Punishment and Democratic Theory

Dzur, Albert W.; Loader, Ian; Sparks, Richard

doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190243098.003.0001

Cited by 17 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…In this respect, recent theoretical work by Dzur, Loader & Sparks (2016) and their calls for a more deliberative democratic politics of punishment may offer some assistance if we are to navigate a course between populism and technocracy as the ‘twin pathologies of our contemporary anti‐political malaise’ (p.3). Taking up the authors’ invitation to ‘critique, restrain, and reconstruct’ penal policy, we reflect upon a number of political strategies that may help us to disrupt, slow and, in some cases, reverse the current penal momentum we see in the prison system.…”

Section: Confronting Penal Momentum: Agency Democratic Politics and T...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Explaining penal momentum: Path dependence, prison population forecasting and the persistence of high incarceration rates in England and Wales

Guiney

Yeomans

2023

Howard J Crime Justice

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This article seeks to explain the persistence of high incarceration rates in England and Wales. Building upon recent theoretical work on path dependence, we identify prison population forecasting as a poorly understood positive feedback mechanism that helps to determine the overall scale, scope and reach of the prison estate by connecting capital expenditure decisions with 'business as usual' planning cycles that assume considerable policy continuity with the past. We illustrate this point with reference to recent controversies over women's imprisonment where the everyday, routinised working practices of the penal system have played an important role in sustaining prison expansionism long after the initial conditions that fuelled the mid-1990s prison boom have faded. Disrupting these self-fulfilling logics will not be easy and we conclude this article with a call for a more deliberative democratic politics that confronts penal momentum and invites greater consideration of the many possible futures of penal policy.

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Section: Confronting Penal Momentum: Agency Democratic Politics and T...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Explaining penal momentum: Path dependence, prison population forecasting and the persistence of high incarceration rates in England and Wales

Guiney

Yeomans

2023

Howard J Crime Justice

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“…Finally, the redirection model points to more participatory means of engaging with the public about criminal justice issues, including 'citizens' juries, panels and assemblies, deliberative polling and forums, experiments in e-consultation and democracy, and participatory resource allocation' (Loader 2011: 357). More recently, Dzur, Loader and Sparks (2016) have argued that democratic theory provides a means of re-orienting penal practice, by reimagining and reconstructing criminal justice institutions through the active participation of the public, while Turner (2016) has forcefully asserted that deliberative practices should be preferred to other means of capturing public opinion in shaping penal policy.…”

Section: What To Do About Public Confidence In Parolementioning

confidence: 99%

Building Public Confidence in Parole Boards: Findings From a Four-Country Study

Fitzgerald

Freiberg

Dodd

et al. 2021

The British Journal of Criminology

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Parole and parole boards play critical roles in criminal justice systems. With parolee numbers and imprisonment rates increasing in many countries, parole decision-making is a crucial contributor to prison population sizes and, more broadly, public confidence in the operation of correctional systems. This article examines the public understanding of and confidence in parole, from the perspectives of parole board members and other parole authority staff. It aims to determine whether and, if so, how, public opinion influences parole decision-making and how parole boards feel they can or should respond to this. It draws on interviews with 80 parole board members and other relevant staff in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Scotland.

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“…As such, the rising-up of a more demotic, punitive sentiment in both political and public debates has given rise to serious concerns about looming legitimacy deficits (Loader and Sparks, 2013; Roberts and Plesničar, 2015). Legitimacy is, within this context, related to punitive sentiments and often associated with a misinformed public that gathers its information about the criminal justice system from vicarious sources and forms its opinion on the basis of often distorted media representations of the criminal justice system (Dzur et al , 2016; Turner, 2018).…”

Section: Level 2: Multiple Audiences Macro and Micro Legitimacymentioning

confidence: 99%

Legitimacy and public opinion: a five-step model

Noyon

Keijser

Crijns

2020

International Journal of Law in Context

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To date, in Western jurisdictions, many criminal justice reforms are devised and implemented with a close eye on public opinion. These are typically intended to regain or foster legitimacy. However, within this context, there is no common understanding of this concept. This essay aims to provide such a conceptualisation of legitimacy, to enable a consistent and systematic evaluation of attempts to accommodate public opinion. To this end, five levels of legitimacy research are discussed that could structure evaluations of public-opinion-targeted reforms: (1) the normative dimension, (2) the ‘audiences’ addressed, (3) the purpose of the reforms, (4) trust and distrust, and (5) dialogic, or longitudinal effects. Furthermore, since research departing from these five levels of analysis is likely to result in observations that are, by nature, incommensurable, it is argued that an overall assessment of legitimacy always requires a judgment, rather than mere measurement.

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Punishment and Democratic Theory

Cited by 17 publications

References 8 publications

Explaining penal momentum: Path dependence, prison population forecasting and the persistence of high incarceration rates in England and Wales

Explaining penal momentum: Path dependence, prison population forecasting and the persistence of high incarceration rates in England and Wales

Building Public Confidence in Parole Boards: Findings From a Four-Country Study

Legitimacy and public opinion: a five-step model

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