Police confirmation of use of force in Australia: ‘To be or not to be?’

Despite significant transgressions during encounters with Indigenous peoples and marginalised groups, all six state police organisations in Australia espouse the principle of minimum force and identify service and crime prevention as paramount in community interaction and intervention. This article offers some insight and perspective of police talk and thinking about the potential use or avoidance of force. The four Victoria Police focus groups, when confronted by the specific police use of force scenario, speak of the adrenalin rush and the need to achieve results, if reasonable and necessary by force, but also of the desire to control the situation and follow proper police procedures. Officers support ‘Safety First’ principles that advocate a cautionary and suspicious approach to the scenario combined with rational and methodical tactics rather than emotional responses. The reflective talk of individual officers about the hypothetical situation parallels actual behaviour when police collectively and visibly confront public disorder. Control and containment of the situation—whether the scenario or a major crowd disturbance—are paramount while time, in the form of acting slowly and adopting a low-key approach, can be seen as assets in achieving objectives. In both the scenario and police planning for collective action, a readiness to threaten force, rather than actually employ it, appears central to police thinking. Police justification of non-coercive tactics in certain situations can be revealing about their thinking processes in justifying force in other circumstances.

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‘Connecting Europe’: The Use of ‘New’ Information and Communication Technologies within European Parliament Standing Committees

The EP as the only directly elected EU institution, portrays itself as the forum that is open not only to input by lobby groups but to that of ‘average’ citizens. This paper probes the contribution of the Internet in this quest to connect Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) with citizens and here specifically we examine the role of the EP's Standing Committees. The analysis is rooted within the larger debate of the possible contribution of the Internet to encouraging the development of a European public space. The discussion focuses on the use of new technologies, including interactive and non-interactive communication methods such as email and discussion fora. It attempts to generate a series of topics for further investigation by outlining some initial results from interviews, carried out at the European level.     

High Policing Theory and the Question of ‘What is to be Done?’

Within the field of high policing theory it has become increasingly difficult to pose the question of ‘What is to be done?’ in ways that do not result in a pragmatic accommodation of existing political arrangements. This essay proposes a way of reanimating the normative impulse of earlier high policing theory such that this outcome is exceeded. It does so by drawing upon Fredric Jameson’s distinction between representation and representation in motion, such that the emergent state of normativity takes the form of normativity as a representation of itself in motion. This form of normativity draws upon the performative character of the power that is particular to the practices associated with high policing. The proposition is illustrated with normative responses made to instances of political policing within the New Zealand context.     

Can a prison be self-managed? A study of the informal organisation of a bolivian prison

The purpose of this study is to investigate the unique prisons of Bolivia. Their main features include the presence of wives and children, self-management of activities within the prison and the opportunity for inmates to take part in various activities. In particular, the general organisation of the prisons and the inmates’ experience, especially on an interpersonal level, is described in this study. The obtained data shows that functional and effective experiences of social rehabilitation can be promoted even under extreme conditions and, in some cases, this provides important insights into the prison systems of most developed countries.

     

MEPs and the building of a ‘parliamentary Europe’

The European Parliament (EP) has become significantly more important in the last ten to 15 years. Little attention has thus far been paid, however, to one crucial element in this story: the consistent support of the majority of EP members (MEPs) for a strategy of parliamentary assertiveness. This note investigates the factors influencing MEPs’ behaviour in a series of key parliamentary divisions, where issues concerning the assertiveness of the parliament were at question. Contrary to much speculation, more experienced MEPs do not appear to become socialised into more hard‐line attitudes. Rather, factors relating to members’ partisan status and nationality are the major determinants of support for enhancing the status of the EP. The findings are argued to suggest important implications for both the EP and the European Union as a whole.     

Making sense of ‘consent’ in a constrained environment

BackgroundThis project investigates patients' and practitioners' experiences and understandings of the consent process, as it is governed by the Mental Health Act in Great Britain.AimsWe aim to illuminate our respondents' experiences of the consent process, and to explore their attempts to make sense of that process.MethodSemi-structured interviews with 5 Responsible Medical Officers, and 7 of their consenting adult patients, were conducted at a medium-secure psychiatric hospital. We approached the analysis from the perspective of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis.ResultsOur analysis begins with an account of some of the common phenomenological consequences of the consent process as our participants understand them, but then moves on to discuss some of the contextual constraints which are evident from their negotiation of these understandings.ConclusionsWe conclude by outlining a number of emergent issues relevant to the current development of new Mental Health legislation. These include: mechanisms to allow collaboration with user groups; a more consultative role for users in their own treatment decisions; formal training and support for those conducting competency assessments; and more flexible and transparent legislative frameworks.     

European Parliament and representation of the Union's citizens: What can be expected from electoral law from a democratic standpoint?

In some Member States, doctrine and case law of national courts have highlighted that, under currently applicable European electoral law, elections to the EP are of a second-order, whereby European issues give way to purely domestic ones. In any event, this does not hinder the position of the EP as a genuine legislative chamber, which, above all, demands effects from electoral law that it cannot provide, since the intensity with which an election is experienced depends on circumstances external to the system itself. What electoral law can guarantee instead is the periodic holding of free elections. And that requires ensuring that the EP is appointed by the free expression of the opinion of all (and only) European citizens; that the weight of the vote is determined by rational criteria; that the electoral formula allows access to significant political currents; and that the “rule of law” is respected in the electoral process.     

Looters or Heroes? Production of Illegality and Memories of ‘Looting’ in Mali

My paper proposes an ethnographical perspective of the clandestine trade in antiquities in Mali by showing on one side the social organization (techniques, hierarchies, trade chains) of farmers-diggers; on the other side, by analyzing the rhetorics of illegality driven by officially-mandated cultural heritage policies. In particular the paper stresses the function of visuality in the construction of ‘illegal’ subjects and iconographies of ‘plunder’ circulated through national and international press. It shows that such an iconic power of images does befog self-representations of farmers-diggers (risk, courage, loneliness) which constitute the ethical cosmos of digging activities. In such a perspective, the debate over the looting of archaeological objects has become a reiterative product of national rhetorics of legality and illegality opposed to narratives of self-representations of marginality and heroization produced by ‘illegal’ actors.     

Au nom de qui? The European Court of Justice between Member States,Civil Society and Union Citizens

Abstract: How does the quest for legitimacy of the European Union relate to the view the European Court of Justice(ECJ) accords to Union citizens, civil society and to private actors? It is submitted that the ECJ is currently developing a jurisprudence under which citizens, as well as their organisations and corporate private actors, are gradually, and in almost complete disregard of the public/private distinction, being included in the matrix of rights and—a crucial point—obligations of the treaties. The ECJ incorporates civil society actors and citizens, beyond notions of representative (citizenship) and participatory (civil society) democracy, into the body of law and thereby reworks its own and the Union's identity. Two core aspects are explored: the first is the reconfiguration of Union citizenship as a norm which triggers the application of the substantive norms of the EC Treaty. The second aspect of this evolution is the creation of ‘private governance’ schemes, i.e. processes in which, as a rule, private action is regarded as action that has to meet the standards of the Treaty. The analysis shows that the court is disentangling itself from the State‐oriented Treaty situation and drawing legitimacy directly from citizens themselves so that judgments should be pronounced ‘In the Name of the Citizens of the European Union’.

1 European Court of Justice 20 September 2001, Case C‐184/99, Grzelczyk [2001] ECR I‐6193, para. 31.

     

‘I Can’t’: Capacity to Marry and the Question of Sex

To some extent the nature of the marriage contract has always been ‘about’ sex. Yet it is only in recent years that sex has become an explicit aspect of the legal test of capacity to marry. This paper explores how that test has been developed by the courts since the late 19th century. Through an examination of the case law it traces the nature of the relationship between sex and the capacity to marry; explores how capacity to consent to sexual relations has become a prominent strand within capacity to marry; and asks whether one effect of that prominence has been to marginalise the necessity for an individual to understand certain other important aspects of the marriage contract when assessing his or her capacity to marry.     

Learning to be a ‘Safe’ ex-con: race,symbolic violence and discipline in prisoner re-entry

This article seeks to investigate the ways in which conceptions of race and interact with symbolic violence, discipline and governmentality to produce a responsibilized subject willing to participate in the racialized forms of deference necessary for participation in the secondary labor market. It is based on three years of ethnographic fieldwork conducted in a Career Development class in an agency that serves formerly incarcerated individuals who are primarily African American males. In order to meet job placement goals, the agency has focused job development efforts on the secondary labor market. The article focuses on the tensions that develop as program staff attempt to prepare class participants to accept these positions.     

Pussy Riot and feminist cultural criminology: a new ‘Femininity in Dissent’?

This comment considers the mainstream, online Western news media’s reaction to the imprisonment of three members of the Russian feminist punk band, Pussy Riot, in August 2012. Of particular concern is the band’s style of feminist political protest; it argues that their case is of significance to feminist cultural criminology. Drawing on Young’s analysis of media censuring of feminist political protest as deviance, the contrasting, positive representation in this case of Pussy Riot as dissidents is explored. This positive representation can be understood with regard to Western geopolitical concerns, but also stresses the effectiveness of Pussy Riot in communicating their political message.     

Who Is the Client and Who Controls Release of Records in a Forensic Evaluation? A Review of Ethics Codes and Practice Guidelines

Forensic psychologists often refuse to release evaluation records, especially to the evaluee. One justification for this practice is based on the ethical positions that the referral source “is the client” and “controls release of records” (also found in the Specialty Guidelines for Forensic Psychology). To determine whether these ethical positions are shared by the field of forensic mental health, official documents from forensic mental health organizations were used as a proxy for these views. Thirty-four supporting arguments for either position were identified from the literature; it was postulated that official documents would support both positions and utilize supporting arguments. Fifty-four official documents were discovered, and qualitative analysis was used to construct a 17-category model of official views. Neither position was supported by a majority of documents, and few of the supporting arguments were utilized by supportive documents. The positions are unsupported because official documents espouse a wide diversity of views, there are a number of logical flaws in supporting arguments, and even official APA documents hold conflicting views. Ethical arguments are advanced for contrary positions, and the referral-source-control of records release is contrary to law. A more ethical view is that the psychologist may have multiple, possibly conflicting responsibilities to multiple entities; the psychologist’s roles and responsibilities should be clarified with each entity using an informed consent process. Psychologists should release records at the behest of the evaluee, lest they be subject to licensing discipline, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) complaints, and/or civil sanctions. Recommendations are offered for psychologists, future ethics codes and professional practice guidelines, and test security practices.     

Who’s afraid of penal populism? Technocracy and ‘the people’ in the sociology of punishment

Contemporary sociologists of punishment have criticized the rising incidence of incarceration and punitiveness across the Western world in recent decades. The concepts of populist punitiveness and penal populism have played a central role in their critiques of the burgeoning penal state. These concepts are frequently sustained by a doctrine of penal elitism, which delegates a limited right to politicians and ‘the people’ to shape institutions of punishment, favoring in their place the dominance of bureaucratic and professional elites. I argue that the technocratic inclinations of penal elitism are misguided on empirical, theoretical, and normative grounds. A commitment to democratic politics should make us wary of sidelining the public and their elected representatives in the politics of punishment. A brief discussion of Norway’s legal proceedings against Nazi collaborators in the mid-1940s and the introduction sentencing guidelines commissions in Minnesota in the 1980s shows – pace penal elitism – that professional elites may variously raise the banner of rehabilitationism or retributivism. While penal elitism may yield a few victorious battles against punitiveness, it will not win the war.