The Internet Journal of Criminology (IJC) is a free access online journal. The primary aim of the journal is to publish international, scholarly and peer-reviewed criminology articles of the highest standard from many areas of expertise including the criminal justice system, crime reduction, delinquency, hate crimes and deviant social behaviour. We also publish non-peer reviewed articles - offering the opportunity for less experienced scholars to publish their work - which you will find on the Primary Research and Masters/Undergraduate Dissertation pages.
Trash Talk: Fee Evasion and Techniques of Neutralization by Older Women in Response to Rising Garbage Collection Fees By Dr. Virginia McGovern, Professor of Criminal Justice at Mount Saint Mary’s University, USA.
Trash and crime are not ordinarily mentioned in the same breath, but rising costs to dispose of rubbish are leading some to engage in criminal behavior. Costs for rubbish disposal have become much more expensive recently due to many factors, including rising land prices, strict environmental regulations, and host fees paid to localities to accept landfills. Add to this the current world-wide economic crisis which has left many scrambling just to make ends meet. This is especially true for older individuals on a fixed income. These individuals, however, are creative economic actors. Two ways some innovative individuals have found to pare rubbish removal costs are fee avoidance and undesirable diversion. In this project, older women found ways to cut their household costs by ‘sharing’ rubbish collection costs with neighbors. Unfortunately, for the actors, this behavior is a crime. While it is unlikely that the women trash sharers in this study will ever find themselves in prison for fee avoidance or borough ordinance violations, the increase in this type of economic coping strategy should be of interest to criminologists. As the population ages and inequality increases, many older females may feel that they must break the law in order to afford basic services. Economic stimulus packages that do not address the needs of older Americans will only exacerbate the problems of older Americans. Download
Bullying Boys: An Examination of Hegemonic Masculinity in the Playground By Dr. Loretta Trickett, Senior Lecturer and Researcher, Nottingham Law School, Nottingham Trent University, UK.
Violence between young men, particularly resulting from the emergence of a so called ‘gun and knife culture’, is currently subject to extensive media coverage in UK . Alongside this there has been increased anxiety about both the scale and impact of bullying in schools. These issues form part of a more generalised concern about men and boys in Britain often referred to as a ‘crisis of masculinity’. This article examines findings from research with male respondents about their relationship with hegemonic masculinity and bullying whilst at school and makes suggestions as to what can be done to tackle abusive behaviour amongst boys and young men. Download
Parent Abuse: Some Reflections on the Adequacy of a Youth Justice Response By Dr. Amanda Holt, Senior Lecturer, Institute of Criminal Justice Studies, University of Portsmouth, UK.
This short paper draws on data from a recent study which explored parents’ experiences of the youth justice process, including their own receipt of a Parenting Order as a result of their child’s involvement in offending. Whilst talking about their experiences, both mothers and fathers described experiences of ‘parent abuse’ and, drawing on extracts from these accounts, this paper reflects on the appropriateness of a dominant youth justice policy agenda - realised through the Parenting Order – in responding to such experiences. In doing so, it questions what alternatives there may be for responding adequately to ‘parent abuse’ and suggests that a new conceptualisation of the issue is necessary before adequate support and resources can be put in place for such parents and their families. Download
Finding the Far Right Online: An Exploratory Study of White Supremacist Websites By Mike Sutton, Reader in Criminology and Cecile Wright, Professor of Sociology both at Nottingham Trent University, UK.
White supremacists and the Far Right political movement in the UK have, had considerable success in spreading their messages through Web sites. Some of these Web sites clearly contribute to an enabling environment for racially motivated violence in our towns and cities and possibly help to underpin also the rise of, and support for, the Far Right in the UK and elsewhere in Europe. From a position that acknowledges the enduring issue of white hegemony in Western societies, this paper provides a number of research-based recommendations for further research and future policy and practice in tackling white supremacist racial hatred on the Net. Download
The German Hate Crime Concept: An Account of the Classification and Registration of Bias-Motivated Offences and the Implementation of the Hate Crime Model Into Germany's Law Enforcement System By Alke Glet, Criminological Researcher, Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law, Freiburg, Germany.
In the United States, hate crime has been on the criminological agenda since the 1980s. In 2001, Germany also made an attempt to adopt a similar concept as part of a reformed police registration system for so-called ‘politically motivated offences’, focusing predominantly on right-wing extremist crime. However, hate crime is a category which is open to selective interpretations and subjective judgments and to date there are still large empirical deficiencies regarding the identification and classification processes applied by the German police. High levels of ambiguity, uncertainty and arbitrariness initiate a debate surrounding the validity of official hate crime statistics in Germany and reveal a large potential for conflict when it comes to the definition and registration of xenophobic violence and other forms of hate-motivated crime. In this respect, it seems indispensible to carefully evaluate the implementation of the hate crime concept into Germany’s law enforcement system and to analyze current trends and developments, in order to provide valid data on the qualitative and quantitative nature of hate crime incidents in German society. Download
Researching White Supremacists Online: Methodological Concerns of Researching Hate 'Speech' By Ed Pollock, Lecturer in Criminology at Sheffield Hallam University, UK.
Researching crime online is a new frontier for criminologists, psychologists and sociologists. This paper explains and describes a virtual ethnographic study of white supremacists using a method best described as covert, invisible, non-participatory observation. The paper explains how difficult ethical issues were addressed in the study and points the way forward for further research in this area. Download
Mentally Disordered Offenders in Prison: A Tale of Neglect? By Laura Knight and Mike Stephens, Department of Social Sciences, Loughborough University, UK
The Prison Service’s increased emphasis on security and control has generated many obstacles for the effective delivery of psychiatric care to mentally disordered prisoners. Such prisoners do not have the necessary mental strength or coping mechanisms to deal with the ‘prison culture’ and this is particularly so for women, young people and ethnic minorities. Conflicting ideologies between the prison regime and the NHS mean that the mental health services available to prisoners are limited. Therapeutic communities offer a potential solution to the dire situation the Prison Service finds itself in. Download
A Period in Custody: Menstruation and the Imprisoned Body By Catrin Smith, School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Griffith University, Australia
Abstract This article, based upon pilot work conducted in a closed women’s prison in England, explores women prisoners’ own experiences and accounts of menstruation and the complex role of situation in determining reactions to menstrual symptoms and to menstrual change. Socialised to see menstruation in negative terms, women prisoners tend to perceive the experience of menstruation in prison as a particularly uncomfortable intrusion into their lives. It is an imposition which cannot, however, be accommodated in private. Negative expectations and experiences of menstruation in prison may influence many women prisoners to focus on its associated unpleasant symptoms. Here, imprisonment may well set up the circumstances in which women come to regard themselves as suffering, which will, in turn, determine whether or not they help-seek. The findings suggest a high level of menstrual distress in women prisoners and a high rate of use of prison health services for menstrual complaints. However, there is also evidence to suggest incongruous referral behaviour, a major cause of which seems to be unease or dissatisfaction with prison health care and, in particular, male doctors. Download
Neither Scylla Nor Charybdis: Transcending the Criminological Dualism Between Rationality and the Emotions By Majid Yar, Professor of Sociology, University of Hull, UK
Recent criminological theory has featured a division between rationality and the emotions as ways of constructing and understanding the actions of the criminological subject. This dualistic opposition renders it difficult to integrate reasons and emotions within a single theory of action or explanatory framework. This article proposed to overcome this dualism by re-theorising the relationship between rationality and emotions. Drawing on the theoretical and philosophical work of Margaret Archer and Martha Nussbaum, it makes a case for understanding emotions as reasonable (and hence rational) subjective judgements about objective experiential worlds. In this way, we can proceed by understanding actions as based in ‘emotional reasons’ and ‘reasonable emotions’, rather than confining emotions to the realm of the irrational or arational. In doing so, we overcome the dualism that threatens to undermine the explanatory or interpretive possibilities of criminological theory. Download
Mixing the Medicine: The unintended consequence of amphetamine control on the Northern Soul Scene By Dr Andrew Wilson, Senior Lecturer, School of Social Sciences, Division of Criminology, Nottingham Trent University, UK
Examining the influences leading to the introduction of amphetamine controls in Britain, this article focuses upon the consequences of the Drugs (Prevention of Misuse) Act 1964, and subsequent legislation. These laws had a major impact upon earlier Mod and later Northern Soul Scene subcultures in Britain, because both held amphetamine use as a central component of their recreational activities. The paper aims to provide greater understanding of the way criminalisation of amphetamines impacted on a user subculture that developed prior to criminalisation. While the 1964 Act effectively restricted supplies of amphetamines from the grey market, its failure to reduce demand created the market conditions for illicitly manufactured amphetamines. The changed legal setting also provided subcultural justification for the burglary of retail pharmacies which began soon after criminalisation. The response of the authorities to increased burglary of pharmacies had a particularly damaging impact on the amphetamine user culture of the post-mod Northern Soul Scene in the mid-1970s. The introduction of tighter storage regulations, stipulating the need to store Class B drugs in a secure metal cabinet with the opiates, led to a new cultural exchange between the amphetamine using chemist burglars and opiate user groups that involved the sale of the unwanted class A drugs, including exchanging opiates for amphetamine powder. The resulting spread of intravenous drug use on the Northern Scene, introduced a number of negative health impacts including the spread of hepatitis and drug related deaths. Download
Ex-offenders, Social Ties and the Routes Into Employment By Dr James Rhodes, Research Associate, School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester, UK
Although the role that employment plays in reducing re-offending has been widely acknowledged, less work has been done to explain why this should be the case. To begin to address this knowledge gap, this article focuses upon the various ways that ex-offenders benefit from employment opportunities, some of the specific difficulties they face in finding employment and how some manage to overcome them legitimately or else employ other adaptive strategies. Based on in-depth research with a sample of 12 ex-offenders, the research reveals the precise importance of the role of social relationships in securing and maintaining employment for ex-offenders. Importantly, the key role of social ties in the labour market – for those who have them – highlights the extent to which those leaving prison lack both the relevant vocational training and experience of the application process to compete effectively within a labour market that is already set heavily against them. Download
Ethnic Minority Representation on Juries – A Missed Opportunity By Fernne Brennan, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Essex, UK
People from ethnic minority groups (non-white) generally do not have confidence in the jury system. This is because they are not, or do not consider that they are, reasonably represented. Their lack of participation in this part of the criminal justice system means that such groups do not perceive that justice is done as far as they are concerned. This has implications for the belief that the right to a fair trial under article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights is maintained in the courts. The question of lack of representation of ethnic minority groups in individual jury trials is one that has been raised in a number of common law jurisdictions the USA and in cases before the European Court of Human Rights. But there is also a persistent failure to address the question of institutional racism as a process by which people from ethnic minority groups are excluded from the jury system in general. This is of great importance in the current context of racial discrimination, its link with the Trans Atlantic slave trade and the issue of reparations. The refusal to deal with institutional racism as a process of exclusion indicates a lack of understanding of how discrimination permeates justice systems. This is compounded by the fact that - in aiming to attain justice in individual cases of racial bias in juries - English courts, the government and its commissions have paid scant attention to the inclusion of ethnic minority peoples as jurors as a matter of course. Rather, the focus on inclusion issues has often been construed as a matter of race. This lacuna indicates that there is little grasp of the extent to which institutional racism plays a role in the process of excluding ethnic minorities from participating in the jury per se. This matter arises not only in the UK but in other jurisdictions where the question of racial bias, representation and white juries is raised. It is argued that positive measures should be used to redress this problem that would also demonstrate a commitment to dealing with slave trade reparations claims. Three propositions will be discussed: a) the exercise of judicial discretion; b) a firm rule requiring a number of people from ethnic minority groups on jury panels where race is an issue and; c) the presence of people from ethnic minority groups on any jury panel. The latter would occur, regardless of the issue in the case, in areas where there is a substantial number in the population and where this would not create practical difficulties. This paper strongly supports proposition C. It is submitted that such a measure would help to instil confidence in the jury system as regards people from ethnic minority groups.. Download
The Geography of Bus Shelter Damage: The Influence of Crime, Neighbourhood Characteristics and Land-Use By Andrew Newton, University of Huddersfield & Kate Bowers, University College London, UK
This paper offers unique insights into the distribution of damage to bus shelters, in a single case study area, Merseyside (UK). The geography of bus shelter damage is examined in relation to the criminogenic and socio-economic characteristics of its neighbourhood, and the local land use context. The findings suggest that shelter damage is related in a known and predictable way to known characteristics of its neighbourhood, and that shelters in areas with high levels of anti social behaviour and violence against the person are more susceptible to bus shelter damage. Two key factors in the occurrence of bus shelter damage appear to be lack of capable guardianships and the presence of youths. In relation to the influence of land use, the presence of parks, children’s play areas and schools (particularly those whose unauthorised truancy levels were above the national average) were positively correlated with shelter damage. By contrast, negative relationships were found between shelter damage and the presence of pubs, clubs, and off-licenses. The implications of these findings for crime prevention are then discussed, alongside some potential avenues for future research. Download
A Spatial Analysis of Neighbourhood Crime in Omaha, Nebraska Using Alternative Measures of Crime Rates By Haifeng Zhang, University of Louisville & Michael P. Peterson, University of Nebraska, USA
This paper analyzed the spatial patterns of four types of crime (assault, robbery, autotheft, and burglary) and their relationship with neighbourhood characteristics in the City of Omaha, Nebraska by using geographic information systems procedures and ordinary least square regression methods. Location quotients of crime and crime density were employed as two alternative measures of crime rates. This article has three important findings: First, the rationale of the employment of official crime rates for neighbourhood crime study is questionable; Second, while location quotients can be used to highlight the prevalent types of crime across urban neighbourhoods, they have limited use for the statistical analysis; and third, crime density focuses on the spatial intensity of crime and is more appropriate as the indicator of neighbourhood level crime than population-standardized crime rates and location quotients. This article not only presents important insights into the enhanced interpretation of the geography of neighbourhood crime, but also can be considered as testing the social disorganization theory and routine activity theory by using different measures instead of crime rates. Policy implications pertaining to neighbourhood crime mapping and law enforcement intervention are discussed at the end. Download
Any Number You Want? The Impact of Data Cleaning on Internal Validity By Aidan Wilcox, University of Huddersfeld, UK.
Concerns about the internal validity of reconviction studies tend to focus on factors such as initial comparability of groups. Often overlooked is the impact that data preparation can have. Data preparation refers to the decisions taken by researchers regarding which offenders to retain in the sample for analysis. Using data relating to a sample of offenders in two police forces, it is shown that these decisions, even when applied equally to both groups, can impact differentially on reconviction rates, weakening a study’s internal validity. Implications of the findings are considered and recommendations made to improve the transparency of the process. Download
Culture of Crime Control: Through a Post-Foucauldian Lens By Tim Owen, University of Central Lancashire, UK.
The paper identifies the broad organising ideas relating to David Garland’s (2001) ‘Culture of Control’ thesis. The critique respectfully identifies some theoretical deficits within Garland’s use of Foucauldian concepts pertaining to power, discourse, the conflation of agency and structure etcetera. Several post-Foucauldian ‘modifications’ are recommended including the use of some insights from Owen’s (2006a) Genetic-Social approach and Layder’s (1997) notion of Psychobiography. The findings of this conceptual and theoretical approach illustrate that Garland’s thesis would be enhanced by a post-Foucauldian, metatheoretical emphasis upon the dialectical relationship between the systemic and relational aspects of power; dualism; Psychobiography; and an anti-reductionist critique of agency-structure, micro-macro and time-space of the kind associated with the work of Owen (ibid) and Sibeon (1996, 2004). Download
Alley-Gating Revisited: The Sustainability of Resident’s Satisfaction? By Rachel Armitage & Hannah Smithson, University of Huddersfield, UK.
Alleys (snickets, ginnels, backways) are particularly common in British industrial cities and were originally designed to allow access to the rear of properties by coalmen and refuse collectors. Although alleys are still useful to allow residents access to the rear of their property without walking through the house, they also provide a means of entry and escape for offenders. Alley-gating is a crime reduction measure that involves the installation of a lockable gate across an alley, preventing access for anyone who does not have a key. This paper presents the findings of a study undertaken to examine the sustainability of Liverpoool’s Alley-gating scheme (a robust evaluation of Liverpool’s scheme was undertaken in 2002 see Young et al, 2003; Bowers et al, 2004). It specifically reports on the results of a residents’ survey undertaken in gated and non-gated areas. The findings are compared with those from 2002. The results suggest that the positive impacts on perceptions of crime and anti-social behaviour, and experience of crime and anti-social behaviour have been maintained over a four year period in Liverpool. Download
Risk, Respectability and Responsibilisation: Unintended driver responses to speed limit enforcement by Helen Wells, Centre for Criminological Research, Institute of Law, Politics and Justice, Keele University, UK.
A preoccupation with risk as a rationale for enforcement has led to significant changes in both the practice of control and the experience of being controlled. A concern with risk, howsoever caused, has led to whole new populations being drawn within the state's regulatory gaze and prosecuted under strict liability laws. The use of speed cameras to enforce speed limits has been one such development which has been the subject of intense public debate. This paper situates this controversy within a risk framework and explores the way in which drivers who describe themselves, in various ways, as 'respectable' have responded to this new role as a ‘risky’, rather than ‘at risk’, population. The negative consequences associated with being identified as a source of risk have, it is suggested, allowed drivers to re-conceptualise themselves as the victim, rather than cause, of risk on the roads. They have then been able to reject responsibility for risk while enthusiastically pursuing methods of responsibilisation which protect them from it. Download
Old Age and Victims: A Critical Exegesis and an Agenda for Change by Jason Powell, School of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Liverpool, and Azrini Wahidin, Centre for Criminal Justice at University of Central England, UK.
The elderly population merits more sustained sociological and criminological investigation because in western societies and globally the general population is both ageing and growing in size. This article critically analyses issues of old age and crime, focusing upon old age and victimisation, fear of crime and ageing offenders. The article sets out a proposed agenda for change in the focus of the criminal justice system, with a call for research to better inform policy and practice in this strangely neglected but increasingly important area of ageing and crime. Download
Dynamic Strategies to Legitimise Deviant Behaviour of Street Culture Youth By Dr Steffen Zdun, academic member of staff, University of Bielefeld, Germany.
This article focuses upon street-level violence, particularly upon issues of guilt neutralization and offending legitimization. Primarily, the paper is a synthesis of findings from the author’s empirical research in the field of youth violence and his in-depth critical examination of the published literature in this area. The paper asks some telling questions about what is currently known about offender guilt-neutralization and legitimization at various points before, during and after violent crimes. Ultimately, the author argues for the need to develop criminological theory and undertake more research to better understand the dynamic strategies that offenders employ to legitimize their violent offending. Download
Postmodern Policies? The Erratic Interventions of Constitutive Criminology By Mark Cowling, Reader in Criminology, School of Social Sciences and Law, University of Teesside, UK.
The constitutive criminology of Henry and Milovanovic and associated writers is the most positive and systematic attempt to develop a postmodern criminology. One way in which to judge a new departure of the sort is in terms of its results: what interventions, what ideas about policy or politics, does it offer in contrast to its antecedents? This article starts by very briefly outlining the theoretical foundations of constitutive criminology, which it identifies as a particular interpretation of Lacan, matched with chaos theory. It then reviews some of the main interventions proposed by constitutive criminologists. It argues that these add little to existing radical ideas, except for a potentially disastrous fascination with far-from-equilibrium conditions. Download
SELF-HELP AS AN EXPLANATION FOR VIOLENCE AMONG FEMALE INMATES: A Preliminary Assesment. By M. Dyan McGuire, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, Saint Louis University, USA.
Data were gathered from 52 female inmates residing in two women’s prisons located in Missouri, USA, through semi-structured interviews in order to document the existence of violence among female inmates and to evaluate causes of such violence. Donald Black’s self help theory was used as a paradigm for evaluating causes of violence among female inmates. The results of this study suggest that violence among female inmates is more common than typically assumed. The results also suggest that Black’s theory may account for the large amount of violence associated with homosexual relationships but is unable to explain the existence of predatory violence aimed at forcibly acquiring property or accomplishing sexual assault. Prison policies including those prohibiting homosexual conduct and the apparent de facto policy of punishing everyone involved in a fight may be unwittingly contributing to the problem of violence among female inmates. Possible reforms that might be helpful are discussed and analyzed. Download
SURVEILLANCE THROUGH CARE AND CONTROL: The Case of the Mentally Ill in Madison and Britain. By Mike Stephens, Senior Lecturer in Criminology and Social Policy at Loughborough University.
Increasing moral panic in Britain, fuelled by newspaper reports of ‘innocent’ victims being murdered by persons with serious mental illness failed by the system of community care, has led the government to consider the introduction of greater powers of compulsory treatment and detention for such individuals. Government plans have encountered much opposition in Britain, in particular from mental health professionals and those concerned with civil liberties. The government insists that the community care of the most seriously and potentially dangerous mental health consumers has failed. Its draft powers of compulsion are one further example of a gradual drift in Britain towards mounting surveillance of difficult groups not on an inclusive and caring basis but on an approach dependent on exclusionary and compulsory means, many of which have implications for civil liberties. However, in contrast to the government’s position, there is at least one place, Madison, Wisconsin, where a most successful system of community care for persons with mental illness can be found. There, even the most seriously ill individuals are frequently treated in the community so that they can exercise their civil rights to enjoy as normal and independent a life as possible. Download
Behaviour on London Buses and Tubes: Three Cases of Incivility By Simon Mackenzie, Lecturer in Criminology, School of Criminology, Education, Sociology and Social Work, Keele University
This paper reports observational data recorded on three journeys on London’s public transport network in 2004. The data is reported as experience in an approach that attempts, in the phenomenological vein, to bring the incidents to life for the reader. The strong subjectivity in this approach to the write up of data is then tempered by a more objective analysis of the three events. In this, the paper explores a link between the highly subjective, micro-level data, and the structuring propensities of the market. The ‘marketisation’ of emotion is argued to have structuring effects on morality as it is constructed and manipulated at an individual level. Download
A Deadly Faith in Fakes: Trademark Theft and the Global Trade in Counterfeit Automotive Components By Dr Majid Yar, School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research (SPSSR), University of Kent at Canterbury
Intellectual property (IP) crime remains as yet a marginal topic in sociological and criminological investigation. This neglect is due in part to the perception that such offences are ‘non-serious’ and/or ‘victimless’. This paper sets out to challenge such assumptions by examining a particular instance of IP crime, namely the counterfeiting of dangerous goods, and in particular the counterfeiting of automotive components. It is argued that such activities, now globally widespread, carry both significant economic costs, and that they pose substantial risks to public health and safety. Some of the key drivers of this trade are analysed, along with recent developments in law, policing, crime control and technological innovation that aim to curtail the counterfeiting of these and other dangerous counterfeit products. It is argued that IP crime comprises a socially significant and sociologically challenging phenomenon, one that deserves concerted attention from those working in the sociology of crime, law, health, risk, technology and political economy. Download
Self-perceptions, Masculinity and Female Offenders by Victoria Herrington, Kings College, London and Claire Nee, University of Portsmouth
It is generally accepted that men commit more crime than women; a statistic that has led many to look for an explanation for such disparity between the sexes. One explanation has proposed that masculinity and crime are inherently linked, and apparent increases in female offending in recent years has led some to conclude that this must be the result of women’s increased masculinity. Research aimed at identifying this increase has generally been limited and has failed to yield consistent results. This study utilised a self-perception measure of masculinity and femininity to explore this idea with four groups of women. Download
ALSO RECENTLY PUBLISHED IN THE IJC:
Criminal Arrest Patterns of Client Entering and Exiting Community Substance Abuse Treatment in Lucas County, Ohio, USA by Lois Ventura and Eric Lambert, University of Toledo, USA
Research on drugs and crime typically examines the substance abuse histories of criminal offenders. This study reverses the typical perspective by examining the criminal histories of adult clients served through publicly funded and community based substance abuse treatment agencies. The findings of this study showed that 64% of the clients entering community substance abuse treatment had histories of arrests for violent and/or nonviolent criminal crimes. In the year directly prior to treatment entry 27% of the clients had been arrested. In the 12-months following discharge from treatment 25% of the clients were arrested. While there was not a substantial difference in the percent of clients arrested in the pre and post-treatment periods, there was a difference in the pattern of arrests. The average number of arrests per client was reduced in most arrest categories. These reductions attain statistical significant reduction in the case of drug offenses. A logistic regression analysis showed that income, martial status and arrest in the 12-months prior to treatment significantly affected the likelihood of clients’ arrests in the post-treatment period. Download
Bulldog Whistling: Criminalization of Young Lebanese-Australian Rugby League Fans by Scott Poynting, School of Humanities, University of Sydney, Australia.
This article traces the course of a series of moral panics over the banding together, group identification and collective action of certain groups of young people - mainly young men - in and around some mass sporting events in New South Wales, Australia, in 2001-4. It could be a story of ‘football hooliganism’, except that the sport is not football (or ‘soccer’, as it is known in Australia), but rugby league. That such ‘collective behaviour’ had been relatively unknown in this sporting milieu in Australia provided the opportunity for the racialized ‘othering’ of those labelled as deviant, in the context of the construction of the ‘Arab Other’ (and later the Muslim Other) as the pre-eminent folk demon of contemporary Australia. Download
Blurring Fame & Infamy: A Content Analysis of Cover-Story Trends in People Magazine by Jack Levin, James Alan Fox and James Mazaik, Northeastern University, USA
This article reports the results obtained in two studies of People magazine. Our results suggest that, from 1974 to 1998, the cover themes of issues of People magazine shifted away from celebrity careers to a preoccupation with the stars’ personal problems–illnesses, crime, and family/sex issues. Over the decades, moreover, the basis for People celebrities appearing in a cover story became decidedly more negative. During the early years, most of the stars were on People’s cover because they had accomplished a virtuous objective. More recently, however, the magazine heaped attention–perhaps inordinate attention–on the “accomplishments” of rapists, child abusers, drug addicts, and murderers. Download
Restorative Justice and Three Individual Theories of Crime by Greg Mantle (Anglia Polytechnic University, UK), Darrell Fox (Youth Offending Team Practitioner) and Mandeep K. Dhami (Assistant Professor of Legal Psychology, University of Victoria, Canada.).
This paper first reviews the concept of restorative justice, and then examines the affinities and tensions between restorative justice and three ‘individual’ criminological theories: classicism, individual positivism, and ‘law and order’ conservatism. These theories have been selected because of their significance in the development of present criminal justice policies. Download
Of Targets and Supertargets: A Routine Activity Theory of High Crime Rates by Ken Pease & Graham Farrell (Loughborough University), Ken Clark (University of Manchester) and Dan Ellingworth (Manchester Metropolitan University).
The notion of supertargets is introduced for the first time in this paper to refer to the 3 or 4 percent of chronically victimised targets that account for around 40 percent of crime victimisation. The esteemed authors demonstrate that theory-testing relating to crime requires the inclusion of the crime concentration rate to incorporate repeat victimisation and they indicate how mathematical modelling may, in turn, illuminate the crime concentration predictions of routine activity theory. Download
'Race', Ethnicity and the Courts by Tahir Abbas, University of Birmingham
This paper discusses findings that have emerged from the Department for Constitutional Affairs (formerly the Lord Chancellor’s Department) Courts and Diversity Research Programme. During 1999-2003 four projects were commissioned, completed by academic researchers and published by the department. This paper explores the background issues to the research programme, the specific area of ethnicity within the criminal justice system, and addresses the implications of findings for socio-legal research evidenced-based policy. Download
Rebels with a Cause, Folk Devils without a Panic: Press jingoism, policing tactics and anti-capitalist protest in London and Prague by Fiona Donson (Cardiff University), Graeme Chesters (Edge Hill College), Ian Welsh (Cardiff University) and Andrew Tickle (CPRE)
This paper examines whether anti-capitalist political activists are (mis)constructed as ‘folk devils’, through an examination of media coverage in the UK and Czech Republic. The construction, of such protestors, as violent criminals and dangerous ‘anarchists’ has, it is argued, influenced their treatment at protests by public authorities in London and Prague. The paper also offers, in juxtaposition to this representation of the current anti-capitalism movement, a discussion of the accounts of activists themselves. In particular it examines the activists’ own perceptions of their engagement in the global social movement against capitalism. The paper is based on evidence drawn from the preliminary findings of interdisciplinary research into global social movements, and in particular the protests against the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Prague in September 2000. This paper is particularly timely given the recent protests by pro-hunting groups both in the chamber of the House of Commons and in Parliament Square. Download
Where Do We Go From Here? Researching Hate Crime by Barbara Perry, Northern Arizona University. This paper identifies several strangely neglected areas of hate crime scholarship, including the lack of critical reflection on the usefulness of the term “hate crime” as a descriptor of bias motivated behavior. Concerning measurement issues, concepts and causes, hate groups, responses to hate crimes and comparative scholarship, there are many gaps in our knowledge that are avenues for further enquiry. In particular, we have failed to examine the specificity of the bias crime experiences of diverse victim groups. Download
THE
INTERNET JOURNAL OF
CRIMINOLOGY©