Search results

AbstractThe article examines the measures for combating forms of social pathology, such as criminal behavior and medicalized moral disorders, which were debated in Bulgaria from the end of 19th century onwards. Hence, the regime of mental incapacity under Bulgarian criminal law and the professional discussions on the nature of crime and abnormality are explored. The analysis focuses on the influence of criminological concepts on Bulgarian psychiatric and legal discourses, as well as on their links to interwar eugenic projects. The engagement of Bulgarian intellectuals with criminological and eugenic policies is studied within a general process of adoption and adaptation of Western biopolitical models. The article addresses the conceptual specifics of the Bulgarian debates on social and mental pathology and their practical relevance.

Convicted offenders need jobs when they leave prison—but few people want to hire them. Spotlighting this thorny issue, Melvin Delgado explores the potential role of business enterprises in providing work to former prisoners and helping them to reconnect with their home communities. Delgado documents the unconventional approaches of nonprofit businesses that deliberately and exclusively hire former inmates. He finds that employers can play a multifaceted role in helping ex-convicts to face life "on the outside": beyond wages, for example, they may offer skill training, mentoring, and social support. As he evaluates the successes and failures reflected in his case studies, he provides a window on the complex interplay of social, economic, and institutional factors that can encourage, or prevent, a successful reentry process

What is the role of science in social work practice and what does it add to research in the field' Ian Shaw threads together advances in modern technology, practice skills and evidence-based practice, the history of scientific claims in social work practice, and the methods of social work research to demonstrate the significant role science can play in the management of human emotions and behavior. By treating science as a social action marked by the interplay of choice, activity, and constraints, Shaw links scientific and social work knowledge through the core themes of quality evidence, critical learning and understanding, and the skilled evaluation of the subject. He shows specifically how to connect science, research, and practice and speaks to the novel topics this integration introduces into the discipline, including a focus on expertise and the benefits of tacit knowledge and understanding

Do pretrial release programs, initiated and now operated by a range of nonprofit organizations to redress the inequalities of the bail system, affect the administration of justice? Specifically, do they lessen the barriers to justice often faced by poor and minority defendants? Ursula Castellano's ethnographic study of four pretrial release programs reveals the often unintended consequences of incorporating social service nonprofits in the criminal court process. Castellano explores the intimate workings of pretrial release programs to show how contract caseworkers now play a critical role at nearly every stage of the criminal justice process--and also how well-intentioned nonprofits can end up compromising the traditional adversarial legal process in the name of treatment, sometimes in ways that are detrimental for defendants. In the process, she raises new questions about the increasing involvement of nonprofits in the operation of government

Review of the Field In this issue, Social & Legal Studies is pleased to publish the third of an occasional feature: Review of the Field. Our ambition in this series is to publish articles which reflect upon fields of study and which offer a critical appraisal of the key literature and concepts. The aim is to provide not only a valuable map of the scholarly terrain but, equally, we hope that the format will give authors the opportunity to set a direction of travel for their discipline. Thus, we anticipate that reviews will ask new research questions, identify gaps in the scholarship and explore connections and discontinuities between diverse bodies of knowledge. Suggestions for future reviews are welcome and should be addressed to members of the Editorial Board. We are pleased to publish this Review of Feminist Criminology by Katharine Dunbar Winsor of Concordia University. We hope that our readers agree with us that the article provides an important addition to the literature and provides an invaluable template for contributors of future reviews. Editorial Board Social & Legal Studies The emergence of the feminist movement in the 1960s and 1970s became a primary influence of the field of feminist criminology. Feminist criminology has evolved over the past several decades and has remained impacted by and in dialogue with feminist thought and perspectives. Within the field, researchers have focused on producing and circulating women-centred knowledge. Despite this, tensions within the field highlight diverging approaches to what and who is studied. In Canada, the maturation of feminist criminology as a field has coincided with significant changes to women's penology. In this essay, the development and changes to feminist criminology are mapped through an examination of key events and changes in Canada's penal strategies for women. What emerges is the argument that feminist criminology must understand itself beyond narrow and discrete terms and instead must work with the tensions and debates of the field to keep women's voices centred and the feminist social project alive.

Reentry after release from incarceration is often presented as a story of redemption. Unfortunately, this is not the reality. Those being released must navigate the reentry process with diminished legal rights and amplified social stigmas, in a journey that is often confusing, complex, and precarious. Making use of life-history interviews, focus groups, and ethnographic fieldwork with low-income urban residents of color, primarily Black men, Calvin John Smiley finds that reentry requires the recently released to negotiate a web of disjointed and often contradictory systems that serve as an extension of the carceral system. No longer behind bars but not fully free, the recently released navigate a state of limbo that deprives them of opportunity and support while leaving them locked in a cycle of perpetual punishment. Warning of the dangers of reformist efforts that only serve to further entrench carceral systems, Purgatory Citizenship advocates for abolitionist solutions rooted in the visions of the people most affected