Criminology Scarman Lectures

From schoolboy convict to head of the prisoners' union, Ben Gunn lived imprisonment, then studied it, making him one of the most potent penal reform commentators. Building on Gandhian theories of active non-violence, and in the face of the Prison Services' straggles to counter uprisings since the Strangeways riots, Ben argues that prisoners can organise and use active non-violence to bring about penal reform.

Governments address the dangers of air pollution and other environmental contamination, driven by the threats to commercial activity or the influence of property owners who perceive economic loss to their assets. This lecture explores the negative effects of air pollutants within Zizek's framework of violence, and identifies how criminology must continue to push new boundaries with emerging harmful acts of both local and global concern. Professor Reece Walters is from Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia, and he delivered this lecture at University of Leicester on 11 January 2012.

Neoliberalism embraces two apparently conflicting orientations: 'rolling back the state' in favour of private market solutions, and the consolidation of a coercive security apparatus exemplified by surveillance, workfare, and prisonfare. Using the example of recent changes in the probation service in England and Wales, John argues that these two orientations are only superficially contradictory and that, in fact, 'privatisation' can be the vehicle of increased centralisation and state coordination.

The regulation of drugs – including alcohol and tobacco – is an issue of pressing importance due to the increasing health care costs associated with their use and the new sorts of synthetic agents being developed and sold over the internet. Also the impact of the law to impede research and treatment innovation is of growing concern. The talk will reflect on these issues in the light of Professor Nutt’s ten years’ experience on the governments Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs from which he was sacked two years ago. He will present new analyses that compare the harms of drugs and alcohol using more sophisticated methodology and challenge many of the current misconceptions about drugs – their harms – and how to deal with them.

As Director of Public Prosecutions (UK), Keir has had to handle many complex and sensitive issues such as assisted suicide and cases in which members of the House of Commons and House of Lords have been charged with criminal offences. He has also led on publishing important guidance for prosecutors e.g. those on assisted suicide, assessing the public interest in cases affecting the media, joint enterprise, social media and has recently issued interim guidelines for child sexual abuse cases. Keir describes his work and its current direction, with stories taken directly out of the news.

Julian Buchanan has been involved in the drugs field for over 30 years, initially as a probation officer/drugs worker in Liverpool before continuing his interest as an academic. He has worked at a number of UK universities before moving to Victoria University of Wellington New Zealand in January 2011. His main research interest is in the management and control of substance use and misuse and the interplay with discrimination, stigma, exclusion and legal v illicit drug use. He has published widely including around 40 book chapters/articles, including the second edition (with Ros Carnwell) of Effective Practice in Health, Social Care and Criminal Justice: A Partnership Approach, publish by Open University. In this lecture Julian will explore to what extent and in what way existing policies towards illicit drug might be causing more harm than the actual drug itself. Homepage: http://julianbuchanan.wordpress.com/ Online Mag: http://www.scoop.it/t/drugs-society

Joe Phoenix's research is aimed at improving the understanding of the way in which practitioners make decisions about whether or not to prosecute and use criminal justice sanctions against sexually exploited girls. It also explores the extent to which economic necessity drives girls into commercial and other forms of sexual exploitation, and looks at the ways in which many sexually exploited girls commit crime to try and escape the men who exploit them or as a cry for help. This talk was delivered at University of Leicester on Wednesday, 20 February, 2013.

Speaking from her research within UK police and against the backdrop of the inquiry into 'institutional racism,' Anna reveals her own struggles to research ethical and cultural issues within policing.