cjm 74: Criminalisation
The latest issue of cjm includes a themed section edited by Christina Pantazis examining the use of criminalisation as a strategy to respond to a variety of social harms.
The articles in the latest issue of cjm magazine suggest that more laws do not always result in more order. Academics and practitioners writing in the latest issue of Criminal Justice Matters, the magazine of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at King's College London, also point to the partial and biased way the criminal justice system operates.
The magazine features a wide range of articles which critically examine the use of criminalisation as a strategy to respond to a variety of social harms. A number of articles focus on what might be termed the `over-criminalisation' of social groups such as the poor, young people, and migrants, as well as neighbourhoods that are blighted by poverty. Other articles examine the `under' or `lesser' criminalisation of certain harmful activities such as failure to implement the Minimum Wage legislation, the failure to respond to harms against women, and the failure to take environmental harms seriously. In doing so, the magazine draws attention to the selective nature of the criminal justice system and questions whether criminalisation is the most appropriate tool to respond to the myriad of social problems we encounter.
To view this issue of cjm online please visit the Informaworld website here.
Online access to the back catalogue is available free to all Centre for Crime and Justice Studies' members. To find out more about membership click here.
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Full list of articles in print version of cjm 74
EDITORIAL - Criminalisation and social structure
Will McMahon and Rebecca Roberts introduce this issue of cjm.
TOPICAL ISSUES AND COMMENT
Inequality: the obstacle between us
Richard Wilkinson calls for a new political movement committed to greater equality to address the social harms in contemporary society. Click here for the full version of the lecture.
The abject failure of British military justice
Phil Shiner examines the background to the failure of British Military Justice to hold anyone to account for the killing of Baha Mousa.
Prison Works?
Joe Black writes about why the government needs to make its mind up about prison; is it to be a modern industrialised gulag or a place to modify and control offending behaviour?
What is crime?
Rebecca Roberts and Will McMahon explain a new initiative exploring hidden and ignored crimes and harms.
THEMED SECTION; CRIMINALISATION
The problem with criminalisation
Christina Pantazis discusses the growing tendency for the state to criminalise since New Labour came to power and introduces the theme of `criminalisation' for this issue of cjm. (This article is available for free download).
The theory and politics of criminalisation
John Muncie argues that a critical understanding of criminalisation remains crucial in a discipline that can seem to be content with being an adjunct of state agencies.
Criminalisation and the eighteenth-century's bloody code
Lizzie Seal explores the link between poverty and criminalisation in the eighteenth century.
Over-criminalisation
The bonus of bias
Jeffrey Reiman discusses the criminalisation of the poor.
The criminalisation of places
Lynn Hancock considers how certain localities become labelled as `criminal areas'
A tale of two utopias
Simon Hallsworth and Svetlana Stephenson explore how urban renewal projects can criminalise those that don't fit the utopian dream.
The criminalisation of diversity
Jon Burnett discusses the increased state criminalisation of migrant communities and the social harm that results.
The uneven spread of school criminalisation in the United States
Paul Hirshfield explains why school misconduct in the United States, especially in the inner cities, is increasingly treated as crime.
Lesser criminalisation
Regulating the minimum wage: a social harm perspective
Simon Pemberton investigates the reluctance of the government to criminalise breaches of minimum wage legislation
The criminalisation of environmental harm
Rob White explores how environmental harm is conceptualised.
Criminalising violence against women: solution or dead end?
Laureen Snider argues that criminalising sexual and domestic assault in Canada has delivered real symbolic benefits to some women but has tightened the noose of coercive control for marginalised groups.
Debates about criminalisation
Drugs and decriminalisation
Rachel Lart places UK government policy in historical and European contexts.
Criminalising sexual harm
Lois S Bibbings focuses upon England and Wales and questions the use of criminalisation to address sexual harms.
Criminalising forced marriage: debates in the UK
Geetanjali Gangoli and Melanie McCarry analyse criminalisation as a strategy to combat forced marriage
The criminalising of social policy
John J Rodger suggests that criminalising social policy is an aspect of the changing role of the welfare state.
In Focus
Capitalism and penal policy
Richard Garside argues that those who want to reduce the prison population need to take seriously the relationship between penal regimes and wider social structures