly Speed concludes with a number of policy recommendations that could be adopted to help make this currently ‘invisible’ problem more visible.

The article by Helena Gosling summarises her ethnographic fieldwork in a residential Therapeutic Community (TC) for substance misuse in the North West of England. Her overall research focus is on how the unique treatment interventions of TCs operate on a day-to-day basis and her paper provides an in-depth description of how she undertook her fieldwork as a ‘participant as observer’ over a 30 month period between 2010 and 2013. Helena Gosling then highlights qualitative data gleaned from semi-structured interviews with three TC residents about their treatment journey. The paper concludes by locating the potential of TC treatments for addressing individual and social problems within the constraints of wider structural inequalities and social divisions.

The article by Sean Whelan is entitled “Status and weapon dogs: a critical analysis of problematic dog ownership”. Sean Whelan starts his analysis by exploring the role the dog performs within society and the way dog breeds have been adapted to meet our requirements. He then focuses specifically upon status and weapon dogs, exploring how such dogs, despite their apparent size and strength, exist for, and remain subservient to, the interests of humans. His focus then moves on to consider the class and status dimensions of dog ownership and media representations of ‘weapon dogs’. In so doing he draws our attention to the complexity of dog ownership and the problematic and counterproductive nature of sensationalised media coverage.

In the final paper in this special edition, John Welch focuses upon the lived realities of Gypsies and Travellers in England. After providing a brief historical overview, he locates his analysis of Gypsies and Travellers within a legislative and policy context, providing detailed

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discussions of the introduction and repealing of key legislation in England and the subsequent implications of such laws for Gypsies and Travellers. John Welch then considers the construction and consolidation of negative reputations for Gypsies and Travellers within common sense and media discourses, utilising media representation in the press and on TV of events such as those at ‘Dale Farm’ in 2011 to illustrate his wider theoretical concerns.

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Conference Student Papers:

This article utilises the theoretical insights of Stuart Hall to explore how the logic neoliberal elites have seized upon the current economic crisis to legitimise their power and the importance of engaging in strategies of contestation.

How can it be justified that the way to respond to a problem is to extend and deepen the cause? In Britain, and elsewhere, the neoliberal crisis of capitalism has been seized and capitalised upon by neoliberal elites who have used the opportunity presented as a mechanism to strengthen neoliberal ideology and discourse. How have elites attempted to ‘legitimise’ their actions? In what ways have political and financial elites constructed and narrated the ‘crisis’ in order to police the neoliberal crisis?

A key tool of the elite, for ‘policing’ the neoliberal crisis, has been to socially and politically construct a ‘social crisis’, ‘a crisis of Britain’s morality’. To draw on one of the seminal contributions to the debate, made by Stanley Cohen (1972) in Folk Devils and Moral Panics, in order to cultivate the perception of a ‘social crisis’ political elites have constructed and narrated a ‘moral panic’, which has at its centre the ‘folk devil’ of the ‘scrounger’. As Young (2007: 178) suggested, the ‘experts’, construct discourses that separate ‘them’ from ‘us’ and ‘we’ reject ‘them’. The narration of the ‘social crisis’ has served to direct blame towards the poor and ‘legitimise’ the punitive measures taken to address their ‘culpability’.

The neoliberal crisis of capitalism was caused by the actions and omissions of neoliberal political and financial elites who yield great power and financial wealth. However the elite have continued to enjoy a culture of impunity and have been rewarded for their actions whilst the poorest have suffered great harm, injustice and insecurity. We have witnessed an inversion of the traditional ‘offender’/ ‘victim’ dichotomy. The elite ‘offenders’ have been protected whilst the ‘victims’ of the crisis have endured increasingly punitive measures, which have been described by Loic Wacquant (2009) in a US context as a ‘war on the poor’. Through the narration of the crisis, the neoliberal narrative has reframed ‘fairness’ to ‘legitimise’ unjust ‘responses’.

In a social democratic context, ‘benefits’ were framed as a positive attribute for the collective and connoted notions of wellbeing and protection. However, neoliberal political elites have discursively reconstructed and denigrated ‘benefits’ to reframe them as a luxury exploited by the shameful dependency of the idle. The neoliberal reframing of ‘benefits’ has served to ‘legitimise’ the neoliberal attack on the resources of the poor. The Coalition government’s ‘Help to Work’ programme introduced in April 2014 is an example of the ‘responses’ that the crisis narration has ‘legitimised’. The programme requires the long-term unemployed to undertake community work, including picking up litter and cleaning graffiti, to earn their welfare ‘benefits’. The blame for the high levels of unemployment has been shifted from the state and the economic system it aggressively promotes, to the unemployed, who are being held accountable for ‘problems’ they have not caused. Being forced to carry out unpaid work is a punishment administered by the state against the ‘criminal’. There is a blurring of boundaries between the ‘unemployed’ and the ‘criminal’; the social system is mirroring the

‘Policing the Neoliberal Crisis’: An Introduction to my PhD ResearchHolly White

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criminal system. Whilst there are issues raised with regards to the ‘criminal’ being punished through the undertaking of unpaid work, the question of how political elites justify treating the unemployed in the same way as the ‘criminal’ must also be raised.

As a volunteer for the Citizens Advice Bureau, I witnessed vulnerable populations being forced into greater precariousness and the emergence of an increasingly punitive ‘welfare’ system. I was based in an area where there was a shortfall in local authority housing, particularly one and two bedroomed properties. Therefore, when the ‘bedroom tax’ was introduced, many people living in the area were affected by the harmful policy and turned to the bureau for advice and support. They were presented with five ‘options’:

1. Apply to the local authority for a discretionary housing payment (however, this was predominantly for disabled people)

2. Move to a smaller property (however, given the limited housing in the area, for most people this was not an option)

3. Rent a property from a private landlord (however, these properties are more expensive and therefore unaffordable for most)

4. Work more (but the area suffers from high levels of unemployment) 5. Stay in the property and accept advice on debt management (a short term ‘solution’)

The prospect of homelessness or debt left many anxious and in despair. However, the majority of victims of the ‘bedroom tax’ and other changes to welfare ‘benefits’ chose not to engage in social policy campaigning. Three explanations were often given for this. One explanation was that they felt there was no point because it would not change anything; there was a feeling of powerlessness in comparison to the system. A second justification was that if others, predominantly immigrants, had not been ‘scrounging’ off the system, the changes would not be happening; this demonstrates a fragmentation between benefit claimants and the recruitment of victims into the narrative of blaming ‘the other’. Thirdly, a justification for not campaigning was that they felt that it was their fault because they were not ‘hardworking taxpayers’; benefit claimants were blaming themselves. This suggests that the process of interpellation has been successful in recruiting members of the public, including members of social groups that have suffered great harm and injustice, to the dominant ‘crisis’ narrative informed by a neoliberal ideological agenda.

Gilbert’s (2013: 18) theorisation of ‘disaffected consent’ explains that despite dissatisfaction with neoliberal elite agendas and the social harm they cause, social groups passively accept the ideology because there is no alternative to politically challenge neoliberalism. This deep dissatisfaction but acceptance permeates much wider than victims of welfare ‘benefit’ changes; other social groups have suffered but are not challenging neoliberalism. The overarching concern of my PhD research is ‘what are neoliberal elites saying and writing in order to prevent neoliberal ideology from being challenged?’ ‘How have elites constructed and narrated the ‘crisis of capitalism’ in order to legitimise neoliberalism?’

When the most recent ‘crisis of capitalism’ began, an opportunity was presented. However, in order for that opportunity to have been used to challenge neoliberalism, as Harvey (2011: 227) states, an ‘oppositional movement’ and an ‘alternative vision’ was necessary. Whilst there may be alternative visions, the spreading of such visions across society is limited due to a lack of power, which in turn means a lack of access to means of dissemination. The dominance of neoliberalism and its hegemonic status means that many social groups cannot consider an alternative: therefore a powerful oppositional movement does not currently exist.

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As a growing number of criminologists have argued, theorists should expand the criminological imagination, erode disciplinary boundaries and be concerned with the greatest harms and injustices. The manipulations of the neoliberal crisis of capitalism and the ‘responses’, ‘legitimised’ by the narration of the ‘crisis’, have inflicted incalculable harms and injustices. Therefore, as criminologists we should be contributing to the alternative vision, disseminating the vision and supporting an oppositional movement.

In Policing the Crisis Hall et al (1978) provided a seminal contribution in their analysis of the narration of the 1970s crisis of capitalism. I seek to draw on this analysis in my own research. I am undertaking an analysis of elite discursive constructions and narration of the neoliberal crisis of capitalism, between 2007 and 2015 in Britain. I am critically analysing a range of publicly available oral and written discourse by political and financial elites and their institutions including: political party conference speeches and manifestoes, key Prime Minister’s questions, speeches by the Governor of the Bank of England and evidence to, and reports by, the Treasury Committee. I am analysing the discourses constructed to politically and socially construct the ‘crisis’, the discourses constructed to narrate the ‘responses’, the interests that have been supported through the elite constructions and narrations and the relationships that have underpinned the ways the ‘crisis’ has been manipulated. In order to challenge something, you need to analyse the mechanisms through which it operates, its strengths, contradictions and weaknesses. My research will analyse the ways discursive construction and narration of the neoliberal crisis has served to protect and deepen the neoliberal ideology. Through conducting and disseminating my PhD research, I intend to contribute towards the challenging of neoliberalism.

References Cohen, S. (1972) Folk Devils and Moral Panics London: Routledge

Gilbert, J. (2013) ‘What Kind of Thing is ‘Neoliberalism’?’ New Formations 80/81 Winter 2013 pp. 7-22

Hall, S. Critcher, C. Jefferson, T. Clarke, J. and Roberts, B. (1978) Policing the Crisis: Mugging, the State, and Law and Order Hampshire: Palgrave MacMillan

Harvey, D. (2011) The Enigma of Capital and the Crises of Capitalism London: Profile Books

Wacquant, L. (2009) Punishing the Poor: the Neoliberal Government of Social Insecurity Durham: Duke University Press

Young, J. (2007) The Vertigo of Late Modernity London: Sage

Author Biography Holly White is a funded PhD student and Graduate Teaching Assistant in Criminology at Edge Hill University, Ormskirk, Lancashire. Holly’s research interests are informed by a concern for the impact of neoliberalism on a wide range of issues and she has a particular interest in the victimisation of the poor through policy responses legitimised by neoliberal discourses. Holly will be presenting a paper at the 2014 European Group conference that will

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analyse political and media discourses to discuss the stages of the denigration of benefit recipients in Britain. Email: [email protected]

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In this paper the writings of a number of anarchist thinkers are connected with the moral philosophies of Zygmunt Bauman, Emanuel Levinas and Stan Cohen to think critically about the role the state performs in the dehumanisation of marginalised groups.

At a time of legitimate social unrest nation-states throughout Europe are working harder and harder to maintain hegemony, and deploying ever-increasing surveillance in order to keep us safe – which also happen to keep us subjected. The state is an abstract entity and as such can exist independently of mundane circumstances. Of course, abstractions do not govern, and the modern state can be argued to be largely fragmented and disconnected, but it is the conceptualisation of the state that concerns me. The state is a model of authority as well as the foundation for hierarchical institutions and power differentials. I do not aim to be able to pin down exactly what the state is and does, but rather aim to approach the state as an idea and a discursive tool. The importance of criticising the state lies exactly in its salience. Human beings grow up in a world where sovereign states are universal and where there seems to be no other possible alternative, which means that there is nothing to turn to when the state fails.

The state should not be exempt from moral obligations and used as a reason or justification for committing atrocities. Some may say this is not the concern of criminology; however I believe that as a discipline we should be looking at the greatest harms in the world and not be restricted by state definitions that constrain thinking about injustices (Barton et al. 2007). In so doing I adopt an anarchic ethics and a trust in human capacities of infinite self-improvement. At the heart of my analysis is a cry for a different world without the hierarchical institutions of the state and of capitalism; for I believe they cannot be separated from the human condition, human misery and human potential. I have adopted an anarchist approach for several reasons. First, this choice has been influenced by my personal political views. Second, due to the lack of research that could be considered ‘anarchist criminology’ I see a gap in the literature. And finally, since the nature of this essay is very critical of the state I see the anarchist tradition as a fitting approach to take. Yet, at the end of the day, my approach is my own personal interpretation of anarchism.

The bureaucratic rationale of the modern state creates social distance and our hierarchical society inevitably creates divisions. Bauman (1989) and Cohen (2001) have both observed how divisions in society and the perpetuation of negative stereotypes contribute to the most horrible atrocities. The ‘Other’, for me, is anyone who does not conform to a ‘normative standard’ promoted in a certain society. The representation of an individual or group as ‘other’ often places them ‘below’ the rest of humanity. They are reduced to a stereotype without the nuances attributed to the rest of humanity. Of course this is not purely ruled by the state, it is largely ruled by discourse that is flexible, yet shaped by our society, which just

Does the State inevitably give rise to the construction and dehumanisation of ‘The Other’

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so happens to be organised around a state. When certain groups come under scrutiny at different times, this can be linked to notions of state hegemony. Discriminatory practices are not always intentional but share a presupposition of mental representations of ‘us’ and ‘them’. The ‘us’ and ‘them’ dichotomy is not one of peaceful coexistence but of violent hierarchy. The establishment of social stereotypes is an attempt to create a normalcy of a specific worldview, which is not value-free but permeated by ideological discourse. If this is done successfully, we have hegemony. The ‘abnormal other’ is created as something to ultimately fear (Bauman, 1989). Fear is a powerful mechanism of control; this is why there is often a degree of political strategy behind moral panics. Something like ‘crime’, for example, is a powerful label and, criminalisation being in the hands of the state (through law), it can be manipulated to justify state intervention.

For this paper I will illustrate the theoretical concerns raised above through a brief focus on the war on terror. Post 9/11, the USA, and the western world more generally, created a new ‘enemy’: the Arab, the Muslim. Whilst Al-Qaeda was fought internationally the Muslim became the ‘other’ at home. Across the world, legislation changed in the name of security. Well-known is the USA PATRIOT ACT 2001, which changed criminal law and immigration procedures to allow people to be held indefinitely once charged, and altered intelligence gathering to allow monitoring of people’s reading habits, emails, computers, educational and financial records. Since 9/11 there have being imprisonments without trail in high security prisons across the world, now known for torture and inhuman treatment (Guantanamo Bay, Bagram and Abu Ghraib), as well as extraordinary rendition. When a group is ‘othered’ through formal mechanisms such as law, this tends to give rise to parallel informal aspects of violence and exclusion, so that this has been accompanied by a wave of Islamophobia in the past decade. The creation of an ‘other’ can be used to redraw the boundaries of national identity, to reaffirm said identity and manipulate the population to believe in a specific ideology. The population accepts such measures since they are constructed as a solution to a threat; we cannot be expected to empathise with individuals and groups that we are led to believe are so different from us that active segregation is required for society to function. However, this legislation can be used against anybody, not just the unwanted group, and the threat of state violence fades in the background.

As well as playing a role in the creation of social distance, the state is also a key actor in the normalisation of atrocities. Bureaucracy’s means-end rationale and its organisation enable people not to think (Arendt, 1963) and works as a barrier between them and their actions, making direct experience impossible. Firstly, the state can be appealed to as a figure of higher loyalty (Cohen, 2001). Secondly, the compartmentalisation of the state and its institutions enables people to evade responsibility (Tolstoy, 1903; Bauman, 1989) Those at the top issue orders but do not themselves commit the acts of violence: not accepting responsibility, they claim them ‘necessary’ for some collective good whilst those at the bottom who perpetrate the violence disclaim responsibility because they act on the authority of superiors (Tolstoy, 1903; Cohen, 2001). This is reflected in individual reactions to an atrocity. On one level the ‘small cogs’ in the genocidal machine say ‘I only follow the rules’ and ‘what could I have done?’ (Cohen, 2001); on another level there is the silence of ordinary people, willing to go along with authority, who simply do not want to know what was

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happening (Cohen, 2001). Conforming to authority is an ideological value, one which is instilled in us from birth through to school and work.In a sense then, the civilisation process also involves overcoming morality, through the social production of moral indifference (Bauman, 1989). Although any society has monopoly over moral judgment, there would be no war criminals if there were not a basis for calling ‘criminal’ actions that at the time committed were norms (Arendt, 1963). This seems to suggest there to be something that could be called ‘pre-societal morality’. Moral behaviour is conceivable in terms of mutual aid and does not have to be just the solution to a Hobbesian state of nature (Kropotkin, 1903); intra-species mutual aid is necessary for survival and for living in a society (ibid.). Similarly, Levinas is concerned with social (rather than societal) moral behaviour. Social, as in ‘being together’, is an essential part of the human condition. For Levinas, the relationship with the ‘other’ is one of responsibility. This would be the natural pre-societal mode of existence but it is impossible within modernity. Responsibility arises out of proximity: when this is absent there is social distance (Bauman, 1989). Instead of developing means to further exclude and stigmatise, we should be developing means of inclusion.

The state not only includes power placed above society, but concentrates the life of society in the hands of the few (Kropotkin, 1903). The anarchist position argues that states are necessarily violent, antisocial, and artificial constructs which deny the fulfillment of humanity (Bakunin, 1916). They therefore challenge its very right to exist: they are against its territoriality since the division of mankind into states is a major source of hatred; they are against its sovereignty and its monopoly over physical force to uphold it; and they point to the despotic nature of all forms of government as even positive laws imply that rights only exist if sanctioned by the state (Ostergaard, 1981). It is also argued that the modern nation state has been an absolute necessity for the wars and exterminations of the past two centuries (Sartwell, 2008). While the state is framed as a protector of the people, a people’s contentment is never portrayed as a concern of state. So, it is believed that the people cannot emancipate themselves through the power of the state (Proudhon, 1904). The aim is organisation from below, not by means of any type of authority (Bakunin, 1916). Inequalities and divisions are embedded within the status quo and they cause suffering; we must change our very mentality.

Bibliography:

Arendt, H. (1963) Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil New York: Penguin

Bakunin, M. (1916) God and The State republication of original Mother Earth Publishing

Bauman, Z. (1989) Modernity and the Holocaust Cambridge: Blackwell Publishers

Barton, A. , A. Corteen, K, Scott, D, Whyte, D. (2007) ‘Introduction’ in Barton, A. Corteen, K, Scott, D, Whyte, D. (eds) Expanding the Criminological Imagination: Critical readings in Criminology New York: Routledge

Cohen, S. (2001) States of Denial: knowing about Atrocities and Suffering Cambridge: Polity Press

Fukuyama, F. (1992) End of History and the Last Man Standing New York: Macmillan Inc.

Green, P. and Ward, T. (2004) State Crime: Governments, Violence and Corruption London: Pluto

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Ostergaard, G. (1981) ‘Resisting the Nation-State: the Pacifist and Anarchist Traditions’ in The Nation State edited by Tivey, L Oxford: Martin Robertson&co Ltd

Proudhon, (1904) What is Property? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Kropotkin, P (1902) Mutual Aid: a Factor of Evolution New York: Dover Publications

Tolstoy, L. (1903) On Anarchy http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/leo-tolstoy-on-anarchy

25/04/2014

Sartwell, C. (2008) Against the State: An Introduction to Anarchist Political Theory New York:

State University of New York Press

Author Biography

Alma Agostini: graduated from the University of Central Lancashire, with a BA in Criminology with Philosophy in 2014. Her research interests include state violence and exclusion.

e-mail: [email protected]

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Drawing upon a Foucauldian Feminist theoretical approach, this article explores how regimes of discipline, work, feminisation and religious instruction co-existed within Liverpool Female Penitentiary.

This paper builds upon my undergraduate thesis, which employed a critical feminist perspective to critically analyse the punishment of ‘deviant’ women within the semi-penal institution: Liverpool Female Penitentiary, between 1850 and 1900 (Greenwood, 2013). The overarching aim of the present paper however is to analyse the co-existence and intersectionality of regimes of discipline, work, feminisation and religious instruction within Liverpool Female Penitentiary between 1809; the year the institution was officially opened, until 1921, the year it closed. It has been inferred that a large percentage of women admitted to the semi-penal institution were so, not because they had committed a criminal offence per se, but because they offended against socially acceptable perceptions of femininity. Nonetheless, most popular literature and discourse delves little into the feminising practices and religiosity employed in institutions akin to Liverpool Female Penitentiary and instead details the scientific treatment of deviant women in nineteenth century Britain, with Sim (1990: 51) even arguing that the ‘scientific expert’ was the ‘cornerstone’ of the British penal system towards the close of the nineteenth century. The prevailing discourses of religiosity and feminising practices, however, played an integral role in the disciplinary regimes to which women were subject within Liverpool Female Penitentiary (Greenwood, 2013). This co-existence of non-disciplinary expressions of power and more overt regimes of control, in addition to the two key competing discourses of the late nineteenth century, will be critically explored throughout. Moreover, the regulation and regimes the women were subjected to impacted upon levels of contestation and resistance to such regimes via numerous methods. Faith (1994: 57) explains that ‘resistance, like power, is not static, monolithic or chronological; there is no one resistance, but rather infinite multiplicities of strategic resistances’.

The research as a whole is based on a Foucauldian feminist theoretical methodology which involves theorising both about women’s socially constructed and situated knowledge and identifying and theorising the processes by which the ‘ideal body of femininity’, the feminine body-subject, was constructed in order to produce ‘practiced and subjected’ bodies within the semi-penal institution of Liverpool Female Penitentiary (Bartky, 1990:71). Secondary data via archival research, although somewhat unconventional, was utilised throughout the project. Qualitative data from both formal and informal records were converged in order to provide a comprehensive analysis of the social control regimes exercised within the institution, to theorise reasons for admittance, as well as occurrences of contestation and resistance. With specific regard to historical archives, the research respondents consisted of female prisoners aged fourteen and over who were confined in Liverpool Female Penitentiary and female staff members employed by the institution between 1807 and 1921. Existing data sets at Liverpool Central Library, accessed within their search room were a realistic site where entry was possible and where the data quality and credibility of the study were reasonably assured. When analysing the historical archival data, the philosophical approach of Collingwood

The Oppression, Regulation and Infantilisation of ‘deviant’ women: Liverpool Female Penitentiary 1809-1921

Kirsty Greenwood

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(1939) was utilised in order to unpick and uncover the hidden power dynamics, power relations and power struggles within the institution. The justification for such a philosophical approach was reiterated by Leong (2012: 128) who states that ‘in order to understand a past human action, the historian must not only discover the thought expressed in it, but must actually rethink or re-enact that thought in history’.

Thematic Findings

Controlling Wayward Women: Reasons for Admittance It became apparent during data collection that a small number of women were admitted to Liverpool Female Penitentiary via more ‘traditional’ channels, as is represented in the Annual Report of the Liverpool Female Penitentiary (1909):

The general character of the work and its management has been much as usual, except that an increasing number of cases are now sent on to us by the magistrates and Police Court missionaries, and these prove very difficult to deal with, and results are often disappointing.

A much higher proportion of women nonetheless, were admitted by male family members, which echoes Barton’s (2005:69) statement that semi penal institutions were often ‘utilised by fathers and husbands as a last attempt to assert some paternalistic control over their wayward females’. This certainly seems to be the case in a newspaper abstract from 1890 which details a 24 year-old woman whose husband felt she was not fulfilling her feminine duties as a wife:

In 1883, he found her guilty of misconduct in his own house. However, loving her very intensely, he agreed to marry her upon the condition that she would first go into a penitentiary and behave herself properly for six months. She went into a Penitentiary in Liverpool and remained there for the time specified (Bristol Mercury, 1890).

Religious Instruction Once women were admitted to Liverpool Female Penitentiary, they became subject to a regime concerned principally with moral reform and religious instruction, with the latter being the ‘favoured instrument in the rhetoric of subjection’ (Melossi and Pavarini, 1981: 154). Such spiritual and moral guidance played a large part in the educative process, which is clear within a Liverpool Mercury (1894) newspaper article entitled ‘Gods rescuing hand’:

May God help us to stretch out to such the rescuing hand, which shall snatch them (‘deviant’ women) from the path of destruction, and lead their feet into that of quiet and peace on earth, and the perfect rest of heaven hereafter. Let us remember that the scriptures say, ‘He that converteth a sinner from the error of his ways shall save a soul from death and hide a multitude of sins’.

Feminisation Not only were the female inmates the target of such religious reform efforts, but recognisably feminine tasks of sewing and weaving were imposed upon them to ‘destroy the habits of idleness and vice and to substitute those of honest and profitable industry, therefore benefiting society whilst the individual female is restored to “normal” femininity’ (Tait, 1840 cited in Van Herik, 1985: 195). This dual endeavour is represented within the Annual Report of Liverpool Female Penitentiary (1912):

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There has been an increase of work in the Laundry, and the Sewing-room has maintained its high reputation for very beautiful work. The inmates contribute largely towards their own maintenance by their work, but most of them are raw material, and by the time they become proficient are sent to service. Under such circumstances it is impossible to make the Institution self-supporting. The nature of the work is such that it must necessarily be carried on quietly and unobtrusively, and it may easily be overlooked- even by those who are striving to do all they can to purify the life of our City.

It was also widely held by philanthropists throughout England that young working-class women housed within semi-penal institutions would benefit from direct contact with middle-class female matrons and penitentiary staff; as moral exemplars.

Resistance and ContestationFoucault (1983, cited in Bordo, 1993: 192) argues that ‘power relations are never seamless, but always spawning (...) new openings for potential resistance to emerge’. Most importantly where there is power, Foucault came to see, there is also resistance. This resistance of disciplinary power is represented in a newspaper article entitled ‘A Run Away’:

Emma Hughes, 20, was charged with absconding with clothing from the Liverpool Penitentiary. - Sergeant Lea deposed to the arrest of the prisoner at the Workhouse. Prisoner at first denied that she had been in a penitentiary in Liverpool, but afterwards admitted it.- Remanded (Cheshire Observer, 1874).

As observed by D’Cruze and Jackson (2009: 75), resistance, disruption and absconding were far more prevalent in semi-penal institutions such as Liverpool Female Penitentiary ‘than the philanthropic ladies and gentlemen who ran them would have liked’. This may explain the relative absence of such events being recorded within formal penitentiary records and only being explained in detail within newspaper reports. Again, an article in the Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser (1876), printed under the heading ‘Escaping from the Liverpool Penitentiary, explained that:

Police-constable Henry Shepherd stated that at half-past eight o’clock on Saturday night he found the prisoners in the Duke’s yards, Chester-road, belonging to the Bridgewater Canal Company. At first they refused to give any account of themselves, but, when questioned respecting their clothes, they made statements from which it seemed that they belonged to the Female Penitentiary of Liverpool. They escaped by scaling the walls of the institution on Tuesday night, and since that day they had walked to Manchester along the canal bank.

Governance of Matrons It is no secret that the penal regimes not only imposed strenuous demands on female prisoners but also on penal staff by placing them in a pivotal position in which the success or failure of the reform of women, and subsequently the institution, depended, with Carpenter (1862: 8) pointing out in Female Life in Prison that: ‘I have known young women enter full of health and strength, and depart from the service in a few years, aged and anxious looking, with no strength left for any new employment’.This could provide possible explanations for the almost annual advertisements in local newspapers, advertising for Matrons and Sub-Matrons:‘Wanted: a Matron and Sub-Matron, for the above institution. The Matron must be

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not less than thirty, or more than fifty years of age – able to keep the accounts of the house keeping, and of the women’s work: accustomed to the management of a family, and acquainted with plain-sewing, so as to conduct the business of the work-room’ (Liverpool Mercury, 1814).

Tensions and hostility existed between the Gentlemen’s and Ladies Committees and female Matrons, with Bartley (2000: 28-9) pointing out that ‘the Gentlemen’s Committee of the Liverpool Female Penitentiary were deeply concerned at the unsatisfactory nature of proceedings of the Ladies Committee when the Ladies Committee were thought to exceed their powers’.

Conclusion: A Bridge to the Contemporary Although not yet complete, this research hopes to challenge the epistemological tradition that early penitentiary science predominated punishment regimes by providing an alternative knowledge of a robust religious discourse that underpinned the tailored responses to ‘deviant’ women within Liverpool Female Penitentiary. Crucially, what remains important about this research, as a whole, is its relevance to contemporary debate. Women in 1809 were being judged, criticised and condemned by groups of people operating as ‘judges of normality’ who imposed their feminising, infantilising and moralising discourses upon them. In 2014 however, the situation is very much the same.

Bibliography

Annual Report of the Liverpool Female Penitentiary (1909) No Title, Liverpool: Meek, Thomas and Co. Printers.

Annual Report of the Liverpool Female Penitentiary (1912) No Title, Liverpool: Meek, Thomas and Co. Printers.

Bartky, S.L. (1990) Femininity and Domination: Studies in the Phenomenology of Oppression, London: Routledge.

Bartley, P. (2000) Prostitution: Prevention and Reform in England, 1860-1914, London: Routledge.

Barton, A. (2005) Fragile Moralities and dangerous sexualities: two centuries of semi penal institutionalisation for women, Hampshire: Ashgate Publishing.

Bordo, S. (1993) ‘Feminism, Foucault and the politics of the body’ in Ramazanoglu, C. (Eds.) Up Against Foucault: Explorations of some tensions between Foucault and Feminism, London: Routledge.

Bristol Mercury (1890) ‘Extraordinary Infatuation’, 11 October 1890.

Carpenter, M. (1862) Female Life in Prison, 1, Milton Keynes: Lightning Source.

Cheshire Observer (1874) ‘A Run Away’, 7 February 1874.

Collingwood, R.G. (1939) An Autobiography, Oxford: Clarendon Press.

D’Cruze, S., and Jackson, I.A. (2009) Women, Crime and Justice in England since 1660, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.

Faith, K. (1994) ‘Resistance: Lessons from Foucault and Feminism’ in Radtke, H.L., and

Stam, H.J. (Eds.) Power/Gender: Social Relations in Theory and Practice, London: Sage.

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Greenwood, K. (2013) Punishing Deviant Women: A Feminist Analysis of Liverpool Female Penitentiary 1850-1900 Undergraduate Thesis, Liverpool: LJMU.

Leong, A.K.W. (2012) ‘A Re-examine of R.G. Collingwood’s Historical Re-enactment’, International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, 6 (6): 127-134.

Liverpool Mercury (1814) ‘Liverpool Female Penitentiary Matrons’, 4 February, 1814.

Liverpool Mercury (1894) ‘The Female Penitentiary Bazaar’, 12 December 1894.

Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser (1876)’Escaping from the Liverpool Penitentiary’, 29 July 1876.

Melossi, D., and Pavarini, M. (1981) The Prison and the Factory, Basingstoke: Macmillan.

Sim, J. (1990) Medical Power in Prisons, Buckingham: Open University Press.

Van Herik, J. (1985) Freud on Femininity and Faith, London: University of London Press.

Author Biography

Kirsty Greenwood graduated from Liverpool John Moores University in July 2013. She is currently completing and MRes in Criminology at the same institution. Email: [email protected]

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Utilising critical discourse analysis and a Foucauldian Feminist framework, this article explores how men and women offenders are portrayed differently in both broadsheet and tabloid newspapers in the UK.

This research was designed to provide a critical discourse analysis of the representations of couples who kill in both broadsheet and tabloid newspaper reporting. It examines how newspapers portray women and men differently by using couples as case studies, one of which was Myra Hindley and Ian Brady. The full research paper also includes an analysis of newspaper reporting of Fred and Rose West and Ian Huntley and Maxine Carr2, which allowed for an in-depth comparison between the reporting on the cases and also for the identification of consistencies. Data samples were collected through purposive sampling from 4 different newspapers including The Guardian, The Times, The Daily Mail and The Daily Mirror. The research utilises a Foucauldian Feminist framework to identify how the media can have a significant impact on the construction and reinforcement of gender discourses, as both feminists and Foucault identify the crucial role of discourse to produce and sustain hegemony (Moss, 1998). One of the most significant ways that discourse is produced is through the use of language that in turn can shape our experiences, thoughts and behaviours (Danaher et al. 2000:31). Thus, discourse is the way that a topic or issue is spoken of, including speech, text and practice, which often produces contradictory representations of truth-making discourses (Carabine, 2001).

One of the most obvious findings of the Ian Brady and Myra Hindley case was the significantly high amount of reporting on Myra Hindley and a lack of reporting on Ian Brady within the sample. This in itself illuminates the continuing trend of violent women being perceived as ‘doubly deviant’ because their behaviour is seen to be ‘’unnatural’ and ‘transgresses the norms of appropriate female behaviour’ (Barrington and Honkatukia 2002:10), thus resulting in high levels of reporting of the female partner in comparison to the male partner. There were a total of 7 themes identified in this case which were used to create representations, including agency, victim status, mad/sad/bad, monster, devotion, religion and manipulation. All of these themes were applied to create representations of Myra Hindley, whilst only the themes of agency and mad/sad/bad where used to represent Ian Brady.

2 Ian Brady and Myra HindleyIan Brady and Myra Hindley were convicted for sexually assaulting and murdering five children in Greater Manchester between 1963 and 1965. Their trial was held in 1966. Ian Brady was given three life sentences whilst Myra Hindley was sentenced to two. Fred and Rose WestBetween 1966 and 1987 Fred West sexually assaulted and murdered at least 11 young women and girls, whilst Rose West was convicted of assisting in 10 of these cases. Fred West committed suicide before the trial in 1994, leaving Rose West to stand trial alone. Rose was then sentenced to life imprisonment. Ian Huntley and Maxine CarrIn 2002 Ian Huntley murdered two schoolgirls who both attended a school where he was employed as a caretaker. He was sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment. In 2003. His partner Maxine Carr who was the girls teaching assistant was sentenced to 21 months for perverting the course of justice due to providing Ian Huntley with a false alibi.

Gender in Media Representations of Violent OffendersAntoinette Huber

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There were three themes that stood out the most, which were agency, devotion and religion. Firstly, within the theme of agency, it was depicted that Hindley was seen to exercise significantly more agency than Brady. Not only was this shown through the lack of reporting on Brady’s involvement in the crime, but also through the tendency of the newspapers to report from Brady’s perspective, allowing him to make claims that Hindley was the most blameworthy partner. The Daily Mail (1990:1) reported Brady claiming that Hindley was ‘taking pleasure in selecting victims’ and that she ‘insisted in killing’. This finding coincides with the work of Seal (2010:39), who argues that women who commit murder with their partners are subject to the ‘muse’ and ‘mastermind dichotomy’. This theme places Hindley within the ‘mastermind dichotomy’ which portrays women as ‘tricking and persuading the man’ to carry out the violence (Seal, 2010:40). Therefore, Hindley is represented as the partner in control and making the decisions to murder.

Furthermore, the analysis showed that when Brady was mentioned in the articles this was usually to portray Hindley in a negative light. It was reported in both The Times (1990:6) and The Daily Mail (1990:1) that Brady claimed that the ‘trial evidence’ was designed to ‘protect Hindley from prison’. In 2002 it was then reported that Brady threatened to ‘release letters… In one [Hindley] suggests that Brady should get someone to throw acid at Lesley Anne Downey’s four year old daughter’ (The Times, 2002:1).

The claim that the evidence in the trial was to protect Hindley followed by the word ‘threatened’ suggests that he is able to have power over her fate and representation. This signifies that within the media men are considered to hold more power and are therefore able to construct truth. This could be explained by Diamond and Quinby’s (1988) explanation that power is masculinist and, through this, women have been a target of subjugation. Fairclough (1989) also argues that the media determine what is included and excluded within text and thus they operate as a mechanism to maintain patriarchal power.

However, in contradiction, the devotion theme depicted Hindley as a submissive partner who, through the weakness of being a woman, had been led astray by her love for Brady. The representation of Hindley being led astray was a recurring theme within all the newspapers as The Guardian (1994:20) described her as ‘immature’ and ‘impressionable’ and also quoted Hindley saying that she had become ‘corrupt’ (The Guardian 1995:10). This was something that the Daily Mail (1995:1) also emphasised stating that she had a ‘fatal weakness’ for Brady due to her being ‘emotionally immature’. The use of these words suggest that Hindley was a passive partner and that it was Brady who had taken advantage of her childlike weakness. This reinforces the discourse that females do not uphold the same degree of power compared to their male counterparts, creating the construction that women are the weaker gender, and thus are easily influenced by men. Iyer (2009) identifies that this is due to discourses of patriarchy portraying women as passive, hence Skrapec (1993, cited in Storrs, 2004:12) identifies that women are perceived as incapable of committing a violent act, as violence is perceived to be a masculine attribute. Furthermore, by stating that Hindley is ‘corrupt’, it suggests that because women are perceived as being passive and weak. It is therefore easy for male partners to influence and persuade them to be docile accomplices (Rafter and Stanko, 1982 cited in Gurian, 2011:12).

Lastly, religion was the most significant theme found within the research due to the high levels of reporting on Hindley’s religious background, especially by The Guardian who continuously played on language to emphasise this. Hindley was described as a ‘Catholic girl turned killer’ (The Guardian, 2002a:4). This phrase was used to emphasise her transformation

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from being a devout Catholic to someone who has come to represent all evil. Furthermore, The Guardian (1995:10) also stated that ‘she worshipped Brady’. By using of the word ‘worshipped’, rather than loved, the media intended to highlight her movement away from religion and purity by suggesting that by worshiping Brady she now worshiped evil. However, it could also be argued that this depicts Hindley as powerless and in continuous need of a powerful male to whom she can be submissive.

Nonetheless, Hindley is also depicted as the antichrist through the phase ‘spawn of the devil’ (The Guardian, 2002b:5). This phrase suggests that Hindley was born a child of the devil and thus, she is considered to be the opposition to all that is good and pure. The use of the word ‘spawn’ also dehumanises her, suggesting that she is something inhuman which has been released by the devil on mankind. The antichrist theme is also further emphasised through the consistent use of the word ‘gothic’ (The Guardian, 2002a:4). This associates Hindley with death and darkness and also depicts her as having a relationship with dark mythical creatures. This portrays Hindley as being the epitome of evil, as someone who is so inhuman that she not only moved beyond the boundaries of femininity, she has also moved beyond the boundaries of acceptable masculinity.

The analysis also showed that there was a tendency for the media to highlight that not only was she evil but that she was also female through the use of the terms ‘she-devil’ and ‘double devil’ (The Guardian, 1994:20). By using these terms, the media imply the abnormality of the devil figure being associated with a female. Therefore, she is seen to be ‘doubly deviant’ as she is condemned not only by the law but also due to her rejection of femininity (Berrington and Honkatukia, 2002:50).

The theme of religion also continues when the newspaper’s report on the debate surrounding her rehabilitation. The Guardian (1994:20) stated that ‘many doubt her claims that she was truly a penitent sinner’. This phrase was used to highlight that her actions would have been considered a religious sin considering her status as a Catholic woman. This was emphasised more prevalently than the fact that her actions were breaking the law. Furthermore, the use of the word ‘penitent’ is used as a replacement for the word ‘remorse’ to allow for a further emphasis on her religious background. This was also the case for the use of the word ‘redemption’ (The Guardian, 2002a:4), suggesting that she had not been saved from her sins. The conscious effort by the media to use these words resulted in a considerable amount of focus on the question as to whether she had been absolved of her sins in the eyes of church rather than rehabilitated in the eyes of the law.

The overall analysis showed that there were certain themes that were more prominently associated with the female partner. Furthermore, even when both the male and female were represented through the same theme there were still significant differences in the way the individuals were portrayed within these themes. Therefore, it was evident that the media tended to portray the female partners in a more negative light than the males, which is theorised as being centred upon power relations. Many of the themes associated with the female partner were used to reinforce discourses of femininity and the regulation of women’s behaviour. This was done through the high levels on reporting of themes which depicted women as either inappropriately dominant to provoke a reaction of disapproval, or as too passive and weak to provoke a reaction of sympathy, showing that the female offender is subject to constant contradictions within the media, resulting in an ambiguous definition of truth.

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BibliographyBerrington, E. and Honkatukia, P. (2002) An Evil Monster and Poor Thing: Female Violence in the Media, Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology and Crime Prevention, 3 (1), pp. 50-72:Carabine, J. (2001) ‘Unmarried Motherhood 1830-1990: A Genealogical Analysis’ in M. Wetherell,

S. Taylor, and SJ. Yates (eds.) Discourse as Data, London: Sage

Daily Mail. (1990) How Hindley Murdered Lesley Anne, January 31st, 1990, p1

Daily Mail. (1995) I Was Corrupt and Evil, December 18th 1995, p1

Danaher, G. Schirato, T. and Webb, J. (2000) Understanding Foucault, London: Sage Publications

Diamond, I. and Quinby, L. (1988) ‘Introduction’ in I. Diamond and L. Quinby (eds.) Feminism and Foucault: Reflections on Resistance, Boston: North Eastern University Press

Fairclough, N. (1989) Language and Power, London: Longman

Gurian, EA. (2011) ‘Media Portrayals of Female Murder Offenders’, Prison Service Journal, Issue 194, pp. 12-18

Iyer, R. (2009) ‘Entrepreneurial Identities and the Problematic of Subjectivity in Media Mediated Discourses’, Discourse and Society, 20 (2) PP. 241-263

Moss, J. (1998) The Later Foucault, London: Sage

Seal, L. (2010) Women, Murder and Femininity: Gender Representations of Women who Kill, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan

Storrs, E. (2004) ‘Our Scapegoat: An Exploration of Media Representations of Myra Hindley and Rosemary West’, Theology and Sexuality: The Journal of The Institute for The Study of Christianity and Sexuality, 11 (1) pp. 9-28

The Guardian. (1994) ‘Sympathy For A She-Devil’, December 11th, 1994, p. 20

The Guardian. (1995) ‘A Normal Happy Girl Who Became The Icon of All Evil’, December 18th, 1995, p. 10

The Guardian. (2002a) ‘Catholic Girl Turned Killer Whose Pleas For Redemption Fell On Deaf Ears’, November 16, 2002, p. 4

The Guardian. (2002b) ‘Image That For 36 Years Fixed A Killer in the Public Mind’, November 16th, 2002, p. 5

The Times. (1990) ‘Brady Letter Seeks to Stop Parole Hope for Hindley’, January 31 st, 1990, p. 6

The Times. (2002) ‘Affair That Turned Her into a Murderer’, November 16th, 2002, p. 8

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Author biographyAntionette Huber is a graduate from Liverpool John Moores University who undertook a BA Honours in Criminology. During her undergraduate degree, her research interests lay within media representations and gendered discourses. Her passion for exploring the power relations between men and women led to her research which provides an analysis as to how the media influence and use these power relations to create gendered representations of violent couples.Email: [email protected].

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Drawing upon a multi-disciplinary approach, this article explores how meanings are produced, world views constituted and social divisions perpetuated through language.

Language, being a significant form of interaction for individuals and a system for understanding each other, poses a question regarding to what extent it can participate in creating a reality that we live in and as a result impact on our own view of our ‘self’. This paper provides some views and ideas on how language can impact our minds, create a specific

reality of what crime is and what it is to be criminal and how linguistic constructions that arise from prison institutions, rehabilitation programs and general knowledge about crime that is fed into society as common sense ideas is used to dominate and exclude individuals.

The paper is derived from research which focused on a variety of theories in order to analyse language use and its impacts on individualities, common sense ideas about crime and constructions of a criminal identity through language. Looking at philosophical theories, psychosocial and psycholinguistic analysis of language use and its interpretation, individuals’ perceptions of themselves through language, and a discourse analysis influenced by Foucauldian thought, it becomes clear that language plays a dominant role in understanding the world. Looking at both Foucault’s and Althusser’s ideas, the role of discourse is shown as significant in establishing oneself with a certain identity as well as helping us look into the wider implications of our language outside of our own use of it.

Language can be said to be a living system as it is used by living creatures that are human beings, and just like humans, language also moves through space, changes over time and adapts and alters its use in accordance with its spatiotemporal position. In other words, it goes through processes of evolution and change. Furthermore, as ideas are communicated through language, they also change over time (Foucault, 1977), so it is interesting to consider the possibility of language constructing the very reality that we live in and being very much dependant on the social circumstances and surroundings at a particular time.

There are a small number of theories that have considered language as social action (Holtgraves, 2012), whereby we can interpret a specific way in which something is said, but its meaning cannot be understood outside of the social context in which it is produced. Each word, phrase or sentence can produce a number of different meanings that suit the context it is used in. The specific lexicon an individual uses and the lexicon others use to describe the world and people around them creates a way of understanding things through a linguistic lens. Language does not only assign meaning to things in the world and people but the language we use has meaning assigned to it just the same.

What is said through language, at least to an extent, affects how we see the world. A problem arises that we begin to negatively label certain events and people and excavate the possibility of purposefully manipulating language to create a specific reality. As when we do so we allow those who have ‘authority’3 to define in our society, to alter how we see ourselves and others, we allow to compare our behaviours to a specific standard that we should aim to achieve. As we may use language as one of the main means of receiving the information from the world

3 Academics, the Legal System, the Prison service etc.

Language, Identity and Reality:

What potential does language have in

individuals coming to define themselves as

criminal within a prison context?

Valeriya Pogorelova

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outside of ourselves and at the same time projecting our own thoughts back into the world, we come into the dangerous zone of interpreting things solely through the views and thoughts of others and believing that those views are in fact our own.

If we consider the particular way someone talks, what words they use, we already begin to make assumptions about what kind of person they are: educated, working class, middle class, ethnic minority etc. In regards to defining what it is to be criminal, the influence of certain lexicon used by specific institutions such as prison and within the prison environment is pivotal in our understanding of the criminal nature, if there is one to even be spoken of. The terminology used by rehabilitation programs such as ‘them’, ‘others like them’, ‘improve them’ and so on (Day, Casey, Ward, Howells and Vess, 2010) aid not only the way people start to see themselves as different or abnormal but also shape and reshape one’s identity to mould people into unitary beings.

‘We see and hear and otherwise experience very largely as we do because the language habits of our community predispose certain choices of interpretation’ (Sapir, 1949, p. 162). Community in itself is a very fragmented term: a society holds within itself a vast number of communities and each is very much defined by the linguistic label attached to it and their own lexical usage that define it to others. Whether the speaking position is from a white, Asian, black, prison, drug, or professional ‘community’, they all possess a way of understanding of what it is to be part of it through using terminology that isolates ‘others’ and includes ‘us’. Therefore, by using and applying words to the empirical world, we define the very things we aim to describe.

The language we use has an effect on our psyche and own identity as we process information about ourselves and about others through comparison to already existing notions of being and behaviour as the human mind works on a comparative basis (Aristotle cited in Modrak, 2001). We create relationships between causes and effects within the world and relate them to the situations that we experience and our own identities. Furthermore, we can misinterpret these relationships and create false links between certain causes and the effects they have on ourselves, our personalities and views. As societal organisation still rests on ranking and dividing people into groups, whether it would be middle class, working class, underclass or more narrow descriptions such as workaholic, family man, crazy, criminal, we expect the people who have been labelled as such to display the behaviour that goes in accordance with the label itself. Therefore, we crowd people into groups because of the way they behave and as a result they receive a title in accordance with the behaviour. Exclusion is perpetrated through such discursive constructions so that there will always be the other who can be blamed and maintained as a common enemy between the public and the powerful in society (Young, 1999).

In the broader sense, the term ‘criminal’ can be said to be an umbrella term that encompasses within itself a wide range of notions and therefore can be applied to many different people. If we take a look at the genealogy of terms such as ‘crime’, we will find that the meaning has changed from ‘cry of distress’ in the Latin ‘crimen’ to sinfulness as of the 14 th century to the present day notion of law-breaking. Therefore, the definition of a criminal becomes only a means to exert punishment and power over other individuals. The seductiveness of language of science, psychiatry or generally academia consists in the idea that they have a status of authority, that within them is a particular expertise that can provide the right answers and explain why things are the way they are in the world. However, all that this power translates

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into is institutional function whose definitions can allow for more damage than anyone else’s (Foucault, 1988).

There is already a stigma attached to prison or any other institution that deals with criminal activity and people who are subjects of those institutions are stigmatised. As people tend to adopt a variety of social roles that respond to the decisions and actions of others (Simmel, 1950), the knowledge that is constructed by those institutions affect not only the self-identity of their subject, but also the self-identity of the rest of society, as we measure ourselves up against others in the process of association and categorisation. As a result, our own perception of ourselves very much depends on what and who we come to interact with throughout our lives.

If we view prison as a separate social entity, the membership of that particular social group entails use of specific terms and codes used by its members. At the same time, we are also part of other socialised groups defined by gender, age, sexuality, social class, race etc. In the context of prison, masculinity functions as the main domain for interaction and judgement of behaviour (Srikant and Slembrouck, 1996). Therefore, the attempt is to maintain those standards. To provide an example of the masculine environment that prison constructs is the specific name-calling. Originally, the word ‘pretty’ held a feminine connotation and is usually used to describe a female. It is quite interesting how a positive concept has been turned into a negative one within the context of masculinity, to be described as ‘pretty’ within the prison environment, to be a “pretty boy”4, is to remove someone’s masculinity and, at the same time, to imply that that person is weaker, more like a woman. This further feeds into other aspects of societal dysfunction by putting women below men in the hierarchy of power.

People might think they have control over the meaning of words and utterances, but that is solely an illusion (Derrida, 1982): in reality our linguistic interaction is always positioned within the hierarchical discursive systems of our society and its meaning is not interpreted by ourselves but in fact interpreted through the knowledge we have obtained in the particular system of discourse in our society or even in our community. Consequently, language use is critical to one coming to self-identity as a criminal, especially within a prison environment. The knowledge that manifests itself through the language of science contributes to the reality of the world that we live in and at the same time provides us with guidelines and lifestyles to establish our position within a society. Linguistic labels, which give us something to identify with and against, give us a ground to stand on, to know where within the societal organisation we can place ourselves. Language is a powerful tool in one coming to define themselves as a criminal.

Bibliography.

Day, A., Casey, Ward, Howells and Vess (2010) Transitions to Better Lives: Offender Readiness and Rehabilitation Devon: Willan Publishing

Derrida, J. (1982) Margins of Philosophy translated by Bass, A. Chicago: University of Chicago Press

Foucault, M. (1977) Discipline and Punish, the Birth of the Prison London: Penguin Books

Foucault, M. (1988) Madness and Civilization: A history of insanity in the age of reason New York: Vintage Books

4 This particular term is used by an inmate in Ronnie Thompson’s book Screwed (Thompson, 2008).

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Holtgraves, T. (2002) Language as Social Action: Social Psychology and Language Use London: Lawrence Erlbaum

Modrak, D. (2001) Aristotle’s Theory of Language and Meaning Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Sapir, E. (1949) Selected Writings of Edward Sapir in Culture, Language and Personality edited by Mandelbaum, D. London: University of California Press

Simmel, G (1950) The Sociology of Simmel translated by Kurt Wolff Glencoe, Illinois: the Free Press

Srikant, S. and Slembrouck, S. (1996) Language, Bureaucracy and Social Control London: Longman

Thompson, R. (2008) Screwed: The Truth About Life as a Prison Officer London: Headline Publishing

Young, J. (1999) The Exclusive Society London: Sage Publications Ltd

Author BiographyValeriya Pogorelova graduated from the University of Central Lancashire in July 2014. [email protected]

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Drawing upon the current literature, this article identifies how the experiences of d/Deaf5 people in prison have been largely neglected in prison policy and academic literature alike.

This article will outline some of the main findings of and justifications for my PhD, which is exploring the experiences of deaf prisoners in England and Wales and how they are perceived by other prisoners and prison staff. The research is focused on how deaf prisoners appear to suffer at a disproportionate level compared to hearing prisoners as a direct result of their hearing impairment, and is concerned with the effect that such treatment has upon the identity and sense of self of deaf individuals in prison. As a second year PhD student (15 months in), my findings are largely based upon existing literature, but upon the completion of my PhD, will also include the findings from my qualitative fieldwork, which is to primarily take the form of semi-structured interviews with deaf prisoners from various penal institutions.

The extent to which a person is deaf can vary significantly from those whose hearing is slightly impaired, to those who are profoundly and culturally Deaf and communicate in British Sign Language (BSL), with the second group being the primary consideration of my research. Those who are culturally Deaf often see themselves as being part of a distinct group known as the Deaf Community (Lane et al, 1996), which is comprised of a group of people who are proud to be Deaf and share the same language, values and life experiences. Despite the existence of such a culture, d/Deaf people face many problems in wider society, which are largely centred around communication and stigmatisation, which can in turn have a negative impact upon their feelings of identity and perceptions of self.

There is currently very little research available about d/Deaf prisoners specifically, and what is available is largely anecdotal, extremely small scale i.e. with a sample size of 1 or 2 prisoners, and often based upon American prisons6. Central to this lack of research is the fact that there is currently no official Home Office policy on keeping records of the number of d/Deaf prisoners (Rickford and Edgar, 2005), as without this, it is almost impossible to carry out any larger scale research, or to obtain any reliable statistical data about d/Deaf prisoner numbers. In terms of the d/Deaf prisoner population, although an official report published by HM Inspectorate of Prisons in 2009 estimated that there were around 400 prisoners with some form of hearing impairment in institutions in England and Wales, other sources suggest that d/Deaf prisoner figures may actually be significantly greater than this7. As well as a lack of relevant policy, there are a number of other reasons why estimated d/Deaf prisoner numbers are likely to be lower than the reality, with Gerrard (2001, 13) arguing that many d/Deaf prisoners may actually be purposefully 'concealing' their deafness. She provides a number of reasons for this intentional concealment, including feeling scared, trying to fit in and not wanting to be conspicuous, and goes on to argue that even if an individual would like their

5 The words 'deaf' and ‘Deaf’ mean two extremely different things; 'Deaf' refers to culturally Deaf people, whilst 'deaf' denotes the audiological condition of severe hearing loss (Padden, 1980).6 Although important, such research may not be completely contextually relevant to the experiences of d/Deaf prisoners in England and Wales.7 Another aim of this research is to gain a more accurate figure for the population of d/Deaf prisoners, with each penal establishment being contacted by letter for information on any d/Deaf individuals at their facility.

Imprisoned by Deafness: The experiences of deaf prisonersLaura Margaret Kelly

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d/Deafness to be acknowledged, administrative problems, such as not being directly asked if they have any hearing issues and not actually understanding when asked, can inhibit this.

In terms of this research, existing literature, although minimal, indicates that custody represents a smaller, more extreme version of the wider hearing world, with communication issues and stigmatised perceptions of deafness causing d/Deaf prisoners to suffer disproportionately whilst incarcerated, and to often experience the pains of imprisonment more intensely than their hearing counterparts (Fisken, 1994, Gerrard, 2001, Rickford and Edgar, 2005, McCulloch, 2012). Issues relating to communication are at the core of the research, as it is an inability to communicate which creates the most problems for d/Deaf prisoners. Even without a clear population figure, it is safe to say that d/Deaf prisoners undoubtedly make up a minority prison group, and the fact that there are so few d/Deaf people in prison means that the vast majority are alone throughout their sentence, without the presence of anyone else (either staff or fellow prisoners) who is able to communicate via BSL (Vernon, 2010). While it would be difficult not to feel sympathy for an individual who is confined to almost total isolation and communication deprivation for an extended period of time, it is almost impossible to truly understand what this must be like. The fact that multiple d/Deaf prisoners have spoken of attempting suicide while they were in custody because they could not cope with the extent of their isolation (Churchill, 2008) does go some way to providing an idea of the stark realities of being d/Deaf in prison. While suicidal tendencies may not develop in all d/Deaf prisoners, feelings of alienation, depression, paranoia and aggression inevitably do (Gerrard, 2001, McCulloch, 2012), and although some may argue that prison is detrimental to the mental health of even the most well rounded individuals, d/Deaf prisoners, unsurprisingly, have been shown to be more likely to develop mental health problems whilst in custody than their hearing counterparts (Ackerman, 1998).

Also central to this research is the impact of the relevant disability legislation upon the practices of penal establishments, and whether such legislation sufficiently protects d/Deaf prisoners. The rights of d/Deaf prisoners are theoretically protected by the Equality Act 2010, which defines unlawful discrimination as treating someone worse than others because of a protected characteristic, and stipulates that as far as reasonable, service providers must make 'reasonable adjustments' to their service to ensure equality for all groups. The fact that the prison system is centred around the dynamic of sound8 means that for d/Deaf prisoners to fully participate in prison life and to understand the prison regime, they rely upon access to BSL interpreters and specialised equipment. In stark contrast to the requirements of the Equality Act 2010, in reality the availability of interpreters is extremely inconsistent, and much of the time, specialised equipment such as vibrating alarm clocks, minicoms, teletext televisions and visual fire alarms are not provided (HMIP, 2009). This is problematic for a variety of reasons, as without access to interpreters or specialised equipment, d/Deaf prisoners are often unable to gain a solid grasp of the rules and expectations of the prison, which can lead to misunderstandings and unnecessary disciplinary action (McCulloch, 2012). Furthermore, being deprived of specialised equipment is concerning, not only because it inhibits a d/Deaf prisoner's ability to partake in the sort of boredom alleviating activities i.e. watching television, that other prisoners do to counteract the monotony of prison life, but also because it can actually compromise their safety, with one example being in the case of a fire, as without specialised equipment a d/Deaf individual would not be aware that an alarm was going off (McCulloch, 2012).

8 Officers generally give their orders manually, and the prison public address system is also auditory, with prisons normally using a buzzer or loudspeaker for vital announcements such as mealtime, lights out and lock down.

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In addition to this, without qualified interpreters, d/Deaf prisoners are being left being largely unable to access a variety of services and resources, ranging from education, employment and rehabilitative programmes, to medical services, dental services and legal aid. Such deprivations have actually led to d/Deaf prisoners being unable to adhere to the requirements of their sentence plans, and subsequently been denied parole (which is a basic right for all prisoners in the legal system of England and Wales) through no fault of their own (Gerrard, 2001). It also means that they are not able to take part in the activities which the government deems as being vital for rehabilitation, which is not only damaging for the individual, but also for wider society, in that their lack of rehabilitation could lead to higher than necessary re-offending rates. A concerning example of this is highlighted in the following quote from Gerrard (2001: 21):

It became apparent that some [deaf] prisoners detained for serious offences such as murder, manslaughter or rape have not obtained access to rehabilitative courses and have been released in to the community, some with minimal supervision, posing a further risk to society.9

Another key aspect of this research relates to prison culture, and the position of d/Deaf prisoners within such a culture. Prisoners generally combat the pains of imprisonment by participating in a form of prison society, in which there is an inmate code with a number of often unspoken rules that prisoners follow in order to survive whilst in prison, key examples being not to inform or grass on each other, and to avoid showing vulnerability (Sykes, 1958). While the rules of the prison culture are often something that hearing prisoners learn about by word of mouth, communication barriers mean that, as with other aspects of the prison regime, it will be extremely difficult for d/Deaf prisoners to grasp the expectations of such a culture (Fisken, 1994). Furthermore, a lack of d/Deaf awareness on the part of hearing prisoners often means that they view a d/Deaf person suspiciously and see their deafness as a form of weakness, which has led to bullying and ridicule from their peers (Gerrard, 2001, McCulloch, 2012).

Also central to the research is the fact that deaf people, particularly those who are Deaf, have a number of culturally distinct norms and mannerisms, such as the importance of touch and gaze, which are not reciprocated in hearing culture (Lane et al, 1996). While this would not be significant if Prison Officials and fellow peers had a certain level of awareness about d/Deafness, the unfortunate reality is that this is not the case, and rather such behaviours are often misinterpreted as being ignorant, aggressive or sexual, which can lead to further bullying from prisoners, or unnecessary punishment from prison officials (Rickford and Edgar, 2005).

I will conclude by saying that, while this article does not provide sufficient space to fully discuss the vast array of issues faced by d/Deaf prisoners in penal establishments throughout England and Wales, hopefully it has provided some insight in to why this research is so important, and has shown that while all prisoners may suffer in custody, d/Deaf people are being subjected to a number of additional ‘pains’, and changes desperately need to be made. It is clear that the current legislation is ineffective in protecting the rights of d/Deaf prisoners, and on the contrary, the manner in which they are being treated may actually violate their

9 While there was no further information available regarding this issue, or any substantiation from the results of later studies, even as an isolated set of findings this evokes great anxiety, and raises a number of concerns about both the treatment of d/Deaf prisoners, and public well-being.

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basic Human Rights (Rickford and Edgar, 2005, McCulloch, 2012). This research aims to improve and equalise the treatment of d/Deaf people in prison, and although it may be met with arguments that prisoners should be punished for the harm that they have caused, my response will undoubtedly be that they should not be subject to disproportionate punishment as a direct result of a disability.

Bibliography

Ackerman, N (1998) Deafness and Prisons - A Study of Services for Deaf Prisoners and the Experience of being Deaf within a Prison Environment. [An unpublished dissertation] Oxford: Oxford Brookes University

Churchill, C. (2008) Are Deaf Prisoners left in the dark? (Unpublished dissertation), York: University of York

Equality Act 2010. [Online] Available at: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/contents [Accessed on 10th April 2014]

Gerrard, H. (2001) Double Sentence. Birmingham: BID

Fisken, R. (1994) The Deaf in Prison (unpublished dissertation), Cambridge: University of Cambridge.

HM Inspectorate of Prisons (2009) Disabled Prisoners: A short thematic review on the care and support of prisoners with a disability. London: HM Inspectorate of Prisons

Lane, H. Hoffmeister, R. Bahan, B. (1996) A Journey into the Deaf World, San Diego: Dawn Sign Press

McCulloch, D. (2012) Not Hearing Us: An Exploration of the Experience of Deaf Prisoners in English and Welsh Prisons. A Report for the Howard League for Penal Reform, London: The Howard League for Penal Reform.

Padden, C. (1980) 'The Deaf Community and the Culture of Deaf People'. In Baker, C. and Battison, R. (eds.) Sign Language and the Deaf Community: Essays in Honour of William C Stokoe. Silver Spring MD: National Association of the Deaf. 89-104.

Rickford, D. and Edgar, K. (2005) Troubled Inside: Responding to the Mental Health Needs of Men in Prison, London: Prison Reform Trust

Sykes, G. M. (1958). The Society of Captives, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Vernon, M. 2010. 'The horror of being deaf and in prison', American Annals of the Deaf, 155(3): pp. 311-321

Legislation

The Equality Act 2010

Author Biography

Laura Margaret Kelly is doing a PhD at the University of Central Lancashire, and has previously completed an MA in Criminal Justice Studies and a BA in Criminal Justice and Criminology at the University of Leeds. Her research interests are currently focused around the prison system, and the experiences of prisoners from minority groups.

Email: [email protected]

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This paper provides a brief summary of postgraduate research undertaken by the author on the deaths of individuals detained under the Mental Health Act in the United Kingdom.

In 2012-2013 50,408 individuals were detained under the Mental Health Act 2007. This is the highest number on record (Health and Social Care Information Centre, 2013). Between 1999 and 2009, there were 3,810 deaths of detained patients which accounted for 60% of all deaths in state custody (Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody 2010:1). Furthermore, between April 2011 and April 2013, 595 individuals died whilst detained under the Mental Health Act 2007 (Care Quality Commission, 2014:3). This has led to claims that failures are being covered up and lessons are not being learnt (Lakhani, 2012).

Conducting previous research into the self-inflicted deaths of prisoners and the work of the charity INQUEST alerted me to the fact that virtually no critical academic research had been conducted relating to deaths in psychiatric detention, specifically relating to the experiences of bereaved families (Speed, 2012). Therefore, my work examined the deaths of detained patients, with a particular focus on the views and experiences of solicitors who had worked with INQUEST and bereaved families. The research aimed to critically explore some of the extensive gaps in knowledge regarding deaths in psychiatric detention. The findings and recommendations of this research are examined later in this article after some brief background information to the topic is discussed.

It is important to gain an understanding of the minimal academic literature in existence in this area. Gordon (2002) identified several risk factors for those in differing forms of psychiatric facilities, including unemployment, depression, hopelessness, social isolation and previous self-harm (Gordon, 2002: 410-412). Gordon suggested that if increased attention was paid to known risk factors and ongoing audits of self-inflicted deaths were conducted, then this may form the basis for their reduction (Gordon, 2002:416). Morgan and Priest (1991) examined the hospital admission and discharge registers of individuals who had died in psychiatric detention over the space of thirty months in Bristol. They found that the seriousness of risk was not fully recognised, resulting in the recommendation that the day-to-day management of suicidal patients should be examined further (Morgan and Priest, 1991:370).

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has also focused on this area. The CQC monitors the use of the Mental Health Act (MHA) and must be notified when an individual dies whilst detained under the MHA. The Commission’s first report into the use of the MHA highlighted several ‘priority areas for improvement’, one of which included involving patients in their care and treatment (CQC, 2010:15). The CQC published a second report in 2011 which highlighted that adequate risk assessments were not being carried out on detained patients (CQC, 2011:61). The Commission’s report in 2013 recommended that care plans should ‘focus on individual needs and aspirations, involving patients at all stages so as to reflect their views and individual circumstances’ (CQC, 2013:6).

There is currently no independent investigation following the death of an individual in psychiatric detention in the UK. Instead, investigations are carried out by the same hospital trust responsible for their care at the time of their death. Many families face ‘huge obstacles’

Making the Invisible Visible: A Critical Analysis of Deaths in Psychiatric DetentionCarly Speed

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when attempting to uncover the truth from internal investigations, in addition to coroner’s courts varying greatly in the way they conduct inquests into deaths in psychiatric detention (Lakhani, 2012:1). Philip Leach, a member of the Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody highlighted his concerns regarding the ‘systematic inadequacies of the investigations of people detained under the Mental Health Act which require careful and rigorous scrutiny and review’ (Leach, 2012:15). Deborah Coles of INQUEST has also stated that there is a significant lack of information for bereaved families and the ‘absence of meaningful involvement for families in the investigation process’ (INQUEST, 2012:6). INQUEST’s publication entitled ‘How the Inquest System Fails Bereaved People’ stated that families often had a lower sense of confidence in the inquest system once their relative’s inquest had ended as, of those they surveyed, 69% said their level of confidence in the inquest system decreased after their experience and for 83% this applied to the law in general and 87% for the criminal justice system (INQUEST, 2002:3).

INQUEST have also raised concerns and campaigned for change surrounding the non-application of Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights related to deaths in psychiatric detention in the UK. Article 2 states that any investigation into an individual’s death should be independent, open to public scrutiny and involve the deceased’s families. 2013 saw a judicial review brought about by the interventions of Dr Michael Antoniou, the husband of a deceased psychiatric patient, Janey Antoniou, who died in 2010. The judicial review challenged the current investigation procedures when an individual dies in psychiatric detention. Dr Antoniou proposed that these investigations should become independent and open to public scrutiny. The outcome of this judicial review came in October 2013 and rejected Dr Antoniou’s case (INQUEST, 2013:1).

It becomes apparent that much of the research related to deaths in psychiatric detention has a positivistic basis, with a lack of critical analysis and an over-emphasis on risk. Those with mental health problems have been viewed as ‘manipulative, evil, and personality disordered’ (Williams and Keating, 1999:140). Furthermore, individuals with mental health problems have often been associated with offending (Cummings, 1999:59). This is despite research stating that people diagnosed with mental health problems are no more likely to commit criminal offences than those who do not have mental health problems (Newman, 2007:847). However, the state has been seen to have adopted this positivistic discourse which has led to social injustice and inequality which has been demonstrated in the treatment of individuals with mental health problems.

My research moves away from this positivistic viewpoint and adopts a critical criminological approach. This meant that issues surrounding state power and state-defined truths are at the centre of the research, highlighting the way that discrimination contributes to the criminalisation of oppressed groups in society (McLaughlin, 2011:57). Critical criminology demonstrates that this criminalisation and labelling of certain groups ‘protects, reinforces and reproduces the political and social interests of an established social order’, in this case the Prison Service and the Department of Health (Chadwick and Scraton, 2009:99). Furthermore, critical criminology is often concerned with exposing areas of injustice. By exposing these areas of injustice, critical criminology empowers marginalised and subordinate groups thus allowing a ‘criminology from below’ to emerge (Sim, Scraton and Gordon, 1987:7). This generates an ‘insurrection in subjugated knowledge’, in this case the subjugated knowledge of both bereaved families affected by the deaths of those in psychiatric detention and the topic of deaths in psychiatric detention itself (Foucault, 2003:7).

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Gathering the views of legal practitioners allowed the research to gain an understanding of the main issues which faced them during their work with bereaved families. The findings of the research highlighted a number of key issues: the hegemonic impact of the pressure group INQUEST; the dissatisfaction regarding the state’s response towards these deaths; the differing approaches of coroners; the poor attitudes of some who work with individuals with mental health problems; the failure to appropriately identify risk and issues surrounding gender, age and race in relation to deaths in psychiatric detention.

The first recommendation of my study (Speed, 2013:80) was that research should be conducted, both at state level and also at a critical academic level regarding the attitudes of staff who work with individuals with mental health problems. Any issues that became apparent should be fed back to the relevant authorities. It also became clear during this research that the attitudes of coroners varied greatly when dealing with deaths in psychiatric detention. INQUEST stated that some coroners were understanding and sympathetic and some were the complete opposite. Therefore the second recommendation was that an independent review of the work of coroners should take place. Here, bereaved families could be spoken to in order to gain an understanding of the impact of an inquest being held by an unsympathetic coroner. Again, any recommendations should be acted upon promptly in order to minimise the possibility that other families should experience distress as a result of a coroners’ attitude.

It was apparent that there was a ‘double cloak of invisibility’ (Sim, 2013) related to those with mental health problems, specifically related to gender, age and race. This meant that not only were individuals rendered ‘invisible’ due to their status as a detained patient, they were also ‘invisible’ due to their gender, age or race. Therefore, the third recommendation of the study was that there should be research conducted into gender, age and race directly related to psychiatric detention, both on a state level and a critical academic level. The next recommendation was that there is the need for an extensive examination of current risk assessments, again both at state level and at a critical academic level, but also at counter hegemonic organisational level such as INQUEST or MIND. Here there should be specific focus regarding whether risk assessments identify the growing list of risk factors that research has identified. Furthermore, if risks are being identified, are they being appropriately and promptly acted upon?

Another recommendation of this research was an effective implementation of a multidisciplinary approach which would improve communication and could ensure that any recommendations arising from risk assessments were appropriately followed up by different agencies that all receive the same information and communicate effectively. The final recommendation was that there should be an independent, state-commissioned report regarding the effectiveness of the CQC. Participants in the research criticised the adequacy of the CQC, press coverage has been negative and The British Medical Association (BMA) stated that the CQC was ‘not fit for purpose’ (The Guardian, 2013).

With the Antoniou judicial review, it was possible that it may finally have been the time that deaths in psychiatric detention were subject to the same independent investigations that occur when individuals die in police and prison custody. However, this was not the case and, despite mental health organisations stating that ‘surely it is time that this injustice should end’ (Smith, 2013:1), it would appear that there is still a significant way to go before the invisible finally become visible.

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Bibliography

Care Quality Commission. (2010) Monitoring the Mental Health Act in 2009/10, London: Care Quality Commission.

Care Quality Commission. (2011) Monitoring the Mental Health Act in 2010/11, Newcastle: Care Quality Commission.

Care Quality Commission. (2013) Monitoring the Mental Health Act in 2011/12, Newcastle: Care Quality Commission.

Care Quality Commission. (2014) Monitoring the Mental Health Act in 2012/13, Newcastle upon Tyne: Care Quality Commission.

Chadwick, K. and Scraton, P. (2009) ‘Critical Criminology’, in McLaughlin, E. and Muncie, J., eds., The Sage Dictionary of Criminology, London: Sage

Cummings, I. (1999) ‘Mentally Disordered Offenders’ in Social Responsibility of the Church of England, (eds.) Prisons: A Study in Vulnerability, London: Church House Publishing.

Foucault, M. (2003) Society Must Be Defended, London: Penguin Books.

Gordon, H. (2002) ‘Suicide in Secure Psychiatric Facilities’, Advances in Psychiatric Treatment, 8, 408-417.

Health and Social Care Information Centre. (2013) Inpatients Formally Detained in Hospitals Under the Mental Health Act 1983 and Patients Subject to Supervised Community Treatment, England - 2012-2013, Annual figures, (Online) Available From: http://www.hscic.gov.uk/searchcatalogue?productid=13209&q=title%3a%22Inpatients+formally+detained+in+hospitals+under+the+Mental+Health+Act%22+&sort=Most+recent&size=10&page=1#top. Date Accessed: 4th May 2014.

Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody. (2010) Deaths of Patients Detained under the Mental Health Act (MHA), (Online) Available From: http://iapdeathsincustody.independent.gov.uk/work-of-the-iap/working-groups/deaths-of-patients-detained-under-the-mental-health-act-mha / . Date Accessed: 4th May 2014.

INQUEST. (2002) How the Inquest System Fails Bereaved People, London: INQUEST.

INQUEST. (2012) INQUEST E-Newsletter Issue 16-June-August 2012, (Online) Available From: http://inquest.gn.apc.org/pdf/enewsletter/INQUEST_enewsletter_no16_august_2012.pdf. Date Accessed: 5th May 2014.

INQUEST. (2013) High Court Rules on Investigation of Deaths in Psychiatric Detention, (Online) Available From: http://www.inquest.org.uk/press-releases/press-releases-2013/high-court-rules-on-investigation-of-deaths-in-psychiatric-detention. Date Accessed: 5th May 2014.

Lakhani, N. (2012) Sectioned Patients Deaths ‘Hide Failures’, The Independent, (Online) Available From: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/sectioned-patients-deaths-hide-failures-6720026.htm l . Date Accessed: 4th May 2014.

Leach, P. (2012) ‘Investigating Deaths of Patients Detained Under the Mental Health Act in England and Wales’, INQUEST LAW, 24, 16-19.

McLaughlin, E. (2011) ‘Critical Criminology’ in M.Bosworth and C. Hoyle, (eds.) What is Criminology? Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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Morgan, H.G and Priest, P. (1991) ‘Suicide and Other Unexpected Deaths Among Psychiatric In-Patients. The Bristol Confidential Inquiry’, The British Journal of Psychiatry, 158, 368-374.

Newman, T. (2007) Criminology, Cullompton: Willan.

Sim, J. (2013) Personal Communication.

Sim, J. Scraton, P. and Gordon, P. (1987) ‘Introduction: Crime, the State and Critical Analysis’ in P. Scraton, (eds.) Law, Order and the Authoritarian State, Milton Keynes: Open University Press.

Smith, W. (2012) Call for Open Investigations into Deaths of Mental Health Patients, (Online) Available From: http://www.mentalhealthy.co.uk/news/1713-call-for-open-investigations-into-deaths-of-mental-health-patients.html. Date Accessed: 4th May 2014.

Speed, C. (2012) Self-Inflicted Deaths in Prison: An Exploration of INQUEST’s Challenges to State Power, (Online) Available From: http://www.internetjournalofcriminology.com/Speed_Self-Inflicted_Deaths_in_Prison_IJC_Oct_2012.pdf. Date Accessed:9th May 2014.

Speed, C. (2013) Making the Invisible Visible: A Critical Analysis of Deaths in Psychiatric Detention, Unpublished MA Thesis, Liverpool John Moores University.

The Guardian (2013) Care Quality Commission 'Not Fit for Purpose’ Says BMA, (Online) Available From: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/jun/27/cqc-not-fit-bma-doctors. Date Accessed: 5th May 2014.

Williams, J. and Keating, F. (1999) The Abuse of Adults in Mental Health Settings, in N. Stanley, J. Manthorpe, and B. Penhale, (eds) Institutional Abuse, New York: Routledge.

Author Biography

Carly Speed is a PhD student at Liverpool John Moores University. Previously she studied for a BA in Criminology and an MRes in Critical Social Science, also at LJMU. Her Master’s thesis has been shortlisted for Howard League John Sunley Prize 2014. As well as presenting a paper at the 1st Undergraduate Conference for The European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control, Carly is also presenting papers at the National Deviancy Conference, The British Society of Criminology Postgraduate Conference and the 42nd Annual Conference of the European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control, all in 2014. The research discussed above was conducted for Carly’s MRes thesis. Due to this topic being so under-researched, there are still significant gaps in social science knowledge regarding this area. Therefore, this research is currently being expanded at PhD level. Email: [email protected]

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The following article provides a summary of an ethnographic account that took place between 2010 and 2013 in a residential therapeutic community for substance misuse in the North West of England.

Therapeutic Communities, or TCs as they are colloquially known, are a treatment approach which uses a social setting to help troubled individuals recognise and re-experience aspects of their personality and ways of thinking and behaving that have damaged them and others around them (Stevens 2013).

TCs provide an alternative way of thinking about individuals deemed to be problematic, which is usually more positive than prevailing beliefs: their activities embody positive values; they help to promote positive social relationships; and start a process of socialisation that encourages a more productive way of life (Siegel and Senna 2007). They are alternative treatment approaches as they advocate a non-punitive intervention that provides a rational response to problematic human conduct. Treatment in a TC provides a significant facilitator of the recovery process and treatment effectiveness in terms of reduced substance misuse and criminality (DeLeon, Wexler and Jainchill 1982, Condelli and Hubbard 1994, Toumbourou et al 1998). Yet little attention has been invested in developing an insight into how these unique treatment interventions operate on a day-to-day basis. This means that the black box of treatment, notably what work takes place within these settings remains opaque, subject to debate and interpretation.

To open up the black box of treatment in a TC, ethnographic fieldwork was conducted over 31 months, between August 2010 and March 2013, in a residential TC situated in the North West of England (Gosling, 2014, forthcoming). Fieldwork involved participation in people’s everyday lives for an extended period of time, watching what happened, listening to what was being said, asking questions and collecting whatever data was available to throw light on to the issues that were under study. A variety of formal and informal research methods were utilised when in the field in an attempt to open up and understand what ordinary activities and events meant to those who engaged in them, as well as to generate a rich understanding of the environment under study.

Gold (1958) outlined a standard typology of research roles which consisted of the complete observer, the complete participant, the observer as participant and participant as observer. Before entering the field, Gold’s (1958) typology of research roles was considered and the decision to adopt the participant-as-observer role was made as this seemed most appropriate, given the nature and purpose of the fieldwork. The participant as observer role utilises both formal and informal research methods to study groups, programmes or organisations.

Given the ethnographic nature of the investigation, fieldwork consisted of two stages: an explorative stage and a main fieldwork stage. The explorative stage lasted approximately 10 months. During the explorative stage, observations and informal discussions with staff and residents were utilised to open up the subject area and setting under study. During this stage, the researcher purposively adopted the role of a naïve investigator, taking every available opportunity to ask questions about the design and delivery of treatment. This role was adopted in an attempt to avoid interpretation and presumption surrounding the mechanisms at work in the setting under study, to clarify data that had already been gathered and illustrate

Reflections on Doing Ethnographic Fieldwork

in a Residential Therapeutic Community

for Substance MisuseH J Gosling

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ambiguities worthy of further investigation. Explorative fieldwork provided an opportunity to refine research methods which were utilised during the main fieldwork stage. After approximately 10 months of explorative fieldwork, it was felt that a reasonable understanding of the design and delivery of treatment in the setting under study had been reached. During the main fieldwork stage, observations and informal discussions continued as usual, but more formal research methodologies, such as semi-structured interviews were employed.

The participant-as-observer role had the advantage and disadvantage of the researcher being known to the setting under study. On one hand, questions could be routinely asked and, if a good rapport has been established with those being observed, a wealth of information can be obtained. However, on the other hand, the presence of the researcher can alter the behaviour of those being observed. Although claims have been made that observer caused effects have been somewhat overemphasised, such effects are an obvious drawback of the participant-as-observer role. To overcome observer-caused effects a substantial amount of time was invested in the setting under study. Fieldwork was conducted over 30 months and consisted of evening visits, weekend visits, early morning visits and overnight stays. This longitudinal investment was made in an attempt to avoid observing an atypical period in the setting under study. Observer-caused effects may therefore be mitigated by other components of data collection as well as by the elongated nature of fieldwork.

In total, 80 semi-structured interviews were conducted with 9 members of staff and 71 residents, 18 of whom were selected as case studies (12 males and 6 females) and followed over a 15-month period. Formal and informal research methods were utilised during the follow-up process. Three semi-structured interviews were conducted with each participant at agreed milestone dates and an array of informal research methods, notably informal discussions and observations were employed along the way to add an extra dimension to the data collected during semi-structured interviews. The longitudinal nature of fieldwork meant that each case-study participant could be tracked during their time in treatment as well as the immediate period following on from their departure so that a rich, in-depth insight into each participant’s treatment journey could be obtained.

Fieldwork was initially guided by the quest to unveil how treatment was interpreted by those delivering and receiving it.10 The following quotation illustrates how the design and delivery of treatment was understood by a resident who had been in treatment for approximately 7 months:

It’s like being in a dress rehearsal before a show; its practice for the main event, the event being our lives back in society. When we first start rehearsing we try on all our different outfits and masks to either try and fit in, be accepted, stand out from the crowd, mask our emotions or try and impress other actors in the play (…) When I first read the script I was doubtful that I’d be able to pull of what seemed to be an impossible task. I mean how could someone with so many issues and so little feeling even begin to change? I knew I had a brilliant capacity to adapt as I have had to adapt to different roles in previous plays, but this role was different, I might actually have to put some heart and soul into it (…) A few weeks passed by and I began to get into this new role. I just ran with it and began to morph into him. I ate, slept and breathed this new role until when I looked in the mirror one day and into my eyes it was the real me looking back at me. (Paul, Resident)

10 All data cited in this paper is from Gosling (2014, forthcoming).

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Treatment in the TC under study was the beginning of an end, not a standalone end of story event. It provided a benign environment, an invitation to change; an opportunity for those who decided to reside there to address the underlying and/or outstanding issues that surrounded their substance misuse and problematic lifestyle choices. Findings suggest that the TC under study provided an opportunity for its residents to develop personal tools or resources that they felt they required to live a substance and/or crime free life in the wider community:

When you come in here it’s as if you are given an empty tool box. It is up to you to do the programme and make it work for you, taking what you need from it so that you get all the tools that you need ready for when you go out there (…) Tools are things like confidence, self-esteem, assertiveness, all the things that can help keep you safe when you leave here. (Jon, Resident)

Findings also suggest that treatment in the TC under study was the beginning of the restorative process between an individual and the wider community to which they belonged:

When I first finished treatment, which was 5 years ago now, I thought the world owed me a living coz I had made this positive change and stopped taking drugs (…) it took me ages to realise that just because I had changed it didn’t mean that anyone owed my anything. I’ve realised that getting off the drugs is the easy bit, yeah you will feel uncomfortable for a bit but you can detox just laying on your bed. The hard bit is the bit what comes after it, wanting change and doing whatever you have to do to achieve it. The TC taught me that change is a process that continues long after you finish treatment. (The Bear, Volunteer)

The TC under study provided a progressive alternative to mainstream responses to substance misuse in that it holistically addressed the underlying and/or outstanding issues which surrounded an individual’s substance misuse and problematic lifestyle choices. It provided an invitation to change, an opportunity to build resources to aid the restorative process between an individual and the social world to which they belong. Treatment in the TC under study has been described as the beginning of an end as the notion of (re)building relationships with the social world to which one belongs is a bi-directional process that requires a strengthening of the connective tissue between the recovering and non-recovering community. Although treatment in a TC can provide its residents with an opportunity to strengthen their ability to live a substance and/or crime free life, it bears little impact on the structural inequalities which surround recovering people once they complete a spell of residential treatment such as employment and educational opportunities and/or validation as a ‘proper member of society’ (Farrall et al 2010 cited in Shapland et al 2012:23). There is only so much one alcohol and/or drug treatment programme can do when social arrangements by their very nature thwart or obstruct the development of each person’s potential due to the marginalisation, criminalisation and stigmatisation of the recovering community.

Bibliography

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Condelli, W. and Hubbard, R. (1994) Relationships between Time Spent in Treatment and Client Outcomes from Therapeutic Communities. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment 11 (1) pp. 25–33

DeLeon, G. Wexler, H. and Jainchill, N. (1982) The Therapeutic Community: Success and Improvement Rates 5 Years after treatment. The International Journal of Addictions, 17 (4) pp. 703–747

Gold, R. (1958) Roles in Sociological Field Observations. Social Forces, 32 pp. 217 –223

Gosling, H.J. (2014, forthcoming) ‘Therapeutic Communities: An Invitation to Change’ Unpblished PhD Thesis, Liverpool John Moores University

Shapland, J. Bottoms, A. Farrall, S. McNeil, F. Priede, C and Robinson, G (2012) The Quality of Probation Supervision: A Literature Review. Sheffield: Centre for Criminological Research. Available at http://psychocriminologie.free.fr/wp-content/uploads/QualityofProbationSupervision.pdf (accessed May 2014)

Siegel, L. and Senna, J (2007) Essentials of Criminal Justice. Thomson Wadsworth, United Kingdom

Stevens, A. (2013) Offender Rehabilitation and Therapeutic Communities. Enabling Change the TC way. Routledge, United Kingdom

Toumbourou, J. Hamilton, M. and Fallon, B. (1998) Treatment level progress and time spent in treatment in the prediction of outcomes following drug-free therapeutic community treatment. Journal of Addiction, 93 (7) pp. 1051–1064

Author biographyHelena Gosling is currently a sessional lecturer in criminology and criminal justice at Liverpool John Moores University and has worked in and around prison-based and residential hierarchical therapeutic communities for substance misuse. She is due to submit her PhD thesis entitled ‘Therapeutic Communities: An Invitation to Change’ which is an ethnographic account of a residential TC that opens up the black box of treatment through the use of recovery capital. Helena has a particular interest in the use of alternative approaches to offender rehabilitation and peaceful criminal justice interventions.

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This article discusses status and weapon dogs, exploring how such dogs, despite their apparent size and strength, exist for, and remain subservient to, the interests of humans.

Status and Weapon Dogs: A critical analysis of problematic dog ownershipProblematic dog ownership could essentially be defined as the intentional use of a dog for criminal purposes, most often for the sake of the owner's profit. The most well known form of problematic dog ownership is the use of status and weapon dogs. Status and weapon dogs are dogs that have been either chosen, bred or raised to be large and powerful for the purpose of intimidation of others or to be used as weapons. Status and weapon dog use has been closely linked to gang culture in both the UK and America by numerous academic theorists (Harding, 2010; Pierpoint and Maher, 2010; Hughes et al, 2011).

One of the main issues with defining problematic dog ownership in any depth is the fact that no current framework exists to discuss the issue, meaning many of the terms used are used interchangeably. One of the main reasons for this is the fact that the study of problematic dog ownership is such a niche category within criminology and often goes ignored by mainstream criminologists (Pierpoint and Maher, 2010).

To better understand the issue of problematic dog ownership, it may be worthwhile to first explore the role that the dog plays within society. As many experts have pointed out, dogs have lived and evolved alongside humans throughout history, with the most prevailing claim being that the modern dog is essentially a product of the needs (or lack thereof) of its environment, be it physical, mental or even aesthetic (Johns, 2008; Morey, 2010; Clutton-Brock, 2002). What this essentially means is that modern dog breeds have adapted over time in order to suit their environment, having traits that are necessary for survival, and lacking traits that are not.

While this may seem like stating the obvious, it becomes relevant when it is applied to the role of the dog within gang culture. Many have drawn links between gang culture and masculinities: as the vast majority of gang members are young males, this may not seem like an unreasonable claim. According to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the pit bull terrier's reputation as a 'fighting dog' and its intimidating appearance makes it desirable for gang members due to the status that it confers. This essentially means that individuals may choose a 'hard' dog in order to themselves appear 'hard' (ASPCA, 2014; Delise, 2007).

Looking into the history of the pit bull terrier, it is apparent that the dog type was originally bred and conditioned to fight other dogs, leading to a dog that has basically evolved to be able to cause a significant amount of harm to what it attacks. At this point it becomes much easier to see why such dogs may be attractive to gangs and gang members. Another possible explanation as to why the status dog phenomenon exists could be related to weapons law in the UK: due to the UK's strict stance on weapons, a knife or a gun cannot be openly displayed or put on show, possession of one of these items also has severe penalties if discovered.

Status and Weapon Dogs: A critical analysis of problematic dog ownershipSean Whelan

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However, dogs to not have such strict regulations, an owner could easily show off an intimidating and large dog without repercussions (Harding, 2011).

Status dogs can perform other roles for criminals. One example is that it can act as a guard dog and protector for those who cannot seek the assistance of the police, such as a drug dealer protecting his 'stash' (Pierpoint and Maher, 2011). With this in mind, it may not be unreasonable to argue that status dogs could also be used by those who abide by the law, but also have little faith in the police's ability to protect them. It is not unknown for people to buy a dog in response to a rise in criminal activity in their local area, or out of fear of victimisation in response to any other event (Harding, 2011). Status dogs in any event are problematic, but could cause a significant amount of problems in the hands of owners who may have children who are unprepared to deal with a high-maintenance and powerful dog. This is reinforced by the fact that the vast majority of fatal dog attacks and bites take place within the home (RSPCA; Gov.uk).

Returning to the idea of the dog being a product of its environment, the weapon dog seems to be very well-suited to the gang environment and an effective replacement for a gun or a knife, with its loyalty to its owner, image and combat ability, making it essentially the perfect henchman, some have even described the dog’s role as a ‘heavy’, acting as both a guardian and an ever-present threat to any who might seek to bring harm to its owner (Harding, 2010). While the presence of a status dog may be beneficial to the image and reputation of its owner, it has been pointed out that they can cause a significant amount of harm in communities (Harding, 2011).

According to some claims, the presence of status and weapon dogs in communities can lead to increased anxiety for people within the community and a reduced use of public spaces, in addition to this, it can also cause harm to public spaces in the way that problematic owners may have their dogs attack trees to increase their bite strength, or use public spaces for arranged or spontaneous dog fights, or 'rolls' (Harding, 2011). This anxiety amongst the community that it causes could also cause its members, particularly families, to seek to buy a dog themselves for their own protection, which as mentioned earlier, causes significant problems.

The issue of status and weapon dogs, and wider problematic dog ownership has been given significant media attention, though this attention has often been an issue in itself. As many have pointed out, the vast majority of media reporting on the issue has been focused on the perpetuation of fear, both of dogs and their owners, rather than facts and information (Hughes et al, 2011). While it is not unknown, nor is it unusual for the media to sensationalise issues, it must be pointed out that the current reporting on status and weapon dogs can itself cause its own harms.

At this point it may be worth pointing out the obvious that not all dogs that are large, powerful or intimidating are status dogs. Many choose to own dogs that are often associated with criminal status, such as bull terrier type for non-problematic reasons (Hallsworth, 2011). For example, bull terrier type breeds, prior to their reputation as 'vicious and bloodthirsty killers' were originally considered reliable and companionable working class dogs, the pit bull terrier itself having once been referred to as the 'nursemaid's dog' due to its perceived docility with people (Delise, 2007).

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Taking this into consideration, it could be questioned why it is only working-class dogs, such as bull terrier breeds and others that are vilified by media agencies. While it is true that bull terrier type dogs do have the potential to cause a significant amount of harm if they attack, so do many dogs that are favoured by middle-class households, such as Rottweiler or German shepherd dogs. It could also be argued that large and intimidating dogs are not the only form of problematic status dogs that exist, dogs can also be owned for financial status.

Pedigree dogs, for example, could easily be considered a form of status dog, as they often come with a certificate to prove their pedigree status in a similar way that works of art or historical objects would have certificates of authenticity. This is highly problematic in the way that pedigree breeds, according to a study commissioned by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, often suffer severe hereditary defects that impact quality of life due to the aesthetically-based selective breeding used (Rooney and Sargan, 2008). While throughout history dogs were often selectively bred for survivability and purpose, most, if not all, pedigree dogs are bred for the sake of aesthetics and appearance.

Despite the harms and issues associated with pedigree breeding, it often receives very little attention from the media, especially when compared to the extensive amount directed towards 'yobs' and their 'vicious' canine companions. With the intimidating and unsightly 'hoodie' loitering on a street corner being a common recurring theme in media reporting, it may be worth considering whether the media's focus on status dogs is more motivated by a desire to perpetuate this fearful image, rather than because of the harms it is associated with.

However, it must still be acknowledged that while the media has vastly sensationalised the problem of status dogs, it is still a problem, both in the harms it causes to society, the local community and the dog itself, which is just as much of a victim as any other. Overall, the issue of status dogs and problematic dog ownership is a very difficult area to research due to the severe lack of quantitative data, making it difficult to gauge the extent of the problem in an in-depth way. Despite this problem, there is still a reasonable amount of qualitative data that allows for a good understanding into the environment in which this phenomenon operates.

Bibliography

ASPCA, 2014. The Truth about Pit bulls. ASPCA [Online] Available at: http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/virtual-pet-behaviorist/dog-behavior/truth-about-pit-bulls

Cutton-Brock, J., 2002. Origins of the Dog: Domestication and early history. In: Serpell, J., 2002. The Domestic Dog: Its evolution, behaviour and interactions with people. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Delise, K., 2007. The Pitbull Placebo: The Media, Myths and Politics of Canine Aggression. National Canine Research Council [Online] Available at: http://nationalcanineresearchcouncil.com/uploaded_files/publications/230603563_Pit%20Bull%20Placebo.pdf

Gov.uk, 2012. Clampdown on Dangerous Dogs. [Online] Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/clampdown-on-dangerous-dogs

Hallsworth, S., 2011. Then they came for the dogs! Crime, Law and Social Change, June 2011, Volume 55, Issue 5, pp. 391-403

Harding, S., 2011. Unleashed: The phenomena of status and weapon dogs. Chicago: University of Chicago Press

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Harding, S., 2010. 'Status dogs' and gangs. Safer Communities, 2010. Issue 9.1, pp.30-35

Hughes, G., Maher, J., Lawson, C., 2011. Status dogs, young people and criminalisation: towards a preventative strategy. Cardiff Centre for Crime Law and Justice. [Online] Available at: http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/socsi/resources/wp139.pdf

Johns, C., 2008. Dogs: History, myth, art. Cambridge USA: Harvard University Press.

Maher, J., Pierpoint, H., 2010. Animal Abuse. In: Brookman, F., Maguire, M., Pierpoint, H., Bennett, T., 2010. Handbook on Crime. Devon: Willan Publishing.

Maher, J., Pierpoint, H., 2011. Friends, status symbols and weapons: the use of dogs by youth groups and youth gangs. Crime, Law and Social Change, June 2011, Volume 55, Issue 5, pp. 405-420

Morey, D., 2010. Domestication and the development of a social bond. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Rooney, N., Sargan, D., 2008. Pedigree dog breeding in the UK: a major welfare concern? RSPCA [Online] Available at: www.rspca.org.uk/ImageLocator/LocateAsset?asset=document&assetId=1232712491490&mode=prd

RSPCA. 2010. Response to Defra consultation on dangerous dogs. RSPCA [Online] Available at: http://www.politicalanimal.org.uk/RSPCA/RSPCA%20response%20final%2026.05.10.pdf

Author BiographySean Whelan graduated from the University of Central Lancashire in July 2014

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This final article considers the construction and consolidation of negative reputations of Gypsies and Travellers within common sense and media discourses, utilising media representation in the press and on TV as illustrations.

There has been a Romany Gypsy population in Britain since the early 1500’s via migration from Continental Europe, yet today, Gypsies and Travellers remain a largely misunderstood group, often perceived in ignorant and prejudiced ways (www.travellermovement). Gypsies and Travellers have been accused of violating numerous social and moral orders, from feudalism to that of post-modernity, and have hence been subject to continuous attempts to legislate their culture out of existence (Puxon 1977 cited in Bancroft 2000).

In England, Gypsies and Travellers are identifiable via three categories: English Romany Gypsies, Irish Travellers and New Travellers (Niner 2004) and in 2011, ‘Gypsy and Irish Traveller’ was included in the Census for the first time ever, albeit the figures produced were largely inaccurate. The 2011 Census stated the population across England and Wales to be 57,680, however Traveller Movement and other academic research believe the true figure to be within the range of 120,000 to 300,000 (www.travellermovement). The figure 57,680 is an extremely small example of the official disregard for Gypsies and Travellers in England, evidenced by their low social position in almost every area imaginable.

Van Cleemput and Parry (2001) highlight Gypsies and Travellers as having poorer health than any group in the UK; Bhopal (2004) reveals how Gypsies and Travellers are the lowest educational achievers in the UK; and Niner (2002 cited in Ellis and McWhirter 2008) identifies Gypsies and Travellers as experiencing widespread problems with regards to accessing services in both the health and education sectors. In addition to being the most excluded group in the UK, ‘Gypsies and Travellers experience a much lower life expectancy than the general population, living on average 10-12 years less, as well as [having] increased rates of infant mortality’ (www.travellermovement).

Gypsies and Travellers lead lives which cannot be simplified as a ‘lifestyle choice’, and one of the most important culturally specific needs Gypsies and Travellers are prevented from pursuing with even an ounce of freedom, is the ability to travel. Whilst authors such as Crespo, Palli and Lalueza (2002) believe it is the progressive development of society through which increasingly more space is being colonised that has made it harder for Gypsies and Travellers to maintain a healthy ‘lifestyle’, it is evident the problem runs much deeper. The British legislative and planning framework, described by Bancroft (2000: 43) as ‘a pragmatic zone in which the relationship between Travellers and settled society is mapped out’, is the key arena whereby Gypsy and Traveller hardships are born out of, as Thomas and Krishnarayan (1994 cited in Ellis and McWhirter 2008) identify the potential of the planning system to serve as a tool of social and spatial exclusion.

In Britain, those Gypsies and Travellers who have fought against the powers of decades of legislation aiming to forcefully settle and assimilate are, as a result, viewed as not only different but deviant individuals (Ellis and McWhirter 2008). A commonality throughout the

Gypsy Traveller Social ExclusionJohn Welch

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past 50 years of legislation is the reluctance of local authorities to actively reserve land for Gypsy and Traveller accommodation, even when site provision was rendered a duty. The Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act 1960 is at the beginning of this accommodation timeline, as restrictions and licensing concerning caravan sites were increased, with Gypsy and Traveller site provision becoming a power rather than a duty of local authorities (Bancroft 2000). As Cullen (et al. 2008) identifies, local authorities reserved the power of provision, but many chose not to provide and instead leave Gypsies and Travellers to reside on much more marginal land.

Site shortage and increasing numbers of Gypsies and Travellers having to set up their homes on unauthorised land meant the Government was obliged to introduce new legislation to combat such shortcomings; The Caravan Sites Act 1968 was introduced (Cullen et al. 2008). Crucially, The Caravan Sites Act 1968 rendered it a duty of local authorities to provide sites for Gypsies and Travellers: however, stringent regulations concerning the length and width of a caravan were introduced, effectively ‘confining the space in which Gypsies and Travellers live’ (Drakakis-Smith 2007: 475). Furthermore, structural problems within local authorities remained and, although more sites than previous were being produced, the output still falls massively short of the minimum requirements, whilst an articulation of the ‘deserving’ and ‘non-deserving’ Gypsy and Traveller began to grow (Drakakis-Smith 2007). Rather than halting previous assimilative legislation, Sibley (1981: 145) believes The Caravan Sites Act 1968 simply ‘followed a path of assimilative legislation characteristic of the treatment of Gypsy Travellers by West-European liberal bureaucracies’.

As far as the Conservative Government was concerned, The Caravan Sites Act 1968 was a failure in need of abolishment, and The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 was introduced (Bancroft 2000: 48). Rising unauthorised encampments was one signifier of this failure, with the Conservative Government failing to link site under-provision to rising unauthorised encampments; and as the Caravan Sites Act 1968 did not succeed whilst providing sites, Gypsies and Travellers purchasing their own land and living there was the new approach (Ellis and McWhirter 2008). In retrospect, this would be in the interests of Gypsies and Travellers, as not only can they choose their land and regain a sense of freedom, but the settled population are successful in 8-9 out of 10 planning applications, and Gypsies and Travellers would be operating within the same framework (Bancroft 2000).

However, as the ‘gaze of authority’ began to focus more on ‘undeserving Gypsies and Travellers’ (Bancroft 2000: 48), the anti-Gypsy and Traveller intentions of this era of legislation became apparent. As Gypsies and Travellers were told to purchase their own land and set up their own homes, local authorities were no longer required to provide sites, enabling the ‘moving on’ of Gypsies and Travellers even when no provision was available (Barclay 2012). To assist, increased powers with regards to trespass were given to local authorities in addition to the creation of new offences, whilst six vehicle Traveller convoys were now rendered unlawful, effectively breaking down the ability of Gypsies and Travellers to sustain family and Traveller networks within the law (O’Nions 1995 cited in Bancroft 2000).

Again, as unauthorised encampments increased in number, the complete lack of structure for site provision was ‘recognised’ as The Housing Act 2004 was introduced, again rendering it a duty of local authorities to assess Gypsy and Traveller needs, this time via Gypsy Traveller Accommodation Assessments (Greenfields and Home 2006). This could only be viewed as positive step, as Gypsy and Traveller needs were now actively being accounted for, and

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although the end-product, again, was the minimum site requirement not being met nationally, progress was certainly being made via Circular 01/2006 and its guidance on the use of Gypsy and Traveller Accommodation Assessments, Regional Spatial Strategies and the Development Plan Documents, all of which were used to calculate, identify and then proceed with site provision (Friends, Families and Travellers).

However in 2010, the Conservative Government announced the abolishment of Regional Spatial Strategies, which effectively broke down the accommodation framework for Gypsies and Travellers, whilst presenting two new, crucial realities. Firstly, Gypsies and Travellers, ‘who hold the poorest social position of any group in the entire UK’, stood to have their position worsened as Regional Strategies were abolished in what effectively created a ‘policy vacuum’ (Irish Traveller Movement in Britain). This effectively presented many local authorities with the ‘green light’ to both halt and impose regressive actions with regards to site provision, resulting in local councils such as those in Bournemouth and Poole announcing that they have ‘no plans’ or ‘no wishes’ to provide additional sites for Gypsies and Travellers, whilst Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, cut pitch plans from 800 to 238, feeling the need to meet initial targets as no longer relevant since the government decision (Irish Traveller Movement in Britain). On the whole, the government ‘offered no tangible or credible alternative to resolving the accommodation issues facing Gypsy and Traveller communities’ (Irish Traveller Movement in Britain).

If decades of regressive legislation had been criminalising and displacing what is known as the ‘settled population’, there would likely be national uproar; this is not to say Gypsies and Travellers have not tried to fight against these injustices, but large parts of the settled population both turn a blind-eye and actively contribute to what is a cycle of Gypsy and Traveller subordination, making the fight much harder. The key player in this cycle: the media. No other group or subject in society creates as much ‘Nazi hysteria’ as Gypsies and Travellers, and society rises as one to deal with the threat that Gypsies and Travellers pose (Hawes and Perez 1996 cited in Ellis and McWhirter: 79). Such threat is articulated via ‘a tendency to focus on the pathologization and stereotyping of the forms of socioeconomic organization and belief systems that set them apart from the rest of society’ (Sibley 1981: 79).

The media is often the tool of such articulation. Media representations are often ‘imaginary constructions which draw on the same images of people, groups or places that surface during conflicts between the “deviants” and the rest of society’ (Sibley 1995). More worryingly, and with regards to television in particular, the images presented are often ‘consumed remotely and with no prior contact’ with the victim required, hence are ‘more likely to be received uncritically’ (Sibley 1995). A prime example of this is the Channel 4 series ‘My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding’. Claiming to offer an insight into the mysterious lives of Gypsies and Travellers, Tyler (2013: 143) highlights how Gypsies and Travellers ‘are largely framed as shallow, naïve and gauche tragicomic figures who wear scanty outfits and other forms of clothing coded as vulgar and tasteless’, all of which forms ‘a key source of spectatorial pleasure for millions of the programme viewers within the settled population’. Aside from television, right-wing newspapers continuously stereotype and circulate what can only be described as lies, about Gypsies and Travellers; the point being made is that this cycle of news and media leads ‘to physical disadvantage or fear of reprisal; and unless positive action is taken, the cycle of this marginalisation of Gypsies and Travellers means that there is continued hostility towards the travelling community’ (Richardson and Ryder 2012: 185).

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The events of Dale Farm encapsulated the current state of Gypsy and Traveller affairs. Gypsies and Travellers were breaking the law on one half of what is known as Dale Farm11 as a result of the very same legislative framework which worked towards their eviction. Dale Farm was a newsworthy story, sensationalised and twisted to portray Gypsies and Travellers as the aggressors in their own eviction, with connotations to dirt, anti-social behaviour and cost consistent throughout reporting from sources such as The Daily Mail and The Sun. Through what I identified as media constructions of ‘choice’ and a consequent ‘denial of victimisation’ in my undergraduate dissertation, police brutality was normalised. The police response involved the physical removal of protestors from Dale Farm, as well as the use of the taser-gun; fired twice on the same man and brandished at protestors on three other occasions without fire (www.bbc.co.uk). However, such brutality was almost completely accepted, with members of society being quoted saying: 'I have no sympathy for the travellers or the protesters. If anything the police did it too light-handed rather than too heavy-handed’ (A property developer near Basildon, Daily Mail 2011).

Throughout my undergraduate work, Dale Farm was analysed on the premise of Foucault’s (1977: 27) belief that ‘this question of the application and effectiveness of power/knowledge’ is more important than questions surrounding ‘truth’, however when considering ways of mobilisation, the clear incredibility of much of what was wrote about Gypsies and Travellers, and still is, means Gypsy and Traveller mobilisation is achievable. Avenues include every media and social medium used against Gypsies and Travellers, from television programmes showing the real reality of Gypsy and Traveller life, to social media such as Facebook and Twitter to campaign and raise awareness to their cause. And what is for sure, is that Gypsies and Travellers can achieve mobilisation and social status if they continue with their proud and determined attitude that they have always held.

Bibliography

Bancroft, A. A (2000) ''No interest in land': Legal and spatial enclosure of Gypsy-Travellers in Britain', Space and Polity, 4 (1), 41-56

Barclay, C (2012) Gypsies and Travellers: Camp sites and trespass, Science and Environment

Bhopal, K (2004) 'Gypsy Travellers and Education: Changing Needs and Changing Perceptions', British Journal of Educational Studies, 52 (1), 47-64

Crespo, I, Pallí, C, and Lalueza, J (2002) 'Moving communities: a process of negotiation with a Gypsy minority for empowerment', Community, Work & Family, 5 (1), 49-66

Cullen, S, Hayes, P, Hughes, L and Harris, S (2008) Good Practice Guide: Working with housed Gypsies and Travellers, Shelter: 2008

Daily Mail (2011d) ‘But were officers too eager to fire their 50,000 volt taser guns’, Daily Mail, 20th October [Accessed via: www.lexisnexis.com on 10th February 2014]

Drakakis-Smith, A (2007) 'Nomadism a moving myth? Policies of exclusion and the gypsy/traveller response', Mobilities, 2 (3), 463-487

Ellis, G and McWhirter, C (2008) 'Land-use Planning and Traveller-Gypsies: Towards Non-prejudicial Practice', Planning Practice and Research, 23 (1), 77-99

11 Dale Farm is a plot of land on Oak Lane in Crays Hill, Essex, where Gypsies and Travellers resided until late 2011 without planning permission. Following 10 years of legal dispute, the local council eventually gained permission to evict the Gypsies and Travellers who had illegally set up pitches on Dale Farm. The eviction gained widespread media attention and was heavily policed.

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Foucault, M (1977) Discipline and Punish, London, Tavistock

Friends, Families and Travellers, Planning Policy Development and Provisions for Gypsy and Traveller sites in England

Greenfields, M and Home, R (2006) 'Assessing Gypsies and Travellers needs: Partnership working and 'The Cambridge Project.'', Romani Studies, 16 (2), 105-131

Hawes, D, and Perez, B (1996) ‘The Gypsy and the State’ in Ellis, G, and McWhirter, C (2008) 'Land-use Planning and Traveller-Gypsies: Towards Non-prejudicial Practice', Planning Practice & Research, 23 (1), 77-99

Irish Traveller Movement in Britain, Submission to Communities and Local Government Select Committee Inquiry into Localism and Decentralisation, The Resource Centre: London

Niner, P (2002) ‘The Provision and Condition of Local Authority Gypsy and Traveller Sites in England’ in Ellis, G and McWhirter, C (2008) 'Land-use Planning and Traveller-Gypsies: Towards Non-prejudicial Practice', Planning Practice and Research, 23 (1), 77-99

Niner, P (2004) 'Accommodating Nomadism? An Examination of Accommodation Options for Gypsies and Travellers in England', Housing Studies, 19 (2), 141-159

O’Nions, H (1995) ‘The marginalisation of Gypsies’ in Bancroft, A. A (2000) ''No interest in land': Legal and spatial enclosure of Gypsy-Travellers in Britain', Space And Polity, 4 (1), 41-56

Puxon, G (1977) ‘The forgotten victims’ in Bancroft, A. A (2000) ''No interest in land': Legal and spatial enclosure of Gypsy-Travellers in Britain', Space And Polity, 4 (1), 41-56

Richardson, J and Ryder, A (2012) Gypsies And Travellers [Electronic Resource] : Empowerment And Inclusion In British Society, Bristol: Policy

Sibley, D (1981) Outsiders in Urban Societies, Oxford: Basil Blackwell

Sibley, D (1995) Geographies Of Exclusion: Society And Difference In The West, Routledge

Thomas, H and Krishnarayan, V (1994) ‘‘Race’ disadvantage and policy process in British planning’ in Ellis, G and McWhirter, C (2008) 'Land-use Planning and Traveller-Gypsies: Towards Non-prejudicial Practice', Planning Practice and Research, 23 (1), 77-99

Tyler, I (2013) Revolting Subjects: Social Abjection And Resistance In Neoliberal Britain, London: Zed Books

Van Cleemput, P and Parry, G (2001) Health status of Gypsy Travellers, Journal of Public Health Medicine, 23 (2), 129-134

www.bbc.co.uk

www. travellermovement .org.uk

Author Biography

John Welch graduated from Liverpool John Moores University in July 2014. Email: [email protected]

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III. European Group NewsNew European Group Publications

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Critical Views on Crime, Policy and Social Control edited by D. Sorvatzioti, G. Antonopoulos brings together a collection of papers originally given at the European Group conference held in Nicosia in 2012.

***********************

John Moore, Bill Rolston, David Scott and Mike Tomlinson have just finished editing an excellent anthology of abolitionist papers presented to conferences of the European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control over the past decades. A huge thanks to all those involved in putting together this valuable collection of abolitionist perspectives which provide important insights into how criminal processes can be challenged in the here and now.

We are now taking pre-orders for the book. Please just follow the instructions below. All profits will go directly to the European Group

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Beyond Criminal Justice:

Contents

1. Beyond Criminal Justice: J.M. Moore and David Scott

2. Whither Abolitionism? Jacqueline Bernat de Celis

3. Marxian Theory and Abolitionism: Introduction to a Discussion Heinz Steinert

4. The Necessity of Punishment in a Just Social Order: A Critical Appraisal Willem de Haan

5. Dissolution and Expansion Sebastian Scheerer

6. Mental and Social Sequelae of Isolation: The evidence of deprivation experiments and of pre-trial detention in Denmark Ida Koch

7. Prison Politics and Prisoners Struggles in Italy Raffaele Calderone and Piere Valeriani

8. Working for the Clampdown: Prisons and Politics in England and Wales Joe Sim

9. The Experiment that went Wrong: The crisis of deaths in Custody Phil Scraton andat the Glenochil Youth Complex Kathryn Chadwick

10. The Image of Power: Abolitionism, Emancipation, Authoritarian Idolatry and the Ability of Unbelief Rene van Swaaningen

11. Sexual Violence, Criminal Law and Abolitionism Marijke Meima

12. The Traitorous Temptation of Criminal Justice: Deceptive Appearances? The Dutch Women's Movement, Violence Jolandeuit Beijerse andagainst Women and the Criminal Justice System Rene Kool

13. The Protection of Women by the Criminal Justice System?Reflections on Feminism, Abolitionism and Power Willemien de Jongste

14. Mediation: An Experiment in Finland Marti Gronfors

15. ‘It’s a long road to wisdom, but it is a short one to being ignored’: moving forward towards abolition David Scott and J.M. Moore

All editors’ royalties and profits from sale have been donated to the European Group

To order

European Group Members special pre-order price £12 (to UK addresses) or £14/17€ (to EU addresses). This includes packaging and postage. Please place orders from outside EU through Amazon

Please e-mail your name and full postal address to [email protected]

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We will then invoice you – which you can either pay by cheque (UK orders); money transfer (EU orders) or via paypal (all orders). Due to high transaction costs we regret we cannot accept orders from outside the EU. The book will however be available through the various Amazon outlets and other sources.

Call for Interest: European Group Press Editorial CollectiveIn the 1980s and 1990s the European Group published 10 volumes of the Working Papers in European Criminology, each one a selection of papers from the previous year's conference.  We are about to publish an anthology of papers drawn from these, Beyond Criminal Justice, and for this publication we have, rather than use an established publisher, used one of the ISBN numbers purchased by the group in the 80s and self-publishing software to publish this book by the European Group.

Following this we have decided to re-launch European Group Press.  European Group Press will primarily be focussed upon publishing papers and materials from our members from conferences and associated events but in the long term it may also be open for the development of a book series and monographs.  European Group Press may also be the means through which to publish our new journal Critique and Dissent (subject to discussion and approval at the Liverpool Conference in September).  All publications will have an ISBN; be relatively cheap and accessible; have links to online publication via the European Group website and all profits from publications will go directly to the European Group to support its members.  Where appropriate they will be peer reviewed by members of the European Group

To help facilitate the development of the European Group Press we are looking for EG members to join a new Editorial Collective. We welcome offers of participation from members all across the world. Whilst we obviously need people with experience of publishing books / book series / editing journals and books we are also looking for people who are interested in assisting with (and learning about) the production, design and marketing tasks.

Call for papersWe’d like to encourage academics, activists and those targetted by mechanisms of state control (people in prison, migrants, people who have come into conflict with the police etc.) to contribute short pieces of approximately 1,500 words to our monthly newsletter ‘comment and analysis’ section. Contributions from across the globe are welcome. Please contact Emma Bell at [email protected]

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IV. News from Europe and the World

AustraliaCall for PapersThe 8th Annual Australian and New Zealand Critical Criminology Conference

Thursday 4th - Friday 5th December 2014 at the Monash Law Chambers, 555 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, Victoria.

Abstract submissions are now being accepted for the 8th Annual Australian and New Zealand Critical Criminology Conference hosted by Monash University, to be held in Melbourne on 4-5 December 2014.

The theme of the conference is Critical Criminology: Research Praxis and Social Transformation in a Global Era? The conference will bring together academics, cross-sector stakeholders, legal practitioners, advocates, activists and students to reflect and renew discussions about the status and future of critical criminology. The conference will consider the unique and important place of critical criminology, with a particular focus on the multi-level barriers that impact on transformative research agendas and collaborations in the current social, political and economic climate.

The conference streams include:

1. Re-theorizing Punishment’s Borders and Boundaries

2. Movements against State and Corporate Harm

3. Seeking Real Access to Justice

4. The Prospects of, and Limits Placed Upon, Transformative Justice

5. Campaigns for Justice

6. Surveillance and the Technologies of Control

7. From Theory to Praxis: Challenges in Critical Criminology

Abstracts for individual/co-authored papers and themed panel submissions are encouraged.

Please note: Abstracts will subject to a process of peer-review and not all abstracts may be accepted. Abstracts should be received on or before Monday 30 June 2014.

The organisers also welcome expressions of interest for those wishing to launch a new publication or research initiative at the conference. If you have something you would like to launch, please contact the conference organisers at: [email protected]

Our Keynote Plenary Panels feature the following speakers:

Panel One: Critical Research and Institutional Violence

Professor Phil Scraton (Queens University Belfast, Northern Ireland); Dr Elizabeth Stanley (Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand) and Dr Thalia Anthony (University of Technology Sydney, Australia)

Panel Two: Regulation and Online Cultures

Associate Professor Thomas Crofts (University of Sydney, Australia); Associate Professor Murray Lee (University of Sydney, Australia) and Professor Gail Mason (University of Sydney, Australia)

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Panel Three: Punishment, Otherness and Morality

Dr Anna Eriksson (Monash University, Australia); Professor Harry Blagg (University of Western Australia) and Dr Claire Spivakovsky (Monash University, Australia)

Panel Four: Anti-State Research and the Politics of Containment: What Can Radical Criminology Say and Do?

Professor Scott Poynting (University of Auckland, New Zealand); Dr Vicki Sentas (University of New South Wales, Australia) and Dr Mike Grewcock (University of New South Wales, Australia)

For information on the conference and to submit an abstract, please visit:

http://artsonline.monash.edu.au/critical-criminology

For further information please email: [email protected]

GreeceActivismThousands of prisoners across Greece are on a hunger strike to protest the planned changes to prisons and the creation of new high security facilities. See http://libcom.org/blog/hunger-strike-all-greek-prisons-28062014

Comment

Austerity, ritualism and the rise of the Neo-Nazis in contemporary Greece: A short comment

Stratos Georgoulas12

In the last century, the American sociologist Robert Merton tried to explain lawlessness / anomie and thus criminality as a result of the mismatch between goals and offered resources in modern capitalist society. More specifically, he first established conceptual human types: the innovative (that person who adopts the purposes of the society but not the means to achieve them); the rebel (the person who proposes other purposes and means to achieve them different from those offered by the class society); the retreater (the person who, refusing totally everything, is closed in on himself / herself); the conformist (the person who accepts the purposes of society and reproduces them through his / her actions); and the ritualist (the person who essentially accepts the available means offered to him / her – without making an appraisal of the purposes imposed from above – and s/he adopts these means as mainstream values). Merton believed that, from a forensic point of view, the first three types were the most interesting, leaving the ritualist out of the scientific microscope. Nevertheless, the reality would belie him, when, during the trial of Nazi war criminals in Nuremberg, the main justification of the murderers was ‘I was just following orders’, or ‘I did my duty that was dictated by others’.

A closer study enables us to reveal the psyche of such a man who adopts inhumane practices whilst at the same time believing that he is simply doing his duty. This man offends, humiliates, diminishes materially and belittles symbolically his fellow person; he may even directly or indirectly cause the loss of human life. Does he do that due to some inherent

12 Ass. Professor, Director of Lab EKNEXA, Department of Sociology, University of the Aegean, Greece.

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personality traits or psychological abnormalities? No! He is a man like us; when the authorities posted a job offer which would entail applying undemocratic and oppressive policies, he simply declared that he would immediately participate, shouting: ‘I’m going to assume my responsibilities’. Nowadays, he declares himself manager of the problem, frames decrees and internal circulars, putting them on the wall behind his desk (the shrine of legality, as he calls it), and every day he negates one by one the human rights that were won through years of struggle, leading his subordinates (as he considers them) to a state of absolute misery. At last! … The impersonal system has found its face / person! He declares that he is upset because he causes other people’s slow death, but ‘he has its hands tied’. If you resist, he will call you an outlaw, a criminal, and bring those who are like him to punish you. But beware! If you, like him, tell him that ritualists of the present are the criminals of tomorrow (just like the SS officers, the germanotsoliades [lit. German-Evzones] Evzones who co-operated with the Germans during World War II and thus were considered traitors to their country, the para-state of the Right, the Junta torturers etc.), so he will return to his initial state, a frightened little man.

You meet these frightened little men nowadays (and not only) in every institution of Greek society, and their main feature is that of their ‘position of responsibility’. You meet them at school, at university, in justice, in the public and the wider public sector, at your workplace, even in the family and gender relations. You meet them when they invoke ‘legitimacy’ from above and shrug off collective decisions from below. You meet them when they write articles for the press against every form of dialectical relationship with society, when their elitism emerges from faith in the sovereign, be it either a person or an institution, or an idea, when they refuse to accept the historic constant, social change. It is really interesting to see whether the aforementioned features can characterize those who appear to operate beyond the official channels of power and even seem to be in conflict with them.

Of course, this discussion is about the neo-Nazi construct called ‘Chrysi Avgi’ (lit. ‘Golden Dawn’), and another point of scientific analysis of its action, which sheds more light on its connection networks within the existing authoritarian structures of Greek society, explaining this growing electoral (and not only) influence.

First, their self-representation is a mix of avenger/vigilante and protector/guard. As their discourse is derived from and addresses people who have difficulty with complex thinking, they use symbols that reveal the desired identity, stereotypical symbols and colours. The avenger/protector Zorro, by concealing his face and the black colour, joins the avenger/punisher (wherever the hand of the law cannot reach)/guardian Superman, with the red symbol and lack of pants – and an easy collage is readymade. They feel they are superheroes, but never do anything to upset the broader social situation. Instead, they try to preserve and reproduce it by correcting its problems, exactly as others define the problems for them. The challenge for them is that law, order and internal and external security should dominate. In this case, they do not doubt hegemonic and mainstream values. None of them claims laurels for a creation of another legal system that would defend the interests of the oppressed working class. The main concern is to highlight and deal with violent actions, wherever the official state means are not enough to achieve its overarching goals. So for example, does the mainstream view speak about leftists that disrupt order and social peace of the state, with strikes and their protests? Let’s beat them, because the police have become very soft. Does the mainstream view speak about criminality produced by immigrants and increase of unemployment produced by foreigners who take our jobs? Let’s kill some immigrants. Do University teachers and students refuse to respect the law on Universities?

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Let’s go into the university – there is no university asylum anymore (thanks to the government), and let’s beat somebody. Does the official state believe that the debt problem is generated by street vendors who waive taxes (and certainly not by policies of exemption to ship owners and industrialists)? Let’s go and break everything over there.

Blind faith in the means (e.g. state legitimacy, media ideology) becomes a value as exactly does blind loyalty to the leader become the mainstream value. And this means that critical questioning of faith in the means (which has also become a cornerstone of the social legitimacy of bourgeois revolutions and Enlightenment) is reduced to the highest offence that should be punished in an exemplary way.

The ‘(Z)ouperman Chrysafgitis’ (: the follower of ‘Chrysi Avgi’) is the evolution of the authoritarian ritualist who ‘executes orders’ in his space. He is not a socially, economically or politically marginal element due to the consequences of the economic crisis, which are in open conflict with power and authority. Instead, economic crisis and the social roots of neo-Nazism have a common component: the authoritarian nature of a counter-revolutionary process that abolishes every right won by popular struggles. In a state of a miserable economic crisis imposed from the outside, a current structural distress is being cultivated within. The continuous disastrous collapse of the material foundations of society goes hand in hand with political counterrevolution that borrows from the programme of the revolution (curbing in this way the course of a real revolutionary transformation). Then, the ‘discovery’ of tradition pops up, the reformation of the past in a present that craves for order, hope and a new ritualism in new decisive national leadership.

The education level of these fascists may make them have obvious difficulty in understanding complex arguments and using syntax, grammar and synonyms, but do not underestimate them! They don’t fish in muddy waters; they rather look for followers who are ritualists and frightened voters who have resigned from the dialectical relationship of their existence with the social scene for some time now. Authoritarian neo-liberalism produces both. The vicious circle is broken by two direct political actions and one purpose. Disclosure and exemplary punishment of proto-fascists–ritualists, in all workplaces and institutions of socialisation and social control (among them the paid journalists who reduces the faith in the mainstream ideology to messianism) are needed to cut the snake’s head and finally to reposition social values so that legitimacy can be expressed from below. Only this will lead to working class justice, as produced by the struggle for a different society.

NorwayThe Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law at the University of Oslo is proud to accept proposals for our 2015 conference on law and society to be held from 10th-12th June 2015. For more details, see http://www.jus.uio.no/ikrs/english/research/news-and-events/events/conferences/2015/socio-legal-studies-conference/index.html

The NetherlandsConferenceBorders of Crimmigration, Second Crimmigration Control Conference, 9-10 October 2014, Leiden, the Netherlands. Keynote speakers: Katja Franko Aas, Mary Bosworth, Jennifer Chacon, Juliet Stumpf, Michael Tonry. For more information, see: http://www.crimmigrationcontrol.com/

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United Kingdom

ActivismSupport the family of Mark Duggan at the judicial review scheduled for 9th July. Meet at the Royal Courts of Justice, London. See https://www.facebook.com/events/668230066597335/

Please support the following campaign by the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies: Empower women. Resist injustice. Transform livesA call to actionThe harms women face are widespread yet consistently ignored. Many criminal justice interventions and support services serve to replicate and reinforce unequal gender relations rather than tackle the root causes of harm. Women facing criminalisation and gender based violence are repeatedly failed by society.

We need to think about and develop social interventions that get to the root of these problems. We are calling on others to work with us to challenge structural inequality and eradicate punishment and control in women's lives. We want to start talking about and acting in ways to:

EMPOWER women.RESIST injustice.TRANSFORM lives.

Ways we may begin to address this include:● Offering support instead of control and punishment. ● Resisting the labels of ‘offenders’ or ‘victims’ in day to day work. ● Prioritising women’s needs rather than criminal justice objectives. ● Speaking out against the harms that women face. ● Working for greater equality and justice for women.Equality benefits everyone. By speaking together in greater numbers our voices will be stronger. Help to build a collective confidence and critical mass for change.We have big ambitions, but limited resources. We are seeking ways to build this initiative and work with others to inspire the radical and urgent change needed for women.See: http://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/civicrm/profile/create?gid=27&reset=1

Conferences/lectures/workshopsTalk & screening of 'Justice Denied', a Ken Fero film about deaths in connection with The University of Sheffiled will be hosting the 5th Annual Conference 'Theorising Normalcy and the Mundane - more questions of the human' from 7th-8th July 2014. See http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/whatson/conferences

British Society of Criminology Conference, Hosted by the Department of Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology, School of Law and Social Justice, The University of Liverpool. 10-12 July (preceded by a postgraduate conference on 9th July). For further details see: http://www.liv.ac.uk/law-and-social-justice/conferences/bsc/

Northumbria University Centre for Offenders and Offending are pleased to invite you to our: Leaving Prison and Housing seminar Wednesday 16th July,9:30 – 12:30 The Great Hall, Sutherland Building, Northumbria University The links between finding secure, good quality housing on leaving prison and desistance from further offending are not in doubt. However, despite commitment from all parties involved, there remain difficulties in creating the structures to ensure that more offenders can quickly be re-housed into appropriate housing on their release. This half-day seminar will discuss some

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of the ongoing difficulties in meeting housing needs and evaluate approaches to trying to resolve these problems. Contributions will be invited from all attendees as to the measures that are needed to meet the housing needs of former prisoners more effectively. Speakers will discuss: Background – research, legislation and policy (Jamie Harding, Northumbria University) The local authority perspective (Andrew Burnip, Durham County Council) Barriers to the effective re-housing of offenders and how these can be overcome (Sheila Spencer and Gill Leng, Housing Consultants) Evaluation of a Through the Gate Plus project commissioned by the Regional Homelessness Group (Adele Irving, Northumbria University) The event will begin with registration and coffee from 9.30 a.m. to 10 a.m. It will conclude with lunch at 12.30 p.m. To book a place, please email Jamie Harding at [email protected] For a map showing the location of the Sutherland Building, see: http://www.northumbria.ac.uk/brochure/visit/campus_branch/ncle_cmp/city_campus/ To find out more about the Centre for Offenders and Offending, see: http://collab.northumbria.ac.uk/coo/

BISA IPEG annual workshop 2014: IPE and the New Normal - Open Conflict After the Crash5th-6th September 2014. See: http://www.polis.leeds.ac.uk/about/events/ipe-and-the-new-normal-open-conflict-after-the-crash.php

InterviewGerry Conlon, one of the ‘Guilford Four’, wrongly imprisoned for 15 years for an IRA bombing he played no part in, sadly died on 21 June 2014. On release from prison, he dedicated his life to campaigning for victims of miscarriages of justice. An inspiring interview is available to read here: http://thejusticegap.com/2014/06/days-wish-still-prison-days-wish-dead-2/

Report

G4S 2014 Annual General Meeting

David Scott

A number of us from the 'Reclaim Justice Network'13 are shareholders in G4S (we have one share each). Six of us were present yesterday (5th June 2014) at the G4S Annual General Meeting [AGM] and this account is a way of bearing witness to what happened.  The AGM was situated in the ExCel – a location well of the beaten track and difficult to find, at least for those not familiar with London. This did not stop a large number of protestors gathering outside of the ExCel AND a very significant number of protestors – who were either shareholders or acting as proxy – from attending the AGM. The six of us from Reclaim Justice left our meeting place near to the venue about half an hour before the AGM was due to start – we all left separately and we agreed that we would have no contact with each other once inside the building – this is about as close as I think I'll get to 'espionage' and I felt like I was in a 'mission impossible' movie. We all got in and sat well apart.

13 Reclaim Justice Network is a collaboration of individuals, groups, campaigners, activists, trade unionists, practitioners and researchers and people most directly affected by criminal justice systems, who are working together to radically reduce the size and scope of criminal justice systems and to build effective and socially just alternatives. Throughout 2013 the steering group have been meeting regularly and will soon be outlining an initial programme of work. See http://downsizingcriminaljustice.wordpress.com/about/

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The AGM was attended by the 12 board members of G4S – 10 white middle-aged men and two women: one at either end. None of them spoke as we individually entered the room and took our seats. They looked directly at us with very stern and serious faces. They did not even look at each other or attempt to communicate among themselves. The room filled: there were perhaps as many as 80 sitting in the seats allocated for shareholders, and all around us were around 15 security guards. I suspect there were also security guards sitting among us, and as the afternoon went on, one very burly man spent a considerable amount of time staring at me. 

The AGM was opened by the chair and there were disruptions by shareholders almost from the start. A large number of protestors were focussed on the role of G4S in the detention of Palestinians. There was clearly a very organised and large number of people from the charity 'War on Want'. Their group used codings (hums and coughs for key words) and at regular intervals there were attempts to make statements condemning G4S policies in Palestine / Israel. The reaction of G4S security guards to these protests was appalling. Protestors were pulled from their seats, dragged kicking and screaming out of the room, with sometimes attempts by security staff to muffle their protests. Two people sitting directly next to me were part of this protest group and were manhandled very badly. The feeling of unease and anxiety engendered when another human being is being dragged away directly next to you left me shaken, and my emotions stirred.

Ashley Almanza, current CEO of G4S, gave his presentation (disrupted by numerous protestors: the most effective of which was when around seven people from different parts of the room all protested at once – this lasted for a couple of minutes for despite the size and numbers of the security guards, they seemed reluctant to engage protestors on a one-to-one basis). At this point, shareholders started to call for an adjournment and to appease us the security guards were asked to not remove anyone else but simply ask them to be quiet. However, the damage was done. G4S in its daily work practices invokes and deploys violence, and now they were doing so with their own shareholders. As a number of shareholders noted, the whole meeting was a 'disaster for G4S'. 

Then came questions (there was still around 50 or 60 people in the room at this point). In the main, the first part of the questions (which lasted about two hours) were all focused on Palestine and directed by members of G4S, however I was the second person allowed to ask a question. I asked Ashley Almanza who he thought the ‘customers’ of G4S were – the word is riddled through the annual report and he also mentioned the ‘customer’ as a priority on a number of occasions in his talk. He seemed unprepared and gave a vague answer which did not really give a clear picture (he seems to think that his employees are his customers!). He did not mention prisoners / detainees, so I then followed up my question by pointing this out. He again was unable to give a satisfactory account. Then followed around 10 or 12 questions on G4S and its relationship to Israel which revealed (among other things) that one of the 'independent and impartial' academics commissioned to provide a human rights audit of its practices (which actually simply responsibilise detainees and prisoners) was a Zionist! Further egg on the face of the board. 

The chair then requested other questions not related to the topic, and discussion started to focus on a number of more 'domestic issues' and prisons and 'care and justice' services in the UK. Following a discussion of deaths in custody, I was given the opportunity to once again have a dialogue with Ashley Almanza – this time concerning self-inflicted deaths, para-suicide and self-harm. The 'chief executive' claimed that he was not allowed to publish materials without government approval! I challenged this and asked him for a public commitment from G4S that they would next year ensure that all data on self-harm, and attempted self-inflicted deaths (including those who tragically succeed in the act) be made

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publicly available via their website. My understanding is that he made that commitment, which at least is one step towards greater democratic accountability. Colleagues from Reclaim Justice Network were also then invited by the chair to ask questions, including points on G4S management; Oakwood prison inspectorate reports; a letter published only on Wednesday in Inside Time which indicates mass resignations of prison officers from Oakwood; and questions about prisoners working 40 hour weeks and if G4S made profits from these work contracts. Ashley Almanza stated on a number of occasions in response to this that G4S did not make profits from prison labour. 

Finally, concerns were expressed about the claims made by G4S in its annual report and the conduct of the meeting. A Vicar raised some important concerns about the limitations of G4S and how it handled the meeting. I then added (with a sense of humour here) that 'My advice to Ashley Almanza and the G4S board is that they take “independent and impartial advice” on how best to conduct their security'. 

USAActivismHeather Thompson, Raj Jayadev and Norris Henderson discuss the Prison Policy Initiative, a non-profit, non-partisan organisation working to produce cutting edge research to expose the broader harm of mass criminalization (http://www.prisonpolicy.org/). See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTyKaekvgsQ&feature=youtu.be

CommentThe US Border Patrol’s Racist Public Respond to Southern Border Crisis. See: http://uprootingcriminology.org/blogs/us-border-patrols-racist-public-respond-southern-border-crisis/

InternationalCall for papersBorder Criminologies at the University of Oxford, along with the Border Crossing Observatory at Monash University and the Crime Control in the Borderlands of Europe research group at Oslo University are pleased to announce the launch of the new SSRN series, 'Criminal Justice, Borders & Citizenship.' This series will showcase international research on the intersections between criminal justice and border control. See: http://bordercriminologies.law.ox.ac.uk/news/calls-for-papers/

CommentNot from our foreign correspondent 

For the past few months I’ve been receiving emails from a Russian colleague of mine, a Professor at the Higher School of Economics, telling a somewhat different story on the Ukrainian-Crimea crisis to one we’re being fed on a daily basis. In one email he asked for my thoughts on the burning to death of pro-Russian activists at the Trades Union House in Odessa  in which water and electricity  in the building was deliberately switched off  by officials  so as to cause the most injury. Other human rights abuses committed by the pro-Kiev fascist movement were subsequently brought to my attention. I had no thoughts on any of this as I’d not read anything about the killings, rapes and beatings perpetrated by pro-Kiev cohorts. My initial fear was that academics were under pressure to present Putin’s propaganda to the West and that my HSE colleague had capitulated to this, although it seemed unlikely given his generally impartial, considered and courageous position on human rights abuses in his own country.  But the evidence is there. Horrific atrocities on both sides are being

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committed (not much coming from Amnesty on the abuses against pro-Russia protestors) . In a more recent email I was asked whether Joe Biden’s son’s recent appointment to Burisma, a leading Ukrainian energy company, was a coincidence, pure corruption,  conflict of interest or all of the above (where’s the indignation in the Western media on that one?). Three word answer: Iraq- Cheney-Halliburton.    

In the midst of this current burst of Cold War propaganda a voice of reason has spoken out in the Bundestag. Gregor Gysi, one of the most respected intellectuals in Germany and leader of The Left, has succinctly presented an eloquent, impartial and insightful assessment of the Ukrainian-Crimea situation. The link is below.  It says more in 14 minutes than the dangerous whitewash our-man/woman-in-Kiev and their market driven employers have emitted during the past eight months.   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pculDDRKHdg

I’m now watching coverage of Isis atrocities in Iraq, peppered with ‘allegedlies’, have pondered over the reporting on Syria and wait for the next instalment on newly elected President Poroshenko the Great (owner of, amongst other treasured assets, Ukrainian Channel 5 TV, and KP Media – no bias there, then).  As the  Russian comedian Yakov Smirnoff said: 'In Russia we had only  two TV channels. Channel One was propaganda. Channel Two  was a KGB officer telling you: Turn back at once to Channel One'. 

FIFA, the World Cup and Social Harm: Examining the Cost of Football Fever: With the FIFA World Cup starting this week, hundreds of thousands of people will be attending matches in Brazil, watching games at bars, pubs, and at home, celebrating and commiserating as teams make their bid for victory. Propagated as an event that should be celebrated for uniting people globally, little attention is paid to the corporate exploitation, social harms, and violence that are impacted on the host country. See: http://uprootingcriminology.org/blogs/fifa-world-cup-social-harm-examining-cost-football-fever/

10 years a slave? The political economy of food ...A six-month Guardian multimedia investigation has, for the first time, tracked how some of the world's big-supermakets, Tesco, Aldi, Walmart and Morrisons, are using suppliers relying on slave labour to put cheap prawns on their shelves. Slavery is back and here's the proof: http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/video/2014/jun/10/slavery-supermarket-supply-trail-prawns-video

ConferenceAbstract Submission Deadline for the Sixth Annual International Crime, Media and Popular Culture Studies Conference to be held at Indiana State University is July 7, 2014. Featured speakers this year include Jeff Ferrell, SpearIt, Travis Linnemann, Tukufu Zuberi, Emily Satterwhite, Michael Chemers, Jon Simons, Jen Schradie, and Kishonna Leah Gray. See: http://www.indstate.edu/ccj/popcultureconference/

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A BIG THANKS to all the European Group members for making this

newsletter successful. Please feel free to contribute to this newsletter by

sending any information that you think might be of interest to the Group to

Emma/Monish at : [email protected] try to send it in before the 25th of

each month if you wish to have it included in the following month’s

newsletter. Please provide a web link