The Crime Research Centre runs an ongoing research seminar series, showcasing cutting edge crime-focused research from a range of disciplines. We invite speakers with world-leading expertise, drawn from our membership at Sussex and from many other universities.

2017/18

Dr Lizzie Seal (Sussex, Crimnology and Sociology), The Cultural Life of Capital Punishment in Twentieth-Century Britain

Dr Lizzie Seal, Reader in Criminology, University of Sussex

This talk will reflect upon the meanings and significance that capital punishment had in twentieth-century Britain. Looking beyond legislative change, it will explore instead the relevance of the death penalty to everyday culture, and the ways in which representations of, and responses to, capital punishment reflected and shaped wider social, cultural and political shifts. I will focus on three main areas as examples:

1. The mediated execution audience and the creation of an emotional public sphere
2. Public responses to capital cases and related understandings of ‘British justice’
3. The ‘seething presence’ of Edith Thompson’s ghost as a reminder of the trouble of the death penalty (Gordon, 2008: 8)

I argue that in the twentieth-century, capital punishment became increasingly anxious, ambivalent and troublesome and that this was related to wider understandings of modernity and citizenship.

Read our live tweet thread on 'The Cultural Life of Capital Punishment in Twentieth-Century Britain'.

Lizzie is currently leading the research project ‘Race, Racialisation and the Death Penalty in England and Wales, 1900-65’.

Lizzie will give the closing keynote talk at the conference 1868: A Civilizing Moment? Reflecting on 150 years since the abolition of public execution on June 6th 2018 in Newcastle. Register for the conference, 1868: A Civilising Moment?.

Dr Carly Lightowlers (Liverpool, Sociology), Drunk and Doubly Deviant? Gender, Intoxication and Assault: An Analysis of Crown Court Sentencing Practices in England and Wales

Dr Carly Lightowlers, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, University of Liverpool

Abstract: Both norms surrounding gender and intoxication are known to influence judicial decision making. However, little is known about how alcohol intoxication impacts sentence outcomes, or whether it does so equitably for male and female defendants. Given a routine association between alcohol intoxication and violent offending, this study assesses the extent to which intoxication differentially aggravates sentence outcomes for male and female defendants of assault offences. It does so by modelling the probability of custody and sentence severity using pooled data from the Crown Court Sentencing Survey (2012-2014; n=30,861). The respective logistic and ordinal regression models control for all sentencing factors cited as relevant as well as the offence type, age and sex of the defendant. The study also pioneers the inclusion of specific interaction terms to account for the gendered application of sentencing factors; in this case intoxication. The study’s main finding is that the ‘uplift’ in sentence severity when intoxication is cited as aggravation is higher for women than for men controlling for relevant case characteristics (both in terms of the probability of custody and severity of the sentence dispensed). The study thus spotlights how cases of alcohol-related violence are processed through the criminal justice system and raises concerns with how gender equality is interpreted in sentencing practice with reference to alcohol intoxication. In so doing, it contributes to unpicking answers to broader questions about how alcohol consumption impacts punishment in different contexts and for whom.

Key words: alcohol, intoxication, violence, sentencing, gender

Dr Lightowlers is a Senior Lecturer who employs a variety of secondary sources with which to conduct research on issues of alcohol, crime and justice; in particular examining the socio-cultural dimensions of the alcohol-violence relationship and the processing of such cases through the criminal justice system. ORCID: 0000-0002-0608-8141.

Stavros Demetriou (Sussex, Law), Anti-social Behaviour and Civil Preventive Measures: Creating Localised Criminal Codes?

Stavros Demetriou, Lecturer in Law, University of Sussex

Abstract: An interdisciplinary event on the implementation of the anti-social behaviour tools and powers in England and Wales. Through this event the findings of an empirical study conducted with local practitioners and police officers about the implementation of these measures will be presented and discussed. This event will bring together experts from various fields (such as police officers and local practitioners) who have a daily interaction with anti-social behaviour and are responsible for the implementation of the relevant legislation.

Dr Lucy Welsh (Sussex, Law) and Dr Matt Howard (Open University, Law) Standardisation and the Production of Justice in Summary Criminal Courts: A Post-humanist Analysis

Dr Lucy Welsh, Lecturer in Law, University of Sussex
Dr Matt Howard, Lecturer in Law, Open University

Abstract: Since the 1980s, successive governments have become increasingly distrustful of professional judgment in those services which remain funded by the state, including the criminal justice system. Against this background, governments sought to increase efficiency in summary criminal courts. One way that this seems to have occurred is via the use of standardised forms in case progression. During 2013, Welsh conducted empirical research in which the reliance placed on standardised case management forms became apparent. We argue, drawing on post-humanist vocabularies to inform our analytic framework, that while such documents may have increased the speed at which cases progress, they have the (unintended) consequence of (further) marginalising defendant participation and limiting the types of legal issue that are litigated. These processes contribute to the development of a particularised, and temporally situated, form of ‘justice’.

Unfortunately Dr Howard was unable to join us on the day due to illness.

Prof Ben Bowling (Kings College London, Criminology), Global Policing: A Research Agenda for a New Generation

Prof Ben Bowling, Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Dickson Poon School of Law, Kings College London

Abstract: Radical changes in contemporary policework – from the global to the local – call for a fresh research agenda. Changes brought about by the growth of international policing networks; blurring boundaries between police, border control, the military and private security; advances in information and communication technologies; pressure to respond to the transnational nature of criminal and security threats are contributing to a shift in the form and function of modern policing. This lecture aims to set an agenda for interdisciplinary research on the globalisation of policing, raising theoretical, empirical and methodological questions: How are local police adapting to new technologies such as predictive policing and availability of international databases? How effective are domestic police in responding to transnational threats such as terrorism, human trafficking and cybercrime? How are the structures and occupational cultures of policing shifting as global forces impact on local policework? If ‘the police are to government as the edge is to the knife’, what transpires when police power cuts across the boundaries of national government or extends into ungoverned spaces? What is the role of law and local democratic institutions when police power transcends and transgresses national borders? What theories and methods are required to describe, explain, interpret and evaluate these transformations? What is the role of the researcher in making global policing visible and shaping its trajectory into the future?

Biography: Ben Bowling is Professor of Criminology & Criminal Justice and Deputy Dean at the Dickson Poon School of Law, King's College London. He is an expert in criminal justice and policing with a special emphasis on transnational law enforcement. He won the Radzinowicz Memorial Prize in 1999 and was elected Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in 2005. His books include Policing the Caribbean: Transnational Security Cooperation in Practice (OUP 2010), Global Policing (Sage 2012) and the four-volume Global Policing and Transnational Law Enforcement (Sage 2015). He has been an adviser to the UK Parliament, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, Equality and Human Rights Commission, Serious Organised Crime Agency, European Commission, Interpol, and the United Nations.

This research seminar was cohosted by the Department of Sociology Research Seminar Series.

2016/17

Camilla Elphick (Sussex, Psychology), Face Recognition and Police Identification Procedures

Camilla Elphick, Doctoral Candidate, Applied Cognitive Psychology, University of Sussex

Abstract: Face recognition research has shown that familiar faces (e.g. the faces of friends) and unfamiliar faces (e.g. the faces of people only seen briefly) are processed in different ways. However, police and legal procedures rely on the assumption that unfamiliar faces are processed in similar ways to familiar faces. This can contribute to perpetrators being missed in police identification procedures or the misidentification of innocent people. Based on research that identifies differences between familiar and unfamiliar face processing, my research is concerned with finding ways in which to measure recognition in a target-present police line-up procedure.

Christophe Bizimungu (Sussex, Law and Rwanda National Police), Fighting Human Trafficking: The Case of Rwanda

Christophe Bizimungu, Doctoral Candidate in Law, University of Sussex, and former Chief of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Rwanda National Police

Abstract: In 2009 Rwanda started a campaign against human trafficking after it became clear that it was a source for human trafficking to East Africa, Southern Africa and Asia. This presentation will discuss the efforts made by the country in this fight as well as the practical challenges met. Some of the measures taken include public awareness raising, police awareness and capacity building, prosecution of suspects, rescue and repatriation of the victims. Specific cases will be used to illustrate how these strategies worked in practice and what are the difficulties experienced. We will also look at the contribution and the limitations of regional and international cooperation in this regard. Given the limits of these reactive measures, the importance of a proactive approach through public awareness to prevent human trafficking will be emphasised.

Dr James Hardie-Bick (Sussex, Sociology and Criminology), Satre, Phenomenology and Edgework

Dr James Hardie-Bick, Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Criminology, University of Sussex)

Abstract: Lyng’s research on ‘edgework’ has proved to be particularly useful for exploring how individuals intentionally negotiate the boundaries that separate order from chaos. Lyng has provided a social-psychological framework for understanding the phenomenological sensations associated with activities that seek to test the limits of human endurance and criminologists have found the literature on edgework relevant for their research. This paper compares ‘edgework’ to Csikszentmihalyi’s research on ‘flow’. I aim to show why Csikszentmihalyi’s research should also be seen as offering important insights in relation to the pleasures and sensations of voluntary risk-taking. In addition to this, I intend to show how Sartre’s early philosophy of self-knowledge and consciousness has the potential to make an important contribution to this literature. Using the philosophy of Sartre to explore some of the unacknowledged similarities between ‘edgework’ and ‘flow’, my overall intention is to highlight the relevance of both perspectives and to widen the current focus of criminological debates concerning high-risk behaviour.

Dr Gavin Byrne (Birmingham Law School) and Dr John Child (Sussex Law School) Attacks on the Mind and the Legal Limits of the Seduction Industry

Dr Gavin Byrne, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Birmingham
Dr John Child, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Sussex

Abstract: This paper explores consciously manipulated sexual ‘consent’ from legal, psychological, and philosophical perspectives. As a prism through which to explore these issues, the paper looks at the lucrative ‘seduction industry’, with a particular focus on courses which purport to teach single men how to ‘programme’ women in the pursuit of sexual ‘consent’. Sitting between the extremes of consent by hypnosis, and consent by charm, we ask whether (and how) the law should engage with such activity, and what, if anything, this phenomenon tells us about the nature of consent.

This paper was published as: Child, John and Byrne, Gavin (2017) Attacks on the mind and the legal limits of the seduction industry. In: Reed, Alan, Bohlander, Michael, Wake, Nicola and Smith, Emma (eds.) Consent: domestic and comparative perspectives. Routledge. ISBN 9781472469953.

Prof Nicholas Ryder (UWE, Law), The Financial War on Terrorism and Islamic State of Iraq and Levant

Prof Nicholas Ryder, Professor in Financial Crime, Bristol Law School, UWE

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to critically consider the effectiveness of the 'Financial War on Terrorism' on the funding streams of the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL). The paper identifies the 'Financial War on Terrorism' and it then moves on to determine if it is able to tackle and restrict the funding avenues of ISIL. The final part of the paper comments on how ISIL will need to adapt its funding streams as it continues to lose its previously controlled areas.

Prof Tim Hitchcock (Sussex, History), Hearing Voices in an 18th Century Courtroom: Sound, Space and Experience at the Old Bailey

Prof Tim Hitchcock, Professor of Digital History and Co-Director Digital Humanities Lab, University of Sussex

Abstract: Combining 3D modelling of the Old Bailey courtroom c.1800 with textual analysis of the recorded speech of defendants tried there, this paper explores how we might reconstruct the 'voices' of the dead, and locate them in an understandable material context. By combining statistical analysis of one of the most extensive verbatim records we possess of speech acts prior to the twentieth century - The Old Bailey Proceedings - with historical reconstructions derived from architectural drawings, contemporary images and archival research, this paper seeks to both illustrate an innovative methodological approach, and at the same time, revise our understanding of the evolution of both the trial process, and the experience of being tried.

2015/16

Dr Susan Leahy (Limerick, Law), Sexual Offences Law Reform in Ireland: Opportunities and Challenges; and
Dr Tanya Palmer (Sussex, Law), Distinguishing Sex from Sexual Violation: Consent, Negotiation and Freedom to Negotiate

Dr Susan Leahy, Lecturer in Law, University of Limerick
Sexual Offences Law Reform in Ireland: Opportunities and Challenges

Abstract: The Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2015 is a much-awaited addition to the Irish law on sexual offences. The last significant reforms in this area were the Criminal Law (Rape) Act 1981 and the Criminal Law (Rape) (Amendment) Act 1990 which significantly overhauled the law in this area. However, since then, apart from some ad hoc and largely reactionary reforms (e.g. the Criminal Justice (Sexual Offences) Act 2006), this area of the law has lain largely stagnant. This paper considers the Bill and the proposed amendments contained therein and considers whether the Bill is fit-for-purpose in 21st century Ireland, especially in light of recent debates about victims’ rights which are informed by Ireland’s obligations under the Victims’ Directive.

Biography: Susan Leahy BCL LLM PhD (UCC) is a Lecturer in Law at the University of Limerick. Her PhD research was funded by the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences. Her thesis was entitled The Rules and Realities of Consent in Irish Sexual Offences Law: Perspectives on Reform and examined the rules relating to consent in Irish sexual offences legislation. She has published her research on sexual offences in both national and international journals, including the Common Law World Review, the International Journal of Evidence and Proof, the Journal of Criminal Law and the Irish Journal of Family Law. She is currently co-authoring (with Dr. Margaret Fitzgerald-O’Reilly) a book entitled Sexual Offending in Ireland: Laws, Procedures and Punishment, which will be published by Clarus Press. Susan’s primary research interests lie in the area of criminal justice and family law.

Dr Tanya Palmer, Lecturer in Law, Co-Lead Crime Research Group, University of Sussex
Distinguishing Sex from Sexual Violation: Consent, Negotiation and Freedom to Negotiate

Abstract: This paper argues that consent is not an appropriate or effective way to distinguish legitimate sexual activity from sexual violation. Consent is enmeshed with a particular notion of the Kantian liberal subject and as such is inapt to respond to the bodily, affective and relational aspects of subjectivity in general and sexual subjectivity specifically. To champion consent as the standard for legitimate sexual activity implies that sexual relations are inherently asymmetric, obscures the context within which agreements to engage in sexual activity are made, and overlooks the fluid and variable nature of sexual activity itself that renders it ill-suited to a consent framework. The paper considers alternative models of sex and sexual violation based on notions of communication and negotiation. Drawing on these models alongside theoretical argument and original empirical data, a new framework of ‘freedom to negotiate’ is proposed. The standard of ‘freedom to negotiate’ does not prescribe the form or content that any negotiation must take. It emphasizes instead the context in which sexual activity takes place, requiring that, at a minimum, all parties to sexual activity should have the space to negotiate both the fact and nature of their participation throughout the duration of that activity.

This paper was published as: Palmer, Tanya (2017) Distinguishing Sex from Sexual Violation: Consent, Negotiation and Freedom to Negotiate. In: Reed, Alan, Bohlander, Michael, Wake, Nicola and Smith, Emma (eds.) Consent: domestic and comparative perspectives. Substantive issues in criminal law . Routledge, Oxon, pp. 9-24. ISBN 9781472469953

Prof John Jackson (Nottingham, Law), The Role of Special Advocates – Advocacy, Due Process and the Adversarial Tradition

Professor John Jackson, Professor of Comparative Criminal Law and Procedure, University of Nottingham

John Jackson's research fields lie in the areas of Criminal Evidence and Criminal Justice. He has a particular interest in empirical and policy research and is the author of a number of books, articles and research reports in these areas including Judge without Jury: Diplock Trials within the Adversary System (OUP, 1995)(with Sean Doran), Solicitor Advocates in Scotland: The Impact of Clients (HMSO, 2000)(with G. Hanlon), Legislating Against Silence (NIO, 2000)(with Martin Wolfe and Katie Quinn) and The Detention and Questioning of Young Persons by the Police in Northern Ireland (2003)(with Katie Quinn).

Professor Lois Bibbings (Bristol, Law), Murder, Mayhem and Manhood: Retelling Gendered Histories of Crime

Professor Lois Bibbings, Professor of Law, Gender and History, University of Bristol Law School

Abstract: This paper reflects on Binding Men: stories about violence and law in late Victorian England (Oxford: Routledge Glasshouse, 2014), which sets five key legal cases from the latter decades of the nineteenth century in a socio-cultural narrative about the male of the species. This ‘paraquel’ depicts anxieties about men as playing out in the courtrooms of the day, with attempts to rein in various types of behaviour. Whilst Binding Men deals with a variety of activities, in the current context the focus will be on behaviour between men in hyper-masculine environments.

The prize fighting case of Coney (1881-2) along with the infamous story of the two sailors who, when shipwrecked, killed and consumed their cabin boy (Dudley and Stephens (1884)) are well known to criminal lawyers but here they are recast in the light of a range of other contemporary socio-cultural materials. In addition, the paper considers the politics of writing this type of history.

Lois Bibbings is a Professor of Law, Gender and History and an honorary member of staff in the Centre for Ethics in Medicine at the University of Bristol. She has written about violence, sexuality and the body. An interest in men, masculinities and history is reflected in her work on conscientious objectors to military service. This was the subject of her first monograph Telling Tales About Men: Conceptions of Conscientious Objectors to Military Service During the First World War. Her second monograph, Binding Men: Stories about Violence and Law in Late Victorian England focuses upon five late nineteenth century legal cases involving different forms of male violence (child abuse, prize fighting, murder and cannibalism, sexual assault and ‘wife torture’). She has also researched military conscientious objection and gender post 1918, as well as focusing upon contemporary law and policy relating to gendered violence, BDSM and body alteration. Current work focuses on conscience, conscientious objection, the fight for female enfranchisement and military executions in WW1.

Dr Paul McGuinness (Sussex, Criminology and Sociology), A Pervert’s Guide to Community Payback: Theorising Softcore Punishments

Dr Paul McGuinness, Lecturer in Criminology and Sociology, University of Sussex

Abstract: What can community sentencing practices in the UK learn from developments, as both medium and message, from Pornography? Not so much a work in progress but a provocation to attract suggestions of how to less crassly conceive of affect in the criminal justice system.

 #Visual #Criminology #Affect #Zizek #Gonzo #French #Theory

Nicholas Sinclair-House (Sussex, Psychology), The Impact of Disease and Addiction Etiology on Leniency in Sentencing

Nicholas Sinclair-House, Doctoral candidate and Associate Tutor in Psychology, University of Sussex

Nicholas Sinclair-House attained a BSc in Psychology with Neuroscience and an LLM in Criminal Law and Criminal Justice, both at the University of Sussex, and is presently conducting doctoral research into the impact of disease and addiction etiology on leniency in sentencing. He will be presenting the results of empirical work conducted with Magistrates on the sentencing of offenders in scenarios which concern perceived choice (or lack thereof) in the acquisition of neural deficits speaking to mitigation, and briefly outlining the ongoing strands of research which have developed from these initial findings.