Embargo: 00.01 hours, Friday, November 14, 2008. Does more law mean more order? (14/11/08)
More laws do not always result in more order, articles in the latest issue of cjm magazine suggest today. 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.
Elsewhere in this issue:
- Professor Richard Wilkinson asks why New Labour is the only Labour government which has failed to reduce income differences - despite 11 years in office? He argues that none of the dramatic widening of income differences which took place in the 1980s and early `90s under the Thatcher governments has been reversed. `The best that can be said is that without a Labour government inequality might have been even greater than it is.'
- Phil Shiner, a solicitor at Public Interest Lawyers, takes a critical look at the case of Baba Mousa the Iraqi detainee who was killed by British soldiers in a detention facility in Basra, Iraq in September 2003 after sustaining 93 separate injuries. Calling for a complete overhaul of the military justice system, he asks: `given the evidence and the relevant domestic criminal provisions how is it that no soldier was charged with torture, wilful killing or murder?'
- Simon Hallsworth and Svetlana Stephenson from London Metropolitan University show how London's King's Cross urban renewal project shares disturbing parallels with the urban renewal projects under Stalinist Russia. Both seek to remove the poor, the ill, and the awkward. Writing about King's Cross they say: `Utopia will indeed be constructed in King's Cross. Café culture will arrive. The global businessman will at last be free to enjoy his cappuccino without having to confront the unpleasant and distressing sight posed by the casualties of the free market experiment.'
- Geetanjali Gangoli and Melanie McCarry from the University of Bristol consider the issue of forced marriage and show how it has become, for the government, bound up with immigration strategies. Their own research shows that stakeholders had a mixed view on the effectiveness of criminalisation and they also warn against civil measures. Instead they argue that there should be a greater priority towards `exit' strategies for women and children in forced marriages.
Christina Pantazis of the University of Bristol, the guest editor of this issue, said:
`New Labour has introduced more criminal offences and has presided over the largest growth in imprisonment that we have witnessed in recent years. Yet, it is highly questionable whether society has been made safer as a result. Criminalisation leads to an already largely vulnerable group of people being shamed, stigmatised and labeled which can entrench harmful behaviours, thereby making society less rather than more safe.'
Richard Garside, director of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, said:
'There is a long history of attempts to solve social problems by passing a law. This has been very effective at criminalising individuals, it has been rather less successful at solving those problems. The essays in this issue of cjm show how important it is to separate questions of law from problems of order.'
ends
Contact:
Will McMahon, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, 020 7848 1688 or 07968 950 223
Notes to editors:
- Criminal Justice Matters is the quarterly magazine of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, an independent charity based at King's College. The views expressed in the magazine do not necessarily represent those of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies. To view this issue of Criminal Justice Matters, visit the Informaworld website.
- The Centre for Crime and Justice Studies is an independent charity based at King's College London. It was established in 1931 and aims to inform and educate about all aspects of crime and the criminal justice system from an objective standpoint. It encourages and facilitates healthy debate and understanding of the complex nature of issues concerning crime.
- The full list of articles is as follows:
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.
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
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