Carrington, Kerry; Walters, Reece --- "Chief Editors' Introduction" [2013] IntJlCrimJustSocDem 11; (2013) 2(2) International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy 1

• Chief Editors’ Introduction

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Chief Editors’ Introduction

Professor Kerry Carrington, Professor Reece Walters

Queensland University of Technology

This is the first of several editions of the journal that will publish keynote speeches and papers presented at the Crime, Justice and Social Democracy: 2nd International Conference, hosted by the Crime and Justice Research Centre, QUT Brisbane, 8-11 July 2013. All these papers have been peer referred before publication, mostly by members of the ever growing International Editorial Board, now numbering 45 distinguished scholars from 14 countries and five continents.

This edition opens with a typically thoughtful, original and provocative piece by Elliott Currie, one of the world’s leading progressive criminologists and champion of social democratic narratives in criminal justice. While critiques of rehabilitation have become commonplace in criminology, Currie’s argument rejects outright a non-interventionist approach to addressing violent crime. Instead he suggests three principles for guiding intervention with violent offenders: ‘consciousness, solidarity and hope’.

The second and third articles, also presented as plenary addresses to the conference, emerge out of green criminology. Vincenzo Ruggiero and Nigel South, internationally recognised leaders in this field, grapple with the destructive legacies (both human and non-human) of the oil, chemical and asbestos industries. Their analyses situate these harms and crimes in relation to neo-liberal economic systems that create a relative impunity for the state-corporate actors involved. The next article, by Peter Martin and Reece Walters, also situates the growth of fraud in relation to the marketisation of gas emissions. They examine particular frauds and scams in various emission trading schemes, drawing on theoretical frameworks from green criminology to shape their analysis.

The next two papers, again presented at the conference, address contemporary issues facing juvenile justice systems around the world. John Muncie, a leading criminologist in this sphere of knowledge, brings to bear his extensive expertise to expose the manifold contradictions and heterogeneous effects of globalisation on youth justice. These effects operate through the institution of universal human rights for the child on one hand and penal punitivism which calls for individual responsibilisation of children on the other. Kerry Carrington’s article interrogates explanations for the rises in girls’ violence recorded for UK, Australia, US and Canada, concluding that there is a need for a feminist theory of female violence. In its absence, she argues, anti-feminist explanations fill this discursive void, blaming feminism for global rises in female violence.

The article by David Brown explores the drivers behind the massive increases in the custodial populations across Australian jurisdictions. His analysis illustrates how legislative hyperactivity in relation to bail conditions behind these increases are partly driven by KPI-led policing with particularly adverse consequences for juveniles, where the majority of those remanded in custody are unconvicted. This is the only paper in this edition not presented at the conference, although it was presented at the National Youth Justice conference in Canberra in May this year and links well with the themes explored by the conference and this edition of the journal.

Kathryn Henne and Emily Troshynski’s article draws on original research with paroled sex offenders and elite athletes to explore the effects of bodily surveillance. This is a confronting piece of collaborative and internationally comparative research that examines the effects of biosurveillance on constructions of subjectivity, citizenship, harm and deviance. The primary research data, drawing on interviews with elite athletes and paroled sex offenders probe deeply personal matters such as what is feels like to have a urine sample taken, or to wear a tracking anklet in public that marks you as a sex offender. Their research raises disturbing questions about the penetrative reach of these surveillance technologies in undermining democratic freedoms that most take for granted.

Robb Watt’s article presents a controversial theoretical argument that challenges any social democratic criminology ‘to rehabilitate the proper role played by fictions as they grapple with the “wicked problems” that currently populate this field’. The argument critiques the empirical scientific claims of much conventional criminology, throwing down the gauntlet to alternative criminological explanations to come up with a better way of addressing these ‘wicked problems’.

Access to safe justice is a fundamental principle of a social democratic justice system. Following the murder of family court judges and killing of victims of domestic violence seeking state protection, the safety of seeking justice through the courts has been of paramount concern to contemporary governments. Rick Sarre and Alikki Vernon explore how to enhance safe access to justice through security intelligence, court design and process so that this fundamental democratic right of citizens seeking justice can be protected.

Readers will notice that the journal has changed its name slightly to reflect that fact that many of the articles published in this journal arise from the successful biannual Crime, Justice and Social Democracy International Conference. This title change, overwhelmingly endorsed by the International Editorial Board, also better distinguishes the journal from similarly titled journals. The growth in the readership of this new open access international journal continues to astound us. Since its inception there have been over 7,000 abstract views and over 5,000 downloads of articles published from all over the world. Again we thank our reviewers, mostly drawn from the journal’s distinguished International Editorial Board, our authors and the burgeoning global readership.