British Criminological Amnesia: Making the Case for a Black and Postcolonial Feminist Criminology

The discipline of Western criminology emerged during the colonial era as a means of controlling the ‘other’. Despite its failures in terms of recidivism these perspectives have been adopted on a global scale. Crime and punishment have been heavily influenced by these ideas and continue to reproduce them in relation to problematic, and pathologising, discourses such as the UK gang agenda which positions young black men as naturally aggressive, sexual predators and innately criminal. How criminologists carry out research also demands attention through a decolonial lens. A move towards a British postcolonial criminology has received scant attention despite there being a range of global literature which calls for changes to be made to the roots of the discipline. Similarly, feminist criminology in Britain has barely been touched by ideas of black and postcolonial feminisms. Consequently, drawing on what has written to further the cause of a black feminist criminology (BFC), this paper argues for the adoption of a black and postcolonial feminist criminology (BPFC) in the UK whereby issues of race, intersectionality and decolonial baggage are central to how we understand crime

Adult Online Hate, Harassment and Abuse: A Rapid Evidence Assessment

The development of email and social media platforms has changed the way in which people interact with each other. The open sharing of personal data in public forums has resulted in online harassment in its many forms becoming increasingly problematic. The number of people having negative online experiences is increasing, with close to half of adult internet users reporting having seen hateful content online in the past year. This report presents findings from a collaborative study undertaken by the University of East London (UEL) and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). It describes the findings from a Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA) of the evidence base in relation to adult online safety undertaken on behalf of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS). The research was undertaken on behalf of the UK Council for Internet Safety Evidence Group. This REA focuses on exploring internet safety issues amongst adults, given the expansion of the remit of the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS) to include adults in the context of the new Internet Safety Strategy (2018) and Online Harms White Paper (2019)

Getting to know you: Engagement and relationship building: First interim national positive futures case study research report

This report represents the culmination of the first phase of the Positive Futures (PF) Case Studies Research Project rather than a definitive set of findings as such. Rather like the PF programme itself it is very much a work in progress which is evolving all the time in the context of the action research approach we have adopted. This approach involves a cycle of action and reflection, with both the projects and research adapting in relation to the themes that emerge from the study as it progresses. Nevertheless whilst this element of the research has been concerned as much with the establishment of relations with projects and participants as investigating the relationships between them, we have begun to identify a number of tentative themes and findings. These themes are presented in a fashion which is intended to guide the future direction of projects every bit as much as to gain abstract theoretical insight. Yet this recognition of the importance of practicality and direction should not distract from the importance of gaining a wider contextual feel for the programme. For whilst this summary is intended to highlight the key themes emerging from the research and the policy and practice issues associated with them, it is in the detail of the main report that a full appreciation of the PF approach emerges. It is from the more narrative accounts in these subsequent parts that we have drawn the conclusions and recommendations presented here and which will provide the baselines against which we assess future progress. Indeed these accounts are themselves drawn from three regional reports focused on the seven case studies that constitute the overall national research project

Hegemonic Masculinity and “Badness”: How Young Women Bargain with Patriarchy “On Road"

The relationship between masculinity, crime, and violence has a long history, whereby hegemonic masculinity is utilized as a resource to create and sustain tough reputations “on road”, where everyday lives are played out on urban streets. Within the context of road culture—of which gangs are part—this is particularly significant given the hypermasculine focus. This paper considers Raewyn Connell’s (1995; 1997; 2000) work on hegemonic masculinity and emphasized femininity and develops it in new directions by exploring how these hegemonic identities are inscribed on women’s bodies. In the English context, the dominant discourse around young women “on road” is of that of passivity, as they are victims first and offenders second. An underexplored area is their role as perceived “honorary men” when adopting behavior associated with hegemonic masculinity, therefore how they bargain with patriarchy within these spaces is explored

Alternative post-16 transitions: examining the career pathways of young women 'on road'

To understand why young women engage in the (sub)culture of badness whilst ‘on road’, as opposed to more conventional employment pathways, it’s imperative to consider their access (or lack of) to legitimate opportunities. Living in deprived urban areas creates a set of conditions which can impact on life chances, thus demonstrating the continued importance of intersecting factors class, gender, race and place in their lives as they navigate precarious transitions against a backdrop of neo-liberalism and racial disadvantage. The Teesside transitions literature, based on white young people from a deindustrialised area of the north-east of England, is considered in terms of its usefulness of thinking about young women ‘on road’ in London, given that the interest in capturing and analysing their experiences has been notably absent in the British criminological literature. Consequently very little is known about those who are entrenched in road culture as the majority of what we know around crime and violence is focused on the experiences of young men, so experiences of young women of colour are even more limited. This paper has begun to make some headway in terms of addressing these gaps so they are more visible in marginalised urban spaces

It's a lonely journey: a rapid evidence assessment on intrafamilial child sexual abuse

This Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA) was commissioned by the Office of the Children?s Commissioner (OCC) and conducted by Middlesex University. It centres on concerns about the level of child sexual abuse within the family environment (referred to in this report as ?intrafamilial child sexual abuse or IFCSA) and how such abuse is being addressed by the child protection system and the criminal justice system. The OCC recently completed a two year Inquiry into child sexual exploitation in gangs and groups. This found that: ?so many young people told us?of their early histories of being sexually abused within the family home and of their experiences never being acknowledged (Berelowitz, Clifton, Firmin, Gulyurtlu and Edwards, 2013, p.96). This concern has prompted the OCC to undertake a new two year Inquiry into child sexual abuse in the family environment. This REA will inform and provide the evidence base for this Inquiry. The aims of the REA are, broadly, to investigate the prevalence and impact of child sexual abuse within the family environment and to investigate the extent to which the child protection system and criminal justice system are adequately identifying and attending to the needs of victims. This piece of work is important and necessary due to questions surrounding the possible under-reporting of child sexual abuse within the family environment and the apparent lack of research which captures the direct views of victims of in regards to their experiences of the child protection system and criminal justice system