Monthly News Bulletin
Email Bulletin October 2007
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.
**IMPORTANT INFORMATION** From this month (October 2007) this monthly bulletin will be re-titled as the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies' monthly e-mail bulletin. To introduce these changes will require that the data we have on the Harm and Society / Crime and Society database will be merged with the CCJS database. Whilst both databases have always been owned by CCJS we feel that it is important to inform you of this and ask that, if you wish to be taken off the database before the merger, you tell us as soon as possible by e-mailing with `please remove me from the database' in the subject field.
WHAT HAVE WE BEEN UP TO?
FAREPAK
Over 150,000 Farepak savers lost Christmas savings when the company collapsed on Friday, 13 October 2006 and to mark the 1st anniversary since the collapse, CCJS, in collaboration with the University of Birmingham and UNISON Welfare, have released preliminary research based on interviews with the victims. The launch of the full research report, which will carry quotes from interviews of Farepak victims conducted in August and September 2007, will take place in the House of Commons on Monday, 19 November 2007. Read more here.
CJM MAGAZINE - `PREVENTION'
The latest issue of Criminal Justice Matters magazine (CJM) has been published. Entitled Prevention, a selection of contributors from academic, policy and practitioner fields take a critical look at issues such as early intervention and situational crime prevention. Read the editorial and full list of articles here. If you are thinking of subscribing, please note that from 2008, all CCJS members will gain full online access to the full back catalogue. This issue will be followed by `Political Economy and Criminal Justice', edited by Pat Carlen and due out in December.
YOUNG PEOPLE
The Policy Press have published a book 'Young people and "risk"', edited by Maggie Blythe, CCJS' Deputy Director, Enver Solomon and Kerry Baker. Alongside the current media public preoccupation with high risk offenders, there has been a shift towards a greater focus on risk and public protection in UK criminal justice policy. This report draws together a distinguished panel to critically consider both the theory and application of the risk concept in work with young people and young adults that offend, both in terms of public protection and of young people's own vulnerability to being harmed. For more information please click here.
LABOUR PARTY CONFERENCE
Sean Roberts, Senior Associate, attended the Labour Party conference in Bournemouth. Among the interesting fringe meetings that he attended was one organised by the Child Poverty Action Group on education and poverty; and another organised by the Institute for Public Policy Research on poverty and life chances. Enver Solomon spoke at a Labour Party fringe meeting on police reform organised by the Police Federation and the Labour Party group `Progress' alongside Home Office Minister Tony McNulty, the head of the Police Federation Jan Berry and Alan Travis of the Guardian.
Enver also contributed to an invite-only roundtable fringe meeting on criminal justice and mental health at the Lib Dem party conference organised by the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health and Revolving Doors Agency
Zoë Davies, Project Officer, wrote for the Socialist Worker on why the Government's crime policy fails young people.
SACRO LECTURE
The Centre's director, Richard Garside, gave the annual Sacro lecture in Edinburgh on 11 October 2007. Speaking to an audience of around 150 people, Richard talked about issues crime, harm and civil society, in conversation with the Scottish journalist Ruth Wishart.
OTHER STUFF
OUR WORK
- Dr Roger Grimshaw, Research Director, gave a paper at the British Criminology Conference entitled `Democratic engagement with sentencing policy-does it work? and should we care?' Using results from the Local Crime-Community Sentence (LCCS) project Dr Grimshaw considered the implications for the 'democratic engagement' concept. The annual results of the LCCS project are available on our website here.
- Working on amalgamating the CCJS and `Harm and Society' websites.
- Attending the `Welfare State and Public Health' conference at UCL to find out about lessons from Nordic experiences.
- Participating in an expert policy group at MIND on access to justice.
- Writing an article for the prisoners newspaper, Inside Time, on the CCJS report on poverty amongst prisoners families.
- Writing an article for PRT magazine Prison Report on Community Sentences.
MOVING OFFICES
We successfully moved offices on Tuesday, 25 September and our new mailing address is:
Centre for Crime and Justice Studies
King's College London
Strand
WC2R 2LS
Our address for deliveries and visitors is:
Centre for Crime and Justice Studies
Melbourne House
46 Aldwych
London
WC2B 4LL
Our telephone numbers remain the same:
Main number is 020 7848 1688
Fax number is 020 7848 1689
Email:
COMING SOON....
SPLIT FOR PURPOSE
This year our AGM will take place on Tuesday, 11 December between 6pm - 7.30pm. The main panel discussion is entitled Split for purpose? The implications of Home Office reform. It will be chaired by BBC's Robin Lustig with Lord Falconer, former Secretary of State for Justice; Baroness Vivien Stern; Martin Bright, Political Editor, New Statesman. Places are filling up fast with over 100 people already having confirmed attendance. For further details, please download the flyer here.
NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE SEMINAR LECTURE SERIES
On 27 November 2007 Professor Sir Al Aynsley-Green, Children's Commissioner for England, gives the second lecture in the series at King's College. For further information about this FREE event and all of the lectures download the flyer here.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
Later this month we will be publishing `Criminal justice and social justice' which will consist of a selection of workshop papers from our July conference.
THE PROBLEMS OF EVERYDAY LIFE. CRIME AND THE CIVIL AND SOCIAL JUSTICE SURVEY
We will soon be publishing `The problems of everyday life. Crime and the Civil and Social Justice Survey', written by Dr Vicky Kemp, Professor Pascoe Pleasence and Dr Nigel Balmer of the Legal Services Research Centre.
HAVE YOU SEEN?
DEATHS IN CUSTODY
Will McMahon, Policy Director, attended the launch of 'Unlocking the Truth', a report written by Helen Shaw and Deborah Coles, the Co-Directors of Inquest. The report, which is available from the Inquest website, is an evidence-based publication about bereaved families' experiences of the investigation process and inquest system following deaths in custody. The report is exemplary in placing to the foreground the voice of the families who have experienced a loss and presents their experience in their own words. It is a model of how to crystallise campaigning practice experience in a concise report format.
POLICING REPORT
The HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary Sir Ronnie Flannagan's, interim report on policing considered the negative consequences of the Offences Brought to Justice target, which were set out in the CCJS report published earlier this year entitled'Ten years of criminal justice under Labour: an independent audit'. Sir Ronnie Flannagan concluded that the target has had `unintended consequences' with `officers spending time investigating crimes with a view to obtaining a detection, even when that is clearly not in the public interest'.
IN THE NEWS....
`BATON AGE LIMIT MAY BE LOWERED'
The Ministry of Justice is reviewing the guidelines on the use of batons on children held in young offenders institutions, which may result in staff being allowed to use batons on children as young as 15. Read the article here.
ASBO'S
Detective Chief Superintendent Neil Wain, head of the Stockport division of the Greater Manchester Police, has called for a halt to the criminalisation of young people through ASBOs, which he sees as a political tool rather than an effective strategy. He has published a book, The ASBO: Wrong turning, dead end in which he argues that the government have failed to look at the evidence surrounding ASBOs and to provide the support that is supposed to be offered alongside them. Gdn10
FIXED PENALTY NOTICES
On 5th September, the Daily Mail reported that police are to be given ticket machines to issue on the spot fines at the push of a button. The Centre for Crime and Justice Studies said that the Government had only met its target to bring more offences to justice by `significantly increasing the number of sanctions that do not formally go to court'. Read more here.
BRITAIN 17TH IN QUALITY OF LIFE INDEX
The `Pocket World in Figures' published by the Economist says that while Britain has the 5th biggest economy in the world, it is ranked 17 on quality of life.
QUOTES OF THE MONTH
'Nothing is illegal if a hundred businessmen decide to do it, and that's true anywhere in the world'.
American civil rights activist Andrew Young.
'I've always thought that underpopulated countries in Africa are vastly underpolluted.'
Lawrence Summers, chief economist of the World Bank, explaining why we should export toxic wastes to Third World countries.