Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Policy as a Crime Scene

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Reflexivity and Criminal Justice

Abstract

Mark worked in a McDonald’s once but has no job now. He is not very close to any family and has no specific plans for his future. He is only 19, though, and who knows how he might develop. Katrina is 29, a decade older than Mark. She has two children; her four-year old has major sight and hearing impairments as well as a lung problem, and she has spent more time in hospitals than she cares to recall. Her parents are getting older, and one of them recently had a stroke, which is a source of deep stress for her. She is very close to her family and anxious to be with them.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 99.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Mark and Katrina are pseudonyms of participants in a research project on ‘users’ views of punishment (see Armstrong and Weaver 2010, 2013).

  2. 2.

    http://www.sccjr.ac.uk/projects/user-views-of-punishment/

  3. 3.

    Scotland has a separate criminal legal and justice system, including a separate prisons service and structure.

  4. 4.

    http://www.gov.scot/About/Review/spc/About [accessed 16 December 2015].

  5. 5.

    This latter assumption was often stated and referred to unproblematically in various policy reform conversations throughout the period of the penal policy ethnography, as noted down several times in field notes.

References

  • Armstrong, S and Weaver, B. (2013) ‘Persistent Punishment: User Views of Short Prison Sentences’, The Howard Journal 52(3): 285–305.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Armstrong, S. and Weaver, B. (2010) User Views of Punishment: The Comparative Experience of Short Prison Sentences and Community-based Punishments (Research Report No. 04/2010), Glasgow: Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bennett, A. and Peterson, R.A. (eds.) (2004) Music Scenes: Local, Translocal, and Virtual, Nashville: Vanderbilt University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bennett, A. (1999) ‘Subcultures or Neo-Tribes? Rethinking the Relationship Between Youth, Style and Musical Taste’, Sociology 33(3): 599–617.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bennett, A. (2004) ‘Consolidating the Music Scenes Perspective’, Poetics 32(3–4): 223–234.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blaustein, J. (2015) Speaking Truths to Power: Policy Ethnography and Police Reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bosworth, M. and Hoyle, C. (2011) What Is Criminology? Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P. (2004) Science of Science and Reflexivity, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boutros, A. and Straw, W. (eds.) (2010) Circulation and the City: Essays on Urban Culture, Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carlen, P. (2011) ‘Against Evangelism in Academic Criminology: For Criminology as Scientific Art’. In M. Bosworth and C. Hoyle (eds.) What is Criminology? Oxford: Oxford University Press: 96–108.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clarke, R.V. and Felson, M. (2011) ‘The Origins of the Routine Activity Approach and Situational Crime Prevention’. In F.T. Cullen, C.L. Johnson, A.J. Myer and F. Adler (eds.) The Origins of American Criminology: Advances in Criminological Theory (volume 16), New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clarke, J., Bainton, D., Lendvai, N., and Stubbs, P. (2015) Making Policy Move: Towards a Politics of Translation and Assemblage, Bristol: Policy Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Cullen, F.T. (2011) ‘Beyond Adolescence-Limited Criminology: Choosing our Future – The American Society of Criminology 2010 Sutherland Address’, Criminology 49(2): 387–330.

    Article  ADS  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Davis, K., Fisher, A., Kingsbury, B. and Engle Merry, S. (eds.) (2012) Governance by Indicators: Global Power through Quantification and Rankings, New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Engle Merry, S., Davis, K. and Kingsbury, B. (eds.) (2015) The Quiet Power of Indicators, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ericson, R.V. and Carriere, K. (1994) ‘The Fragmentation of Criminology’. In D. Nelken (ed.) The Futures of Criminology, London: Sage: 89–109.

    Google Scholar 

  • Faraldo Cabana, E. (2015) ‘A Certain Sense of Fairness? Why Fines Were Made Affordable’, European Journal of Criminology 12(5): 616–631.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. (1977) Discipline and Punish, NY: Random House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garland, D. (2002) ‘Of Crimes and Criminals: The Development of Criminology in Britain’. In M. Maguire, R. Morgan and R. Reiner (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Criminology, 2nd edn, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gieryn, T.F. (1983) ‘Boundary-Work and the Demarcation of Science From Non-Science: Strains and Interests in Professional Interests of Scientists’, American Sociological Review 48(6): 781–795.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glass, P.G. (2012) ‘Doing Scene: Identity, Space, and the Interactional Accomplishment of Youth Culture’, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 41(6): 695–716.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Gordon, I., Lewis, J. and Young, K. (1977) ‘Perspectives on Policy Analysis’, Public Administration Bulletin 25(1977): pp. 26–35.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haggerty, K.D. and Ericson, R.V. (2000) ‘The Surveillant Assemblage’, British Journal of Sociology 51(4): 605–622.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hope, T. and Walters, R. (2008) Critical Thinking about the Uses of Research, King’s College London: Centre for Crime and Justice Studies.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hough, M. (2014) ‘Confessions of a Recovering “Administrative Criminologist”: Jock Young, Quantitative Research and Policy Research’, Crime Media Culture 10(3): 215–226.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Irwin, J. (1977) Scenes, Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Latour, B. and Woolgar, S. (1986) Laboratory Life: The Construction of Scientific Facts, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Latour, B. (1987) Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers Through Society, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Latour, B. (2005) Reassembling the Social, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Law, J. and Singleton, V. (2005) ‘Object Lessons’, Organization 12(3): 331–355.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Loader, I. and Sparks, R. (2011) Public Criminology? London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacAskill, K. (2007) Debate on Penal Policy, Speech, http://www.gov.scot/About/Review/spc/About/Review/penalpolicy [accessed 22 December 2015]

  • Mulholland, H. (2007) ‘Scottish Executive Scraps Private Prison Plan’, The Guardian (23 August); http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2007/aug/23/scotland.devolution [accessed 22 December 2015]

  • Newburn, T. (2003) Crime and Criminal Justice Policy, Harlow: Pearson Longman.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Malley, P. (1996) ‘Post-Social Criminologies: Some Implications of Current Political Trends for Criminological Theory and Practice’, Current Issues in Criminal Justice 8(1): 26–38.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pavlich, G. (2000) Critique and Radical Discourses on Crime. London: Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Riles, A. (2005) ‘A New Agenda for the Cultural Study of Law: Taking on the Technicalities’, Buffalo Law Review, 53: 973–1033.

    Google Scholar 

  • Riles, A. (ed.) (2006) Documents: Artifacts of Modern Knowledge, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rock, P. (1994) History of Criminology, Aldershot: Dartmouth.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scottish Government (2012) Prison Statistics Scotland 2011/12, Statistical Bulletin CrJ/2007/7, Edinburgh: Scottish Government.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scottish Government (2015) Consultation on Proposals to Strengthen the Presumption against Short Periods of Imprisonment, http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2015/09/8223

  • Scottish Prisons Commission (SPC) (2008) Scotland’s Choice: Report of the Scottish Prisons Commission, Edinburgh: Scottish Government.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scottish Parliament (2009) Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Bill – POLICY MEMORANDUM, Stage 3 (5 March 2009). http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/S3_Bills/Criminal%20Justice%20and%20Licensing%20%28Scotland%29%20Bill/b24s3-introdpm.pdf [accessed 22 December 2015].

  • Shank, B. (1994) Dissonant Identities: The Rock ‘n Roll Scene in Austin, Texas, Hanover: Wesleyan University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shore, C. and Wright, S. (eds.) (1997) Anthropology of Policy: Critical Perspectives on Governance and Power, London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shore, C., Wright, S. and Però, D. (eds.) (2011) Policy Worlds: Anthropology and Analysis of Contemporary Power, New York: Berghahn Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Star, S.L. (1999) ‘The Ethnography of Infrastructure’, American Behavioral Scientist 43(3): 377–391.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Strathern, M. (2000) Audit Cultures, London: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Straw, W. (2001) ‘Scenes and Sensibilities’, Public 22/23: 245–257.

    Google Scholar 

  • Straw, W. (2015) ‘Some Things a Scene Might Be’, Cultural Studies 29(3): 476–485.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weaver, B. and Armstrong, S. (2011) The Dynamics of Community-based Punishment: Insider Views from the Outside (Research Report No. 03/2011), Glasgow: Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research.

    Google Scholar 

  • Woo, B., Rennie, J. and Poyntz, S.R. (2015) ‘Scene Thinking’, Cultural Studies 29(3): 285–297.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wright, S. and Reinhold, S. (2011) ‘“Studying Through”: A Strategy for Studying Political Transformation’. In C. Shore, S. Wright and D. Pero (eds.) Policy Worlds: Anthropology and Analysis of Contemporary Power, New York: Berghahn Books: 86–104.

    Google Scholar 

  • Young, J. (1986) The Failure of Criminology: The Need for a Radical Realism. In R. Matthews and J. Young (eds.) Confronting Crime, London: SAGE Publications.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK

    Sarah Armstrong

  2. York University, Toronto, Canada

    Anita Lam

Authors
  1. Sarah Armstrong
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Anita Lam
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom

    Sarah Armstrong

  2. Menzies Building, Monash University, School of Social Sciences, Clayton, Australia

    Jarrett Blaustein

  3. Law School, Old College, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

    Alistair Henry

Copyright information

© 2017 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Armstrong, S., Lam, A. (2017). Policy as a Crime Scene. In: Armstrong, S., Blaustein, J., Henry, A. (eds) Reflexivity and Criminal Justice. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54642-5_5

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54642-5_5

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-54641-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-54642-5

  • eBook Packages: Law and CriminologyLaw and Criminology (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation