criminal justice

Understanding child contact cases in Scottish sheriff courts

Parents or grandparents who cannot agree arrangements to see children with whom they do not live may turn to the courts to resolve their disputes. The Scottish court system puts children at the centre of decisions that affect them. A key mechanism for this is the Child Welfare Hearing (CWH), which parties must attend, in which sheriffs have extensive powers to intervene.

Legitimacy and procedural justice in prisons

A functioning correctional system depends on the orderly reproduction of a stable and acceptable prison environment. The argument in this paper has two parts: first, a key factor in the social order of a prison is the legitimacy of the prison regime in the eyes of inmates; and second, the legitimacy of authorities depends in large part upon the procedural fairness with which officers treat prisoners.

Discussing violence: let's hear it for the girls

This article presents some key findings from an exploratory study of teenage girls’ views and experiences of violence, carried out in Scotland. Using data gathered from self-report questionnaires, focus group discussions and in-depth interviews, it conveys girls’ perceptions of violence and discusses the nature and extent of the many forms of violence in girls’ lives. In particular, the article flags up the pervasiveness of verbal conflicts within girls’ lives and outlines the characteristics of those girls who describe themselves as violent.

Shadow writing and participant observation: a study of criminal justice social work around sentencing

The study of decision-making by public officials in administrative settings has been a mainstay of law and society scholarship for decades. The methodological challenges posed by this research agenda are well understood: how can socio-legal researchers get inside the heads of legal decision-makers in order to understand the uses of official discretion?

User views of punishment: the comparative experience of short prison sentences and community based punishments

Scotland is currently engaged in one of the biggest penal reform projects in a generation, seeking to fundamentally change its approach to punishment, which is characterised by high use of imprisonment compared to other parts of Europe, and the use of very short prison sentences. In Scotland around three quarters of prison sentences handed down by the courts are for six months or less. But because short sentences are seen as minimally intrusive compared to long-term or life sentences, there has been, until now, little research on their effects.

A map, a compass and a pair of good boots: probation practice and the desistance journey

Slides and video recording of Professor Fergus McNeill's - Professor of Criminology and Social Work at the University of Glasgow - presentation at the 8th annual Community Justice Portal Lecture, which was organised in association with the Probation Chiefs Association. It was held at Sheffield Hallam University on Thursday 20th May 2010.

Research soundbites: culture, change and community justice

Fergus McNeill discusses a literature review of the management of change within community justice organisations, conducted with Ros Burnett and Tricia McCulloch. The review explored: the nature and character of occupational, professional and organisational cultures in community justice; how such cultures respond to, accommodate and resist change processes; how and why processes of change succeed and fail in criminal justice organisations; and effective approaches to the management of change in criminal justice.

What are psychopaths for?

Psychologists inside and outside the criminal justice system spend an inordinate amount of time assessing prisoners and probationers for psychopathy. In this talk, Shadd Maruna asks why. Does the diagnosis merit the attention it is given by practitioners? If not, then what accounts for obsession with psychopathy? The case is made from a psychological point of view, but one that puts us (psychology, society, the criminal justice system) on “the couch” rather than the psychopath.