A powerful petition against the privatisation of the criminal justice system.

The Howard League for Penal Reform is committed to developing an effective penal system which ensures there are fewer victims of crime, has a diminished role for prison and creates a safer community for all. In this collection of ten papers, the charity has brought together some of the most prominent academic experts in the field to map out what is happening in a specific area of criminal justice policy, ranging from prison privatisation to policing and the role of community sentences. The Howard League guide has two main aims: first it seeks to paint a picture of the current state of the penal system, using its structures, processes and the specific groups affected by the system as the lens for analysis. However, each author also seeks to identify the challenges and gaps in understanding that should be considered to predicate a move towards a reduced role for the penal system, and prison in particular, while maintaining public confidence and safer communities. In doing so, we hope to inspire researchers and students alike to develop new research proposals that challenge the status quo and seek to create the Howard League’s vision for the criminal justice system with less crime, safer communities, fewer people in prison.

This book discusses the role of the prison in Europe across a divide of over 200 years. Inspired by the travels of the prison reformer John Howard (1726-1790), who visited prisons across Europe in the eighteenth century, it fundamentally reflects on centuries of the practice of locking people up as punishment. Howard travelled across Europe to visit prisons, with a simple method: he travelled and knocked on prison doors on his journey and entered the premises. He then observed the situation in the prison, took notes and left to visit other locations. Howard's influential book The State of the Prisons resulted from his experiences, provoking debate among prison reformers and academics worldwide. Adopting the contemporary methods of prison tourism research, the author follows in Howard's footsteps. He draws on extensive research conducted in prisons across six countries: England, Norway, the Netherlands, France, Italy and Azerbaijan. Howard's reflections are used as a frame to assess contemporary prisons, particularly revolving around the questions of what prisons are for today, and what they should (or should not) be. It will be of great interest to criminologists researching prisons and penology, as well as historians interested in the histories of punishment.

Social Media: Culture and Identity examines the global impact of social media in the formation of various identities and cultures. New media scholars— both national and international— have posited thought-provoking analyses of sociocultural issues about human communication that are impacted by the omnipresence of social media. This collection examines issues of gender, class, and race inequities along with social media’s connections to women’s health, cyberbullying, sexting, and transgender issues both in the United States and in some developing countries.

What is the role and value of criminology in a democratic society? How do, and how should, its practitioners engage with politics and public policy? How can criminology find a voice in an agitated, insecure and intensely mediated world in which crime and punishment loom large in government agendas and public discourse? What collective good do we want criminological enquiry to promote? In addressing these questions, Ian Loader and Richard Sparks offer a sociological account of how criminologists understand their craft and position themselves in relation to social and political controversies about crime, whether as scientific experts, policy advisors, governmental players, social movement theorists, or lonely prophets. They examine the conditions under which these diverse commitments and affiliations arose, and gained or lost credibility and influence. This forms the basis for a timely articulation of the idea that criminology’s overarching public purpose is to contribute to a better politics of crime and its regulation. Public Criminology? offers an original and provocative account of the condition of, and prospects for, criminology which will be of interest not only to those who work in the fields of crime, security and punishment, but to anyone interested in the vexed relationship between social science, public policy and politics.

Discusses government policies that cause malnutrition or starvation in North Korea, Zimbabwe, Venezuela, and the West Bank and Gaza.