Positive Criminology in Practice

Abstract

The discourse regarding offender rehabilitation has been criticized by various scholars who have claimed that reducing negative causes and managing risk will not automatically prompt positive human development and elements that are associated with desistance. Positive criminology is an innovative concept that challenges the common preoccupation with negative elements, by placing emphasis on human encounters and forces of inclusion that are experienced positively by target individuals and that can promote crime desistance. However, as the concept is relatively new, there are still no guiding principles for the practice of positive criminology that could direct research and the criminal justice system. This article attempts to fill that gap by providing principles that could be practiced by criminal justice personnel and examples of different interventions that reflect positive criminology. The article also provides ideological explanations for adopting the concept of positive criminology in practice.

Social Concern and Delinquency: An Empirical Assessment of a Novel Theory

“…Studying the impact of social concern in crime could be key in bridging positive criminology with mainstream traditions. Social concern theory may set the basis for a truly integrative approach that may help consolidate a more progressive and strength based crime control agenda (Cullen, Wright, and Chamlin 1999;Ronel and Segev 2014).…”

“…In their view, a renewed understanding of security should recognize not only what must be guarded against but also the importance of building trusting and caring relationships within a community (see also . Although such ideas have been proposed, positive criminology has usually been marginalized from mainstream criminology and little attention has been paid to these alternative conceptualizations and the policy implications derived from them (Ronel and Segev 2014).…”

Can Collaboration Provide Integrated Services for Prisoners in Norway?

“…This means that it is equally interesting to counteract criminogenic factors as to take account of processes rooted in theories of desistance and restorative justice. Convicted persons must be seen as individuals with different problems, different wishes and, not least, different 'routes' out of crime (Ronel and Segev 2014). Measures taken in relation to individual convicted persons cannot, therefore, be based largely on standardised solutions but should instead emphasise individual solutions in which endeavours are made to utilise existing resources (Weaver and McNeill 2011).…”

Desistance and restorative justice: it’s now or never

“…Although seemingly a modest shift, the implications of this move were profound. With its unapologetic focus on the 'dark side' of human life, criminology can be a negative, even depressing, field of study, so the study of desistance injected an element of hope and optimism that has inspired a body of research sometimes referred to as 'positive criminology' (Ronel & Segev, 2014). In doing so, desistance research acted as a vivid reminder to the field that, as damaging and harmful as it can be, criminality is typically short-lived, occupying only a fleeting period in the human life course for most individuals.…”