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Focusing on the Criminalisation of Social Policy, this book explores the intersections between crime and social policy and the ways in which contemporary social policies in many different countries look more like crime control policies. From anti-immigration agendas, which criminalise vulnerable populations, to the punishment of the poor and the governance of parenting, the book engages with the ways in which certain constituencies in our societies, who need help and support, are made to feel criminal in their relationships with the state and its agents. Specific policy examples chosen from across countries show that the criminalisation of social policy has resonance internationally. These are selected from the fields of work and welfare; borders and citizenship; family policy, urban planning and offender reintegration. In illuminating intersecting, and at times very troubling policy interventions, the book wrestles with ideas as to what social policy and welfare states should look like in our societies. It incites the reader to continue this process so that we reclaim the best of the ‘social’ in social policy for the twenty-first century.

There is increasing pressure on the humanities to justify their value and on criminology to undertake interdisciplinary research. In this book, the author establishes a new interdisciplinary methodology, ‘criminological criticism’, harnessing the synergy between literary studies and critical criminology to produce genuine interventions in social reality. The author practices criminological criticism on George Miller' Mad Max: Fury Road, Prime Video's Carnival Row, and J.K. Rowling's The Cuckoo's Calling, demonstrating how these popular allegories provide insights into the harms of sexism, racism, and class prejudice. The book proposes a model for collaboration between literary studies and critical criminology that is beneficial to the humanities, the social sciences, and society.

The people most impacted by criminal justice polices, and practices, are seldom included in the decision making processes that impact their lives. This edited volume builds on the sentiment underpinning the growing ‘nothing about us without us’ social movement, to argue for the importance of an approach to criminology that is inclusive of those voices that have historically been hushed, marginalised, silenced or ignored. Incorporating the experiences of service users, academics, and state and grassroots practitioners, this volume presents a nuanced perspective that furthers criminological scholarship by capturing the voices of marginalised groups. The volume explores the importance of diversity and inclusivity in criminological discourses and, consider how researchers might bridge the gap between theory and lived experience, and how the authenticity of the voices of those who have been silenced can be incorporated into a meaningful criminology.

Using striking examples of imprisonment in different continents and cultures Prisons of the World raises fundamental questions about the manner in which governments and societies (mis)use prison as a response to a wide range of fundamental social, economic and political issues. It describes the mistreatment of women prisoners in North America and the United Kingdom and of elderly prisoners in Japan, the intractable influence of gangs in Latin America, the legacy of colonialism in South Africa and the Caribbean and the continuing influence of the Gulag system in many countries of the former Soviet Union. The book discusses the work of international bodies such as the Committee for the Prevention of Torture in Europe, the involvement of the Inter American Court of Human Rights in the Caribbean and of court interventions in respect of the excessive use of solitary confinement in Canada and the United States. There is also a description of the author’s involvement in a unique instance of prison monitoring to resolve a violent dispute between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The book concludes by offering some positive pointers for the future. In the medium term many of the resources which are currently invested in the demand led imprisonment industry could be transferred to initiatives such as those which are known as Justice Reinvestment and in the longer term radical change could be achieved through use of the Human Development model.