Historical Criminology

Past Events

BSC Historical Criminology Network Speakers’ Series 2024/2025

6 November 2024, 4pm. The Place of History in Critical Criminology—Lessons from the Berkeley School. Dr Roberto Catello.

Dr Catello is a Lecturer in Social Science at Liverpool Hope University, United Kingdom.

To what extent can historical research in criminology act as a weapon in contemporary political struggles and as a way of injecting radical politics into criminological studies? This presentation engages with the ways in which early critical criminologists in the U.S. engaged with historical knowledge as a way of doing politics and activism. By focusing on the works produced at the Berkeley School of Criminology in the 1970s, the presentation shows that there are ways of carrying out historical research in criminology as a form of praxis and assesses the relevance of this radical form of historical scholarship for critical criminology today.

28 August 2024, 12.15 (Oslo time), Sandra Walklate will present the history of criminology in the UK and Europe as part of the seminar series “Critical Histories of Criminology: Stories of the Seven Continents.” 

Locating contemporary concerns within wider historical criminological interests, in academia and beyond.

3 April 2024, 4—5.30pm (BST) 

Dr Lufuno Sadiki is a lecturer in Criminology, at the University of Cape Town. Her work intersects with historical criminology, especially in the context of decolonization, including Violent Crime, Political Offences and Criminology Theory.

Presentation: Criminology in Africa: A counter European rebirth?

24 April 2024, 4—5.30pm (BST)

Dr Julian Molina is a lecturer in Public Policy, in the School for Policy Studies, at the University of Bristol. Julian works on the intersections of social studies of social science and administrative criminologies, government analytical professions and its data infrastructures, crime policy and forensic borders.
Presentation: Tinker, Tailor, Statistician, Spycop: Infrastructures of British Criminology and Undercover Policing in 1981

13 March 2024, 4—5.30pm (BST)

Dr Leah Cleghorn is a Lecturer in Criminology within the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, at Nottingham Trent University. Leah’s work has focused on crime and criminal justice in the Caribbean region, with interests are in victims of crime and their access to justice, domestic violence, and intimate partner violence, historical criminology as well as decolonial criminology.
Presentation: Exploring colonial penal system in the Anglophone Caribbean: Engaging in Archival Research.

7 February 2024, 4—5.30pm (BST)

Dr Emma Watkins is a lecturer in criminology in the Department of Social Policy at the University of Birmingham. Emma is an historical criminologist who uses digital technologies with historical documentation and criminological methodologies. Presentation: The criminalisation and control of the poor: A look at nineteenth-century Tasmanian Pauper-Emancipists.

17 January 2024, 4—5.30pm (BST)

Dr Tahaney Alghrani is an early career researcher, working closely with Liverpool University and University of Central Lancaster. Her work includes explorations of the role of Victorian Penal Institutions, for juvenile females. Presentation: Imperial Criminology: The attempts to establish Juvenile institutions in parts of the Empire, highlighting decolonisation of Criminology.

13 December 2023, 4—5.30pm (BST)

Dr Lufuno Sadiki is a lecturer in the Department of Social Work and Criminology, at the University of Pretoria. Her work intersects with historical criminology, especially in the context of decolonization, including Violent Crime, Political Offences and Criminology Theory Presentation: Criminology in Africa: A counter European rebirth?

6 December 2023, 4—5.30pm (BST)

Dr Geoff Ward is a professor of African and African American Studies at the Washington University in St Louis, where his work examines the haunting legacies of historical racial violence and implications for redress. Presentation: An Historical Analysis of Youth Justice in the African American Experience: Some Methods and Benefits of a Long View.

15 November 2023, 4—5.30pm (BST)

Dr Mary Fraser (FRHistS) is a social researcher in the SCCJR at the University of Glasgow. She works on the history of police work in Britain. Presentation: British Policemen and their Role in the Food Crisis during the Great War, 1917-1918—Police as Ploughmen (Forthcoming 2024, Palgrave Macmillan).

1 March 2023, 12-1.30pm (BST)

Moral Panics and the Free Speech ‘Crisis’ on Campus: Using Critical Criminology to Examine the History of ‘No Platforming’ at British Universities

19 October 2022, 4-5.30pm (BST)

What is Fascism and Where Does it Come From?

 Dr Geoff Eley – Karl Pohrt Distinguished University Professor of Contemporary History, University of Michigan, USA. 

Chair: Lizzie Seal

You can view Dr Eley’s presentation here.

2 November 2022, 4-5.30pm (BST)

Decolonialization and Counter-Colonial Criminology

Dr Biko Agozino – Professor of Sociology, Virginia Tech University, Virginia, USA.

Chair: Esmorie Miller

 9 November 2022, 4-5.30pm (BST)

Anti-Gender Politics in the Populist Moment 

Dr Elzbieta Korolczuk – Associate professor in sociology, Sodertorn University, Stockholm Sweden.

30 November 2022, 4-5.30pm (BST)

Racist-Gendered State Violence: Punishing Migrant Women and Separating Families

 Dr Monish Bhatia – Lecturer in Criminology, Birkbeck University, London, UK.

WAR MAKES MONSTERS: CRIME & CRIMINALITY IN TIMES OF CONFLICT

University College Dublin, 2/3 June 2022

CALL FOR PAPERS

 ***The Deadline for Submissions is 1 October 2021 ***

In 1981, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher declared resolutely that ‘crime is crime is crime’. The statement had mortal consequences, effectively condemning to death Bobby Sands and fellow IRA hunger strikers holding out for prisoner-of-war status in HM Prison Maze. However, Thatcher’s declaration was belied, then and now, by the reality that notions of crime and criminality are not fixed but constantly under negotiation, particularly in times of crisis and great societal change, such as war. Sociologists Sveinung and Fondevila argue that volatile periods ‘give rise to new types of criminal, reignite old ones, and repurpose justifications for crime’. History bears out their claim.

During the First World War, French senator Louis Martin proposed the suspension of legal penalties for abortion in the invaded territories where the rape of French women by advancing German forces was endemic. The London Blitz of 1940-1941 created diversions that allowed nefarious activity to flourish, including the smashing of shop windows and looting of stores, by thieves disguised as wardens. During the Cold War, leftist thought became tantamount to subversion in the United States and Senator Joseph McCarthy brought hundreds of Americans before the House Un-American Activities Committee to investigate treason. Such anecdotes provide a window into the relationship between war and crime/criminality that this conference aims to investigate. The adage ‘war makes monsters’ tells only part of the story. Indeed, evidence suggests that war makes criminals of some, while exonerating others. It creates a context for the renegotiation of what constitutes ‘crime’. It provides cover for certain varieties of misdeed and trains a spotlight on others.

‘War Makes Monsters: Crime and Criminality in Times of Conflict’ takes a global approach to understanding crime in wartime as both a cultural construction and a product of circumstances. We therefore invite scholars interested in any aspect of crime and criminality in wartime, from the medieval period to the present day, to submit proposals for papers that will allow us to gain new insights into the relationship between war and crime/criminality across time and space.

 SUBMISSION PROCESS

We welcome proposals for individual papers of an historical nature. Postgraduate students and early-career researchers are especially encouraged to apply. The conference is intended to offer a constructive environment in which to workshop new, unpublished material, with the goal of producing a special journal issue, edited by the conference organizers. We anticipate being able to provide limited financial support in the form of waived attendance costs and complimentary accommodation.

• Paper proposals must include a paper title, a 500-word abstract of the paper, and a two-page CV with current contact information / email address.
• The deadline for proposals is 1 October 2021. Please send all the relevant paperwork to: WarMakesMonsters2022@gmail.com Organizers will make a decision on the final programme by the end of December 2021.
• If selected, participants will be required to submit a full draft of their papers (8,000-10,000 words) by 1 May 2022 for pre-circulation.

Questions about the CfP can be directed to conference organizers, Julie M. Powell (University College Dublin) and Claire Eldridge (University of Leeds) at WarMakesMonsters2022@gmail.com

Future events will be announced in the bi-monthly bulletin.

Historical Criminology International Networking Event

Dates: 14^th and 15^th July 2021

Location: Zoom.

Hosted jointly by the BSC Historical Criminology Network and the Australian and New Zealand Historical Criminology Network.

Over two short meetings on 14 and 15 July, we brought together scholars for an opportunity to meet others with similar research interests in historical criminology. This allowed us to discuss how we might think and work differently, to discuss research in progress or in the pipeline, and to connect with colleagues from the UK, Australia, New Zealand and beyond. Sessions included:

1. PhD and ECR support
2. Digital data methods and historical criminology
3. Researching recent histories
4. Decolonisation and indigenisation
5. Criminalisation and policing of women
6. Vulnerabilities of victims in the criminal justice system

Organisers: David Churchill (d.churchill@leeds.ac.uk) and Vicky Nagy (Vicky.Nagy@utas.edu.au)

Historical Criminology Workshop

Forging new conversations and collaborations in criminology

(Also see the blog article published on this event)

15 June 2020

Event organiser: David Churchill (University of Leeds) – d.churchill@leeds.ac.uk

This virtual workshop was designed to bring together scholars to initiate conversations around common interests or new directions for research in criminology.

The workshop comprised working groups on the following topics: mobile methods; police corruption; history and interdisciplinarity; atonement; dark tourism; path dependence and criminal justice institutions; and protection. Over 50 people joined the event from 7 countries, participating in fruitful and wide-ranging discussions. The event was lived scribed by Laura Evans of Nifty Fox Creative, leaving an engaging visual record of the day’s discussions. Some groups are already planning further meetings to take their discussions forward, potentially with a view to publications. A full write up of the event will follow soon.

Historical Criminology Conference 2019

Linking past and present in criminological research

9-10 April 2019

Confirmed plenary speakers:

Prof Barry Godfrey (University of Liverpool)

Dr Kate Lister (Leeds Trinity University)

This inaugural event of the BSC Historical Criminology Network (in association with the BSC South West Branch) provided an open forum for discussion of relations between past and present in criminological research.

***

The first meeting of the new British Society of Criminology Historical Criminology network took place on Monday 10 September, in London. The purpose of this meeting was to discuss the aims, scope and strategy of the network and to plan its initial activities.