Suchergebnisse

This book is concerned to analyse the production of criminological knowledge, with particular reference to one of the most important institutions in the western world involved in this -the official inquiry. The core focus of this book is thus to investigate the structures and processes of official discourse, and the ways in which this produces knowledge on crime and justice - a much neglected topic in comparison to the attention that has been played to the role of the media in this process. The mechanisms that produce official discourse vary according to different jurisdiction, but some clear

This highly controversial new book considers how the dangerous offender has become such a figure of collective anxiety for the citizens of rationalised Western societies. The authors consider:* ideas of danger and social threat in historical perspective* legal responses to violent criminals* attempts to predict dangerous behaviour* why particular groups, such as women, remain at risk from violent crime.This inspired collection invites us to rethink the received wisdom on dangerous offenders, and will be of interest to students and scholars in the fields of criminology and the sociology of Ris

Abstract What constitutes a "civilized society"? The Oxford Dictionary defines it as one that has reached "an advanced stage of human development in which people […] behave well towards each other and share a common culture." Yes, but there is more to "being civilized" than this. Based on Norbert Elias' The Civilizing Process, this paper examines how the rise of populism in leading Anglo-American societies has undermined many of the essential attributes of civilized societies. Although the emergence of COVID-19 further added to this decivilizing process, COVID-19 and populism oppose each other. The former shows the empty promises and fraud of the latter, which can only be defeated by belief in science and a strong (but accountable) central state authority. Despite damaging individuals and societies, COVID-19 ironically helps strengthen the civilising process and weaken populism.

Chengguan (城管) is part of the stability maintenance regime specializing in civil law enforcement in China. Many protests today have occurred in reaction to Chengguan harsh enforcement rather than police action. Using survey data (n = 1,721) from China, the authors found both severity and leniency in Chengguan law enforcement. The authors also found that Chengguan enforcement styles are largely conciliatory rather than legalistic, and that Chengguan officers are more likely to be harsh during politically important periods than during politically unimportant periods. The authors explain the temporal variation in Chengguan severity and leniency with three institutional factors of autocracy: resource constraints, upward accountability, and the politics of ritual events. This study offers a new account of law enforcement in China. (J Contemp China/GIGA)

This article examines the extent to which changes in Swedish values and culture are undermining what has come to be known as the penal exceptionalism of that society. It does this by contrasting the two very different pictures of Swedish society that are to be found in the detective novels of Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, set in the 1960s and early 1970s, and those of Henning Mankell, set in the 1990s onwards. Notwithstanding the extensive social change we find reflected in them, it is argued that Sweden's penal exceptionalism has been reconfigured rather than swept aside. It largely remains intact for those on the legitimate side of the barriers and divisions that mass immigration has constructed around it, but those whose ethnicity denies them this status are likely to find themselves excluded from it.

This article examines the growth, influence and limits of penal populism in New Zealand. In this country, it argues, there were four crucial factors associated with this: disenchantment with the existing democratic process; the dynamics of crime and insecurity in a period of considerable social change; the growth and influence of 'victimization groups'; the emergence of a new kind of penal expertise.