Criminal Justice - Research

Despite the rise in research and public awareness about rape culture and gendered violence, it remains a serious problem. Using case studies from the US and UK this book explains how it happens, what it means and how it can be contested.

Drawing on original data, this book addresses the issue of color-blind racism through an examination of the circular logic used by the juvenile justice system to criminalize non-White youth. It calls for a need to understand racial inequality in the justice system from a structural perspective rather than simply at the level of individual bias.

This book explores state controls in Japan, focusing on the interrelation of inequality and deviance of youth and migrant groups which leads to crime.

A first of its kind, this book explores child protection systems in non-Western, low- and middle-income countries, offering a descriptive, yet analytical, account of the development and current stage of practice in twelve different countries.

‘Desistance’ - understanding how people move away from offending – has become a significant policy focus in recent years, with desistance thinking transplanted from the adult to the youth justice system in England and Wales. This book is the first to critique this approach to justice-involved children.

The first authoritative volume to look back on the last 50 years of The Open University providing higher education to those in prison, this unique book gives voice to ex-prisoners whose lives have been transformed by the education they received, offering vivid personal testimonies, reflective vignettes and academic analysis of education in prison.

This book examines the ‘defund the police’ movement from historical and contemporary perspectives. Against the backdrop of abolition and the failure of police reform, it uses international case studies to reimagine community safety beyond policing and imprisonment.

Drawing on research from the Women, Family, Crime and Justice research network, this collection sheds new light on the experiences of women and families who encounter the UK criminal justice system. Contributions demonstrate how these groups are often ignored, oppressed and victimised, and offer insights and practical recommendations for change.

Including novel case studies, this multi-disciplinary book assembles a rich collection of policing and security frontiers both geographical (e.g. the margins of cities) and conceptual (dispersion and credentialism) not seen or acknowledged previously, pushing criminology to the edge of its current understanding.

Moral order is disturbed by criminal events, however traditionally, issues around morality have been neglected by criminologists. Using the moral perspective Boutellier bridges the gap between people’s emotional opinions on crime, and criminologists rationalised answers to questions of crime and security.

This perceptive study explores the extent to which boxing has the potential to reduce violent attitudes among young offenders. Jump assesses conflicting evidence and presents in-depth case studies of fighters to ask whether boxing’s values of discipline and respect can create a support network that helps young men refrain from reoffending.

This timely and unique contribution brings together leading scholars from criminology and theology to challenge criminal justice orthodoxy. They question the dominance of retributive punishment, and consider alternatives which draw on Christian ideas of hope, mercy and restoration.