Feminist Responses To Injustices Of The State And Its Institutions

From the denial of abortion rights in Northern Ireland to sexual violence in South Asian communities, this book maps a feminist criminology for the 21st century.

From the denial of abortion rights in Northern Ireland to sexual violence in South Asian communities, this book offers a counter narrative to the criminal justice system’s failures towards women, mapping a feminist criminology for the 21st century.

This collection revisits Steven Box’s book, Power, Crime and Mystification, published in 1983, and considers its relevance forty years on. It introduces the critical analysis developed by Box which examined corporate crime, police crime, rape and sexual assault and female crime and analyses the continuities and discontinuities since 1983 in relation to crime, the state and the exercise/mystification of power. The book explores the ways in which we can see his influence nationally and internationally on critical criminological, zemiological and abolitionist writings today. It asks how can these perspectives be applied to a critical analysis of contemporary, state authoritarianism and the criminal injustice that this authoritarianism generates? Additionally, how can Box’s concepts shine a critical light on contemporary social harms that were not covered in the original book? The collection provides a toolkit for students and academics to critically analyse the issues around crime/social harm, power/powerlessness, truth/mystification, criminal injustice/social justice as well as historical and contemporary sites of resistance confronting the exercise of state power.

Child sexual abuse (CSA) is believed to affect one in eight children worldwide (UNICEF, 2020). This authoritative book challenges widely-held problematic beliefs about CSA and discusses societal responses and attitudes to survivors. It brings together multidisciplinary expertise from key researchers and practitioners around the world to better understand CSA in Black and racially minoritised communities and to provide recommendations for improving legal, policy and practical responses. It provides an international overview, covering theory, practice and policy and action-oriented research to determine how countries can individually and collectively work to prevent CSA with specific, vulnerable groups and in general. It also examines how intersectional marginalisation affects experiences of, and responses to, CSA. This essential body of work is thoroughly researched and includes first hand testimony which will deepen the understanding of students, academics, policy-makers and professionals including social workers, service staff and activists working at the frontline. Chapter 7 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

The Routledge International Handbook of Penal Abolition provides an authoritative and comprehensive look at the latest developments in the 21st-century penal abolitionism movement, both reflecting on key critical thought and setting the agenda for local and global abolitionist ideas and interventions over the coming decade. Penal abolitionists question the legitimacy of criminal law, policing, courts, prisons and more broadly the idea of punishment, to argue that rather than effectively handling or solving social problems, interpersonal disputes, conflicts and harms, they actually increase individual and societal problems. The Routledge International Handbook of Penal Abolition is organized around six key themes: Social movements and abolition organizing Critical resistance to the penal state Voices from imprisoned and marginalized communities Diversity of abolitionist thought International perspectives on abolitionism Building new justice practices as a response to social and individual wrongdoing. A global-centred and world-encompassing project, this book provides the reader with an alternative and critical perspective from which to reflect and raises the visibility of abolitionist ideas and strategies in a time when there is considerable discussion of how we will move forward in response to what has given rise to the criminalizing system: white supremacy, racial capitalism and human wrongdoing. It is essential reading for all those engaged with punishment and penology, criminology, sociology, corrections and critical prisons studies. It will appeal to any reader who seeks an innovative response to the calamitous failures of the modern criminalizing system.

Gendered Justice seeks to enhance knowledge and practice in relation to criminalised women and anyone affected by their imprisonment. It calls for compassionate trauma-informed, and gender-specific approaches. As editor Dr Lucy Baldwin explains, ‘How society engages with women coming into contact with the Criminal Justice System can have a profound and lasting effect on their lives, so it is important to ensure that the impact is an informed and positive one’. In chapters by experts from diverse backgrounds, the book examines a carefully selected mix of developments including in topical areas such as women’s rights, help and support, stigma, domestic abuse, sentencing, racism, disadvantage, poverty, deviance, labelling, homelessness, stereotyping, missed opportunities, silencing, fairness, prison visits, desistance from crime, unmet needs, and making a difference. A key text for gender aware readers/researchers which includes accounts of ‘lived experience’. Outlines tools, methods and best practice. Reviews ‘An important and inspirational book which should be compulsory reading for policy-makers and sentencers’– Professor Loraine Gelsthorpe, Cambridge University (from the Foreword).

As binge-watching and streaming lead to increasing amounts of content and screen time, understanding how domestic violence and abuse is portrayed in popular culture and its impact on DVA in our society is more important than ever. This collection demonstrates how networked communication is influencing activism, both online and in the real-world.