Legal Consciousness: Some Observations

This article argues that US studies of 'legal consciousness' have much to offer UK socio-legal studies. It is, perhaps, surprising that so little attention has been paid to this set of understandings. I seek to rectify that imbalance in the transatlantic relationship by outlining legal consciousness and its critiques. I then draw on homelessness applicant interview data to discuss their 'legal consciousness', illustrating the importance of the value of dignity; how they make sense of their decisions; and the spaces in which legal consciousness may be produced. The study is a limited examination, but it enables us to question the assertion that welfare applicants 'know the law' and (ab-)use it.     

How do offenders move through the stages of change?

This study sought to investigate the way in which offenders moved through the stages of change. The University of Rhode Island Change Assessment Scale (URICA) was administered to a group of general offenders (N = 371) who participated in the Short Motivational Programme (SMP), a brief motivational interviewing programme administered to medium-risk offenders in New Zealand. The offenders' URICA responses were subjected to a cross-lagged panel analysis using structural equation modelling. Four models specifying different prospective associations between stage engagements were examined. It was hypothesised that there would be support for sequential transitions through the stages as proposed by the Stages of Change model. However, the analysis rendered support for and against sequential transitions, in that offenders regressed to earlier stages or skipped a stage post-SMP. Offenders who skipped to an adjacent stage after the SMP may have actually passed through an intermediary stage during the intervention, and those who regressed to an earlier stage post-SMP may have gained a more realistic awareness of their problem behaviour. This finding also raises questions about the practical utility of the model with offenders and highlights the need for more rigorous studies investigating the way offenders move through the stages of change.     

Lethal Regulation: State-Corporate Crime and the United Kingdom Government's New Mercenaries

Markets for private military security are enjoying a period of sustained growth, during which there has been a repackaging of 'mercenary outfits' and 'private armies' as legitimate, fully incorporated private military companies (PMCs). This paper presents a critique of the dominant view of the new mercenaries and examines the regulation of private military security currently being proposed by the United Kingdom government, arguing that its purpose should be understood as the facilitation rather than the restraint of those markets. States are playing a formative role in the expansion of private military markets. In contrast to the dominant themes of the literature on globalization, the emergence of those markets should be understood as an expansion rather than a diminution of the coercive and violent capacities of states. Western states are facilitating new modes of delivering terror and violence that are also likely to increase, rather than reduce, the incidence of state-corporate crimes.     

Theorising sexual media and sexual violence in a forensic setting: Men's talk about pornography and offending

This article reports findings from a discourse analytic study which critically explored the language of mental health nurses, and detained sexual offenders, in relation to pornography in one high-security hospital. It recognised previous empirical investigation, and pro-feminist theorising, into mediated representations and male sexual violence, but situated the research process in a forensic nursing context. Decision-making about access to, or restriction of, commercial sexual literature, as a component of therapeutic intervention and offender management, reveals tensions between service-user rights and treatment goals. The aim was to access nurse and patient talk in a specific culture. Semi-structured interviews with eighteen nursing staff, and nine patients, were used to co-construct accounts of pornography, sexual offending, and treatment. Analysis and data collection were undertaken concurrently. Interviews were audio-taped and transcribed. Data was coded to identify theoretical/conceptual themes and sub-themes representing discursive repertoires. Attention was given to how textual variation positioned respondents in relation to each other and the institution. Findings suggested collective male talk textured the environment, promoted gendered inequality, marginalised female nurses, and undermined rehabilitation. Shared discourse enabled male staff and patients to relate to each other as men, while maintaining distance through constructions of otherness. Discussion focuses on discriminatory discursive-practices, where men's talk about pornography and sexual violence embodied gendered knowledge/experience and contributed to a toxic culture. Consideration is given to ways of resisting institutional impediments and promoting positive therapeutic relations.