Extra Lil' Bits

These are just some really key, small pieces of information (like facts or short timelines) that I've just come across and want to try remember.

I think these little tidbits of information are going to come up a lot in the course of my degree, and will be useful to have on hand. So have a gander! Tell me what you think, or if there's other useful lil' bits you think I should have on here.

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The Lil' Bits

Prison Stats

At any given time there are roughly 80,000 people incarcerated in England and Wales.

There are 121 prisons, 12 hold female offenders, 5 hold young offenders (18-21), and 3 are Secure Training Centres (young offenders 12-17).

104 are run by HMPPS, 13 run by private companies.

Convict Criminology

When an ex-offender gets into academic, criminological research.

Is more aimed at people who have gone to prison, then study criminology after their sentence has ended.

Popularised in Britain by a guy called Rod Earle in 2011.

Police Forces

In England and Wales: 43 seperate police forces

Also: Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), which are a seperate force for London

Officers in England and Wales: Around 125,000

Lowest since 1980s

Useful Links

Crime Reduction Toolkit:

Gives descriptions and analysis of different crime reduction attempts (analysing based on efficacy, cost efficieny, implimentation)

Corston Report:

Report about the effect of prison and custodial sentences on women

Corston, J. (2007) The Corston Report. London, Home Office

Macphearson Report:

Report about racism in the CJS, gives 70 recomendations. Great definition of institutional racism

Macphearson, W. (1999) The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry. London, Home Office

Human Rights Timeline

1948: UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)

1948: Council of Europe begin making the European Convention of Human Rights

1953: ECHM finished (drafted by David Fyffe, England one of first to sign)

1953: European Court of Human Rights made (ECtHR) to defend Human Rights, in France, Strasburg

1998: Human Rights Act - HR put into UK legislation

Fave Contemporary Criminologists

Stanley Cohen (1942 - 2013): Wrote "Folk Devils and Moral Panics." Loads of Human Rights work.

Frances Heidensohn (1942 - ): Kickass feminist criminologist, wrote "Deviance of Women" article. She worked on Double Deviance with Carol Smart.

David Harvey (1935 - ): British born Marxist. Wrote "Enigma of Capital." Loads of great talks, has a podcast (?!)

Ulrich Beck (1944 - 2015): German sociologist, wrote "Risk Society." Key areas: uncertainty, ignorance, risk.

Edward Said (1935 - 2003). Palestinian American, loads of work on colonialism. Wrote "Orientalism." A looker.

Adversarial & Inquisitorial

These are the 2 main ways of running a Criminal Justice System:

Adversarial

(UK, USA,Canada)

The judge is impartial and acts as a moderator. Two parties (defence and prosecution) present evidence and argue the case.

Inquisitorial

(Germany, France)

The "adjudicator" (judge) takes an active role in the investigation, and is provided with a dossier from police and prosecutor.

Possible Sentences

- Absolute Discharge

- Conditional Discharge

- Fine/Compensation Order

- Reperation Orders (Young Offedners only)

- Referral Orders (Young Offenders Only)

- Community Order

- Suspended Sentence

- Custodial Sentence

Custodial Costs

To hold an adult in prison for one year: £34,000

To hold a youth in a Young Offender Institution (YOI, for 15-17 year olds): £65,000/year

A youth in a Secure Training Centre (STC, for 12-17 years olds): £178,000/year

A youth in a Secure Children's Home (SCH, children from 10 years old): £212,000/year

Pains of Imprisonment - Sykes (1958)

Identified 5 "Pains of Imprisonment"

1) Deprivation of liberty (duh)

2) Deprivation of goods

3) Deprivation of heterosexual relationships

4) Deprivation of autonomy

5) Deprivation of security

Techniques of Neutralization - Matza & Sykes (1957)

So this is basically how criminals justify doing crime to themselves:

(but you can see yourself doing these rationalizations whenever you do something you know is wrong)

Denial of responsibility: "It wasn't my fault"

Denial of injury: "The harm wasn't that bad"

Denial of the status of the victim: "They deserved it, the victims were actually the agressors/soldiers"

Condemnation of the condemners: "The state/police/CJS are the real aggressors"

Appeal to higher loyalties: "Acts are neccesary to draw attention to our cause"

Some Great Videos

For when you can't be arsed to read one more page, try these instead. They put pretty tricky concepts into really easy to follow videos. I promise there won't be anything on here that goes over 15 minutes.

David Harvey: Crisis of Capitalism

Amazing animated video put to David Harvey's speech, The Crisis of Capitalism. Explained fantastically and really easy to follow.