Monthly News Bulletin
Email Bulletin June 2009
Welcome to the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies' monthly email bulletin, bringing you a roundup of news, research, political developments, events and updates on our work.
WHAT HAVE WE BEEN UP TO?
Not a stab in the dark
The Centre has published its report into the evidence around `Young people, knives and guns: A comprehensive review, analysis and critique of gun and knife crime strategies'. The work, one of the most comprehensive reviews to date of research on the effectiveness of approaches to gun and knife crime, examines evidence from the United Kingdom, United States and a number of other countries. This report is a revised version of research funded by 11 Million, the organisation led by the Children's Commissioner for England. The report can be downloaded here.
`Zero tolerance on carrying knives won't stop violence' is how the report was featured in the Sun (10/06/2009). One of the report's authors, Roger Grimshaw, research director, welcomes a suggested shift to a public health approach to `youth violence' in response to the Home Affairs Committee's report on `knife crime' in Children and Young People Now. (Registration is free to read the full article here.
Policy, purpose and pragmatism
...is the Centre's exploration of the experience of voluntary and community organisations (VCOs) that predominantly work with black young people affected by crime in England. Published this month and debated at an invitation only seminar, this report is based on interviews carried out by research associate Helen Mills, and considers the current dilemmas and challenges facing providers in this sector. The report, which was funded by Barrow Cadbury, can be downloaded here.
Director Richard Garside wrote a piece for Community Care magazine, based on this research which can be read here.
New issue of cjm: the voices of children and young people
Including, Girl M (15) speaking about her experience in Yarl's Wood: `I saw how the other people had suffered from being there. How they've just got pain in their eyes. ...In Yarl's Wood, my mum was sad and crying all the time. It was really hard, seeing her like that. I did everything I could.' Care leaver Tony, who is 20 and has been in prison since 16 said: `Being in care and being in prison are two different things. I know it can seem like care is prison but prison is the worse place on this earth. Getting told when to get up and doing the same stuff everyday. Being locked behind a door for most of the day and having to watch your back from day to day - it's not a life to live and it's time for a change - not just for me but for everyone.' Read more here.
Partners or Prisoners
... is the Centre's report on `Voluntary sector independence in the world of commissioning and contestability', exploring the voluntary sector's involvement in the criminal justice system. The report draws together the themes from a debate on the current challenges facing the criminal justice voluntary sector in maintaining its financial and organisational independence. (The debate was held earlier this year and was chaired by Mark Easton, Home Editor at BBC News.) The report is downloadable here.
Also, coming soon...
Estimating drug harms: a risky business
We are booking final places for the twentieth Annual Eve Saville Memorial Lecture on Tuesday 14 July 2009, 6-7pm in the Edmond J. Safra lecture theatre, King's College London. It will be presented by Professor David Nutt, Imperial College London, who will be addressing the broad theme of: drugs and other social harms in society, and what we might do about them. For further details and information on booking a place please click here or e-mail your name, organisation (if applicable) and phone number to
What is crime? Discuss
The What is crime? exhibition and discussion events are a chance to give your view, and to view images from our photography competition. The exhibition opens at 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning from 4 July to 21 August, with a public discussion evening of the images and new research findings on 23 July. Details for the 198 are here and an invitation to the exhibition can be found here.
By way of a sneak preview, some of the competition entries can be seen here, as featured in the Independent earlier this month.
There will be a presentation of research findings at an invitation-only, Chatham House event at 1 July event, House of Commons, exploring how we think about `crime' and its causes, what social harms may or may not be regulated and what priorities legislators should address. David Stuckler's research on `Recession and health in the European Union: Could losing your job cost you your life?' will feature in the Lancet, 8 July. Details for this discussion can be seen here.
The Una Padel Award 2009
Do you know of an individual or organisation that you feel has made, or shows the potential for making a real contribution to helping improve the lives of people caught up in the criminal justice system, their families and communities. The nomination process for this year's Una Padel Award is now underway. We are inviting nominations by and for individuals and organisations working within the criminal justice field, including charities and community groups, prisons, probation and police. Visit the Una Padel Award page for further details and to download a nomination form here.
And not coming soon...
Our daily news summaries, a free service to which many of you subscribe, will come to an end as of 1 July 2009. We hope to start a new service later in the year offering in-depth analysis of key news and policy developments. If you would like to know more about this initiative, or would like to offer your support, our director Richard Garside would be delighted to speak to you. He can be contacted at
Other stuff
Director Richard Garside spoke at a Justice Forum event on crime and the recession. The Justice Forum is a consortium of justice sector trade unions, where Richard argued that there was no iron law that meant higher crime during recessions. However, he said the lesson from previous recessions was that more violence, homicide and other harms did tend to increase.
Richard also attended the 'Make Justice Work' launch. He left feeling unpersuaded that the main obstacle to fair and just prison policies was public ignorance about the cost of imprisonment, and observed at the launch that criminal justice reformers seem to do little these days to engage the public or policy makers in a debate about values and the kind of society we wished to live in.
Helen Mills and Arianna Silvestri, research associates attended the 'Youth Justice and the Policy Process: Messages from Research and Practice' at the University of Liverpool.
TAKE A LOOK AT THIS
Children: Innocent Until Proven Guilty
This report from the Prison Reform Trust (PRT) reveals that three quarters of under-18 year olds locked up on remand do not subsequently receive a jail sentence but are either acquitted or given a community sentence. The report can be downloaded here.
Prison can seriously damage your health
Also from the PRT, comes this report that concludes that `high levels of imprisonment damage health' and that the absence of a `cross-governmental approach' has `widened health and social inequalities'. The report can be downloaded here.
The role of living wages during recession
Dr Vinnie Patterson, University of Manchester, argues that `campaigns for a living wage remain vital during the current economic downturn', in the latest Scottish Anti-Poverty Review (No.9). The review can be downloaded here.
Growing up in social housing
Research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation that compares the experiences of four generations, shows that `those living in social housing have become more disadvantaged and that these disadvantages persist into adulthood.' The report can be downloaded here.
Social Animals
This report from the RSA looks at the role of design in improving the experience of prison visiting, with a view to increasing visits. The report can be downloaded here.
IN THE NEWS
Labour's lost generation
There are over 200,000 16 to 18 year olds not in education, employment or training, which is 150,000 more than in 1997 according to the Daily Mail (17/06/09)
Two thirds of job cuts hit poorest
Financial Times research has found that the burden of rising unemployment in England is falling on the most deprived areas. An analysis of those signing on for the job seeker's allowance in the first four months of 2009 showed that two-thirds of the 344,000 increase was in areas with above average levels of deprivation. FT (16/06/09)
Benefits claimants `still seen as scroungers'
A report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has found that the perception of people on benefits as `scroungers' is still deep. It found that people believed high incomes were fair while people on low incomes largely deserved to be poor. Guardian (21/06/09)
Treat drug use as an illness, not a crime
The head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime calls for drug use to be treated more as an illness than crime as well as reporting that there has been a decline in the worldwide production of cocaine and heroin. Guardian (25/06/09)
The spy society
The Mirror details `the astonishing amount of data gathered on every one of us'. Mirror (29/06/09)
Penal Tour de France
`Breakaway sprints will not be allowed' in this bike ride by French prisoners as part of a project to `reintegrate (people) into society by fostering values like effort, teamwork and self-esteem'. BBC News
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
`The passing at the Children's Act, 1908, which practically forbids imprisonment before 16 years of age, marks the last stage in that slow and tedious journey which had to be undertaken by many devoted men and women who were conscious of the grave evils resulting from imprisonment, before it was generally realized that it was not by throwing children and young persons automatically and indiscriminately into gaol, that the grave problem of juvenile delinquency was going to be solved.'
Sir Evelyn Ruggles-Brise K.C.B.,Chairman of the Prison Commission, in The English Prison System, Macmillan, 1921, p. 101. With thanks for this suggestion to bulletin reader Robert Shaw.