Criminalisation, inequality and injustice

Our research explores the ways in which criminal justice interventions can have an impact on the social exclusion of young people. We examine ‘criminalisation’ in particular, but also ‘community safety’ policies, ‘anti-social behaviour’ management initiatives and ‘anti-gang’ strategies in relation to young people and their social exclusion.

We analyse the extent to which interventions create barriers for young people within their communities, making it harder for them to maintain social networks, fulfil their educational potential, or take up employment and other opportunities. 

We aim to contribute to the public debate and influence policy-making, disseminating our findings through seminars and publications, which develop critical approaches to over-criminalisation and criminal justice expansion.

Consequences of criminalisation

Our research continues to expose many of the consequences of criminalisation and ‘advanced marginality’ for young people. We consider the shift from the over-criminalisation that has characterised the past two decades to the existing situation of post-austerity neglect, social exclusion and restricted opportunities in contemporary Britain.

Currently, we focus on white working class and ethnic minority youth and investigate how processes of ‘gangsterisation’ or radicalisation, often abetted by social and public policies, can impose severe restrictions upon the opportunities of Britain’s least favoured – or most disadvantaged – young people.

Some profound disruptions, perhaps the biggest of which has been the collapse of the unskilled, youth and young adult, labour market, have had a dramatic effect on the lives of young working class people. Alongside growing inequality, the consequences have been significantly crimogenic, especially in a society where affluence and conspicuous consumption are so relentlessly promoted.

Research projects

Anti-social behaviour enforcement action and young people

A study of the use of anti-social behaviour (ASB) management powers in the East Brighton area

Connected Communities projects

Research into the changing nature of communities and their role in sustaining and enhancing quality of life

Neutralising deviance: the culture of finance in the City of London

Research into ongoing cultures of deviance that persist in elite structures of society

Research team

Dr Craig Johnstone

Professor John Lea

Dr Lynda Measor

Dr Alex Simpson

Professor Peter Squires

Dr Dawn Stephen

Dr Paula Wilcox

Output

Books

Squires, P and Lea, J (2012) Criminalisation and Advanced Marginality: Critically interrogating the work of Loic Wacquant, The Policy Press, Bristol.

Squires, P (ed) (2008) ASBO Nation: Criminalising Nuisance in Contemporary Britain. Edited: introduction and conclusion. The Policy Press, Bristol. 

Squires, P (ed) (2006) Community Safety: Critical Perspectives on Policy and Practice, The Policy Press, Bristol. (Edited, Introduction and Conclusion).

Squires, P and Stephen, D (2005) Rougher Justice:  Young People and Anti-social Behaviour, Willan Publishing, Cullompton.

Articles

Simpson, A (2016) If the banks were too big to fail, why isn’t the British steel industry? The Conversation. 31 March.

Simpson, A (2016) The Big Short is a perverse Robin Hood parable – in which King John wins, The Conversation. 1 March.

Simpson, A (2015) A Four-Step Process to Studying the Field through the City of London, in Current Research on Cities, Vol. 51, pp.96-105.

Johnstone, C (2014) Greater expectations: intolerance and control of public space, anti-social behaviour in the nineteenth and twenty-first centuries. In S. Pickard (ed) Anti-Social Behaviour in Britain: Victorian and contemporary perspectives. Palgrave/ Macmillan, Basingstoke.

Squires, P (2014) The ups and downs of youth justice. In Bochel and Daly (ed) Social Policy, 3rd edition, Pearson Education, Harlow.

Squires, P (2014) Anti-social behaviour: marginality, intolerance and the ‘usual suspects’. In S. Pickard (ed) Anti-Social Behaviour in Britain: Victorian and contemporary perspectives, Palgrave/Macmillan, Basingstoke.

Squires, P (2010) Between the rocks and hard places: young people negotiating fear and criminalisation.  In O’Dell and Leverett (ed.) Working with Children and Young People: Co-constructing Practice. Open University and Palgrave MacMillan, Basingstoke.

Squires, P and Goldsmith, C (2010) Bullets, Blades and Mean Streets: Youth Violence and Criminal Justice Failure (with Carlie Goldsmith). In D. Berridge (ed) Children Behaving Badly: Perspectives on Peer Violence. Wiley/Blackwell, Chichester.

Squires, P (2009) “You lookin’ at me”: Discourses of respect and disrespect, identity and violence. In A. Millie (ed) Securing  Respect. The Policy Press, Bristol.

Squires, P (2009) The Knife Crime Epidemic and British Politics, British Politics 4 (1) pp.127-157.

Squires, P (2008) The Politics of Anti-Social Behaviour, British Politics, 1, pp.1-24.

Squires, P and Stephen, D (2007) Rough justice, enforcement or support: young people and their families in the community. In Balloch and Hill (ed) Care Community and Citizenship, The Policy Press, Bristol.

Squires, P (2006) Anti-Social Behaviour and New Labour, Critical Social Policy, 26 (1) pp. 144-168.

Squires, P and Stephen, D (2005) Rethinking ASBOs, Critical Social Policy, 25 (4) pp. 517-528.

Collaborations

Sussex Police

Brighton & Hove Council (Coalition for Youth)

The Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, Kingston University

University of Birmingham

Funding

AHRC: Connected Communities Scoping Project – Youth and Community: Connections and Disconnections.  Awarded Feb 2011. (£26,000).

AHRC: Connected Communities:  Connectors, not Communities, in Preventing and Responding to Violence and Disaffection; Marginalised Youth and Complexities of ‘Community’. Awarded Jan 2014. (£35,000).

ESRC: Neutralising deviance: the culture of finance in the City of London - three-year studentship awarded

Awards, recognition, impact

Professor Peter Squires:  Invited to give keynote address to the Dutch Annual Criminology Conference, Leiden, 2012.  ‘Another Law for the Poor’: Criminalisation, Inequality and Social Exclusion.

Hosted a conference on Criminalisation and Advanced Marginality at the University of Brighton, 2010.

ESRC Seminar Series: Governing Anti-Social Behaviour – Seminar on Youth and ASB hosted at Brighton 2009

A special edition of the Criminal Justice Current Affairs Magazine, Criminal Justice Matters was devoted to our work on ‘Insecure Lives’ : young people, disconnection and ‘precarious lives’. Issue 93, August 2013 edition