The Relative Moral Risks of Untargeted and Targeted Surveillance

Is surveillance that is targeted towards specific individuals easier to justify than surveillance that targets broad categories of people? Untargeted surveillance is routinely accused of treating innocent people as suspects in ways that are unfair and of failing to pursue security effectively. I argue that in a wide range of cases untargeted surveillance treats people less like suspects than more targeted alternatives. I also argue that it often deters unwanted behaviour more effectively than targeted alternatives, including profiling. In practice, untargeted surveillance is likely to be least costly morally and most efficient when used as a means of enforcing the rules of a specific activity or institution. Targeted alternatives are likely to be more appropriate means of law enforcement

Criminal Labelling, Publicity, and Punishment

This paper considers whether publicizing criminal labels is justified as a form of punishment. It begins by arguing that making criminal labels public is inevitably stigmatizing and that stigmatization is not, as is often implied, a defining aspect of censure, but needs independent justification. It argues that justifying grounds for public criminal labelling cannot be found in either the communicative account of punishment or deterrence theory. Rather, public criminal labelling should be understood as undermining of both the communicative and the deterrent functions of punishment. Recent empirical work is drawn upon to support the claims about public criminal labelling and deterrence

How Brexit border debate could affect human trafficking into UK

Final Published versio

Surveillance Technologies, Wrongful Criminalisation, and the Presumption of Innocence

The potential of surveillance practices to undermine the presumption of innocence is a growing concern amongst critics of surveillance. This paper attempts to assess the impact of surveillance on the presumption of innocence. It defends an account of the presumption of innocence as a protection against wrongful criminalisation against alternatives, and considers both the ways in which surveillance might undermine that protection and the—hitherto overlooked—ways in which it might promote it. It draws on empirical work on the causes of erroneous convictions to suggest that surveillance can be used in ways that prevent innocent people being erroneously charged and convicted with crimes, by providing a source of exculpatory evidence for use in police investigations. It is argued that surveillance practices do not necessarily undermine the presumption of innocence but can be reformed in ways that both reduce the risk that they will cause wrongful criminalisation and increase their power to protect those already under suspicion

‘Social care told me I had to’: Empowerment and responsibilisation in the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme

Domestic Violence Disclosure Schemes (DVDS), recently introduced in many jurisdictions, aim to empower victim-survivors of domestic abuse by giving them access to information about their partner’s criminal history. This paper presents findings from the largest study of the police implementation of the first such scheme, introduced in the UK in 2014. It finds that the disclosure process is increasingly being shaped by a child protection agenda that makes victim-survivors responsible for protecting their children from the harms of domestic abuse. It examines tensions and dilemmas this raises for police seeking to safeguarding and empower victim-survivors, and draws on feminist ethical theory to develop a more nuanced understanding of the dynamics between the professional spheres of domestic abuse and child protection

Using criminal histories to empower victim–survivors of domestic abuse

The Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (DVDS) was first introduced in England and Wales in 2014 and has since been reproduced across the world. Its aim is to empower victim–survivors by giving them access to a partner’s criminal history and thereby helping them make informed decisions about their relationship. Yet the relationship between information and empowerment in this context remains contested and unexplored both theoretically and empirically. This paper draws on findings from the largest qualitative study of the DVDS to date as well as coercive control, to show that police are using disclosures to undermine perpetrators’ ‘monopolies on perception’ and in doing so aiming to empower victim–survivors to redefine their own realities. The implications for practice-oriented models of empowerment and evaluation methodologies are explored

Acting in Isolation: Safeguarding and anti-trafficking officers’ evidence and intelligence practices at the border

Internationally, the border has been presented as a site of unique opportunity for the identification and protection of victims of human trafficking. In the UK, the establishment of specialist safeguarding and anti-trafficking (SAT) units within the border force has raised questions about the challenges for border force officers (BFOs) of balancing the enforcement of strict immigration rules with the protection of victims under anti-trafficking legislation. In this paper we draw on data collected from a study of anti-trafficking initiatives at Heathrow airport to consider a particular area of BFO frustration with SAT work: the collection and use of evidence and intelligence to support investigation and pursuit of potential SAT cases at the border. Our findings focus on the use of intelligence and data to inform initiatives and develop a comprehensive understanding of the trafficking problem; and the scope of BFO powers of evidence-collection on the frontline. The experience of BFOs points to a team often working in isolation as they attempt to traverse gaps in data collection and limits to their powers to gather evidence in pursuit of their duty to identify victims of trafficking at the UK border. We conclude by making proposals for how the border force and central government could improve evidence and intelligence practices in ways that translate into both more coherent anti-trafficking policy and better identification and support for victims

An international review and normative examination of the collateral consequences of criminal record disclosures for domestic abuse

Domestic abuse disclosure schemes allow members of the public to request and receive information from police about the criminal histories of their partners, if they are at risk of abuse. In doing so, they open new pathways for disclosure of criminal record information beyond the spheres of employment and access to public services. This article reviews existing domestic abuse disclosure schemes and addresses their normative implications. Specifically, it examines the extent to which moral and legal criticisms that are frequently levelled at other kinds of criminal record checks apply equally to domestic abuse disclosure schemes. It is argued that, while domestic abuse disclosure schemes are less susceptible to criticisms of unfair disadvantage or disproportionate punishment than employer checks or other forms of third-party disclosure, they sit uneasily with respect for the moral agency and dignity of people with histories of abuse. These insights reveal the limits of a one-size-fits-all approach to analysis of criminal record disclosures, highlighting the need for more granular, crime-specific research in this field

Neither Confirm nor Deny: Secrecy and Disclosure in Undercover Policing

Recent scandals in U.K. undercover policing have prompted a public re-examination of the basis for continued secrecy with respect to cases in which serious historical misconduct is suspected. As part of its approach to balancing the competing demands of secrecy and accountability, the current legal process requires the police to provide case-by-case risk assessments of the harm to policing threatened by disclosure. This article considers the role of risk assessments in this process. It critically examines two arguments put forward by police in support of their claim that such assessments will nearly always support a refusal to disclose and thus a “neither confirm nor deny” response to requests for information about undercover policing. It argues that these arguments apply in fewer cases and/or less conclusively than police routinely suppose, and that their obligation to provide detailed case-by-case risk assessments therefore cannot be thereby evaded

‘Once they pass you, They may be gone forever’: Humanitarian Duties and Professional Tensions in Safeguarding and Anti-Trafficking at the Border

Border crossings are considered sites of unique opportunity to identify and protect victims of trafficking. UK government reforms have given Border Officers new roles and responsibilities as humanitarian first responders. This paper explores how Border Officers reconcile this aspect of their work with their role as enforcers of immigration law and their increasingly militarized status as protectors of national sovereignty and security. Drawing on in-depth interviews with a specialized team of Safeguarding and Anti-trafficking (SAT) Officers at a UK airport, we identify the emergence of a distinct SAT subculture, characterized by a sense of moral purpose and moral community, and of doing difficult but meaningful and highly skilled work that others are too indifferent, feckless or intimidated by to take on