Criminology (Social Sciences)

You Reap What You Sow: the profit, pleasure and pain in domestic cannabis cultivation

by Gary Potter

Potter, G. (2010) “You Reap What You Sow: the profit, pleasure and pain in domestic cannabis cultivation” in Tom Decorte and Jane Fountain (eds.) Pleasure, pain and profit. European perspectives on drugs. Pabst: Lengerich.

This chapter explores the profit, pleasure and pain associated with the increased occurrence of cannabis cultivation... more This chapter explores the profit, pleasure and pain associated with the increased occurrence of cannabis cultivation in the western world. ‘Import substitution’ in the cannabis market is largely explained from an economic perspective. However,
explanations for the activities of individual cannabis growers depend on a more complex interplay of both economic and non-economic considerations.
Fundamental to a market perspective is the idea that growers are motivated by profit. While most are, the literature also recognises various non-financial drivers. Cannabis may be grown for personal pleasure, medical use, or to make a political or cultural statement. For some growers, profit is the main factor. For others profit is of no concern. For most growers there is a mixture of financial and non-financial drivers.
‘Pain’ in cannabis cultivation comes in the form of the consequences of ‘failure’: loss of crop, legal sanctions or social repercussions. ‘Pain’ is also apparent in trying to manage the various challenges facing the grower. It seems from the literature that cannabis growers are, in the main, rational actors. Growers minimise risks as much as possible, weighing up remaining costs against the benefits they are seeking.
While many growers can be seen to be rational economic actors akin to other drug dealers (Cornish & Clarke, 1986), it is important to note the role of nonfinancial drivers influencing individual growers. Policies and theories based on the assumption that this particular criminal activity is purely economic will fail to account for the wider phenomenon of cannabis cultivation in industrialised nations.

Getting ‘high’ from crime: perspectives on the drug-crime connection

by Gary Potter

Potter, G. and Osiniagova, A. (2012) “Getting ‘high’ from crime: perspectives on the drug-crime connection” in Jane Fountain, Dirk Korf and Marije Wouters (eds.) The Meaning of High. Pabst: Langerisch.

This chapter considers the relationship between drug use and crime and the theoretical attempts to explain this link.... more This chapter considers the relationship between drug use and crime and the theoretical attempts to explain this link. We present qualitative data from a group of problematic drug users (self-defined addicts) who also had involvement in high levels of criminality (self-reported). We found evidence to support a range of existing causal explanations for the drugs-crime link, especially the economic-compulsive model of drug use causing or exacerbating criminality and the common aetiology model.
More significantly, we explore an aspect of the drugs-crime relationship that has been less well documented in the literature. Many of our respondents talked about their involvement in crime in the same language that they talked about their drug use: committing crime would get some individuals ‘high’ or give them a ‘buzz’, and some even reported becoming ‘addicted’ to crime. This suggests that the psychological components of a common aetiology are worthy of further investigation.
Ultimately, however, we argue for a rejection of common aetiology approaches to a specific drugs-crime link. Rather, we should recognise that drug use and crime often co-exist alongside a range of other deviant activities. Trying to develop theories that focus specifically on these two elements alone is misplaced, instead we should return to general theories of deviance.

The Impossible Mission: Global Justice Movement Against Transnational Organized Crime

by Baris Cayli

Cayli, Baris (2012) ''The Impossible Mission: Global Justice Movement against Transnational Organized Crime'' New Global Studies Vol:6 No:1

This article argues that the best counterattack against globally oriented transnational organized crime (TOC) is by a... more This article argues that the best counterattack against globally oriented transnational organized crime (TOC) is by a global response. The contribution of participating states and the creation of a collective identity against TOC are both necessary. This creation would be more effective through transnational social movements. Therefore, activating the global justice movement (GJM) against TOC would be a significant achievement. This has not yet taken place for both structural and ideological reasons which are on the surface quite rational. If GJM activists create a more unified movement, however, and adhere more strictly to non-violence as have other social movements like the Libera anti-Mafia association of Italy and Flare Network of Europe, there is potential for convergence.

"Newsmaking" Criminology or "Infortainment" Criminology?

by Dr Judith Buckingham

Published in (2004) 37 Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology 253-275

The role of the media in mobilising public opinion about crime motivates some criminologists to participate as experts... more The role of the media in mobilising public opinion about crime motivates some criminologists to participate as experts in media constructions of crime and social control. These public discourses help shape the social construction of offending, the public response to victims of violence and the organisation of popular consent for particular crime control strategies. This article reviews and critiques the empirical and theoretical foundations of a criminological discourse of gender symmetry in domestic violence, and gender bias in the criminal justice system, that has galvanised the popular press in New Zealand and disrupted widely accepted views of domestic violence and criminal justice processes.

Teaching Theory Analogically: Using Music To Explain Criminological Theory

by Matt Hinds-Aldrich

PLEASE NOTE: This is only the first page of the article, for the full text please see the journal or contact me directly (mhinds-aldrich*at*annamaria*dot*edu) as I am happy to send you a full text copy. Here is the journal link: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10511253.2012.665934

There have been a number of articles recently advocating the use of nontraditional mediums to teach criminological... more There have been a number of articles recently advocating the use of nontraditional mediums to teach criminological theory. Many of these articles have advocated using music and/or music lyrics to illustrate and enliven the various theories taught in introductory theory courses. Despite the growing attention paid to teaching criminological theory, few, if any, discuss how to help students understand the more fundamental ontological question—what is “theory.” This article proposes an alternative pedagogical approach that draws upon students’ understanding of musical genres analogically to explain: (1) the historical development of the various theoretical approaches, (2) the historical, cultural and theoretical antecedents of the various approaches, and (3) how to identify the theoretical orientation(s) and influences in an unfamiliar text. Ultimately, this approach is intended to counter the overly compartmentalized and linear understanding of theory unintentionally brought on by the dynamics of teaching schedules, generic “theory” textbooks, computerized presentation software and testing methods.

“There Can Be No Orcs in New Zealand”: Do Media Representations of Crime Tarnish Tourism

by John Buttle

Buttle, J.W. & Rodgers, J. (2011) “There Can Be No Orcs in New Zealand”: Do Media Representations of Crime Tarnish Tourism . In R. Mawby, E. Barclay, & C. Jones, (eds) Tourism, Leisure and Crime: The Problem of Pleasure. London:Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. 

Sensationalist accounts of crime and disorder represented in the Media can threaten the tranquil image of tourist... more Sensationalist accounts of crime and disorder represented in the Media can threaten the tranquil image of tourist destinations by portraying them as dangerous and not suitable for vacationers. This discussion focuses on New Zealand where the tourist industry utilizes the rural aspects of the countryside to construct an image of peace and traquillity to sell vacations to perspective holidaymakers.

Crime stoppers - UK overhauls organised crime policing

by Anna Sergi

Published on Jane's Intelligence Review, December 2011

As the UK government plans to launch a new agency dedicated to fighting organised
crime, Anna Sergi questions... more As the UK government plans to launch a new agency dedicated to fighting organised
crime, Anna Sergi questions whether the inadmissibility of telecommunication
intercepts as evidence in UK courts will continue to hinder investigations.

Critical Realist Criminology

by Jon Frauley

in Criminology: Critical Canadian Perspectives, Kirsten Kramar (ed.), Toronto, Pearson, 2011, 145-158

Heterodox Criminology: Rethinking Methodology and Criminological Knowledge Production

by Jon Frauley

in Criminology: Challenges for the 21st Century, W. Ventura (ed.), New York, Nova Science, 2008, Pp 1-25

Critical realism and the social sciences: methodological and epistemological preliminaries

by Jon Frauley

with Frank Pearce in Critical Realism and the Social Sciences: Heterodox Elaborations, J. Frauley and F. Pearce (eds.), Toronto, Univ. of Toronto Press, 2007, Pp. 3-29

Representing Theory and Theorising in Criminal Justice Studies: Practising Theory Considered

by Jon Frauley

Critical Criminology: An International Journal, 13(3), 2005, 245-265

The author considers the role and place of theory in criminal justice studies. The argument is that the operation and... more The author considers the role and place of theory in criminal justice studies. The argument is that the operation and interrogation of fundamental categories is integral to social scientific enquiry and if criminal justice studies is to resist a technocratic “protective service” orientation it must promote theorising and thinking conceptually via the texts which represent the discipline to undergraduates. Although theory is situated at the core of social science curricula, there is little or no agreement on its role or place in research and pedagogy. The dominant understanding of theory within criminal justice studies (including its sociological and criminological incarnation) is that it is something to be referred to. What is seldom emphasised in theory or methods texts is the practice of theorising. Texts that are designed to be the student’s first contact with the field of criminal justice studies, and which reflect broader attitudes toward social enquiry, seldom consider the methodological and pedagogical issues related to the production and role of analytic concepts and do not present social science as an imaginative or reflexive practice. Drawing on critical realist metatheory, this paper advances a distinction between social and sociological problems and social science and protective service toward illustrating that a social science approach to the study of criminal justice demands the operation and interrogation of analytic categories and explicit consideration of issues of epistemology and ontology. Works which seek to avoid this serve only to foster a passive rather than active engagement with their subject matter.

The Promise of Critical Realism: Toward a Post-Empiricist Criminology

by Jon Frauley

with George Rigakos. In Aaron Doyle and Dawne Moore (eds), Critical Criminology in Canada: New Voices, New Directions (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2011)

The expulsion of Foucault from governmentality studies: towards an archaeological-realist retrieval

by Jon Frauley

in Critical Realism and the Social Sciences, J. Frauley and F. Pearce (eds.), Toronto, Univ. of Toronto Press, 2007, Pp. 258-272

La rétention de sûreté: vers un nouveau type de positivisme juridique?

by Claude-Olivier Doron

Published in L’Information psychiatrique, Dossier « Biopolitique », 2008, n°6, pp. 533-541

Preventive detention: towards a new type of legal positivism? Analysing the general legal principles of the law onmore Preventive detention: towards a new type of legal positivism? Analysing the general legal principles of the law on
preventive detention, I will show how they can be assimilated to legal positivism which claims the right to break with legal
rationality in order to place dealing with dangerousness at the heart of legal policies and proposes an unlimited and
undefined form of risk management. Returning to the history of legal positivism and the emergence of the problem of
dangerousness, I summarise the fundamental characteristics in order to highlight the differences which distinguish the
current evolution. Whilst legal positivism was a doctrine in favour of defence of society, the current trend is the infinite
protection of the single, suffering individual ; this tendency is worrying in that it does not seem to contain any limitative
principle and denies the legitimacy of any criticism.

Cheliotis, L. K. (2012) 'Crime and the Financial Crisis: Greece and beyond', The American College of Greece Magazine 11(2).

by Leonidas Cheliotis

Beccaria, Cesare: Classical School

by Andrew Carpenter

Carpenter, A. N. (2010). Beccaria, Cesare: Classical School. In in Frances T. Cullen and Pamela A. Wilcox, eds, Encyclopedia of Criminological Theory, Vol 1 (Sage Publications, 2010), 73-77.

Too Early is Too Soon: Lessons from the Montana Department of Corrections Early Release Program

by Kevin Wright

Wright, Kevin A., and Jeffrey W. Rosky. (2011). "Too Early is Too Soon: Lessons from the Montana Department of Corrections Early Release Program." Criminology & Public Policy, 10, 881-908.

Early release procedures will likely become increasingly necessary during a time of fiscal uncertainty in... more Early release procedures will likely become increasingly necessary during a time of fiscal uncertainty in corrections.  To date, however, few empirical evaluations appear in the literature to guide correctional administrators in making these potentially unpopular decisions.  Failure to fully appreciate the consequences of early release for the criminal justice system (as well as the general public) could lead to unintended consequences in the form of increased costs, and, potentially, a decrease in public safety.  The current study seeks to build upon the limited information available by evaluating the effectiveness of releasing offenders early in Montana in an attempt to mitigate a budget deficit.  Results indicate that although the procedure was successful in the short-term, increased recidivism by early releasees ultimately contributed to a greater overall recidivism rate in Montana. 

Influence des moyens de preuve et de la certitude du verdict sur le jugement pénal

by R. Enescu

Revue Internationale de Criminologie et de Police Technique et Scientifique

Zemiology and the dark side of globalisation: the case of Naivasha’s cut-flower industry

by Caroline McGill

draft only

Kenya’s cut-flower industry is primarily based along the shores of Lake Naivasha, a Ramsar Convention protected global... more Kenya’s cut-flower industry is primarily based along the shores of Lake Naivasha, a Ramsar Convention protected global wetland. This paper identifies the extent of some of the avoidable social harms of this industry, highlights potential problems for Kenya’s economy, and the implications for social justice. Kenya experiences water scarcity and, as a consequence of unsustainable industry practices, water is becoming ‘blue gold’ (Barlow and Clarke 2002). This has resulted in intertribal conflict, and food security is also an issue for Kenya’s poor. Flowers are 90 per cent water, so Kenya is effectively involved in a ‘virtual water trade’ with the UK (Allan 2003). Water scarcity has obvious implications for inter-generational, intra-generational and human rights and for those of non-humans. The short-term economic gains of this industry are likely to have long-term consequences with wide-reach - in spatial, temporal and economic terms. Power appears to allow corporations to continue relatively unchallenged, yet if Kenya were to tighten its regulations, the industry could relocate. Considering these issues from the zemiological (social harm) perspective ensures that those harms which are either not designated crimes, or are ineffectively regulated or unregulated, are given the recognition and attention they warrant.

Key Terms

Corporations; cut flowers; social harm perspective; water; ‘blue gold’; zemiology; justice; human rights; regulation

The advantages of the social harm perspective: The case of Naivasha's cut-flower industry

by Caroline McGill

Draft only

Kenya’s cut-flower industry is primarily based along the shores of Lake Naivasha, a Ramsar Convention protected global... more Kenya’s cut-flower industry is primarily based along the shores of Lake Naivasha, a Ramsar Convention protected global wetland. This desk-based multi-disciplinary research identifies the extent of some of the avoidable social harms of this industry, highlights potential problems for Kenya’s economy, and the implications for social justice. Kenya experiences water scarcity and, as a consequence of unsustainable industry practices, water is becoming ‘blue gold’ (Barlow and Clarke 2002). This has resulted in intertribal conflict and food security is an issue for Kenya’s poor. Flowers are 90 per cent water, so Kenya is involved in a ‘virtual water trade’ with the UK, one of the wettest countries in the world (Allan 2003). Water scarcity has implications for inter-generational, intra-generational and human rights. We also need to consider other life forms and the environment itself. The short-term economic gains of this industry will have long-term consequences with wide-reach - in spatial, temporal and economic terms. Power appears to allow corporations to continue relatively unchallenged, yet if Kenya were to tighten up its regulations, the industry could relocate to emerging markets. Considering these issues from the social harm perspective ensures that harms that are not designated as crimes for whatever reason, are given the recognition and attention they warrant.