Dr Sara Grace, Lecturer in Criminology, and expert in summary justice, police discretion, procedural fairness and neighbourhood policing, has published a groundbreaking article on policing social distancing in the high-impact international research journal Policing.

Drawing on motivational posturing theory (MPT) and procedural justice theory (PJT), Dr Grace’s work makes recommendations for how best to secure compliance with social distancing regulations. Applying both theories to mostly observational data from a study on the use and impact of penalty notices for disorder, the article explores the influences on cooperation during police–citizen encounters.

Whilst focusing on the English data/regulations, as both MPT and PJT have been tested internationally, the conclusions have relevance beyond these shores. Dr Grace proposes a sixth posture—compulsion, a form of resistant compliance—to the five set out by MPT. Focusing attention not just on whether compliance is achieved but also how recognizes the risk to future legitimacy posed by only achieving compliance through coercion or the threat of coercion.

Crucially, lessons from Dr Sara Grace’s research are applied to policing social distancing, with regards to securing compliance during interactions, self-regulation and enforcement action, and how to preserve police legitimacy.

Read Dr Sara Grace’s work on ‘policing the coronavrius lockdown’ here and here.

More information on the British Society of Criminology’s Policing Network, which connects policing researchers in the UK and beyond can be found here.

Dr Anthony Ellis, Lecturer in Criminology and Sociology has contributed an chapter to an exciting new book Urban Crisis, Urban Hope, with a chapter titled ‘The Violent City’. Dr Ellis co-authored with with academics Dr Elizabeth Cook, and Dr Keir Irwin-Rogers, as well as Luke Billingham, Hackney Wick Youth Voice Project Lead for Hackney Quest.

Urban Crisis, Urban Hope resurrects the concept of the city and its neighbourhoods as a crucible for new ideas and a site of innovative action when cities in the UK are struggling with an unfolding crisis, exacerbated by a policy vacuum and lack of strategic vision about how to resolve a series of growing divisions, social problems and injustices. It celebrates what is being achieved against the odds. But it also recognises the desperate need for support, resources and complementary visions at urban and national scales, and sets out an agenda to meet this need.

Dr Muzammil Quraishi, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, and CJ Hub lead, is Co-Investigator on the largest study to date about conversion to Islam in Prison in three European countries: England, Switzerland and France. Dr Quraishi, is working in collaboration on UCIP with researchers at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) (University of London), the McDonald Centre for Theology, Ethics and Public Life (University of Oxford), and the The University of Fribourg, Switzerland.

UCIP is using robust mixed-methods, criminological-theological research to generate the most detailed and extensive data-set yet about:

1. the socio-demographic and religious nature of Muslim converts, including those Muslims who change Islamic affiliation, in British and continental European prisons;
2. the types of Islam that Muslim convert inmates follow;
3. the effects of their conversion to Islam on prison life and on their rehabilitation, including the effects of prison chaplaincy and religious occasions in prison

Driven by this data, the study will then design a practical intervention to improve prison outcomes for inmates who convert to Islam.

Click here to find out more about this groundbreaking project

Professor Chris Birkbeck is a member of the Steering Committee for the International Self-Report Survey of Delinquency (ISRD) which periodically collects data on youth offending and victimization in  countries in different regions of the world. Plans are now being finalised for ISRD4 (2021-23) and nearly 40 countries have committed to participating. As part of this, Chris is working with Professor Neal Hazel to seek funding for data collection in the UK. More information about the project and access to data and some of the reports can be found at: https://web.northeastern.edu/isrd/

Dr Laura Connelly, Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Salford is currently co-authoring a book with Dr Remi Joseph-Salisbury (University of Manchester) on Anti-Racist Scholar-Activism from the Margins of UK Universities. It is due for publication in 2021. 

Please click here for details of all Laura’s single and co-authored publications on topics including sex work ‘academic activism’, and post-race racism in the narratives of Brexit voters, the latter with Dr Tina Patel (University of Salford).

Dr Muzammil Quraishi, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, has published a groundbreaking new book with Palgrave Macmillan titled Towards a Malaysian Criminology.

The book provides a critical analysis of criminological scholarship in Malaysia, presenting a focused exploration of the key qualities and limitations to studies on crime, deviance, victimization and criminal justice in this country. The book connects contemporary crime problems with historical legacies such as the impact of colonialism and the influence of ethno-nationalism and authoritarianism in the region. Conflict and tension created by legal pluralism is illustrated via three case studies exploring apostasy, Islamic rehabilitation centres, and retention and use of the death penalty.

In addition to a critique of contemporary Malaysian criminological scholarship, Towards a Malaysian Criminology suggests a composite, critical criminological approach to guide future research. This approach draws on theoretical traditions in critical race theory, critical realism, ultra-realism and the emerging field of Islamic critical realism. Given the multidisciplinary nature of the discipline, Dr Quraishi’s work will appeal to scholars of criminology, sociology, law, politics and Islamic theology.

An exciting and innovative new edited collection on motherhood, mothering and imprisonment is to be published by Emerald Publishing in 2020. Dr Kelly Lockwood, Lecturer in Criminology, edited the eclectic and captivating collection titled Mothering from the inside : research on motherhood and imprisonment.

As well as editing the book, Dr Lockwood has contributed a chapter titled ‘The ties that bind : stories of women in prison who are mothers to older adult children’. Summarising her work Dr Lockwood writes: “For some women, imprisonment may present the opportunity to repair and rebuild fractured relationships with their children; however, for many, being separated from their children is constructed as the most difficult aspect of imprisonment (Crewe, Hulley & Wright, 2017), with the potential to severely alter, disrupt or even terminate mothering (Lockwood, 2017; 2018). Available research highlights the importance of mothering in relation to women’s adjustment to and experiences of imprisonment and upon their rehabilitation, resettlement and potential reunification (Baldwin, 2017; Lockwood, 2017, 2018; Shami and Kochal, 2008)”

Situating the book within the existing research field, Dr Lockwood goes on to say: “Consistent with prison policy and practice, available research tends to rely on narrow definitions that often construct motherhood in relation to younger children, under the age of 18 (Caddle and Crisp, 1997). Consequently, the stories, experiences and needs of mothers in prison with older adult children often remain unheard”.

This group is of particular interest to Dr Lockwood: “Focusing on the individual stories of mothers in prison and those who have recently been released from prison, I consider the way in which women story motherhood in relation to older adult children. Presenting three interrelated narratives; “Mothering from a distance: stories of missing out on children’s transitions to adulthood”; “‘Motherwork’: stories of participating in mothering adult children”; and “‘Role reversal’: stories of receiving support from adult children’, I consider the specific challenges and opportunities for mothers in prison with older adult children”.

A new toolkit co-authored by Professor Neal Hazel and published by NACRO focuses on how an ‘identity lens’ can help criminal justice professionals and others to work with children in the Criminal Justice System. Research has shown that identity, and how you feel about yourself, can be key to moving forward with life and away from crime. Working with the University of Salford, Youth Offending Teams and supported by the Barrow Cadbury Trust, the toolkit has been developed to promote a constructive, identity-focused approach to ultimately help divert children away from progressing further through the criminal justice system. Using the principles of the Nacro-led Beyond Youth Custody programme, this toolkit outlines how these can be applied to working with children before custody to support them towards positive outcomes and prevent further offending.

To read the full story click here

To read the Toolkit click here

Dr Karenza Moore, Dr Laura Connelly, and Dr Tom Redshaw, supported by Professor Ben Light, and the School of Health and Society, organised a one day symposium at The Old Fire Station, University of Salford, to coincide with Valentine’s Day 2020.

Deviant Pleasure Markets & Digital Technologies included keynote speakers:

Professor Susanna Passonen (University of Turku)

Professor Teela Sanders (University of Leicester)

Professor Ben Light (University of Salford)

Dr Angus Bancroft (University of Edinburgh)

Dr Jennifer Fleetwood (Goldsmiths, University of London)

The symposium, attended by PhD researchers, Early Career Researchers, and world renowned Professors, explored how digital technologies – from social media apps to cryptocurrencies – are rapidly and profoundly reshaping our world. Attention is increasingly being paid to how and why people use digital technologies to engage with illegal and/or ‘deviant’ markets for goods and services such as drugs and sex. In turn, digital technologies such as blockchain provide forms of exchange that enable such transactions to take place, often (pseudo)anonymously.

Scholars from a multitude of disciplines – including Digital Sociology, Cultural Criminology, Gender/Sexuality and Media Studies, and Critical Drug Studies, spent the day focusing specifically on digital technologies and deviant pleasure markets. Such markets involve practices broadly considered deviant in wider society, such as buying and taking illegal drugs, arranging public sex, or buying and selling sex online. These practices may be viewed as at once ‘risky’, potentially harmful, and profoundly pleasurable. Those involved in deviant pleasure markets may be constructed as ‘risky’ and ‘at risk’, whilst digital technologies may both exacerbate and mitigate off/online risks and harms, such as cyber-harassment.

Dr Moore, summarising the day’s fruitful discussions and debates, said: “We have seen the recent (re)emergence of work on deviant leisure markets, yet a focus on mainstream spaces and social harms somewhat obscures the pleasures these may involve. Approaches which foreground play and (digital) affect within and across on/offline spaces indicate that the pursuit and experiences of pleasures may be transgressive and transformative, acting to resist the solidification of negative subjectivities for example. Crucially, the risks, harms and pleasures of deviant pleasure markets are unevenly distributed according to intersectional inequalities and vulnerabilities. Understanding the sociotechnical practices of individuals, groups and communities in relation to deviant pleasure markets is crucial to the advancement of knowledge about our digital age”.

The day ended with wine and nibbles, with the ‘Deviant Valentine’ prize going to Dr S. MacRae @wsi2016 for her research presentation on heterosexual women’s engagement with online pornography.

Details of the programme are available here.

Salford Professor Neal Hazel is working with the Youth Justice Board to support children leaving custody through constructive resettlement, which can make a real difference to some of our most vulnerable young people. Read more about Neal’s work with the YJB here.