British Journal of Criminology 53(6)

British Journal of Criminology, November 2013: Volume 53, Issue 6

The Banality of Security: The Curious Case of Surveillance Cameras
Benjamin Goold, Ian Loader, and Angélica Thumala

Why do certain security goods become banal (while others do not)? Under what conditions does banality occur and with what effects? In this paper, we answer these questions by examining the story of closed circuit television cameras (CCTV) in Britain. We consider the lessons to be learned from CCTV’s rapid—but puzzling—transformation from novelty to ubiquity, and what the banal properties of CCTV tell us about the social meanings of surveillance and security. We begin by revisiting and reinterpreting the historical process through which camera surveillance has diffused across the British landscape, focusing on the key developments that encoded CCTV in certain dominant meanings (around its effectiveness, for example) and pulled the cultural rug out from under alternative or oppositional discourses. Drawing upon interviews with those who produce and consume CCTV, we tease out and discuss the family of meanings that can lead one justifiably to describe CCTV as a banal good. We then examine some frontiers of this process and consider whether novel forms of camera surveillance (such as domestic CCTV systems) may press up against the limits of banality in ways that risk unsettling security practices whose social value and utility have come to be taken for granted. In conclusion, we reflect on some wider implications of banal security and its limits.

Is it a Crime to Produce Ecological Disorganization? Why Green Criminology and Political Economy Matter in the Analysis of Global Ecological Harms
Michael J. Lynch, Michael A. Long, Kimberly L. Barrett, and Paul B. Stretesky

We argue in this paper for a political economic approach to the study of global ecological crimes. Green criminological studies often employ case study approaches which help explain a particular green crime; however, these studies lack a coherent theoretical basis. Based on ecological Marxism and treadmill of production approaches, we outline a theoretical approach for green criminology that focuses on crimes of ecological disorganization—that is, green harms that are the result of organizing the productive forces of the economy in a manner that is consistent with capitalism. We conclude that, to truly understand and remedy green harms, a focus on political economy is necessary.

Genocide Films, Public Criminology, Collective Memory
Michelle Brown and Nicole Rafter

One cannot understand or remember the genocides of the past in any direct manner. Their inaccessibility impedes us from working toward complex understandings of these events and adequate ways of responding to them. In this paper, we bring together various strands of criminological thought by examining genocide films as a form of public criminology that is engaged in the work of memory and commemoration. We identify a specific set of genocide films that, we argue, not only constitute a key (if hitherto unrecognized) branch of visual and public criminology, but also create and transmit collective memories of the ‘crime of crimes’, provoking public understandings of atrocity and meaningful social and political responses. These films direct us toward representational strategies and interdisciplinary perspectives that advance our theoretical and empirical understanding of genocide. Attention to such efforts not only underscores the work of images in shaping criminological discourse, but also makes for a better—because more deeply informed—criminology of genocide.

In Crime’s Archive: The Cultural Afterlife of Criminal Evidence
Katherine Biber

This article explores the cultural afterlife of criminal evidence. During the criminal trial, strict rules govern the collection, admission and interpretation of evidence at trial. However, after the conclusion of the trial, this material returns to a notional ‘archive’ and is sometimes used by artists, scholars, curators and others, but subject to no rules or standards. This article examines a range of instances in which criminal evidence has been used post-trial, and proposes a jurisprudence of sensitivity for responding to the harm that is sometimes done when criminal evidence leads a cultural afterlife.

Collective Efficacy, Deprivation and Violence in London
Alex Sutherland, Ian Brunton-Smith, and Jonathan Jackson

This paper examines the importance of neighbourhood context in explaining violence in London. Exploring in a new context Sampson’s work on the relationship between interdependent spatial patterns of concentrated disadvantage and crime, we assess whether collective efficacy (i.e. shared expectations about norms, values and goals, as well as the ability of members of the community to realize these goals) mediates the potential impact on violence of neighbourhood deprivation, residential stability and population heterogeneity. Reporting findings from a dataset based on face-to-face interviews with 60,000 individuals living in 4,700 London neighbourhoods, we find that collective efficacy is negatively related to police-recorded violence. But, unlike previous research, we find that collective efficacy does not mediate the statistical relationship between structural characteristics of the neighbourhood and violence. After finding that collective efficacy is unrelated to an alternative measure of neighbourhood violence, we discuss limitations and possible explanations for our results, before setting out plans for further research.

Policing British Asian Identities: The Enduring Role of the Police in Young British Asian Men’s Situated Negotiation of Identity and Belonging
Matthew Millings

Using data from ethnographic work and interviews with young British Asian men conducted in 2002 and again in 2012, this paper identifies the powerful real and imagined role the police play in these young men’s negotiation of belonging and identity. Experiences of policing are shown to meaningfully shape individual and collective claims of belonging. These negotiations are seen to contribute to, and be derived from, volatile climates of racism, fractured social relations and cultures of intolerance, rendering explicit the powerful cultural work of policing.

Police Accountability and the Commodification of Policing in China: A Study of Police/Business Posters in Guangzhou
Jianhua Xu

Based on a study of police/business posters in Guangzhou, this paper explores commodification of policing in China. It is argued that, while the commodification of policing in Western societies has its roots in the rise of neo-liberal thinking, it is unique in China for its lack of accountability of police power. Chengguan, the urban management department, is not an effective counter-power to the police in their making of illegal police/business posters due to institutional arrangement and practical reasons. The commodification of police power is not just a local police phenomenon, but a wider police institutional phenomenon. It is also part of the symbiotic relations between state power and economic capital in a wider Chinese society. Data collection involved three years’ ethnographic fieldwork, in-depth semi-structured interviews with the police, police scholars, businessmen, urban management officers, ordinary citizens and security guards.

Sentence Consistency in England and Wales: Evidence from the Crown Court Sentencing Survey
Jose Pina-Sánchez and Robin Linacre

We assess the use of sentencing guidelines for assault issued in England and Wales, and the consistency with which they are applied by judges in the Crown Court. We use data from the Crown Court Sentencing Survey (CCSS), which records data on legal factors considered in the sentencing guidelines. This gives us access to a wide range of explanatory variables, allowing us to produce more robust findings about consistency in sentencing. We first employ a standard regression model to determine how guideline factors affect sentence outcomes empirically. Second, a random slopes multilevel model is used to analyse whether these factors have been consistently applied across different Crown Court centres. Our results point to a substantial degree of consistency in sentencing.

Putting the Defendant in Their Place: Why Do We Still Use the Dock in Criminal Proceedings?
Linda Mulcahy

This article considers the extent to which the on-going use of the dock in criminal proceedings can be justified. It is argued that the use of the dock interferes with the defendant’s ability to participate in the trial, the right to counsel and the presumption of innocence. This has been recognized in some jurisdictions and, in the United Kingdom, its use has been criticized by key stakeholders in the criminal justice system. Despite the launching of campaigns for its abolition, the English dock is becoming increasingly fortified and continues to be used to incarcerate defendants in trials involving minor charges. Drawing on previously unexplored archives and data from the United States, this article seeks to understand justifications for the retention of the dock and the reasons why campaigns for its abolition have failed.

Cousins in Crime: Mobility, Place and Belonging in Indigenous Youth Co-Offending
Andrew Goldsmith and Mark Halsey

This paper examines serious repeat offending among a cohort of young Indigenous Australians dubbed the ‘Gang of 49’. Drawing chiefly on interviews, we explore the importance of mobility, place, belonging and alcohol in shaping the resilience and notoriety of this group over the past decade. We consider the broader significance of ethnic and familial ties in offenders’ lives, and explicate the complex ways in which these ties contribute overwhelmingly to offender convergence for the commission of crime but only very rarely to occasions for offender divergence from crime. In concluding, we argue that the nature of co-offending among this group is rhizomatic and thereby demands a very different law enforcement (and political) response than has pertained to date.

Opportunities for Environmental Crime: A Test of Situational Crime Prevention Theory
Wim Huisman and Judith van Erp

Recently, Situational Crime Prevention Theory (SCPT) has been proposed as an alternative to offender-based theories of white-collar crime. This paper uses the results of a cross-case analysis of 23 criminal investigations of environmental crime in the Netherlands to explore the fruitfulness of SCPT as a method of scientific study of environmental crime and the development of prevention strategies. This analysis shows that most environmental crimes are crimes of omission, while SCPT is designed for predatory crimes of commission. In addition, while it is concluded that SCPT is helpful in analysing opportunities for environmental crime, it is difficult to draw innovative prevention strategies on the basis of SCPT, since most suggestions have already been covered in contemporary models for environmental regulation.