Preliminary Programme

Wed 30 March
    8.30 - 10.30
    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

Thu 31 March
    8.30 - 10.30
    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

Fri 1 April
    8.30 - 10.30
    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

Sat 2 April
    8.30 - 10.30
    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

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Wednesday 30 March 2016 11.00 - 13.00
B-2 CRI16 Crime History and the Life Course: New Findings and New Dialogues
Seminario B, Nivel 0
Networks: Criminal Justice , Social Inequality Chair: Marion Pluskota
Organizer: Helen Johnston Discussant: Marion Pluskota
David Cox : Pros and Cons - Researching the Lives and Offences of Victorian Convicts: Advantages and Limitations of a Prosopographical Approach
Historical research utilising a prosopographical approach has gained much credence in recent years; work by criminologists and historians such as Godfrey, Cox and Farrall for example, has contributed to our wider knowledge of the reasons behind petty offending and desistence from such offending. Major new international and interdisciplinary ... (Show more)
Historical research utilising a prosopographical approach has gained much credence in recent years; work by criminologists and historians such as Godfrey, Cox and Farrall for example, has contributed to our wider knowledge of the reasons behind petty offending and desistence from such offending. Major new international and interdisciplinary research projects such as the Digital Panopticon (http://www.digitalpanopticon.org/) and Founders & Survivors (http://www.foundersandsurvivors.org/) are also using elements of prosopographical research in innovative ways.

However, there are also caveats with regard to such an approach. This paper therefore explores its benefits and drawbacks in investigating the lives and offences of Victorian convicts, and the resultant construction of ‘life grids’ (mini-biographies) for each researched offender. The research methodology employed in creating such documents and its resultant findings is interdisciplinary in nature, drawing upon criminological, biometric, historical and genealogical sources. Such research has proved in turn fascinating, illuminating and often frustrating; the paper aims to give a flavour of the trials and tribulations experienced, together with the ways in which it can impact upon other disciplines and communities. (Show less)

Pamela Cox, Zoe Alker : Young Criminal Lives: ‘What worked’ in Historical Youth Justice Systems?
The Young Criminal Lives project examines the life course outcomes of juveniles admitted to four industrial and reformatory schools in northwest England between 1850 and 1920. The project, funded by Leverhulme under the name After Care and inspired by Dutch and US studies, has succeeded in gathering ‘cradle to grave’ ... (Show more)
The Young Criminal Lives project examines the life course outcomes of juveniles admitted to four industrial and reformatory schools in northwest England between 1850 and 1920. The project, funded by Leverhulme under the name After Care and inspired by Dutch and US studies, has succeeded in gathering ‘cradle to grave’ data on 500 individuals using a range of digitised and documentary sources including institutional records, census, birth, marriage and death records, military documents, criminal registers, and newspapers.

One of the major findings of Young Criminal Lives has been that young offenders in the late 19th century were far less likely to reoffend than those today. Today, re-offending rates among young offenders stand at 73%, according to the UK’s Ministry of Justice (www.gov.uk, April 2013). By contrast, the traceable reoffending rate among the Young Criminal Lives subjects was just 22 per cent.

Efforts to discover ‘what works’ in youth justice continue to dominate debates amongst policy makers and criminal justice agencies across Europe, but these ‘evidence-based’ debates rarely consider historical data. The Young Criminal Lives team argue that these late 19th century lower reoffending rates can be attributed, in part, to the impact of post-release apprenticeships. Given this, is it possible (or indeed desirable) to use such evidence to inform current policy discussion and practice? If so, how?

This paper draws on the public debate generated by the Young Criminal Lives project (in the UK and US media and within the UK penal-voluntary sector) to show how historical evidence might be used – albeit with caution - to shape more effective interventions. (Show less)

Helen Johnston : Long-term Imprisonment and Release: the Impact of Imprisonment on the Life Course of Adult Offenders in Victorian England
This paper draws on an ESRC research project which examined the financial and personal costs of imprisonment between 1853 and 1940. A central focus of the research has been to reconstruct the 'whole life' histories of 650 adult male and female convicts who were long term prisoners under penal ... (Show more)
This paper draws on an ESRC research project which examined the financial and personal costs of imprisonment between 1853 and 1940. A central focus of the research has been to reconstruct the 'whole life' histories of 650 adult male and female convicts who were long term prisoners under penal servitude and who were released on license during the second half of the nineteenth century. Using this methodology we have reconstructed their lives, not only through their interactions with agencies of criminal justice and during their institutionalisation, but also through data on births, marriages and deaths, census information and newspaper reports to provide as full a picture as possible of these individuals experiences. This paper will interrogate the impact of imprisonment on the lives of these adult offenders and examine whether or not early release schemes, like licensing, assisting convicts to reintegrate into society? (Show less)

Christine Kelly : The Development of Probation for Young Offenders in Early Twentieth Century Scotland
This paper examines the development of probationary practices for young offenders in Scotland in the early twentieth century, a topic which has hitherto received little academic attention. In particular the paper discusses the varying practices and arrangements in different towns across Scotland. Drawing on a range of contemporaneous sources, the ... (Show more)
This paper examines the development of probationary practices for young offenders in Scotland in the early twentieth century, a topic which has hitherto received little academic attention. In particular the paper discusses the varying practices and arrangements in different towns across Scotland. Drawing on a range of contemporaneous sources, the paper analyses the role of early probation officers, their background, their ethos, guiding principles and methods. The paper also explores the debates in the 1920s about the future of probation, such as the relative virtues of the volunteer and ‘whole-time’ probation officer, the issue of payment for probation officers and also the somewhat controversial deployment of police as probation officers in some areas. (Show less)



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