Criminology & Criminal Justice

In recent years, the value, or otherwise, of newsmaking criminology has generated considerable debate within academia. On the one hand, critics have argued that such approaches risk devaluing academic enterprise, for instance, privileging style over substance; on the other hand, proponents argue that newsmaking can promote more informed, progressive discourse in societies that are already saturated with crime and justice issues. Taking a different tack, this article argues that newsmaking criminology can provide a vehicle for controversial or ‘difficult’ research findings, and serve to hold authorities to account. Using a case-study approach, the article shows how police executives and government officials sought to undermine a critical report on the use of stop and search in Scotland by deploying a range of ‘neutralization’ techniques; and how, via media coverage, the findings nonetheless gained traction, prompting legal reform. The article also acknowledges the risks and limitations of newsmaking, and argues that fundamental problems remain apropos the production and dissemination of critical policing research in Scotland.

The goal of this article was to assess the extent to which major changes in the political and economic systems of Central and Eastern European countries after the fall of communism contributed to variations in property crime rates, controlling for other structural predictors. Data for 17 countries from 1990–2003 were collected for three types of property crimes: total theft; motor vehicle theft; and domestic burglary. Traditional predictors derived from modernization and routine activities theories produced inconsistent results, but political and economic changes due to the post-communist transformations were significant predictors of property crime variation. Economic changes toward liberalization, marketization, and privatization were strongly, positively related to higher property crime rates across all three types. Political changes toward democratization were only positively related to higher domestic burglary rates. The control variables were weak and inconsistent predictors of all three property crimes. The article discusses some of the implications of these findings for updating macro-level crime theories.

Although women represent a small minority of the prison population in all nations, it has long been a concern that custody is overused with respect to female offenders. Reducing the number of women in prison has therefore emerged as a policy priority in many western nations, including the United Kingdom. This article evaluates a range of sentencing strategies to reduce the number of women in prison, on the grounds that their experience of the sanction is disproportionately severe. The challenge is to achieve a reduction in women’s imprisonment without compromising the fundamental sentencing principles of equity and proportionality. Although no jurisdiction has launched a sentencing initiative with this specific aim, the international sentencing literature offers insight into the most effective methods by which reductions may be achieved. Informed by the principle of equal impact, which underpins gender-specific sentencing, we explore policy options in two principal domains: (1) statutory provisions to eliminate or restrict judicial discretion to imprison female offenders; and (2) sentencing guidelines to structure judicial discretion in gender-sensitive ways. We conclude by considering the likelihood of implementing the options.

The killing of one’s parents is a neglected area in criminological scholarship, particularly in the UK, and this article presents the first national analysis of parricide in England and Wales. It draws on data from the Home Office Homicide Index to examine all recorded cases of parricide over a 36-year period and examines the characteristics of offenders, victims, incidents and court outcomes. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to two particular dominant theoretical ideas within the field: the role of mental illness in parricide, and the notion that there are distinct forms of violence against parents that can be organized along dimensions of chronological age (i.e. juvenile/adult offender) and whether the violence is fatal (i.e. parricide) or non-fatal. The article concludes with a discussion of its wider implications for future research.

In this article contemporary police claims to professional status are analysed and related to a new structure of police regulation in England and Wales. It is argued that the notion of the police as a profession is not new and, unlike police and academic commentary, analysis of this subject should draw on sociological understandings of professions. The wider policy context within which claims to professionalization are made is also considered. A new, loosely coupled system of regulation has been developed in England and Wales. Policing’s professional body, the College of Policing, is central to this regulatory framework that has placed government at a distance from constabularies and police representative associations. Finally, some of the consequences of the hybrid system are considered and benefits of the framework of analysis proposed are discussed.

This article conceptualizes ‘food fraud’ by shifting analytical focus away from popular/policy conceptions foregrounding the centrality of organized crime towards understanding the factors that shape the organization of food frauds. We argue that food fraud, rather than being an ‘exogenous’ phenomenon perpetrated by externally organized (transnational) ‘criminal enterprise’, is better understood as an ‘endogenous’ phenomenon within the food system where legitimate occupational actors and organizations are in some way necessarily involved. Criminal opportunities arise under conducive conditions as part of legitimate actors’ routine behaviours. Our contention is that the common definition of food fraud is too prescriptive and fails to allow space to understand the role of different actors and their motivations. We analyse a case study in soft drinks, presenting the necessary role of legitimate, occupational actors within/between legitimate organizational settings and markets, and demonstrate how criminal behaviours can be concealed and disguised within ‘ready-made’ market and business structures.

Procedural justice is known to enhance perceptions of police legitimacy. Studies show that procedural justice may be less effective for some individuals and groups, while others show it to be more effective. This study investigates the contingency of the procedural justice effect and considers the effectiveness of procedural justice for certain individuals through the concept of disengagement. Utilizing a survey of 1480 ethnic minority group members, the study tests whether or not disengagement moderates the effect of procedural justice on perceptions of police legitimacy. As expected, we find procedural justice is linked to enhanced perceptions of police legitimacy, while disengagement is associated with reduced perceptions of legitimacy. Interestingly, the study finds that procedural justice is more effective for building legitimacy for ethnic minority respondents who report being highly disengaged from police. These findings highlight how police might be able to improve perceptions of their legitimacy among disaffected minority communities.