Guardian Series: Crime and Fear

For your interest... the Guardian is running a series on Fear of Crime in the media at the moment, which seems to consist of articles mostly arguing that a better understanding of how 'fear of crime' is propagated can help us to progress more constructively as a society. Also, there is a preview of a documentary on the subject which is really interesting and features commentary from Rod Morgan about the progression of Law and Order issues in politics, which might tie in quite well with some of the issues we've been discussing while reading 'Governing Through Crime'.

Here's the link:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/series/crime-and-fear

Summer Reading Project: 29 June 2010

Our next meeting is on 29 June at 3pm in LO4. I'll be giving an overview of Chapter 4 'Judgement and Distrust: The Jurisprudence of Crime and the Decline of Judicial Governance' and look forward to seeing you then.

A great blog for everyday sociology with a twist of cringe-worthy humour.

Gender and policing 101...

http://contexts.org/socimages/2010/06/11/a-cop-car-for-you-little-police-boy/

Plural Policing and Transition: Reflections on Ellison an O'Rawe (2010)

For those of you with any interest in matters of plural policing, security governance, or even transitional justice, check out a recent article by Graham Ellison and Mary O'Rawe titled “Security Governance in Transition...” published in the journal Theoretical Criminology earlier this year (Vol. 14:1).

What really made this article stand out for me was the fact that unlike most previous attempts to subject Clifford Shearing's 'nodal security governance thesis' to 'empirical scrutiny' (p. 32), Ellison and O'Rawe manage to do so convincingly in relation to a transitional context through their analysis which suggests that “...contrary to the official rhetoric valorizing and claiming local community participation in the aftermath of the ICP reforms, policing has remained decidedly ‘top down’...” (p. 34). As somebody researching the police reform process in Bosnia and Herzegovina it is thus hardly surprising that reading this article immediately compelled me to look for parallels between these two transitional societies (of which I believe there to be many). Off the top of my head, Andy Aitchison's (2007) article in Policing and Society which focuses on the international donor community's approach to shaping the police reform process in Bosnia and Herzegovina similarly concludes that “...mainstream policing assistance to BiH has remained focused on a paradigm dominated by state provision...” (p. 338) while Hansen's (2008) analysis of the EUPM's recent push for greater centralisation and coordination between the country's cantonal and municipal police forces also appears to be indicative of a persistent 'top-down' reformative mentality.

From this quick comparison there arises an important question of whether there are common underlying factors which exist in most transitional (post-conflict) societies that serve to impede upon the actualisation of nodal or pluralistic policing practices or whether this trend, as observed within these two sites is better attributed to unique contextual circumstances such as the historical character of police-community relations, distinctive sources of convergence/policy transfer, and even the existing institutional culture and organization structures of both government and the police. While I would argue that local differences must not be ignored when conducting any kind of comparative analysis, there do appear to be a number of seemingly logical reasons as to why any transitional state with a recent history of conflict would hesitate to embrace a pluralistic framework for policing. Lacking the time or the energy to cover them all here, I will illustrate one such rationale which appears to be pertinent to key decision makers in all transitional contexts featuring enduring social divisions and I will then proceed to draw attention to a major flaw in its underlying reasoning as evident from my own ongoing research based in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Reverting back to Ellison and O'Rawe's analysis of the Independent Commission on Policing in Northern Ireland, one source of concern for both transitional governments and international donors alike regarding the implementation of a participatory model of local security governance is that it could create opportunities for potentially destabilizing local actors and interests (i.e. nationalist parties or even former combatants) to assert and possibly even legitimize their divisive interests within these newly created 'spaces' (p. 43). Perhaps this reasoning should be seen as hardly surprising given that Nicola Lacey and Lucia Zedner (1995) have previously described how the the concept of community, which arguably represents the paradigmatic manifestation of these 'spaces' in most late modern societies, has come to represent an important site of political contestation between liberal and conservative interests in mainland Britain over the past two decades. Thus, while in Northern Ireland, even though the government has not overtly resisted the rhetorical impetus towards Shearing's nodal model of policing, Ellison and O'Rawe nonetheless demonstrate that it (through its various agents including the public police) has managed to subvert any real progress to this effect by “...position[ing] itself to continue to ‘steer’ policing, untroubled by the vagaries of democratic input (p. 45)...”

While perhaps these fears and the resultant actions are not surprising, I would nonetheless argue they are vastly overstated, even when one considers the potentially destabilising issues inherent to most transitional societies. As evident from the fragmented structures of both government and the police in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the risk that these newly created spaces could fall victim to hegemonic manipulation by divisive local interests may actually pale in comparison to the prospect that these same divisive interests are ultimately capable of attaining power and even legitimizing themselves through the formal institutions of the state. This is evident throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina as nationalist parties continue to dominate elections, transparency in terms of both governance and policing is lacking, and municipal police forces across the country remain largely homogeneous in terms of their ethnic composition. All of this effectively translates into a dysfunctional system of state-centric security governance whereby large segments of the population continue to view the police as either corrupt, oppressive and sometimes at best unreliable.

In lieu of these shortcomings, one must therefore consider that concept of community may in fact hold real promise for improving the local provision of security governance in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In fact, it may represent the only prospect for any positive change given that Bosnia and Herzegovina's private security sector remains highly underdeveloped and understaffed compared to neighbouring Croatia and thus does not represent a major compliment or alternative to public policing in this context. I argue that this effectively leaves community-based policing and community safety programmes as the leading options for pursuing what Aitchison (2007) has previously described as 'micro-level reforms' conducive to a pluralistic nodal model of local security governance.

Note that I plan to develop this argument further in two papers that I am planning to present at the ESC Conference and the Cambridge PhD Criminology Conference in September but for now, I suggest that if any of this interests you, read through Ellison and O'Rawe's article!

Governing through crime

In the previous meeting of the reading project, we discussed the US-specific focus of Simon's work. It seems that Gemma was not the only one to spot this! In the newest issue of the European Journal of Criminology there is an article that tries to find parallel developments in the European Union. Here is the abstract:

Estella Baker
European Journal of Criminology 7(3) 187-213.

In Governing through Crime, Jonathan Simon offers an 'interpretation' of contemporary practices, discourses and experiences of the state in the USA that aims to provide a 'thick' account of the use of crime as a governance strategy. In support of this argument, he cites a variety of constitutional, cultural, economic, historical , political and social factors. Many of them are demonstrably US-specific. Therefore, any potential for exploring the application of his ideas to another governmental entity might appear to be precluded. This article challenges that supposition, investigating their possible relevance to an understanding of the European Union's evolving and increasingly significant role as a penal actor.

Summer Reading Project: 15 June

Our third meeting takes place on Tuesday 15 June at 3pm. Please note change of venue for this meeting - Room L04. Jarrett will start the discussion on Chapter 3: 'We the Victims: Fearing Crime and Making Law'.

SCCJR Research Soundbites

Here's a link to the SCCJR Vimeo account where they have interviewed some members (most recently Fergus McNeill) on their research. Also includes lectures from Anthony Bottoms and Rod Morgan....

http://www.vimeo.com/12365719

Gritty Danish Prison Drama Anyone?

Hi everybody.

I was looking through the offerings for the upcoming Edinburgh International Film Festival and came across a film called 'R' which is a Danish prison drama. See the links below for more information and a trailer (in Danish).

http://www.edfilmfest.org.uk/whats-on/2010/r

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBLR3-NMNNg

Anyhow, I am planning to book myself a ticket to see it on Saturday 19 June at 20:45 at the Filmhouse and I think that our esteemed moderator and her non-biological twin are planning on joining me so please feel free to come along and perhaps we can all go for a drink afterwards and discuss the film.

Police Culpability for Failings in the Rachel Nickell Murder Investigation

In relation to a recent discussion on the blog regarding the use of offender profiling in the investigation into the murder of Rachel Nickell, I thought I'd highlight the ongoing media interest in this case. However, there's a change in focus today, as an IPCC report has stressed the culpability of the Metropolitan police for the failure to prevent this murder. The report details a series of police 'blunders' which prevented Robert Napper, the man convicted of this crime, from being identified sooner, in spite of numerous previous instances where he was brought to their attention. Although there's no mention of offender profiling, this does give rise to other issues. Can we reasonably expect the police to respond to all 'tip offs' from members of the public? Do the conclusions of the report indicate real failings in policing procedures, or do they merely benefit from hindsight in highlighting unfortunate police mistakes?

The full article can be found here on the Guardian website:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jun/03/police-blunders-robert-napper-murders

The Scheme: voyeurism and exploitation or fair depiction of hidden sections of society?

I just watched the first episode of The Scheme last night after discussion about it in our meeting yesterday. I found it compelling and slightly horrifying if I'm honest, had to watch most of it through my fingers. I had a wee trawl through comments online to see what's being said about it, and whether it has prompted any discussion about 'the underclass' as was speculated. The debates seem to be around whether this is an accurate depiction of life on that housing estate or indeed on housing estates round the country and whether the editing process has sensationalised it or not.

The local MSP and those who live in that community say the programme has picked the most extreme families of the area, and painted a picture that does not do justice to many people who do an honest day work and do the best for their families.

Even if this is case and these are the most extreme cases, it nonetheless provided a textbook casestudy worthy of any developmental criminologist's inquiry. Yikes, somebody call a social worker.