Interpreting influence: towards reflexivity in penal policymaking?

This chapter explores the contribution to be made by interpretive political analysis (IPA) in understanding the extent to which participants in penal policymaking can be considered to be reflexive. Further, it considers the extent to which IPA might facilitate the improvement of reflexivity amongst penal policymakers. Relevant forms of reflexivity are first set out. Research conducted for the monograph Dangerous Politics (Annison, 2015) is then drawn upon in order to explore this issue empirically. In closing, the potential value of IPA to the improvement of penal policymaking, via a promotion of individual and collective reflexivity, is discussed

White paper of democratic criminal justice

This white paper is the joint product of nineteen professors of criminal law and procedure who share a common conviction: that the path toward a more just, effective, and reasonable criminal system in the United States is todemocratizeAmerican criminal justice. In the name of the movement to democratize criminal justice, we herein set forth thirty proposals for democratic criminal justice reform.Additional co-authors: Jonathan Simon, Jocelyn Simonson, Tom R. Tyler, Ekow N. Yanka

Amateurism and autodidactism: a modest proposal?

Around the globe a great emphasis has been placed upon improving public service delivery by reforming and enhancing professionalism. The impact and significance of the associated changes have been much debated with a focus on issues of de- and re-professionalisation, and demarcations of expertise and work. Professionals and professionalism remain the central focus while service users and non-professionals still tend to be positioned as ‘other': their roles tending to be taken into account, but as additional rather than essential to service provision. By contrast, this article sets out a modest proposal to consider the relational configurations of actors involved in public services drawing upon certain dynamics of amateurism. This article suggests that the dynamics of doing something ‘for the love of it', supported by the ‘passion to learn' of autodidactism, provide the basis for rethinking some of the assumptions made and issues faced when addressing the challenges of the public services. Drawing upon historical and contemporary illustrations of the contributions of amateurism to professional practice, this article argues for the need to explore possibilities beyond existing binary of professional-amateur