Meaning of home : a comparison of the meaning of home as identified by samples of Victorians with, and without, an intellectual disability

This phenomenological study of the meaning of home from the perspectives of people with and without an intellectual disability sought to identify, (a) any common ‘essence’ of meaning held by and, (b) the nature of any differences of perception between, the groups. Purposive samples of 18 people with an intellectual disability and 21 non-disabled people were surveyed using a semi-structured interview to ascertain their experiences of home and \u27non-homes\u27. Inductive analysis of the data revealed a shared understanding of the meaning of home at a fundamental level. This shared meaning of home was found to comprise: the ability to exert control over an area; having a personalised space; feeling content with the living situation; a sense of familiarity with the setting; a set of behaviours and routines usually only enacted when at home; common names and uses for rooms; socialising at home with others; the importance of a positive social atmosphere in the home; and, recognition of places as non-homes because they lacked one or more of these attributes. Further analysis revealed the essence of home is its experience as the place where stress is most reduced or minimised for the individual. The study demonstrates that the concept of stress is superordinate to previously identified concepts considered fundamental to home such as privacy, control and non-homes. Major differences between the two samples were largely differences of degree with people who have an intellectual disability reporting the same fundamental attributes of home as people who do not have an intellectual disability, but in a less elaborated form. Principal among these differences of degree was the notion of control over the home and its derivative elements which encompassed the whole dwelling including its setting for people without an intellectual disability but was very restricted for people with an intellectual disability being largely confined to the person\u27s bedroom. Socialising in or from the home was also very limited for people with an intellectual disability in comparison with that experienced by non-disabled informants with the former group conveying an impression of leading significantly socially isolated lives at home. The major implications of this study are related to the meaning of home per se, to residential service provision to people with an intellectual disability, and to future research

Reforming sentencing and penal policymaking?

This paper summarizes the research published as Dangerous Politics (OUP, 2015), which utilizes the Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) story as a case study of sentencing and penal policymaking

Weeding the garden: The Third Way, the Westminster tradition and imprisonment for public protection

This article engages with the Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentence of the UK Criminal Justice Act 2003, a prominent measure against ‘dangerous offenders’, in a ‘substantively political light’ (O’Malley, 1999). It provides an interpretation based on policymakers’ beliefs and traditions. I argue that the perceived need for the IPP sentence and its ultimate form was the result of New Labour ministers’ reliance on the Third Way political ideology and its implications for criminal justice policy. In addition, in terms of the policymaking process, I suggest that the ‘Westminster tradition’ conditioned policymakers’ actions in relation to the IPP sentence, in ways that were crucial to its outcome. The article concludes with an examination of the moral significance of these beliefs and traditions by reference to Bauman’s discussion of the dangers of a modern ‘garden culture’

Probing probation : issues of gender and organisation within the probation service

Metadata merged with duplicate record (http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/671) on 20.12.2016 by CS (TIS).This is a digitised version of a thesis that was deposited in the University Library. If you are the author please contact PEARL Admin ([email protected]) to discuss options.This study focuses on the probation service and the changes that are impacting on this part of the criminal justice system. It develops a theoretically distinctive approach, drawing on the literature of gender and organisations, in order to investigate issues relating to the organisational structures and processes experienced by male and female probation officers in three disparate probation areas in England. The opening two chapters examine the development of the organisation in terms of the hierarchical roles within the service and the gendered distribution of probation officer staff across the various grades. This review provides a unique understanding of the changing composition of the probation service and enables a gendered perspective to be applied to its history. Within this context issues of professional identity and autonomy, the value base and working practices of probation officers, and the shift from local to centralised control are scrutinised from an analytic position which identifies the embeddedness of gender within this organisational setting. The framework of a reflexive approach interweaves gendered issues from the quantitative findings with qualitative responses from interviews with male and female probation officers and participant observation within different working environments. New perspectives are gained on the shift from local to Home Office direction of the service, and into the abandonment of the social work qualification and ethos. Moreover, the complexities of working relationships and professional identities are opened up from a gendered viewpoint. In this respect the study addresses the absence of gender within other research in this area and concludes that a gendered analysis is of critical importance in understanding the extent of organisational change within the probation service

Theorising the role of “the brand” in criminal justice: the case of integrated offender management

The rise of branded programmes and interventions is an important, but largely under-explored, development in criminal justice. This article draws on findings from a study of a British Integrated Offender Management (IOM) scheme to ground a broader theoretical discussion of the meaning and implications of the increasing centrality of such ‘brands’. This article focuses primarily upon the ways in which criminal justice practitioners might draw upon brands in order to (re-)construct their professional identities. On-going fundamental reforms of criminal justice organizations, which have tended to blur the traditionally clear distinctions between professional roles, have made this need to reinforce (and indeed reconstruct) practitioner identities ever more pressing. The article closes by considering the prospects and limitations of criminal justice brands. It is argued that while brands may play an important role in ‘ethically orienting’ relevant practitioners, there is a danger that the absence of appropriate structural underpinnings may prove to be highly counter-productive

The resettlement of women offenders: learning the lessons: a research project focusing on the experience of the female offender.

Part of the Cornwall VSF Promoting Change Project. The research was jointly funded by The Lankelly Chase Foundation and the Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Commissioner. Some additional facilitation grants were received from the University of Plymouth

Penal policymaking: a collaborative symposium. Summary report

The event ‘Penal Policymaking: A collaborative symposium’ was held on 14 April 2016, at the Institute for Government. It was attended by a range of policy participants and academics. It was held under the Chatham House rule. This report provides summaries of the discussion in each session, along with the briefing papers distributed in advance. The sessions were as follows:1. Developing Sentencing and Penal Policymaking2. Practitioners, Policymakers and Penal Policy3. Localism, Markets and Criminal Justice Policy<br/

Discovering Mental Ill Health: 'Problem-Solving' in an English Magistrates' Court

People with problems of mental ill health are overrepresented in the criminal justice system. Community justice courts have established procedures for ‘problem-solving’ as a way of addressing these and other issues associated with pathways into crime. In this chapter Auburn et al examine problem-solving in one such court in England. The ways in which mental health issues are raised by members of the problem solving team and how signposting is implemented, is examined. Three main questioning forms are identified and the influence that these forms have on the meeting-talk trajectory is discussed. There was a continuum from eliciting ‘no problem’ responses to facilitating claims of mental ill health. Specific ‘diagnostic procedures’ are also identified as important precursors to advice delivery. The clinical relevance of these findings is considered

Populism, Conservatism and the Politics of Parole in England and Wales

Reform of the parole system has emerged as the cause célèbre of a resurgent law and order politics. Successive governments have seized upon the symbolic power of parole to demonstrate ‘toughness’ with respect to violent and sexual offending, to express solidarity with the victims of crime and reaffirm a populist credo that purportedly stands in opposition to an unaccountable and out of touch penal elite. Published in March 2022, the Ministry of Justice Root and Branch Review of the Parole System represents a continuation of this well-rehearsed political strategy, but arguably goes further than ever before in its willingness to dispense with established norms, rules and practices. This article surveys the contemporary politics of parole in England and Wales and reflects upon what these developments reveal about the shifting contours of a creeping authoritarian conservatism premised upon nostalgia, nationalism and the projection of a strong, centralised state

Introducing the Napo Archive

This comment piece outlines the genesis of the Napo Archive and the process of its establishment at the Institute of Criminology at the University of Cambridge. It outlines the scope that these resources offer for researchers, students, and for those with a more general interest in probation. It also points to the unique vantage points that these materials could offer in relation to investigations into the historical development of probation policy and practice, and the emergence of Napo as a professional organisation and subsequently as a trade union. </jats:p