How the news was made: the anti-social behaviour day count, newsmaking criminology and the construction of anti-social behaviour

‘Newsmaking criminology’ is an approach to criminological research characterised by critical engagement with topics being covered by the news media, offering greater engagement with public debate and reflexive critique of the objects of criminological knowledge. Two examples of Brisith criminological researchers taking an identifiable ‘newsmaking’ approach are discussed in this paper: the Anti-Social Behaviour One Day Count, a 24-h comprehensive survey of reports of anti-social behaviour carried out in 2003, and the 24-h Domestic Violence Audit, carried out in 2000. This paper analyses the construction of knowledge of anti-social behaviour through the Day Count, identifying continuities and discontinuities between the Day Count and the Domestic Violence Audit. This leads to a discussion of the strengths and limitations of the ‘newsmaking’ approach, suggesting that it may serve conservative as well as progressive ends

Policy as a Crime Scene

This paper explores how policy constructs the objects it seeks to regulate, taking as its case the setting of penal policy in contemporary Scotland. It employs two distinctive theoretical frames to develop the analysis: Science and Technology Studies (STS) and ‘scene theory’ a body of work in cultural studies. These offer distinctive lenses that bring into focus how the technologies of policy – statistical reports, independent Commissions, research advice – help produce populations that require intervention. The penal policy setting in question, we argue, can be understood in the same way as a crime scene, where investigators must re-construct forensically a narrative that will be legally validated. In line with the theme of this book, it offers a reflexive account of how researchers themselves are drawn into and participate as key witnesses in the scene, testifying to ‘facts’ about a crime that may have never taken place. The article aims to make the case for the potential of STS and scene theory in producing insights about our understanding of policy, particularly criminal justice policy. In doing this, it also offers a critique of the formation of the criminological discipline in a way that has side-lined policy as an ‘administrative’ rather than critical intellectual issue

Discursive representations of restorative justice in international policies

The European Directive 2012/29/EU, the Council of Europe Recommendation CM/Rec(2018)8), and the recently launched updated United Nations Handbook (2020) testify to the increasing policy recognition of restorative justice at international level. And yet, despite the vast and burgeoning literature on restorative justice, limited research and critical analysis has been conducted on policies, and even less on international policies and instruments. As a result, we know little about how restorative justice is framed within policy and how such framings could contribute toward the development of this field in practice. Addressing this gap, this article seeks to understand the ways in which restorative justice is construed within international policies and their conditions of possibility, using a ‘policy-as-discourse’ analytical approach. The article also draws implications for the study of the relationships between restorative justice policy and practice and for future research on the institutionalisation of this ‘new’ frontier of penality, internationally

Genres of Critique

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