EUROPEAN GROUP FOR THE STUDY OF
DEVIANCE AND SOCIAL CONTROL
ESTABLISHED 1973
Coordinator: Emma Bell
Secretary: Monish Bhatia
Karl Johan’s Gate, Oslo.
SUMMER NEWSLETTER II
Website administrator: Gilles Christoph
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I European Group Conference
Abstracts
available
Final Call for photo
Conference Blog
on-line
exhibition
II Comment and analysis
Benjamin Fleury-Steiner and JamieLongazel discuss the pains of
imprisonment in the United States
Emma Bell reflects on her visits to penal
institutions in Oklahoma
Aimila Voulvouli discusses Greek
academia and the violation of human
rights.
III European Group News
New European Group Anthology
published
Call for volunteers
Call for papers
IV News from the Europe and
the world
Australia
EU
France
Greece
Italy
Spain
UK
USA
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
I European Group Conference
European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control
41st Annual Conference
Critical Criminology in a Changing World –
Tradition & Innovation
29th August – 1st September 2013
Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law
University of Oslo
Norway
See:http://www.europeangroup.org/conferences/2013/Index.htm/
http://www.jus.uio.no/ikrs/english/research/news-andevents/events/conferences/2013/CCIACW/
Conference abstracts are now available on-line:
http://www.jus.uio.no/ikrs/english/research/news-andevents/events/conferences/2013/CCIACW/allabstractsalpha.pdf
The conference organisers have now collected together over 80 photos to present at the photo
exhibition celebrating 40 years of the European Group. However, there are few pictures
from the 1970s and 1980s or of Stan Cohen. If any members of the group have any photos to
contribute from these years, please send them to p.j.ystehede@jus.uio.no or by mail to Per
Jorgen, Postboks 6706 St. Olavs plass, 0130 OSLO.
Don’t forget that the conference blog can be accessed here:
http://changingworldoslo.blogspot.co.uk/
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
II Comment and analysis
Benjamin Fleury-Steiner and Jamie Longazel discuss the
pains of imprisonment in the US
The Normalcy of Brutality in U.S. Prisons
In his classic “pains of imprisonment” chapter from The Society of Captives, the late
sociologist Gresham Sykes described “the deprivation of security.”
For Sykes, this
deprivation was not simply physical violence experienced by prisoners, but involved the
psychological trauma of having to live with a constant threat of victimization: “The
prisoner’s loss of security arouses acute anxiety… not just because violent acts of aggression
and exploitation occur but also because such behavior constantly calls into question the
individual’s ability to cope with it, in terms of his own inner resources, his courage, his
‘nerve’” (Sykes 2007: 78).1
We argue that “the deprivation of security” no longer adequately captures the situation
in which numerous prisoners in the U.S. find themselves. In addition to being confronted
with the threat of violence by other captives, prisoners today are increasingly brutalized by
their captors. Although this observation is not a new one, we contend that the scale and form
of guard brutality in the age of mass imprisonment is unprecedented. To understand the
widespread use of brutality in contemporary U.S. prisons, it is first important to attend to the
present historical moment. Just as Sykes was writing during the Cold War in the 1950s where
prison populations were comparatively very low but scholarly interest in the prison as a
totalitarian institution was on the rise, both the recent U.S. wars on crime and terror serve as a
critical backdrop for understanding what we believe is a dramatic rise in brutal custodial
regimes.
A recent volume The Violence of Incarceration (2009) edited by Phil Scraton and
Jude McCulloch presents important insight into why this is so. Reflecting on the
“normalization of legitimate violence,” especially in U.S. prisons, Scraton and McCulloch
challenge the notion that the international scandal at Abu Ghraib prison was an extraordinary
incident. In a remarkable chapter in this volume, “The United States Military Prison: The
Normalcy of Exceptional Brutality,” sociologist Avery F. Gordon documents how the
brutalization of prisoners at Abu Ghraib has direct connections to punishment regimes in U.S.
prisons. Gordon persuasively illuminates the role of U.S. military organizations such as the
International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program (ICITAP) in enlisting highlevel civilian prison personnel—including the former directors of supermax prisons in
Connecticut, Virginia, and Utah—to create military prisons in Afghanistan and Iraq,
including Abu Ghraib. That is to say, the crisis of mass imprisonment catalyzed by the
domestic war on crime has become a model for brutal U.S. military prisons abroad. At the
1
This essay is adapted from our forthcoming book The Pains of Mass Imprisonment (Routledge Press). In
addition to brutality, we present a reconceptualization of Sykes’s entire pains of imprisonment framework.
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
operational level, Gordon shows how the National Guardsmen at Abu Ghraib—many of who
were also employed as prison guards in notoriously brutal U.S. prisons—described their
actions to the FBI as chillingly normal.
An increasingly common form of prison guard brutality is the use of teams of guards
trained to suppress disorder by any means necessary. These Special Operations Response
Teams (SORTs) or some variation thereof (e.g., Correctional Emergency Response Teams
(CERTS)) are used throughout federal and state institutions in the U.S. SORT raids typically
involve dozens and sometimes hundreds of prisoners who are not gang members. This “goon
squad” methodology is invariably a one-size-fits-all approach in which all prisoners in a
particular cell block or institution are stripped naked and subjected to various forms of
brutality, including the use of vicious dogs, painful restraint techniques, and weapons such as
stun guns and Tasers to gain intelligence or confessions. In the most extreme instance, goon
squads in California prisons have engaged in a sadistic campaign of brutality, including the
use of lethal firearms that resulted in the deaths of 175 prisoners over a five-year period
between 1989 and 1994. Despite an FBI probe of one institution, Corcoran State Prison,
where a prisoner was shot to death by a guard in his cell, Christian Parenti in Lockdown
United States: Police and Prisons in an Age of Crisis
reports:
[B]rutality continued unabated. During the summer of 1995—even as FBI agents
were gathering evidence from Corcoran’s files—a gang of guards beat and tortured
a busload of thirty-six newly arrived African–U.S. prisoners … Two years later one
of the worst Corcoran COs had turned state’s evidence … His specialty had been
strangling inmates while other guards crushed and yanked the victims’ testicles
(Parenti 2000: 174)
While the aggressive use of lethal force against prisoners in California may be less common
in prisons in other states, the excessive prison-guard brutality well documented in states such
as Georgia and Texas is not anomalous, nor is such behavior restricted to prisons in particular
regions of the country. Consider the multitude of brutality that has been documented all
across the United States:
Pennsylvania: Prisoners are routinely subjected to unprovoked beatings and other forms of
brutality by groups of prison guards. Four years of prisoner abuse logs (2007–2011)
documenting the experiences of 900 prisoners from prisons across the state obtained by the
Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh chapters of the Human Rights Coalition reveal horrifying
beatings, aggressive use of pepper spray, unprovoked use of Tasers, and the deliberate
starvation of prisoners.
New Jersey, Colorado, Oklahoma, etc.: These and many other state systems have
aggressively turned to using restraining or “devil” chairs in which prisoners are tightly bound.
Class-action lawsuits filed in numerous states show how prisoners are strapped down for
many hours at a time. These cases reveal that prisoners are often beaten or pepper-sprayed
while in restraints. The use of restraining chairs by multiple prison guards against prisoners
has thus resulted in numerous serious injuries and at least 20 deaths.
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
Understanding widespread brutality behind bars cannot be separated from the broader
total institutional context of the prison. [The] brutalization of prisoners by their captors has
become commonplace. One of the most insidious catalysts is grievances that prisoners file
against prison staff. Here, we can see that the harsh conditions of confinement in this era of
mass imprisonment are nearly always tied to brutal acts of officer retaliation and cover-ups.
In a cruel irony—one that differs substantially from the “society of captives” described by
Sykes—the very system designed to make prisoners safer and more secure leads prison
officials to falsify reports, disable surveillance video cameras, and use excessive force to
make prisoners far less safe.
References
Gordon , Avery F. 2009 . “ The America Military Prison: The Normalcy of Exceptional
Brutality .” Pp. 164-186 in The Violence of Incarceration, Phil Scraton and Jude
McCulloch eds . New York : Routledge .
Parenti , Christian. 2000. Lockdown America: Police and Prisons in an Age of Crisis.
New York : Verso
Scraton , Phil and McCulloch , Jude (eds.) 2009 . The Violence of Incarceration.
New York : Routledge .
Sykes , Gresham. 2007. The Society of Captives: A Study of a Maximum Security Prison.
Princeton Classics Edition . Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press
Author biographies
Benjamin Fleury-Steiner is Associate Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice at the
University of Delaware (U.S.A). For more than a decade, he has taught graduate and
undergraduate courses on inequality, mass imprisonment, and the death penalty. FleurySteiner’s recent books include, Jury Stories of Death: How America's Death Penalty Invests
in Inequality and Dying Inside: Th e HIV/AIDS Ward at Limestone Prison (both published by
the
University
of
Michigan
Press).
Jamie Longazel is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology,
and Social Work at the University of Dayton (U.S.A.). He teaches and conducts research in
the areas of crime and punishment, law and inequality, and immigration. His recent
publications have appeared in Punishment & Society , Sociology Compass, Chicana/o
Latina/o Law Review , and Race & Justice.
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
Emma Bell
reflects on her visits to penal institutions in
Oklahoma
An excess of punishment
One of the first things that struck me on my
first ever trip to Oklahoma was the
luminosity, the extraordinary brightness of
the wide blue skies that stretch for miles
across the open plains of this central
American state. So it was that on my visit to
Oklahoma State Penitentiary (OSP) in
McAlester I was equally struck by the
darkness, by the lack of natural light within
the interior walls of the prison, and by the
distinctly unenlightened attitudes of the
senior warden who escorted us through the
dark underbelly of the American penal
system.
All prisoners in this maximum security
prison, with the exception of a minority of
prisoners suffering from the most severe
mental health problems, are locked down for
23 hours per day in cramped cells without
air-conditioning or the possibility of opening
the narrow oblongs of reinforced security
glass which serve as windows. For those on
death row, windows are non-existent. The
entire unit, euphemistically known as ‘Hunit’, which houses all those awaiting
execution by lethal injection (currently 54
people) in addition to administrative and
disciplinary segregation inmates from the
general population, is surrounded on all sides
by high piles of earth, rendering it partially
subterranean. Cells are lit with a single
naked bulb and prisoners may only catch a
glimpse of sky through a small skylight on
their way to the execution chamber or if they
cast their eyes upwards beyond the high
walls of the tiny prison yard in which they
may exercise alone for a very short period of
time each day.
Aside from the deprivation of natural light,
death row prisoners are also deprived of
normal human association and interaction.
Apart from statutory legal visits, only noncontact visits from people on a prisoner’s
approved visiting list may be permitted on a
twice-monthly basis. Association with other
prisoners is not permitted. Only prisoners in
the general population may share cells and,
even when these prisoners released for short
periods for ‘exercise’, this occurs only in
small outdoor cages, thus preventing any
physical contact between inmates.
I was also struck by the silence which
prevailed in McAlester, by the total absence
of the sound of normal human interaction.
This deafening silence was reinforced by the
fact that I was not allowed to speak to any of
the prisoners. I was even advised not to
make eye contact with them. I couldn’t avoid
the sense of voyeurism as I looked upon
abject human misery.
Perhaps the aim (conscious or not) of the
prison authorities in preventing such contact
was to contribute to the dehumanisation of
the prisoners. Indeed, this is something that
is prevalent in prisoner officer culture,
enabling them to create distance from their
charges and legitimate the imposition of pain
(Scott, 2009). The warden at OSP constantly
presented prisoners to us as dangerous,
violent individuals, devoid of normal human
sentiment: they would kill without hesitation.
For him, all prisoners lie and even those
admitted to the mental health unit and placed
on suicide watch are ‘just attention-seeking’.
The otherisation of the prisoners detained at
OSP even extended outside the prison walls
and into the town of McAlester itself where
the main road approaching the town displays
signs warning the passing public that
hitchhikers may well be escaped prisoners
who are automatically assumed to be
dangerous (see accompanying image).
Yet, it is not just attitudes which dehumanise
prisoners but also the conditions in which
they are detained which fail to respect the
norms of basic human dignity. Prisoners
placed on suicide watch are detained in cells
with glass doors. The stainless steel toilet is
placed just in front of these doors, denying
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
the prisoners all sense of privacy. The
ultimate act of dehumanisation is inflicted on
prisoners who are executed: those whose
bodies are not reclaimed are cremated and
their ashes buried in the nearby cemetery just
outside the prison walls. Their graves are
marked only by a number, these individuals
deemed unworthy of carrying their own
names in death.
For the senior warden who showed us
around OSP, even the harshest of
punishment is not sufficient. For him, even
the death penalty is ‘too easy’ since it allows
those executed ‘to just go to sleep’. Yet, it is
far from clear that this is a painless death: I
was told that it may take up to 17 minutes for
a man to die. In addition, the very
architecture of the prison and the petty rules
that govern the daily lives of those
incarcerated seem to inflict extraordinary
psychological pain. Furthermore, prisoners
in Oklahoma can expect to be detained for
longer periods of time than those in most
other American states. Those on death row
may await years for an execution date: the
longest-serving prisoner currently on death
row in OSP has been there for almost 30
years. Yet none of this pain is considered
sufficient compared to the pain an offender
may have inflicted on him victim. Pure
vengeance seems to lie at the heart of the
system.
Nonetheless, on visiting two other carceral
institutions, I did see some signs of humanity
and a recognition that prisoners are human
beings with the potential to change. I had the
opportunity to speak with some women
involved in the nation-wide Inside Out
Programme whereby prisoners and college
students alike take courses on criminal
justice together, helping to encourage
dialogue and break down some barriers
between those on the inside and those on the
outside of the criminal justice system. All
those involved seemed to find this a
rewarding experience, although it is to be
regretted that inmates appeared to be
handpicked
for
the
placed-limited
programme by the prison authorities, leaving
the vast majority of inmates largely excluded
from significant contact with the outside
world. This is particularly problematic where
many prisoners are detained hundreds,
sometimes thousands of miles from their
families. I met one man who was serving a
life sentence in Oklahoma, more that 2,500
kilometres from his home town in Maine.
Overall, my experience confirmed the idea
that prisons inflict so much more pain than
the deprivation of liberty alone. The physical
and psychological harms to which inmates
are exposed represent nothing other than an
extremely ‘unjust measure of pain’
(Ignatieff, 1978).
22nd April 2013
References
Ignatieff, Michael (1978) A Just Measure of
Pain: The Penitentiary in the Industrial
Revolution: 1750-1850 ( New York: Pantheon
Books).
Scott, David (2009) Ghosts Beyond our
Relam: A Neo-abolitionist Analysis Of
Prisoner Human Rights And Prison Officer
Culture (VDM Publishing, 2009).
Author biography
Emma Bell is senior lecturer at the Université
de Savoie, Chambéry, France. She is author
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
Aimilia
Voulvouli discussesGroup.Greek
Criminal Justice and Neoliberalism, Palgrave,
academia and the
2011 and current coordinator of the European
violation
of human rights
During the last two and a half years, Greek academia has been in conflict with the
government which last year passed a new law regulating higher education: Law 4076/2012.
The changes the law seeks to bring about2 are resisted by the majority of the academic
community (academic, research and administrative staff as well as the vast majority of
students). Yet, a small minority of the academic community, mainly academic staff, with ties
to the three-party coalition government, amongst which are representatives from the
university administration, support the government. Instead of representing the interests of
their constituents3, many members of the university administration boards decided not only to
implement the law but also to engage in the moral and professional persecution of members
of the academic community, mainly members of Unions, who declare their opposition to the
governmental decisions regarding higher education.
At the University of Crete, for example, Associate Professor Demetrios Patelis, is being tried
and has been called before the Hellenic Council of State (HCS) with the accusation that in
articles he authored in newspapers as well as on internet sites he referred to “the Rector and
the vice-Rectors of the University of Crete in a disrespectful manner not worthy of their
status”. It is the first time since 1943 that an academic is being tried due to his political
convictions which conflict with those of the Rectorate4.
Recently, another case in which the same university was involved was brought to court. The
case is widely known in Greece as the “Stelios Alexandropoulos Case”. Stelios
Alexandropoulos was Associate Professor at the Department of Political Sciences at the
University of Crete. In 2006 he was accused of spreading lies regarding his university by the
Rectorate of the institution, after claiming that the selection process for candidates for the
post-graduate course of the Department was not meritocratic. On hearing of the charges
against him, he asked to defend himself during the general assembly of his department but the
Head did not allow him to do so. After the end of the assembly, frustrated and disappointed,
he went to his office, where a few hours later he was found dead. The cause of his death was
a heart attack…
A couple of years ago, another case shook Greek academia. It was the case of Alexandra
Ioannidou who, after being accused by LAOS, an extreme-right wing party, of having
“nationally suspicious” research activities, lost her job because the General Secretary of the
Ministry of Education J. Panaretos accepted the petition made against her5. The case was
again widely publicised amongst academics and there were reactions both within Greek and
2
The law has notably suspended the democratic functions of the university by creating administrative boards
including external members of the business world. In addition, it has imposed the evaluation of academic
departments using market and non-academic criteria. The aim is to open academia up to the market.
3
According to a previous law on higher education in Greece, the Rector and the Vice-rectors of the universities
are elected by all members of the academic staff (except from the adjunct faculty), the administrative staff, as
well as all students.
4
http://tsak-giorgis.blogspot.gr/2012/10/blog-post_6310.html
5
http://www.enet.gr/?i=news.el.article&id=293932
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
international academia. Ioannidou applied to the Ministry asking for the annulment of her
discharge, which was accepted by the then Minister of Education Anna Diamantopoulou.
The latest case is the case of Fulbright and Jean Monnet Scholar Stratos Georgoulas,
Assistant Professor at the Department of Sociology at the University of the Aegean and
member of the European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control (EGSDSC). Dr
Georgoulas, President of the Local Association of the Teaching and Researching Staff of the
University of the Aegean, was up for promotion to the position of Associate Professor having
fulfilled all the criteria required by the Law governing the Greek Higher Education. His
application was turned down (the committee was constituted of 10 individuals, 5 of whom
voted in favour and 5 voted against his promotion). Amongst the reasons expressed by those
who voted against Dr Georgoulas – according to the minutes of the session – was the fact that
“he is very young” and that part of his work has been published by “a publishing house of
leftist orientation ” and is thus non-academic (for your information, the publishing house has
translated and published books by Marx, Feurbach, Hobson, Harvey etc.).
After the results were announced a massive campaign was organised by student unions at the
University of the Aegean, demanding the annulment of the electoral process which not only
was offensive in terms of academic criteria but also illegitimate as far as procedural criteria
are concerned. An international campaign from academics from all over the world was
organised and an e-petition was launched. Many of his international colleagues (many of
them also members of the European Group) wrote to the Rector of the University of the
Aegean, asking him to examine his case in a manner that secures the legitimacy of the
process. In addition, they asked from the Rector to condemn the attempted politicisation of
the electoral process. The Rector replied that the “intervention” of the international academic
community lay “somewhere between paternalism and racism”. The issue was picked up by
the local and national press as well as by blogs and social media which, along with the reply
of the Rector, has damaged the image of the University both inside and outside Greece.
Two things have to be noted here:
Firstly, Stratos Georgoulas has repeatedly been in conflict with the University authorities
regarding the consequences that the austerity measures have in the Greek public university
sector. Also, in January 2011 he, as a representative of his Department, in the Research
Committee of the University of the Aegean had exposed the issue of the huge bonuses in the
form of extra-payment that a few high ranking employees of the University of the Aegean
receive whilst teaching staff are being underpaid and laid off and students drop out of school
because their parents are unable to afford the expenses of a higher degree education (the
University of the Aegean does not have any scholarship scheme).
Secondly, one of the members of the electoral committee that turned down Dr Georgoulas’
application for promotion is currently vice-Rector of the University, supporter of the new
law, with ties to the Government and a close associate of the Rector of the University. Also,
the local and national press has reported that he, along with the rest of the members of the
Rectorate, has also received the high bonuses exposed by Dr Georgoulas at the General
Assembly of his department.
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
A few months ago, the Greek Ombudsman issued a decision, sent to the Ministry of
Education, the University of the Aegean, as well as to the members of Georgoulas’ electoral
committee claiming that there are strong indications that there has been both political bias
(even though at a later stage of the electoral process the member of the electoral body who
noted that bias asked the secretary to erase those comments) and age discrimination. In light
of the above, the Ombudsman requests further investigation of the issue. Furthermore, on
June 28th Georgoulas’s case was tried in court. The result will be issued during the following
months.
It is obvious from all the cases above that Georgoulas’ case is not the only case in which
human rights have been violated: Dimitris Patelis’ freedom of speech was severely attacked,
Stelios Alexandropoulos was denied the right to defend himself, an action which tragically
led to his death; Alexandra Ioannidou was intimidated because an extreme right-wing party
did not approve of her research interests; and Stratos Georgoulas has been denied promotion
both on the grounds of his political convictions and on the grounds of his young age. Also an
attack has been made on his right to expose and criticise the fact that in a country undergoing
a humanitarian crisis, some people earn hundreds of thousands of Euros in bonuses. This is
money that comes from the taxes paid Greek and European citizens: instead of distributing
that money to new researchers and faculty members who have lost their jobs due to budget
cuts, they allocate it to themselves as extra-wages.
In Greek academia cases of union members who have lost their jobs and/or are being
persecuted as a result of ideologically-biased decisions are common. The report of the Greek
Ombudsman on Stratos Georgoulas’ case is a decision that does justice but it unfortunately
only represents a small minority of such cases.
Author biography
Aimilia Voulvouli is Assistant Professor at the Department of Sociology, Fatih University,
Turkey and National Representative for Turkey for the European Group. Her work focuses on
collective action, particularly environmental social movements. Her publications concern the
ethnography of Turkey and Greece as well as critical criminology and state and civil society
relations.
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
III European Group News
European Group Anthology
Critique and Dissent:
An anthology to mark 40 years of the European Group for the Study of Deviance and
Social Control
Celebrate 40 Years of the European Group and help raise funds for it
To celebrate 40 years of the European Group, Red Quill will be publishing Critique and
Dissent, an anthology of papers presented at EG conferences since 1973. The cover price is
$32.50 (roughly £20 and 23€). However the publishers, Red Quill, have offered the European
Group a 50% discount if we place a bulk order. This gives us an opportunity to not only
celebrate the Group's 40th anniversary but raise much needed funds.
“Critique and Dissent is to anti-criminology what Protest and Survive was to
the anti-nuclear movement. Its 25 chapters provide a rich source for any
critical scholarship of the state, deviance, harm, power, social control,
punishment and regulation. And as an anthology, it is a fitting testament to
forty years of a genuinely pan-European, critical organisation which remains a
challenge to the theoretical, empirical and methodological boundaries of
critical social science.”
Steve Tombs
Edited by Joanna Gilmore, J M Moore and David Scott, Critique and Dissent includes
contributions from Andrea Beckmann, Ase Berge, Bill Rolston, Claus-Peter Behr, Dany
Lacombe, Dietlinde Gipsen, Emma Bell, Gail Kellough, Heiner Zillmer, Karen Leander, Karl
Schumann, Klaus Naffin, Maeve McMahon, Margherita Ciacci, Mario Simondi, Mike
Tomlinson, Olli Stalstrom, Paddy Hillyard, Phil Scraton, René van Swaaningen, Sabine
Klien-Sconnefeld, Sebastian Scheerer, Stanley Cohen, Susan Smith, Welsh Campaign for
Civil and Political Liberties. The contents appear below.
European (except UK) orders from Emma Bell europeangroupcoordinator@gmail.com (23€
plus 6€ postage Europe or 7€30 postage Rest of the World)
UK orders from John Moore j.moore@uwe.ac.uk (£20 plus £2 postage)
Table of contents:
1. Joanna Gilmore, J.M. Moore and David Scott
Critique and Dissent: an introduction
Section A: Theoretical priorities of the European Group for the Study of
Deviance and Social Control
2. Joanna Gilmore, J.M. Moore and David Scott
Towards a ‘critical, emancipatory and innovative criminology’: an introduction to Section A
3. Maeve McMahon and Gail Kellough
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
An Interview with Stanley Cohen
4. European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control
Manifesto 1974
5. Margherita Ciacci and Mario Simondi
A New Trend in Criminological Knowledge: The experience of the European Group for the
Study of Deviance and Social Control
6. René van Swaaningen
The European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control: Inspirations and
Aspirations of a Critical criminology
7. Phil Scraton
The European Group: Marginal to What?
8. Andrea Beckmann
Louk Hulsman - In Memoriam
9. Stan Cohen
Panic or Denial: On whether to take crime seriously
10. David Scott
A disobedient visionary with an enquiring mind: An essay on the contribution of Stan Cohen
11. Working Group on Prison, Detention and Punishment
Manifesto 2013
Section B: Critique
12. Joanna Gilmore, J.M. Moore and David Scott
The resources of critique: an introduction to Section B
13. Sebastian Scheerer
Law Making in a State of Siege: Some regularities in the legislative response to political
violence
14. Emma Bell
Neo-liberal crime policy: who profits?
15. Dany Lacombe
The Demand for the Criminalisation of Pornography: A State-Made Ideological Construction
or a Demand Articulated in Civil Society?
16. Ase Berge
Sexual Violence: The Gender Question as a Challenge to Progressive Criminology and
Social Theory
17. Claus-Peter Behr, Dietlinde Gipsen, Sabine Klien-Sconnefeld, Klaus Naffin and
Heiner Zillmer
The use of scientific discoveries for the maintenance and extension of State control – On the
effect of legitimation and the utilization
of science.
18. Paddy Hillyard
Zemiology Revisited: Fifteen Years On
Section C: Dissent
19. Joanna Gilmore, J.M. Moore and David Scott
The politics of dissent: an introduction to Section C
20. Karl Schumann
On proper and deviant criminology - Varieties in the production of legitimation for penal law
21. Olli Stalstrom
Profiles in Courage: Problems of Action of the Finnish Gay movement in crisis
22. Welsh Campaign for Civil and Political Liberties
Women and the Strike: It’s a whole way of life
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
23. Bill Rolston and Mike Tomlinson
Long-Term Imprisonment in Northern Ireland: Psychological or Political Survival?
24. Susan Smith
Neglect as Control: Prisoners’ families
25. Karen Leander
The Decade of Rape
Appendix 1: 41 Conferences of the European Group
Appendix 2: Table of Contents from Books of Conferences Proceedings
Call for volunteers
If you are interested in creating a new working group, please get in touch with Monish or
myself before the Oslo conference. Hopefully this issue can be discussed then.
If anyone is interested in helping out with maintaining the European Group website,
please get in touch with Emma or Monish.
We are also looking for volunteers to maintain our youtube channel. Please get in touch with
Emma of Monish if you are interested.
Call for papers
In order to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the European Group and commemorate Stan
Cohen’s life and work, we'd like to bring out a special edition of our newsletter in
September. If any of you would like to contribute a short piece (1000-1500 words with 3-4
references), please get in touch with Emma or Monish. We’ve extended the deadline to 7th
September.
IV News from Europe and the world
Australia
Job
A new chair in criminology is available at the University of Melbourne. Closing date 4th
August. See http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/AGW968/francine-v-mcniff-chair-in-criminology/
News
Australian Prime Minister's message to those fleeing persecution,torture and violence: “My
message to asylum seekers around the world is simple. Under the new arrangements with
Papua New Guinea if you come here by boat, you will be sent to PNG..."- Kevin Rudd. See:
http://m.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2013/jul/19/kevin-rudd-address-asylum-seekers-video
Australian Department of Immigration anti-immigration campaign severely criticised:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/22/immigration-department-2m-asylum-ads
South Australia’s State Ombudsman condemns the handcuffing and shackling of sick
prisoners. See http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2012/s3549544.htm
Report
UNCHR report to the Manus Island immigration detention centre finds that conditions
remain below international standards for the reception and treatment of asylum-seekers. See
http://unhcr.org.au/unhcr/files/2013-07-12_Manus_Island_Report_Final%281%29.pdf.
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
EU
The new asylum information database provides information on asylum procedures,
reception conditions and detention across Europe. See http://www.asylumineurope.org/
France
Conference
Terrferme Conference “Confinement viewed through the prism of the social sciences:
Contrasting facilities, confronting approaches”, 16th-19th October, Bordeaux. Please sign up
before the 16th October. See
http://terrferme13.sciencesconf.org/resource/page?id=7Wednesday&lang=en
News
Last month, the Conseil Constitutionnel ruled that prisoners have no right to the same
protections as free workers. They have thus no right to an employment contract, to belong
to a trade union or to be paid the minimum wage. See http://www.oip.org/index.php/dernierscommuniques/1077
Several nights of rioting in the Paris suburb of Trappes have been seized upon by the Front
National which has depicted them as the result of mass immigration. See
http://www.liberation.fr/societe/2013/07/22/quasi-retour-au-calme-a-trappes_919893
Report
The Ligue des droits de l’homme’s overview of the state of human rights in France in 2013
is available to buy here : http://boutique.ldh-france.org/l-etat-des-droits-de-l-homme-enfrance-edition-2013.html (in French)
Greece
News
Right to protest trampled upon at the University of
http://international.radiobubble.gr/2013/07/guest-post-days-of-junta-inuniversity.html?spref=tw
Athens.
See
Italy
Seminar
GERN, Groupe de recherché sur les normativités, will be holding an ‘Interlabo’ event on
research in prison on 12 Octobre 2013 at the Università di Padova. For more info, contact
Francesca Vianello francesca.vianello@unipd.it
Spain
Calls for Papers
The 6th International Surveillance & Society conference hosted by the University of
Barcelona and supported by the Surveillance Studies Network will be held on Thursday 24th
- Friday 25th April 2014 in Barcelona.
Contemporary surveillance is characterised by ambiguities and asymmetries. Surveillance
results from different desires and rationales: control, governance, security, profit, efficiency
but also care, empowerment, resistance, and play. Furthermore it can have both positive and
negative outcomes for individuals and these may lead to intended or unintended
consequences. Surveillance is never neutral. Surveillance is always about power and that
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
power is increasingly asymmetric. Surveillance practices are also changing and as 'smart'
surveillance systems proliferate utilising and generating 'Big Data' new forms of ambiguity
and asymmetry arise.
If you wish to present a paper or just attend without presenting, please register with the
conference by sending an email to ssn2014barcelona@surveillance-studies.net as soon as
possible before the 31st of July.
For paper givers a 300 word abstract will be required by 25 September 2013 and can be
submitted on the following website:
https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ssn2014barcelona
United Kingdom
Activism
Support the G4S rooftop occupiers – Call for solidarity demo – Friday 16th August, 9:30am.
The two activists who occupied the roof of G4S' HQ near Crawley for eight hours on 2nd
July 2012 will finally appear in court on Friday 16th August, charged with 'aggravated
trespass' under Section 68 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994. Both
defendants – one from the Boycott Israel Network and the other from No Borders UK – had
pleaded 'not guilty' on the basis that the activity they are accused of obstructing/disrupting
(i.e. G4S' business) is unlawful. Among other things, this includes providing services to
Israeli prisons where Palestinian political prisons are held and tortured in breach of the
Geneva Conventions; providing services to illegal Israeli settlements and military
checkpoints; the use of dangerous restraint techniques in immigration detention centres and
during forcible deportation operations and so on.
Earlier this year, however, the judge in the case ruled out the lawfulness and necessity
defences, so the trial will focus mostly on technicalities. And that's exactly why the
defendants are calling on everyone concerned to show up outside the court on the first day of
the hearing to emphasise that the trial should not be just about technicalities. It is G4S that
should be on trial, not campaigners trying to highlight its track record of human rights abuses.
For more details about the action, see
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2012/07/497595.html
and http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=4382
For more details about G4S' unlawful activities, see
http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=4343
Online petition against the privatisation of probation:
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/44403
Call for Papers
Special Issue of State Crime, Volume 3, Issue 2 (November 2014) State-Corporate Crime
and Harm
In 1990, Ray Michalowski and Ron Kramer established the concept of state-corporate crime,
which they later went on to define as signifying “illegal or socially injurious actions that
occur when one or more institutions of political governance pursue a goal in direct cooperation with one or more institutions of economic production and distribution”. The
concept of “state-corporate crime” is now a well-established one, and has generated a
productive, diverse and still-growing research agenda. This Special Issue of the journal State
Crime seeks to contribute to, interrogate and develop that concept and associated research
agendas.
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
Crucially, the period since the initial formulation of the concept – almost a quarter of a
century ago – has seen significant realignments in state-corporate relations at local, regional,
national and international levels, with possible concomitant effects in terms of the ways in
which these new forms of interactions may produce crime and harm and, crucially, render
these more or less amenable to social and political control. Such changes include, of course,
the proliferation of regeneration and growth strategies on the part of local and regional
political authorities, various forms of privatisation, de-regulation and contracting out on the
part of neo-liberal nation-states, and the consolidation of transnational corporate power
coupled with nascent yet under-developed international state and regulatory frameworks.
Recent, international recessions and austerity programmes, within which states have rushed
to divest themselves of more and more activities while according to private capital the status
of the only vehicle for economic ‘recovery’, have latterly overlain such developments.
This Special Issue welcomes contributions which focus upon aspects of the particular
theoretical, conceptual, methodological, empirical and, indeed, political challenges posed by
the production of crime and harm at the interstices of state-corporate activity, as the latter
takes new and dynamic forms. Contributions from a variety of disciplinary and theoretical
perspectives are welcomed.
All submissions will be subject to a full peer review process. If you are intending to submit a
paper, please inform, or contact for discussion, Steve Tombs at steve.tombs@open.ac.uk. For
further information, see http://statecrime.org/journal/
‘Penal Law, Abolitionism and Anarchism’, a conference hosted by the British/Irish section
of the European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control and the Hulsman
Foundation will take place from Saturday 26th – Sunday 27th April 2014 at Shire Hall,
Nottingham. Can we imagine law without the state? Could what we now call ‘crime’ be dealt
with by means other than criminal law and punishment? This conference seeks to explore
interrelationships and tensions that exist between the philosophies and practices associated
with penal law, abolitionism and anarchism. It aims to provide a space for the
interdisciplinary exploration of complex critiques of state law and legality, criminalization
and other forms of state and corporate power in neoliberal contexts. The rich and complex
European tradition of abolition recently explored in great detail by Vincenzo Ruggiero, to
which Louk Hulsman made such a creative contribution, provides important intellectual
resources to challenge neoliberal penal and social [well/war –fare] politics and policies and to
expose their harms and underlying power-dynamics. Joe Sim underlined the continued
importance of Angela Davis’ concept of ‘abolitionist alternatives’ as well as of forms of a
renewed penal activism. These and other abolitionist or minimalist approaches to criminal
justice challenge existing hegemonic belief systems that continue to legitimate the generation
of harms via the operations of law, psychology, criminology, the media and frequently shape
public opinion. For some critical criminologists such reflections might imply promoting an
Anarchist Criminology, while for others this might involve the use of courts to challenge
decisions made by ministers. The direct action taken by the Occupy movement and similar
movements (e.g. UK Uncut) can of course also be linked to a diversity of philosophies and
principles of anarchism as well as to contemporary media movements and digital activism
that are of crucial relevance in the current context.
Deadline for abstracts: 30th November 2013
For further details please contact Andrea Beckmann [abeckmann@lincoln.ac.uk] or Tony
Ward [A.Ward@hull.ac.uk]
‘Reflections on Foreign National Prisoners’ is a one-day seminar to be held at the Centre
for Criminology, University of Oxford, United Kingdom on 24th March 2014.
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
Statistical accounts tell us that a growing number of foreign national prisoners are
incarcerated throughout the penal systems of Europe, North America and elsewhere. For the
most part, however, scholars in prison studies have paid little attention to this population, or
to the implications it has for our understanding of identity, penal power and legitimacy. In
this seminar, we seek to address this gap in the literature when discussing the relevance of
citizenship and migration for our understanding of imprisonment while noting the overlaps
with long-standing matters of gender, ethnic and racial difference.
The incarceration of foreign national prisoners is of particular relevance in the context of
national and regional security agendas in which foreigners have been increasingly
conceptualised as a ‘risk,’ and national immigration policies have been tightened, making it
harder to arrive legally and easier to remove unwanted non-citizens. These processes have
implications for the nature of the prison population as well as for how imprisonment is
experienced. Specifically, it suggests that incarceration can no longer be detached from the
broader context of transnational mobility.
We call for contributions that seek to address these issues from a variety of starting points,
including but not limited to: Why are foreign national prisoners so over-represented across a
number of states? How do their experiences differ from native-born minority populations?
How do various prison systems negotiate diversity, citizenship and cultural cohesion? What
does the increasing number of foreign-nationals in prison tell us about the role of the prison
in carving out national identity and aiding in regimes of border control? How do prisoners
respond to these experiences? Are there differences in women’s and men’s experiences? We
welcome contributions approaching the issue from different geographical sites, angles and
disciplinary fields.
Proposals should be sent by email to the convenors by Monday 30th September 2013 and
consist of a title, abstract (250 words) and the name(s) and affiliation(s) of the author(s).
Accepted authors are expected to submit their draft papers to the convenors by the 28th
February 2014. The seminar will take place in Oxford (UK) on the 24th March 2014.
See http://bordercriminologies.law.ox.ac.uk/seminars/fnp_seminar/
Conferences
Hate Crime Consultation – Discussion Forum, 3:00 – 5:30pm Thursday 8 August 2013
Room G15, Malet Street Building, Birkbeck College, University of London
The Law Commission has recently opened a public consultation on whether to expand
existing hate crime laws in England and Wales. The proposals would extend laws that
currently cover hate based on race and religion to also include disability, sexual orientation
and gender identity.
In response to the consultation, Birkbeck School of Law and the Birkbeck Gender &
Sexuality Group (BiGS) are hosting a discussion forum to consider the following questions:
How might we respond to the Law Commission’s proposals?
Is harsher sentencing an appropriate response to hate-motivated violence and hatredinciting speech?
Is the consultation’s focus on sentencing too narrow? What issues are missing?
What strategies should be prioritised in preventing, addressing and responding to
hate-motivated violence?
The forum will provide space for dialogue among a range of groups who are affected by the
proposal and consider perspectives that are often absent from the broader public debates
about hate crime. Speakers will provide background information and different views on the
Consultation and then all participants will have an opportunity share their experiences and
ideas. The forum aims to provide a space to critically discuss the implications of the proposal
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
across targeted groups and explore alternative ways of creating systemic community safety
for marginalised people.
The event will be a participatory one. Participants are encouraged to read the Consultation
Summary document (available from the link below) before the forum, but this is not a
requirement to attend.
This event is for anyone with an interest or stake in the proposed changes to the laws
including those targeted groups, practitioners, academics and activists.
This event is free and open to the public although spaces are limited.
To register, please contact Jennifer Fraser: j.fraser@bbk.ac.uk by July 31st.
The 6th ENQUIRE Postgraduate Conference, ‘Normality in an Uncertain World’, will take
place on the 10th and 11th of September 2013 at the University of Nottingham. This
conference aims to bring together postgraduates and researchers, with an interest in normality
to explore the development, current application and possible future research on this topic.
The conference offers a wide variety of presentations ranging from sexuality and sexual
identity, through domestic violence, trafficking, migration, healthcare and health practice to
research methods and personal and collective economy.
To book a place, including accommodation information, please go to:
http://store.nottingham.ac.uk/browse/extra_info.asp?compid=1&modid=2&deptid=9&
catid=77&prodid=310. To find more information about the conference, including the
provisional programme, please visit: http://enquirenottingham.co.uk/. If you have any
questions, please contact:
enquire@nottingham.ac.uk<mailto:enquire@nottingham.ac.uk>
'International Human Rights Law in Refugee Status Determination: Comparative
Practice and Theory', Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, London, 13 and 14 November
2013. This 1½ day conference brings together leading experts to reflect comparatively on the
practical and theoretical impact of international human rights law upon refugee status
determination. Three panels will explore comparative practice from around the world and one
will be addressed to broader cross-cutting thematic issues. For the final thematic panel, we
are keen to receive additional contributions, particularly on the following broad topics and
their implications for our understanding of the scope of refugee definitions: sexual and
gender identity; combatants and military service; permissible limitations to rights (such as the
freedom to manifest one's religion); and internal protection/flight alternative.
Jobs
Lecturer in Criminology, University of the West of England, Bristol. Closing date 19th
August. See http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/AGY742/lecturer-in-criminology/
Media
Interview with a teenage asylum seeker, who describes conditions inside the Pontville
detention centre: http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2013/s3803744.htm
Film project: please give your support to this crowd-funded project to make the film The
Resistance of Others. The project is to complete the edit of a cinematic feature documentary
on the struggles for justice by families of those who have died in state custody in the UK.
See http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-resistance-of-others/
News
More than a hundred children aged under 12, including a three-year-old, have been
identified as future extremists or at risk of radicalisation and consequently referred to the
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
Channel Project run by the Home Office and Association of Chief Police Officers
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/10193557/Hundreds-ofchildren-identified-as-extremism-risk.html
The ECHR has ruled that whole life jail terms without parole breach human rights. See
http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2013/jul/09/whole-life-jail-sentences-without-review-breachhuman-rights
Case against Belfast anti-racism campaigner, Barbara Muldoon, dismissed:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk-news/2013/jul/11/case-against-anti-bnp-campaigner-dropped
(in April, the European Group passed a resolution in support of Barbara and the right to
protest in Nothern Ireland)
Inquest finds that Jimmy Mubenga, the Angolan national who died after being restrained by
G4S guards on a deportation flight from the UK, was unlawfully killed. See
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk-news/2013/jul/09/jimmy-mubenga-unlawfully-killed-inquestjury
Ellie Butt comments on the latest G4S scandal whereby government is revealed to have been
overcharged by millions of pounds for offender monitoring services. See the following
openDemocracy
article:
http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/ellie-butt/whencompanies-charge-taxpayer-for-monitoring-dead?
The Guardian reports on the impact of legal aid cuts in the UK:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/jul/02/legal-aid-cuts-widespread-miscarriagesjustice
Official inquiry finds that the policeman who shot Azelle Rodney in 2005 had ‘no lawful
justification’ for doing so. See http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk-news/2013/jul/05/azellerodney-death-metropolitan-police
Reports
The government’s response to the Riots, Communities and Victim’s Panel final report on
the 2011 riots is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/governmentresponse-to-the-riots-communities-and-victims-panels-final-report
HM Inspectorate of Prisons finds HMP Feltham young offender institution ‘violent and
unsafe’. See: http://www.justice.gov.uk/news/press-releases/hmi-prisons/hmpyoi-felthamviolent-and-unsafe
Women Offenders: After the Corston Report:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201314/cmselect/cmjust/92/92.pdf
Forced Return Flights from the UK: first report from the Council of Europe’s Committee
for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment:
http://www.cpt.coe.int/documents/gbr/2013-14-inf-eng.htm
For discussion of Restraint of people in mental health institutions in England see PDF of
the recently published report from MIND (June, 2013) "Mental health crisis care: physical
restraint in crisis. A report on physical restraint in hospital settings in England":
http://www.mind.org.uk/assets/0002/5642/Physical_restraint_FINAL_web_version.pdf
For PDF of INQUEST (2013) "Preventing the deaths of women in prison: the need for an
alternative approach" (June, 2013) see
http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/64663568/library/INQUEST_Preventing_deaths_of_wom
en_in_prison.pdf
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
USA
Call for papers
For the 2014 LSA meetings in Minneapolis, Josh Page, Michelle Phelps, and Ben FleurySteiner will be putting together two panels on community control. We're looking for papers
that revisit some of the big ideas from the punishment and society literature in the context of
contemporary empirical work on community corrections. If you have a project underway that
might be a good fit, please send us a title and abstract by JULY 29TH. Please send info by
email (bfs@udel.edu , page@umn.edu , and phelps@umn.edu )
Media
The Whole Truth about Immigration Detention:
http://detentionwatchnetwork.wordpress.com/2013/07/16/infographic-the-whole-truth-aboutimmigration-detention/. “Detention: The Whole Truth,” an infographic series by Detention
Watch Network illustrates the shockingly unjust and inhumane system detained immigrants
face in the United States. The three-part series reveals an immigration system fraught with
bed quotas, denied due process, deplorable conditions, and a billion-dollar private prison
industry that stands to benefit.
News
Over 1,000 prisoners are still on hunger strike across California, protesting against the
state’s policy of long-term confinement in secure housing units. Amnesty International has
condemned
the
authorities’
treatment
of
the
hunger
strikers:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/usa-california-hunger-strikers-2013-07-18 Comment (in
French) here: http://www.legrandsoir.info/la-voix-des-enterres-vivants-partie-1.html and (in
English) here: http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/17615-please-stop-reforming-pelicanbay#.Uecp7jINBIc.email Info on the people behind the hunger strike is available here:
http://solitarywatch.com/2013/07/10/faces-and-voices-of-the-california-prison-hunger-strike/
To lend your support to the hunger strikers, see
www.prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com
Female
inmates
sterilized
in
California
prisons
without
approval
http://cironline.org/reports/female-inmates-sterilized-california-prisons-without-approval4917
Comment:
http://goodtogo.typepad.com/tony_platt_goodtogo/2013/07/humanbetterment-the-long-history-of-sterilization-abuse-in-california.html
A BIG THANKS to all the European Group
members for making this newsletter successful..
Please feel free to contribute to this newsletter
by sending any information that you think
might be of interest to the Group to
Emma/Monish at :
europeangroupcoordinator@gmail.com
Please try to send it in before the 25th of each
month if you wish to have it included in the
following month’s newsletter. Please provide a
web link (wherever possible).
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS …
Aimilia Voulvouli