Justice Scholars Research Articles

The new politics of environmental degradation: un/expected landscapes of disempowerment and vulnerability

Acknowledging environmental degradation as a profoundly political phenomenon, this article examines how uninvited environmental change transforms people's understandings of and relationships to the natural world. Drawing on qualitative research conducted in a semi-remote Canadian Anishinaabe community and among Euro-American residents of Ohio who oppose local shale energy development, I trace parallels between the disempowerment and vulnerability experienced by people with very different assumptions about the world and their place in it and very different positions within the global political economic system. While environmental justice scholars have revealed compelling correlations between social and environmental inequity, I argue that investigating environmental degradation's sociocultural impacts among relatively privileged groups can encourage more dynamic explorations of conjoined environmental/social/political systems and expose ongoing structural shifts. My comparative analysis seems to suggest that ever-increasing segments of the world's population now contend with environmental challenges that they did not authorize, and do not benefit from. I thus conclude by calling for additional investigations of environmental degradation in unexpected places and the implications of extensive inequity for global sustainability.Key words: Energy, environmental degradation, environmental justice, fossil fuels, hydraulic fracking, landscape, North America, shale gas

Routine activities and product counterfeiting: a research note

Product counterfeiting has only recently emerged as an area of research interest for criminal justice and criminology scholars. As a consequence, criminological research and application of criminological theory to this phenomenon is limited at this time. This article proposes that routine activities theory provides an excellent framework for understanding the product counterfeiting phenomenon. The article reviews the basic tenets and concept of the theory, provides a brief review of the existing criminological literature that addresses product counterfeiting with special attention on the theoretical perspectives that have been applied until now, maps out a general framework for the application of routine activities theory to product counterfeiting, and identifies key indicators used to study product counterfeiting from a routine activities perspective. It concludes with a discussion on how this framework will enhance the understanding of the crime and identifies new avenues for research.

Transforming ‘Summary Justice’ Through Police-led Prosecution and ‘Virtual Courts’

The administration of ‘summary’ justice in the lower criminal courts in England and Wales is undergoing significant transformation. Broadly, this sits within the desire to create a modernized and more streamlined system. But, criminal justice scholars state ‘swift justice’ is not necessarily fair justice, and ‘procedural due process’ might be challenged by objectives of economics and speed. This paper centres on two areas of change—the expanded role of the police in prosecutorial decision making and the introduction of ‘virtual courts’ where accused defendants appear via video link from police stations to the criminal courts. It is argued these two alterations call into question fundamental principles of procedural due process.

Why criminal justice scholars should study twenty-first century corporate security

Corporate security is a practice and a concept that may not be familiar to criminal justice scholars and policymakers. Yet, it points to a form of regulation taking place in organisations all around the globe. Sometimes corporate security is referred to as in-house or industrial security. While corporate security might still conjure up the image of an ex-police officer hired to watch over employees and visitors from a dingy backroom, twenty-first century corporate security is increasingly central to organisations - high-tech, and professionalised. And its effects are farther reaching.

Decarceration and its possible effects on inmates, staff, and communities

Few current criminal justice scholars, practitioners, and politicians expected to witness the phenomenon of decreasing correctional populations. Yet, there is evidence at local, state, and regional levels of significant declines in the growth of incarceration and even decreases in the size of prisoner populations. In this article we delineate the extent of decarceration and examine the context in which it has occurred. We then explore possible positive and negative outcomes resulting from decarceration and conclude with an agenda for advancing a decarceration movement.

The legacy of LEMAS

Purpose– Since 1987, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) has periodically collected data from police agencies in the USA and disseminated these data as the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) series. The purpose of this paper is to outline LEMAS's impact on criminal justice scholarship by describing the nexus between policing scholarship and LEMAS, and by analyzing the LEMAS constructs and variables used by researchers in refereed journal articles.Design/methodology/approach– A systematic review of the literature is undertaken to better comprehend how scholars use LEMAS variables and constructs. In total, 114 peer-reviewed journal articles were analyzed to parcel out variables and constructs derived from LEMAS data.Findings– The paper's analysis reveals that LEMAS is the second-most used BJS data series and the majority of authors use LEMAS to measure elements of organizational structure but not organizational behaviors, outcomes, or outputs.Originality/value– The study is the first to systematically identify all peer-reviewed journal articles that utilize LEMAS data. Police organizational research is unique in the fact that most authors agree on the operationalization of variables and constructs.

Toward More Interesting Research Questions: Problematizing Theory in Social Justice

The majority of research in social justice, indeed in all of social science, is incremental, has received few citations, has garnered little attention in the public, and can be viewed as dull and uninteresting by both academics and lay readers. Although often well versed in a variety of methodological techniques for testing research questions, we rarely receive explicit guidance in how to construct them in a way that is interesting, useful, and pushes theory forward. A novel “problematization” approach for constructing interesting research questions has been proposed by Alvesson and Sandberg (Constructing research questions: doing interesting research. Sage Publications, London, 2013). In this essay, I introduce the problematization method to social justice scholars in a comprehensive review and critique that identifies the benefits and limitations of the approach. Then, to provide a cursory illustration of the method in practice, I problematize the domain of retributive justice, attempting to identify potentially interesting directions for future research inquiry.

Community-engaged scholarship: the experience of ongoing collaboration between criminal justice professionals and scholars at the University of Saskatchewan

In this paper, we discuss the experiences of our academic research centre, which is dedicated to conducting community-engaged scholarship (CES) with criminal justice professionals from government and non-profit sectors. In doing so, we describe the benefits and challenges we have observed in collaborating with criminal justice agencies as it pertains to the relevance of the research conducted, ability to implement recommendations and measure outcomes, implications for data collection methods, access to knowledge and expertise, expectations about the research, communication and organizational change. We also present our partners’ perceptions of working collaboratively with a university centre. Some of the benefits they identified include being able to access external research, improve their programmes, engage in capacity building, and make better decisions; few challenges were mentioned. Further, we describe the key ingredients that have helped us sustain our collaborative relationships: mutually beneficial partnerships, clear expectations regarding expected deliverables, continuous communication and formalization of the partnership. Finally, our paper concludes with a discussion about future opportunities in CES with criminal justice professionals and considerations for other academics interested in following a similar path.

Bridging the Gap between Criminological Theory and Penal Theory within the International Criminal Justice System

The main objective of this article is to put forward a critical analysis of the emergent international criminal justice system, epitomized by the creation of the permanent International Criminal Court (icc). Such an endeavour is warranted on the assertion that international criminal justice scholarship has entered into a ‘reflective’ phase, the hallmark of which lies in the re-evaluation of the institutions of international criminal law in the light of the distinctive traits of international criminality derived from the combination of the criminological theory of state crime and the rising theory of international crime in the domain of international criminal law. In this context, the article summarizes the basic points and the epistemological premises of the criminological theory of state crime, while seeks to delimit the subject matter by alluding to the concept of core international crimes arising from the normative system of the icc. The core aim of such a combined approach is not to downplay the existing differences between the criminological concept of state crime and the penal concept of core international crimes, but to highlight common points in order to draw tentative conclusions and make some preliminary suggestions from a criminal policy perspective.

Toward an Integrative Framework for Environmental Justice Research: A Synthesis and Extension of the Literature

Over three decades, environmental justice scholarship has examined justice movements through diverse perspectives shaped by their research traditions and disciplinary boundaries. This article distills three themes of justice from these research traditions in order to propose a four-dimensional environmental justice model. The proposed model includes four justice-seeking strategies—cultural justice, material justice, processual justice, and political justice—that movement groups adopt to mobilize their claims. I apply this model to the study of an environmental movement in Land Between the Rivers, Kentucky. Research findings from the case study concludes that movement strategies are plural and changeable and that justice is best conceived as a repertoire of justice-seeking strategies that are influenced by political alliances, economic preconditions, and cultural contexts.

Prison Inmates’ Right to Hunger Strike

Hunger strikes have long been used as a means of protest, as a last resort, especially by those in prison. Recently, government officials have responded to hunger strikes with force-feeding, an approach that has generated considerable international attention. The purpose of this article is to analyze the nature and the scope of the right to hunger strike in prisons in the United States under both the First Amendment and the Due Process Clause, and to provide a policy recommendation for prison administrators based on a review of case law. This article stresses the nature of hunger strikes as symbolic speech protected by the First Amendment, an analysis that has yet to be extensively discussed by either criminal justice or law scholars. This article argues that retaliatory force-feeding or punishment of hunger strikers generally violates the First Amendment, regardless of the prison officials’ professed justification. This article further argues that, given the inherently peaceful nature of hunger strikes, force-feeding for the supposed purpose of prison safety may lack a reasonable basis and therefore may well violate the inmates’ right to refuse medical treatment. Hunger strike policy recommendations are also provided.

Teachers’ Beliefs about Educational Justice in an Advancement via Individual Determination (A.V.I.D.) Program

This research project explored the impact of seven teachers’ life experiences on their core beliefs about educationally just teaching philosophy and practices. Results of a qualitative, phenomenological case study yielded six themes, each revealing particular connections between teachers’ life experiences and their beliefs about educational justice. The research was conducted at high-school sites within programs designed to foster educational opportunities for students not academically succeeding within their respective institutions. Results were based on extensive interviews and classroom observations. The work is grounded in educational justice scholarship and has particular significance for teachers who work with disenfranchised student populations

Women and Crime in the Rural-Urban Fringe

This article focuses on human actors and a spatial setting which are rarely the subject of criminological inquiry. Both the actors (drug-involved low-level female offenders) and the setting in which they reside (the rural-urban fringe) have been relegated to some nether world of criminal justice scholarship: they are considered neither significant nor consequential enough to warrant scientific interest, and when they do enter the scholarly picture it is often in a caricaturelike way. Indeed, the women of interest here, drug-involved recidivist property and public order offenders, often have been reduced in the media to drug-addled, crystal-meth scarred beings with minimal voice, little context, and even less meaning, inhabiting a world that is defined simply for what it is not - neither urban, nor rural. The research took place in four upstate New York counties, with data collected by way of intensive, qualitative interviews from four sources: the Sheriffs in each county, other law enforcement personnel (including members of the road patrol and drug task forces for the county), jail staff, and 20 women being held in local county jails who met the selection criteria. In framing the inquiry, emphasis was placed on exploring the effects of the rural-urban fringe setting on the women’s entry into drug / criminal activity and the roles played by community institutions, arrangements, and opportunity structures to facilitate their involvement in these pursuits.

Unfair Instructors and Student Emotional and Behavioral Responses: The Classroom Justice Process

Classroom justice refers to student perceptions of fairness in the instructional context. The purpose of this study was to further validate extant classroom justice theorizing, measures, and findings, and to empirically examine the relationship between students’ emotional and behavioral responses to injustice. Results support the validity of prior classroom justice scholarship and inform the discussion on how justice relates to student behavior. Students identified instructor behaviors related to grades as the most common type of unfair behavior and reported the strongest emotional and behavioral reactions to perceptions of a combination of distributive and procedural injustice and interactional-related injustice. Anger and dissent to friends, family, and classmates (i.e., complaining and talking about the injustice) were the strongest student emotional and behavioral responses, respectively. Anger and disgust were the strongest predictors of dissent and verbal aggression, whereas stress, helplessness, an...

Online Mental Disability Law Education, a Disability Rights Tribunal and the Creation of an Asian Disability Law Database: Their Impact on Research, Training and Teaching of Law, Criminology and Criminal Justice in Asia

Two professors at New York Law School (NYLS) and the director of the Tokyo Advocacy Law Office are engaged in initiatives with the potential to have major influences on the study of law, criminology and criminal justice: the creation of a Disability Rights Tribunal for Asia and the Pacific (DRTAP) and expansion of NYLS’s online mental disability law programme (OMDLP) to include numerous Asian venues. DRTAP seeks to create a sub-regional body (a Commission and eventually a Court) to hear violations of the UN’s Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This will explicitly inspire scholarship about issues such as treatment of forensic patients, relationships between mental disability enforcement and criminal law enforcement, and connections between mental disability and criminal procedure. NYLS’s OMDLP offers thirteen valuable courses to criminologists and criminal justice scholars and will host DRICAP (Disability Rights Information Center for Asia and the Pacific), providing Internet access to important disability rights developments from ten nations in the Asia/Pacific region. This partnership offers unrivalled knowledge in criminal justice and mental disability law. Our article will detail and explain how these programmes train, teach and foster new research, distinctively benefiting Asia’s legal/advocacy/criminology/criminal justice communities.

Educational Justice, Transformative Leadership Practices, and Special Needs Students

This mixed methods study investigated the extent to which transformative leadership (TL) practices of school administrators were considered with particular regard to special needs students in various public schools in Southern California. 26 purposefully selected school administrators rated the extent to which they employed a range of elements deemed prototypic of transformative leadership as derived from foundational texts of social and educational justice scholarship. Results of a quantitative survey questionnaire indicate a strong validation of a specific range of TL attitudes and behaviors, while qualitative interview data yields inclusive practice themes emphasized as important for working with special needs students. The study presents important realizations for male and female, and culturally diverse administrators as well as teachers who work with special needs students. As importantly, the survey generated for this study is an important measurement instrument for future research into transformative leadership values and practices.

Irreconcilable Differences? Examining Divergences in the Orientations of Criminology and Criminal Justice Scholarship, 1951–2008

This investigation addresses the question of whether the establishment of intellectual boundaries between criminology and criminal justice are the result of substantive methodological and theoretical differences. To provide an outline of the contours of criminal justice and criminology, we performed a descriptive content analysis of 1,877 peer reviewed articles published in the field’s top journals over the period of 1951–2008. Three primary results emerged. First, criminology and criminal justice articles are appearing in separate journals. Second, criminology articles were significantly more likely to utilize theory, although criminal justice articles are closing the gap as of recent. Third, criminology and criminal justice articles showed few significant methodological differences until 1981. Since then, relative to criminal justice, criminology articles are more quantitative, more multivariate, more analytical, and more micro-level focused. Implications for the convergence and divergence of theories and methodologies are discussed.

Drawing the Missing Map: What Socio-legal Research Can Offer to International Criminal Trial Practice

AbstractThe nature of international criminal trial practice is integral to the perception of the legitimacy of international criminal justice. However, our understanding of what transpires within the trial chambers of international courts and tribunals (ICTs) comes primarily from the reports of judges, lawyers, and stakeholders within the system. This article argues that, while the vast body of international criminal justice scholarship barely draws on socio-legal research, empirical work can contribute to a more objective understanding of international criminal trial practice. It examines prevailing academic approaches to the study of international trial practice as a backdrop to the assessment of data from one of the most expansive empirical studies of international trial practice, undertaken during the second mandate (1999–2003) of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). The findings illustrate significant variations in how judges in different Trial Chambers chose to exercise discretion, revealing the co-existence of two distinct modalities of practice in ‘proactive’ and ‘reactive’ Trial Chambers. Quantitative and qualitative data allow for an assessment of the efficiency of these modalities, revealing the critical role of the performance of the judge in the trial process. It is argued that these findings highlight the potential for further socio-legal research to motivate ‘light-touch reform’ within the international criminal justice system.

Don't Mention the War: TheCourt ofAppeal, theCriminalCasesReviewCommission and Dealing with the Past inNorthernIreland

Despite the vast transitional justice scholarship relating to prisoner release, amnesties and prosecutions when conflicts end, there is a significant gap in practice and academic literature regarding wrongful convictions. Uniquely amongst post‐conflict societies,NorthernIreland has a body for investigating miscarriages of justice, albeit one designed for ‘ordinary’ appeals. In the absence of a formal truth‐recovery process, criminal appeals are becoming a proxy for addressing the role of the state during ‘TheTroubles,’ as well as remedying individual injustices. This article examines the approach of theNorthernIrelandCourt ofAppeal during the conflict. It charts the developments in its decision‐making following the cease‐fires and the establishment of theCriminalCasesReviewCommission. It concludes that the current system is unsatisfactory as it ignores the effects of the conflict on the appeal process and offers no insights into the role of theCourt during the conflict. Alternative models are suggested.

The legacy of Derrick Bell and Latino/a education: a critical race testimonio

In this article, we trace Bell’s influence in our lives from graduate students to teacher educators and engaged scholars, and note how we have always read Bell alongside and inseparable from Latino/a Studies and Latina/Chicana feminist thought. We highlight the powerful and fruitful tensions of these interconnections in addressing our curricular struggles and innovations, professional identities and scholarly trajectories. We address Bell’s theory of interest convergence to discuss the tensions and possibilities of personal ‘success’ in the academy by interweaving our testimonios with Critical Race and Latino Critical Race (LatCrit) scholarship in Latino/a education. Latina feminist scholars have re-worked the Latin American tradition of testimonio as a way to link individual stories to a collective story of Latina/o racialization in the US, and to epistemological racism in the academy. Our collective story centers the intersections of race with indigeneity, class, citizenship, language, gender and sexuality. We begin from the earliest influence of Bell’s counterstorytelling method for examining Latino/a students’ racializing experiences in higher education and move through other critical race work in Latino education that both directly and indirectly addresses Bell’s scholarship as these intersect with our intellectual journeys. Finally, we offer a story of the complex legacy of Bell’s anti-subordination and social justice scholarship for intellectual alliances, coalition building, and inter-, multi- and trans-disciplinary engaged scholarship.