H6 t/m H9 Flashcards
political dynamics: currency & baggage
currency: actively tackling crime creates public trust and approval, even if what you are doing might create further problems
baggage: impossible balancing act of implementing policies and practices which might genuinely create positive change, vs the need to please the public and media
penal populism
Penal populism is a form of political discourse that, directly or by implication, denigrates the views of professional experts and liberal elites and claims instead the authority of ‘the people’ whose views about punishment it professes to express.
role of the media
- media can affect both public and policy-makers
- public & government reactions to law and order can be fueled by media
- heavy focus on ‘risky groups’
- framing
political influences on law and order
- policing priorities
- policing practices
- law-making itself
- sentencing practices
- role of victim in justice process
- collection/use of statistics on crime and justice matters
- governance and organization of criminal justice services
- imposition of one nation’s criminal justice philosophy onto another
Legal definition victim
someone who has suffered some form of injury, loss or disadvantage as a result of another person’s actions, whereby such actions have been formally outlawed
legal definition offender
the person who perpetrated the act, normally with some form of intent
victimology
a sub-discipline of criminology that commits to the wider issue of victimisation and the understanding of victim identity
factors that relate to increased probability of becoming a victim of crime
- age
- employement status
- gender
- disability
- ethnicitiy
victim blaming
victims themselves are responsibilised or even actively blamed for what has happened to them
victim precipitation
the extent of a victim’s own involvement of encouragement of their victimisation
secondary & tertiary victimisation
Secondary: where stakeholders beyond the primary victim are affected by crime in some way
tertiary: when a community or even a society is affected by crime
hegemonic masculinity
describes the nature of being male, and the dominant characteristics of maleness within society —> being tough, dominant and even violent
this way males can be both offenders and victims (seeking to live up to ideals of being male and becoming involved in violence)
state crimes
forms of criminality that are committed by states and governments in order to further a variety of domestic and foreign policies
most serious state crimes = peace crimes
- genocide
- crimes against humanity
- war crimes
- crime of agression
emerging themes to domestic and international forms of victimisation & offending
- class
- inequality
- power
- community
class
relates to ways in which people are socially and economically divided, and usually placed into associated identity groups
inequality
the unequal distribution of resources, opportunities, recognition, respect and other outcomes between people and groups within society
power
the ability that people have to influence their own lives and the lives of others
community
specific geographic place or cultural or social group of some form, with a specific identity
media
a diverse set of institutions, processes and mediums —> not only news-media but also film, music, tv, gaming, social media (glamorisation of violence and crime)
key themes in media coverage of crimes
- stories about crime are prominent in most forms
- news stories concentrate on serious crimes
- demographics of offenders and victims within media are atypical of what crime statistics tell us
- risk of victimisation is exaggerated
- media tended to present positive image of success and integrity of the police and CJS
- focus on individual victims
- particular issues or concerns reoccuring focal points
Penology
a sub-discipline of criminology that describes the complex study of punishment
- why we punish
- what punishment should look like
- who should be doing the punishing
privitisation
where corporations have a role within the management and running of criminal justice processes (which raises questions regarding the legitimacy of punishment
managerialism
a phenomenon which has permeated all areas of public and social policy over the past few decades in the UK and elsewhere
dichotomy between retribution (revenge) and reductionism (reducing crime)
punishment either concerned with the here and now moral reckoning that an offender receives - getting what they deserve in a sense; or, something related to the future in terms of preventing crime
possible aims of punishment
- retribution
- deterrence
- rehabilitation
- incapacitation
- restoration/reparation
retribution
there is a moral justification for inflicting punishment upon a wrongdoer, and it is linked to an eye for an eye mentality, without necessarily looking to future consequences
deterrene
principle that individuals are dissuaded from committing crime through the nature of the punishment that follows
- imprisonment is advocated
rehabilitation
concerned with dealing with the factors that are thought to have had an influence on the offender
- more positivist
- individual pathologies block
incapacitation
preventing an offender from reoffending by removing them from society (imprisonment)
restoration/reparation
the intention to move things back to how they were before the crime occurred
punitive response to crime
tough on offenders
welfarist response to crime
concerned with the wellbeing of offenders and communities
radical response to crime
changing the current state of affairs or social arrangements
5 pains of imprisonment
- deprivation of liberty
- deprivation of goods and services
- deprivation of heterosexual relations
- deprivation of autonomy
- deprivation of security
critical issues of punishment
- punishment on children and women (their heightened vulnerability)
- privatisation and managerialsm (legitimacy and relevance)
- politics of law and order seemingly have some influence on the nature of punishment used
- mental health issues
- resource and staff shortage (prison system)
- processes of penal reform, decriminalisation & abolitionism
