School resource officers, 'zero tolerance' and the enforcement of compliance in the American education system

Schools are an important part of any community, and are increasingly considered responsible for the social education of young people as much as their academic instruction. In doing so, many schools have adopted a ‘zero tolerance’ response to student conduct that involves harsh penalties for minor infractions. At the heart of this zero tolerance approach is the use of School Resource Officers (SROs) as a means of enforcing student discipline. Involvement of these sworn police officers in the day-today behaviour management processes of a school has serious implications for students that are targeted by these measures. Students at schools with a SRO presence are five times more likely to be arrested for disorderly conduct, with over 10,000 prosecutions of young people under the so-called ‘disturbing schools’ laws every academic year. SROs and their use as a behavioural deterrent can be seen to influence a juvenile’s likelihood of recidivism and heavily impacts upon their involvement in the school-to-prison pipeline. Direct causal connections exist between the criminalisation of misbehaviour in school and adult incarceration; in this sense, the presence of SROs in American schools must be re-evaluated in order to determine whether they constitute an acceptable application of social control

The data and deviance: disintegrative shaming and exclusion in Queensland schools

It is the purpose of this study to determine the extent to which the implementation of the Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) model and its focus on data-driven behaviour management has impacted on exclusion rates in Queensland public schools and, as such, the commitment of Queensland public schools to reintegration of students with behavioural issues. Using the open source data on student exclusion rates and the reasons for exclusion, it is possible to determine shifting patterns over the last 10 years. In doing so, it has been possible to identify how the approach to exclusion in Queensland public schools has changed in the period since the introduction of the OneSchool data aggregation software. An analysis of exclusion data shows that while long-term suspensions have decreased over the last 10 years, the rate of short-term suspension and exclusion has increased. There has been a particular increase in disciplinary absences related to conduct issues like refusal to participate in class, rather than more serious violations like physical violence or drug use. Using Braithwaite’s reintegrative shaming model as a framework to analyse this behavioural exclusion data indicates that an over-reliance on exclusion is steering Queensland schools away from the principles of restorative justice, and has a negative impact on student outcomes

Big fish, small pond: NGO–corporate partnerships and corruption of the environmental certification process in Tasmanian aquaculture

Aquaculture is the single largest agribusiness in the Australian state of Tasmania, with local company, Tassal, the foremost producer of farm-raised salmon in the country. Tassal has come under considerable criticism for its environmental impact, despite the fact that since 2014, the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) and the World Wildlife Fund have certified it consistently as a sustainable business. This article argues that these endorsements are the result of a corrupt corporate arrangement that is designed purposefully to mislead consumers. It examines the considerable payments to both non-governmental organizations from Tassal and the questionable nature of the certification process administered by the ASC

"500 tokens to go private": camgirls, cybersex and feminist entrepreneurship

The adult entertainment industry has often been seen by feminist groups as antithetical to the women’s liberation movement, with the commercialisation of misogyny taking place under a patriarchal business model. The advent of live streaming video and webcam technology has forced a considerable paradigm shift in the power relationships involved in pornography; the burgeoning ‘camgirl’ genre— in which young women independently broadcast explicit material at the behest of an audience—essentially serves to return control over adult entertainment to the female participants that are involved in its creation. The interactive nature of the camgirl genre has resulted in the development of a unique transactional relationship between performer and consumer that transcends that which currently exists within the industry. The rise of the camgirl has significant implications for both the adult entertainment industry and internet culture on the whole, presenting innovative business opportunities for young performers to engage in entrepreneurial behaviour

A new front in the history wars? Responding to Rubenhold’s feminist revision of the Ripper

Hallie Rubenhold’s The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed By Jack the Ripper has drawn the criticism of the community of amateur sleuths dubbed ‘Ripperologists’ for its revisionist perspective, which claims that the canonical five victims of Jack the Ripper were not all sex workers. Rubenhold’s victim-centred approach has opened a new front in the history wars, as Ripperologists accuse her of historical denialism in pursuit of a feminist agenda. This article assesses Rubenhold’s methods, and her contribution to historical criminology, as well as considering why dominant historical narratives of crime prove so resistant to reinterpretation

'Love me or hate me – I don’t care': Katie Hopkins, Celebrity Big Brother and the destruction of a negative image

This article aims to analyse the appearance of controversial British columnist Katie Hopkins on reality television series Celebrity Big Brother. Katie Hopkins made a name for herself as a public figure as a result of attracting public criticism for her harsh views on a range of topics from obesity to welfare reform. This notoriety led to her 2014 appearance on the British edition of Celebrity Big Brother. During Hopkins' time on the series, cracks began to form in her carefully cultivated negative public image; given her relatively unique approach towards courting controversy, this transformation was particularly profound and provoked a number of questions regarding the 'celebreality' genre and its impact on the prominent personalities that become involved

Days of alt-rage: using the Weatherman movement to deconstruct the radicalisation of the alt-right

No matter whether they adhere to a left-wing or right-wing political ideology, the evolution of a radical activist group shares a common trajectory. As such, it is possible to explore the rise and fall of a far-left organisation like the Weathermen in order to better understand the development of the alt-right, and to devise strategies to combat extremism in a contemporary context. By examining the role of identity politics in fermenting a radical socio-political agenda, as well as the tactics that contribute to the formation of a groupthink mentality, it is made clear that the very strategies of indoctrination and direct action that solidify a radical base are the very same as those that work to divide such groups and isolate them from mainstream socio-political discourse

Thine is the kingdom: reconceptualising the Latin Kings street gang through the prism of revolutionary vanguardism

With more than 25 000 members, the Latin Kings are considered one of the most formidable and dangerous street gangs in the United States of America. While the politicisation of criminal organisations is not entirely exceptional, the Latin Kings’ development of a pseudo-religious belief system called ‘Kingism’ that encourages members to move beyond street crime and commit to socio-political revolution raises questions as to if they should be classified as a common street gang or, alternatively, a revolutionary force struggling with a pervasive criminal element. This analysis offers a critical reconceptualization of the Latin Kings as a political force whose criminal entrepreneurialism is just another method of destabilising the dominant capitalist system in its campaign for Marxist values, and presents an opportunity for law enforcement agencies to form strategies to combat their criminal operations by appealing to its members’ own self-conception as a liberating force for oppressed Latinx communities

The trouble with squads: accounting for corruption in Australia’s specialist policing units

The specialist squad is a common aspect of modern intelligence-led policing. Officers seconded to such units learn from the institutional knowledge and experience in a certain area of enforcement, allowing them to develop an expertise that enables proactive policing. While the utility of specialist squads is clear, the vulnerability of officers attached to them to become involved in corruption is also high. Corruption research argues that officers in squads are at risk of engaging in misconduct for a variety of reasons, such as the low visibility of their work and the necessity of building relationships with criminal actors. The history of police corruption in Australia supports this theory, with a range of examples of corruption in specialist squads to be found across the country. From an historical criminology perspective, this article explores the corruption in Australia’s specialist squads to discuss why risk factors were not addressed despite being consistently identified in the past. It also looks at attempts by police administrators and governments to deal with corruption in specialist squads, evaluating the efficiency of these strategies with a view to informing future anticorruption measures

The cult of corruption: reframing organizational frameworks of police corruption from a cultic perspective

Corruption in policing is a criminological phenomenon that is regularly misconstrued – whether as a case of independently-operating “rotten apples” or as a passive symptom of anomic organizational culture. This article seeks to reframe organized police corruption as an active process of seductive-recruitment, wherein corrupt officers utilized the same strategies as a conventional cult to both recruit and retain members. Using the example from Australia of the Queensland Police Force in the era before the Fitzgerald Inquiry as its primary case study, this article draws on a range of cult studies theories to develop an innovative framework for understanding the process by which an officer is lured into organized corruption. It discusses the intrinsic and extrinsic motivators for this in-group affiliation, with reference to matters of role and identity that derive from involvement with the “blue brotherhood” of policing. In casting organized police corruption as a form of secular cult, it provides an opportunity to better understand the tactics used to entrap new members into corrupt networks, as well as to consider the factors that make them vulnerable to recruitment in the first place