Changing Narratives of Youth Crime


Book Description

In recent years, western societies have experienced a fundamental transformation in the way crime is understood and dealt with. Against the backdrop of a current great interest in narratives in criminology, this book draws on a narrative perspective to explore this transformation. Drawing on data from Germany, the book focuses on changing narratives of youth crime in recent decades and the exact narratives that have been used, abandoned, invented or criticized in order to instil particular understandings of crime and measures to act against it. The author draws upon a wide range of sources, including debates on youth crime in six parliaments from 1970 to 2012; articles on youth crime in four police and six social work journals from 1970 to 2009; and case studies with 15 young defendants who were interviewed before and after their trial and whose trial was observed. In doing so, the author reconstructs narratives over several decades and, overall, reveals a fascinating and multifaceted scope of narratives of youth crime. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of youth crime and justice, as well as criminology, sociology, politics and social work more broadly.




Conflicting Narratives of Crime and Punishment


Book Description

This book illustrates the importance of conflicting narratives in understanding and dealing with crime, based on a variety of cutting-edge research. Offenders tell stories about crime and punishment, as do policemen, judges and defence lawyers, but so do politicians and the media. Each tells them very differently and only some stories are believed, while others are rejected as implausible leading to conflict. This book explores how these conflicts are carried out and what relationships exist between (often unquestioned) master narratives and (sometimes loud, sometimes silent) counter-narratives? These are questions of central importance for criminology which have thus far received little attention. This edited collection is international and interdisciplinary in scope, providing empirical insights from such diverse contexts as (social) media, newspapers, comics, police interrogations, social and criminal justice settings, and museum exhibitions. By including contributions from a wide spectrum of academic disciplines and using different methodological approaches, it is of particular interest to students and researchers in criminology and sociology, as well as to scholars of socio-legal studies.




Last Chance in Texas


Book Description

A powerful, bracing and deeply spiritual look at intensely, troubled youth, Last Chance in Texas gives a stirring account of the way one remarkable prison rehabilitates its inmates. While reporting on the juvenile court system, journalist John Hubner kept hearing about a facility in Texas that ran the most aggressive–and one of the most successful–treatment programs for violent young offenders in America. How was it possible, he wondered, that a state like Texas, famed for its hardcore attitude toward crime and punishment, could be leading the way in the rehabilitation of violent and troubled youth? Now Hubner shares the surprising answers he found over months of unprecedented access to the Giddings State School, home to “the worst of the worst”: four hundred teenage lawbreakers convicted of crimes ranging from aggravated assault to murder. Hubner follows two of these youths–a boy and a girl–through harrowing group therapy sessions in which they, along with their fellow inmates, recount their crimes and the abuse they suffered as children. The key moment comes when the young offenders reenact these soul-shattering moments with other group members in cathartic outpourings of suffering and anger that lead, incredibly, to genuine remorse and the beginnings of true empathy . . . the first steps on the long road to redemption. Cutting through the political platitudes surrounding the controversial issue of juvenile justice, Hubner lays bare the complex ties between abuse and violence. By turns wrenching and uplifting, Last Chance in Texas tells a profoundly moving story about the children who grow up to inflict on others the violence that they themselves have suffered. It is a story of horror and heartbreak, yet ultimately full of hope.




The Emerald Handbook of Narrative Criminology


Book Description

Over 23 chapters this Handbook reflects the diversity of methodological approaches employed in the emerging field of narrative criminology.




A Popular Criminology of Youth Justice


Book Description

Analysing the representation of youth crime and justice-involved children in popular fictional films, this book explores how what we see on screen contributes to the perceptions of youth justice in society, policy, and practice. Putting forward the argument that fictional representations have a real-world impact on the opportunities available to children, each chapter in the book focuses on a different genre or type of film and considers the ways in which justice-involved children have been demonised, stereotyped, and harmed by their portrayal on the big screen. From James Dean and the birth of “monstrous youth” in Rebel Without A Cause to the current, more nuanced portrayals as seen in The Young Offenders, the book examines films throughout history and across different cultures. In doing so, it demonstrates how portrayals of justice-involved children have contributed to the social understanding of what youth crime is and who is to blame for it, and highlights how we can use this knowledge to better understand and support children. By combining youth justice theory with media analysis, A Popular Criminology of Youth Justice: Youth on Film makes a novel contribution to both fields and will be of great interest to students and researchers in the areas of youth crime, youth justice, and the media.




Organized Crime and Terrorist Networks


Book Description

This collection explores organized crime and terror networks and the points at which they intersect. It analyses the close relationships between these criminalities, the prevalence and ambiguity of this nexus, the technological elements facilitating it, and the financial aspects embedded in this criminal partnership. Organized Crime and Terrorist Networks is the outcome of empirical research, seminars, workshops and interviews carried out by a multinational consortium of researchers within ‘TAKEDOWN’, a Horizon 2020 project funded by the European Commission. The consortium’s objective was to examine the perspectives, requirements and misgivings of front-line practitioners operating in the areas of organized crime and terrorism. The chapters collected in this volume are the outcome of such analytical efforts. The topics addressed include the role of Information and Communication Technology in contemporary criminal organizations, terrorism financing, online transnational criminality, identity crime, the crime-terror nexus and tackling the nexus at supranational level. This book offers a compelling contribution to scholarship on organized crime and terrorism, and considers possible directions for future research. It will be of much interest to students and researchers engaged in studies of criminology, criminal justice, crime control and prevention, organized crime, terrorism, political violence, and cybercrime.




Private Security and Domestic Violence


Book Description

Private companies are increasingly involved with the security of domestic violence victims. This has manifested in a number of ways, including private security companies working in partnership with domestic violence services, the proliferation of security-technology companies that seek a market within the domestic violence sector, and governments contracting private companies to provide security provision for victims. Private Security and Domestic Violence offers a world-first analysis of the risks and benefits of for-profit businesses engaging with a vulnerable and underprotected section of society. Based on original data gathered in Australia, this book provides internationally relevant insights on the dangers but also the potential benefits of increasing private sector involvement with victims of domestic abuse. It offers a unique crossover of the literature on private security, crime prevention and domestic violence. Aimed at scholars, policymakers, and frontline workers within the domestic violence sector, Private Security and Domestic Violence documents experimental new collaborations and partnerships between the private, community and governmental spheres and makes a case for the suitable regulatory solutions to be put in place to successfully manage private security involvement with domestic violence victims. By outlining the risks and the benefits of this new form of security provision and detailing a potential model of regulation, this book offers a pathway for improving how we provide for a chronically underprotected population. It will be of interest to criminology and criminal justice students and researchers engaged in studies of abuse, domestic violence, violent crime, victims and victimology, crime prevention, and security.




Human Enhancement Drugs


Book Description

Despite increasing interest in the use of human enhancement drugs (HEDs), our understanding of this phenomenon and the regulatory framework used to address it has lagged behind. Encompassing public health, epidemiology, neuroethics, sport science, criminology, and sociology, this book brings together a broad spectrum of scholarly insights and research expertise from leading authorities to examine key international issues in the field of HEDs. As "traditional" and other "new" drug markets have occupied much of the academic attention, there has been a lack of scholarly focus on human enhancement drugs. This book provides readers with a much-needed understanding of the illicit drug market of HEDs. The authors, from a variety of cultural contexts, disciplines and perspectives, include both academics and practitioners. Topics explored in this collection amongst others include: • The anti-doping industry and performance and image enhancing drugs • Steroids and gender • The use of cognitive enhancing drugs in academia • The use of sunless synthetic tanning products • The (online) trade of HEDs • Regulations of the enhancement drugs market This collection will serve as a reference for students, academics, practitioners, law enforcement and others working in this area to reflect on the current state of research and consider future priorities. This detailed exploration will provide a valuable knowledge base for those interested in human enhancement drugs, while also promoting critical discussion.




Crime, Harm and Consumerism


Book Description

This book offers a collection of cutting-edge essays on the relationship between crime, harm and consumer culture. Although consumer culture has been addressed across the social sciences, it has yet to be fully explored in criminology. The editors bring together an impressive list of authors with original ideas and a fresh perspective to this field. The collection first introduces the reader to three sets of ideas which will be especially useful to students and researchers piecing together theoretical frameworks for their studies. New concepts such as pseudo-pacification, the materialist libertine and the commodification of abstinence can be used as foundation stones for new explanatory criminological analyses in the 21st century. The collection then moves on to present case studies based on rigorous empirical work in the fields of consumption and debt, ‘outlaw’ gangs, illegal drug markets, gambling, the mentality that drives investment fraudsters and the relationship between social media and state surveillance. These case studies showcase the strength of the research skills and knowledge these scholars offer to the field of criminology. Written in a clear and direct style, this book will appeal to students and scholars in criminology, sociology, cultural studies, social theory and those interested in learning about the effects of consumer culture in modern society.




The Human Factor of Cybercrime


Book Description

Cybercrimes are often viewed as technical offenses that require technical solutions, such as antivirus programs or automated intrusion detection tools. However, these crimes are committed by individuals or networks of people which prey upon human victims and are detected and prosecuted by criminal justice personnel. As a result, human decision-making plays a substantial role in the course of an offence, the justice response, and policymakers' attempts to legislate against these crimes. This book focuses on the human factor in cybercrime: its offenders, victims, and parties involved in tackling cybercrime. The distinct nature of cybercrime has consequences for the entire spectrum of crime and raises myriad questions about the nature of offending and victimization. For example, are cybercriminals the same as traditional offenders, or are there new offender types with distinct characteristics and motives? What foreground and situational characteristics influence the decision-making process of offenders? Which personal and situational characteristics provide an increased or decreased risk of cybercrime victimization? This book brings together leading criminologists from around the world to consider these questions and examine all facets of victimization, offending, offender networks, and policy responses. Chapter 13 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.