Abstract
Editorial Note
It has often been noted that journals in the social sciences, in general and criminology in particular, have for the most part failed to address or engage with the grand social challenges of our time. There can be no more monumental such challenge than that of humanity’s imprint on the planet in which we live. In this issue of Criminology & Criminal Justice we are pleased to present a ‘Debate and Dialogue’ section which focuses on criminology’s engagement with the Anthropocene – namely, the period designated by the impact of human activities and civilization on the earth’s ecosystem.
We are delighted that Professor Clifford Shearing accepted our invitation to open this Debate and Dialogue section. Clifford Shearing is one of the best-known, well-established and well-regarded international criminologists of our era, with particular expertise in policing and security governance. Throughout his career, from his bases at the University of Toronto, then the Australian National University and more recently Cape Town University and Griffith University, his research and writing has revolved around the development of conceptual understandings that can be used to enhance the quality of security and justice governance. Most recently as the South African National Research Foundation Chair in Security and Justice, he has expanded his research agenda into the realms of environmental security, the subject of his lecture here.
In his article, that opens the Debate and Dialogue, Shearing explores how criminology might respond to the challenges of the Anthropocene by deploying a ‘security governance’ conceptual framework. In so doing, he seeks to redefine criminology’s engagement with the impact of humanity on the earth’s environment via the new study of the governance of security that draws on criminology but also challenges criminology’s established boundaries. This line of enquiry decentres crime and criminalization and in its place advocates a focal concern for a criminologically situated notion of ‘environmental security’.
We have solicited two responses to Clifford Shearing’s lecture from somewhat different perspectives. The first response, from Nigel South, focuses on the contribution of the emergent and developing field of Green Criminology to questions about criminology’s understanding of the age of the Anthropocene and takes up the debate about the nature and role of ‘environmental security’. The second response, from Rita Floyd, comes from outside of criminology and draws on insights from international relations and environmental security studies. She questions the appropriateness of a ‘security’ lens and argues that the age of the Anthropocene gives renewed relevance to crime and criminalization. For her, it demands not only the rethinking of the meaning of crime, but also the manner in which processes of criminalization can be used to achieve compliance with environmental legislation.
Unfortunately, in the event, Clifford Shearing was unable to travel to the University of Leeds to deliver the lecture as originally intended in October of 2014. Hence, the respondents were unable to debate the lecture in person with him. Nevertheless, we have sought to retain the style of an oral lecture and response in the published versions presented here. We hope and sincerely believe that this lecture and the informed responses will provoke wider debate about the issues they raise.
As this is the last Debate and Dialogue section – and hence the last editorial – before we hand over as Editors to the incoming editorial team, we would also like to take the opportunity to thank all the international advisers, reviewers and authors who have worked so diligently with us over the last five years. It has been an honour to have been entrusted with the editorship of the journal. We are enormously grateful for the high level of cooperation, enthusiasm and professionalism shown by all those who have contributed, and who have helped us to ensure that Criminology and Criminal Justice continues to have an important scholarly voice in debates about contemporary criminological knowledge and research. We will shortly pass the journal over to a new editorial team and wish them every success in taking the journal forward in the future.