The Lived Experiences of Claiming Wrongful Conviction in Prison focuses on the lived experience of maintaining innocence in the prison environment and highlights the struggles and pain that such a claim can cause. Using the novel means of conducting an interview via a series of letters, the book details the experiences of sixty-four prisoners maintaining innocence in England and Wales and examines in-depth what is unique to this population. The chapters cover coping mechanisms, relationships maintained with relatives, relationships formed with prisoners and staff, and the perceived effect of their claims on matters of progression and parole. It draws on material from criminology, sociology, law and psychology to provide a holistic account of this populations’ experiences. The Lived Experiences of Claiming Wrongful Conviction in Prison will be of great interest to students and scholars across Criminology, Criminal Justice, Law, Sociology and Psychology.

"The Lived Experiences of Claiming Wrongful Conviction in Prison focuses on the lived experience of maintaining innocence in the prison environment and highlights the struggles and pain that such a claim can cause. Using the novel means of conducting an interview via a series of letters, the book details the experiences of sixty-four prisoners maintaining innocence in England and Wales and examines in-depth what is unique to this population. The chapters cover coping mechanisms, relationships maintained with relatives, relationships formed with prisoners and staff, and the perceived effect of their claims on matters of progression and parole. It draws on material from criminology, sociology, law and psychology to provide a holistic account of this populations' experiences. The Lived Experiences of Claiming Wrongful Conviction in Prison will be of great interest to students and scholars across Criminology, Criminal Justice, Law, Sociology and Psychology"--

Prison Recipes and Prison Cookbooks provides an innovative exploration of U.S.-based prison cookbooks using a narrative criminological approach. The book relies on the voices of prison cookbook authors to argue that cookbook narratives are a form of communication with the free world. Further, the book undertakes thematic analyses of prison cookery and narratives to illuminate the intersections of incarceration with abolition, gender, literacy, and dehumanization. The reader is introduced to the power and symbolism of cell made food, as well as the agency and resourcefulness of those who cook, bake, and write about food behind bars. Prison Recipes and Prison Cookbooks is of interest to instructors of courses covering the sociology of food, criminology, human geography, and anthropology. The book is also appropriate for prison and probation services, health organizations, and anyone engaged in the criminal-legal system, abolition movements, or social reform.

This book reflects on the institutionalisation of restorative justice over the last 20 years and offers a critical analysis of the qualitative consequences generated by such a process on the normative structure of restorative justice, and on its understanding and uses in practice. Bringing together an international collection of leading scholars, this book provides a range of context-sensitive case studies that enhance our understanding of the development of international, national and institutional policy frameworks for restorative justice, the mainstreaming of practices within the criminal justice system, the proliferation of cultural, social and political co-optations of restorative justice and the ways in which the formalisation of the restorative justice movement have affected its values, aims and goals.

Offering a range of theoretical and conceptual ideas as well as practical examples, this book provides a detailed insight into holistic opportunities for promoting desistance, reducing reoffending, and supporting (re)settlement and (re)integration. Providing a fresh lens through which to view existing debates within desistance and (re)settlement literature, the book encourages different perspectives and a new framing of current approaches. To this purpose, each chapter considers what embedding a person-centered holistic approach within the criminal justice system might look like, including ways of working within the confines of current processes, potential ethical considerations and how to maximize the potential impact to reduce reoffending. Interdisciplinary in approach, Holistic Responses to Reducing Reoffending will appeal to students, scholars, practitioners and policymakers within criminology, criminal justice, penology and prison studies.

Sexual Offences Against Children in India examines the evolution of the law pertaining to sexual violence against children, the judicial decisions since the inception of the POCSO Act till date with respect to aspects of the POCSO Act and the best practices from other developed jurisdictions for handling cases and victims of child abuse. Despite being prevalent, violence against children is often hidden or underreported, though its impact is widely acknowledged. In a country like India the vocabulary to communicate around sexuality and sexual abuse is almost non-existent. India has seen its journey from having no law on sexual abuse of children to having a “special” law in the form of the Protection of Children against Sexual Offences Act 2012 (POCSO Act). This book demystifies the problem of sexual violence against children in India pre- and post-POCSO Act. There is also a novel attempt to examine the implementation of the POCSO Act in the eastern Indian states of Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal, and if its objectives were being attained – in content, in implementation, and in impact. This book will be useful for police, judiciary and government officials, scholars, and researchers studying comparative aspects of dealing with sexual offence cases against children.

Presenting a social science perspective on the contemporary gaze on the body of the suspect, this book considers how definitions of criminality, offenses, individual rights, and the concepts of identity and difference have been altered by changes in the biological status of the human. Spurred by rapid developments in genetics and information technology, a number of countries, including France, the United States, the United Kingdom, China, and the Netherlands, have considerably expanded their genetic databases used by the police and the criminal justice system. Whilst this makes it possible to compare DNA left at the scene of a crime with that of an individual known to the police, helping to identify individuals for the purposes of court proceedings, these innovations also raise a number of important questions, such as how the relationship between respect for the rights of individuals and the security of populations is discussed, as well as for how long this data should be retained. Genetic analysis also raises concerns related to phenotyping and “biogeographical origin” that could lead to the stigmatization of targeted groups. Offering a comprehensively argued view on how DNA acts not only as a tracker of suspicion but also as a marker of contemporary social developments, Genetics and the Politics of Security will appeal to students and scholars, judiciary personnel, lawyers, police officers, and people with an interest in criminology and the use of genetics in the criminal justice process.