Drawing on a body of empirical, qualitative work spanning three decades, this unique text traces the significance of critical social research and critical analyses in understanding some of the most significant and controversial issues in contemporary society. Focusing on central debates in the UK and Ireland - prison protests; inner-city uprisings; deaths in custody; women's imprisonment; transition in the north of Ireland; the 'crisis' in childhood; the Hillsborough and Dunblane tragedies; and the 'war on terror' - Phil Scraton argues that 'marginalisation' and 'criminalisation' are social forces central to the application of state power and authority. Each case study demonstrates how structural relations of power, authority and legitimacy, establish the determining contexts of everyday life, social interaction and individual opportunity.

This book explores the politics and ethics of critical social research, making a persuasive case for the application of critical theory to analysing the rule of law, its enforcement and the administration of criminal justice. It is indispensable for students in the fields of criminology, criminal justice and socio-legal studies, social policy and social work.

In 2007, the Corston Report recommended a far-reaching, radical, 'women-centred' approach to women's imprisonment in England and Wales. It suggested a 'fundamental re-thinking' about how services to support women in conflict with the law are delivered in custody and in the community, recommending the development and implementation of a decarceration strategy. This argued for appropriate treatment programmes in the community, reserving prison for only those women who commit serious and violent offences. Ten years on, what progress has been made? What is the relationship between Corston's vision and a more radical abolitionist agenda? Drawing on a range of international scholarship, this book contributes to the critical discourse on the penal system, human rights, and social injustice, revealing the consequences of imprisonment on the lives of women and their families. A decade on from Corston's publication, it critically reviews her report, revealing the slow progress in meeting the reforms it proposed. Identifying the significant barriers to change, it questions the failure to reverse the unrelenting growth of the women's prison population or to transform state responses to women's offending. Reflecting the global expansion of women's imprisonment, particularly marked in advanced democratic societies, the chapters include comparative contributions from jurisdictions where Corston's recommendations have relevance. It concludes with a critical appraisal of reformism and the case for penal abolition. Essential for applied and theory courses on prisons, punishment, and penology; social justice and the criminology of human rights; gender and crime; and feminist criminology.

Readers of criminological literature are presented with little more than thumbnail sketches as to the social characteristics or motivations of the authors. One learns their status, institutional location, and supposed credentials. Rarely are we presented with more detailed impressions of the authors as a combination of positivist assumptions and notions of professional competence seemingly render such information unimportant. However, increasing numbers of critical scholars are becoming aware of authorship as an issue; it matters who is addressing us. By taking these authors out of their methodological framework, Critical Voices in Criminology provides an opportunity for figures in and around critical criminology to discuss their own intellectual journeys into and within the discipline. The book offers the opportunity for contributors to reflect on their work and consider what they did not say. It also affords them the opportunity to describe their own 'channeling processes' by indicating how the pursuance of some themes/topics 'seemed' appropriate, sensible, or realistic, while others appeared less so, whether they internalized these particular themes, or attempted to contest and/or replace them.

Readers of criminological literature are presented with little more than thumbnail sketches as to the social characteristics or motivations of the authors. One learns their status, institutional location, and supposed credentials. Rarely are we presented with more detailed impressions of the authors as a combination of positivist assumptions and notions of professional competence seemingly render such information unimportant. However, increasing numbers of critical scholars are becoming aware of authorship as an issue; it matters who is addressing us. By taking these authors out of their methodological framework, Critical Voices in Criminology provides an opportunity for figures in and around critical criminology to discuss their own intellectual journeys into and within the discipline. The book offers the opportunity for contributors to reflect on their work and consider what they did not say. It also affords them the opportunity to describe their own 'channeling processes' by indicating how the pursuance of some themes/topics 'seemed' appropriate, sensible, or realistic, while others appeared less so, whether they internalized these particular themes, or attempted to contest and/or replace them.

Conceived in the immediate aftermath of the humiliations and killings of prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq, of the suicides and hunger strikes at Guantanamo Bay and of the disappearances of detainees through extraordinary rendition, this book explores the connections between these shameful events and the inhumanity and degradation of domestic prisons within the 'allied' states, including the USA, Canada, Australia, the UK and Ireland.

The central theme is that the revelations of extreme brutality perpetrated by allied soldiers represent the inevitable end-product of domestic incarceration predicated on the use of extreme violence including lethal force. Exposing as fiction the claim to the political moral high ground made by western liberal democracies is critical because such claims animate and legitimate global actions such as the 'war on terror' and the indefinite detention of tens of thousands of people by the United States which accompanies it. The myth of moral virtue works to hide, silence, minimize and deny the brutal continuing history of violence and incarceration both within western countries and undertaken on behalf of western states beyond their national borders.

The contents include: Introduction: Theorising Violence in Carceral Contexts by Jude Mcculloch and Phil Scraton; Part One: Contemporary Historical Contexts; Beating Political Prisoners: The H Blocks - Laurence Mckeown, Coiste, Belfast; Entombing Resistance: Institutional Power and Polarisation in the Jika Jika High-Security Unit - Bree Carlton, Monash University; Protests and 'Riots' in the Violent Institution - Phil Scraton; Part Two: Current Issues; Child Incarceration: The Politics of Punishment and the Practice of Abuse - Barry Goldson, University Of Liverpool; Incarceration and Strip Searching as Sexual Violence - Amanda George and Jude Mcculloch, Deakin University and Monash University; and Degradation, Harm and Survival in a Woman's Prison - Phil Scraton and Linda Moore, Northern Ireland, Human Rights Commission.It also includes: Beyond 'Violence Against Women': Rethinking Gender Violence and the Prison Industrial Complex - Cassandra Shaylor; State Violence, Incarceration and the Refugee - Sharon Pickering, Monash University and Jude Mcculloch; the Imprisonment and Custody Deaths of Indigenous Peoples - Chris Cunneen, University Of Sydney; An Economy of Cruelty: Prisoner Accounts of the Psychological Violence of Everyday Life in Prison - Diana Medlicott, University of Buckingham; and A Reign Of Penal Terror: U. S. Statecraft and the Technology of Punishment and Capture - Dylan Rodriguez, Assistant Professor, Department Of Ethnic Studies, University Of California; Notes; Bibliography; and Index.

Drawing on a body of empirical, qualitative work spanning three decades, this unique text traces the significance of critical social research and critical analyses in understanding some of the most significant and controversial issues in contemporary society. Focusing on central debates in the UK and Ireland - prison protests; inner-city uprisings; deaths in custody; women's imprisonment; transition in the north of Ireland; the 'crisis' in childhood; the Hillsborough and Dunblane tragedies; and the 'war on terror' - Phil Scraton argues that 'marginalisation' and 'criminalisation' are social forces central to the application of state power and authority. Each case study demonstrates how structural relations of power, authority and legitimacy, establish the determining contexts of everyday life, social interaction and individual opportunity.

This book explores the politics and ethics of critical social research, making a persuasive case for the application of critical theory to analysing the rule of law, its enforcement and the administration of criminal justice. It is indispensable for students in the fields of criminology, criminal justice and socio-legal studies, social policy and social work.

This anthology presents accessible and often personal accounts of the aftermath of September 11th 2001, the bombing of Afghanistan and the dubious claims for its legality. From investigative journalists to academics, human rights lawyers and anti-racist campaigners, the contributors are united in their opposition to military intervention in Afghanistan and beyond and to the attack on civil liberties in the US, the UK and Europe.

Examining current political and policy debates concerning children and young people, this text provides a discussion of the politics of childhood, focusing on topics such as: the family; education and schooling; mental health; crime and justice; and sexuality.

Examining debates concerning children and young people, this text discusses the politics of childhood, focusing on topics such as: the family; education and schooling; mental health; crime and justice; and sexuality.

In 2007, the Corston Report recommended a far-reaching, radical, 'women-centred' approach to women's imprisonment in England and Wales. It suggested a 'fundamental re-thinking' about how services to support women in conflict with the law are delivered in custody and in the community, recommending the development and implementation of a decarceration strategy. This argued for appropriate treatment programmes in the community, reserving prison for only those women who commit serious and violent offences. Ten years on, what progress has been made? What is the relationship between Corston's vision and a more radical abolitionist agenda? Drawing on a range of international scholarship, this book contributes to the critical discourse on the penal system, human rights, and social injustice, revealing the consequences of imprisonment on the lives of women and their families. A decade on from Corston's publication, it critically reviews her report, revealing the slow progress in meeting the reforms it proposed. Identifying the significant barriers to change, it questions the failure to reverse the unrelenting growth of the women's prison population or to transform state responses to women's offending. Reflecting the global expansion of women's imprisonment, particularly marked in advanced democratic societies, the chapters include comparative contributions from jurisdictions where Corston's recommendations have relevance. It concludes with a critical appraisal of reformism and the case for penal abolition. Essential for applied and theory courses on prisons, punishment, and penology; social justice and the criminology of human rights; gender and crime; and feminist criminology.

This is the definitive, unique account of the disaster in which 96 men, women and children were killed, hundreds injured and thousands traumatised. It details the appalling treatment endured by the bereaved and survivors in the immediate aftermath, the inhumanity of the identification process and the vilification of fans in the national and international media. In 2012, Phil Scraton was primary author of the ground-breaking report published by the Hillsborough Independent Panel following its new research into thousands of documents disclosed by all agencies involved. Against a backdrop of almost three decades of persistent struggle by bereaved families and survivors, in this new edition he reflects on the Panel's in-depth work, its revelatory findings and their unprecedented impact - an unreserved apology from the Prime Minister; new criminal investigations; the Independent Police Complaints Commission's largest-ever inquiry; the quashing of 96 inquest verdicts; a review of all health and pathology policies. Paving the way for truth recovery and institutional accountability in other controversial cases, he details the process and considers the impact of the longest ever inquests, from the preliminary hearings to their comprehensive, devastating verdicts. Powerful, disturbing and harrowing, Hillsborough: The Truth exposes the institutional complacency that led to the unlawful killing of the 96, revealing how the interests of ordinary people are marginalised when those in authority sacrifice truth and accountability to protect their reputations.