British Journal of Criminology 51(4)

Masculinity, Marginalization and Violence: A Case Study of the English Defence League
James Treadwell and Jon Garland

In this article, we use three case studies, undertaken with young, white, working-class men involved in the English Defence League, to examine how they construct a specific form of violent masculinity. We argue that these accounts demonstrate that violence is socio-structurally generated but also individually psychologically justified, because these young men turn experiences of acute inequality and disenchantment into inner psychological scripts that justify their own ‘heroic’ status when involved in violent confrontation. We suggest that these feelings of disadvantage and marginalization prompt resentment and anger in young males who feel their voices are not being heard. This disenchantment manifests itself through externalized hostility, resentment and fury directed at the scapegoat for their ills: the Islamic ‘other’.

‘Guys! Stop Doing It!’: Young Women's Adoption and Rejection of Safety Advice when Socializing in Bars, Pubs and Clubs
Oona Brooks

Concern about the increase in alcohol consumption amongst young women, drink spiking and drug-assisted sexual assault have culminated in a renewed focus on safety advice for young women. This paper examines young women's responses to safety advice, and their associated safety behaviours, by drawing upon interview and focus group data from a qualitative study with 35 young women (18–25 years) in relation to their safety in bars, pubs and clubs. The findings reveal that young women's behaviours were complex and contradictory in that they resisted, adopted and transgressed recommended safety behaviours. This raises interesting questions about both the practical and the theoretical implications of contemporary safety campaigns, challenging the prevailing focus on women's behaviour and the gendered discourse invoked by such campaigns.

Democracy and Demonstration in the Grey Area of Neo-Liberalism: A Case Study of Free Los Angeles High School
Tim Goddard and Randy Myers

School punishment policies in the United States are increasingly prone to exclusion. In an effort to rid the school of risky disturbances, these measures push disruptive students out of the educational environment or into the criminal justice system. The task of educating these excluded youth has undergone a process of neo-liberal ‘responsibilization’, as communities are charged with dealing with drop-outs and push-outs from mainstream schools as well as system-involved youth. This is illustrated by a case study of a community school established by a social movement organization in Los Angeles, United States. While neo-liberalism is touted as a vehicle for crime control and efficiency, in practice, the outcomes of responsibilization can set the stage for progressive take on education to burgeon as well as mobilization against ‘law and order’ policies and social abandonment that come with adherence to market principles.

Policing Markets: The Contested Shaping of Neo-Liberal Forensic Science
Christopher James Lawless

This paper addresses the effects of recent political and economic trends on the construction of forensic science in England and Wales. Using documentary sources and fieldwork, I show how neo-liberal initiatives have differentially reconstructed relationships between forensic scientists and the police. I argue that this stems from contested interpretations of scientific integration that have selectively appropriated elements of neo-liberalism. Neo-liberal reform of forensic science has, however, exposed actors to new risks, culminating in the UK Government's announcement to close the Forensic Science Service. Yet, rather than representing the end of ‘marketization’, debates concerning the organization of forensic science have entered a new phase. These hold significant implications for understanding the relationship between crime, science and advanced liberal governance.

Resisting Administrative Tolerance in the Netherlands: A Rightist Backlash?
Peter Mascini and Dick Houtman

Representatives of rightist-conservative political groups have denounced the Dutch policy of administrative tolerance (‘gedoogbeleid’) as a left-libertarian excess. On the basis of a representative survey among the Dutch population (N = 1,892), we demonstrate, however, that such resistance is not typically ‘rightist’ or ‘conservative’. Even though conservatives are more likely to oppose administrative tolerance as a general policy type, this is merely because they associate it with the toleration of illegal activities by marginal individuals. Whereas they do oppose the latter more than political progressives do, the latter are, for their part, more critical than conservatives about the toleration of illegal activities by official agencies.

A Symposium of Reviews of Public Criminology? by Ian Loader and Richard Sparks
Contributors: Nils Christie, Elliott Currie, Helena Kennedy, Gloria Laycock, Rod Morgan, Joe Sim, Jacqueline Tombs, Reece Walters

British Journal of Criminology, July 2011: Volume 51, Issue 4