In regard to the United Nations' (UN) framework for promoting gender equality in policing, including women in national police forces remains a global challenge. Even countries possessing a stable ...history of women's involvement reveal that women are significantly under-represented in policing when compared to other professions-even though prior research has strongly suggested that women are important actors in establishing post-conflict democratic order. This article outlines the political, social and institutional challenges that are faced to achieve significant gender representation in national police forces. It also recommends countering these challenges by using a 'women-oriented' approach. Such an approach does not merely fulfil the aspirational UN goals of achieving greater gender balance, it also yields many practical advantages for improving policing, including 1) leveraging the unique skills that women offer in policing, 2) making better use of force decisions, 3) combatting police corruption and 4) increasing the gender responsiveness of police. Finally, several operational strategies for promoting more women into policing are suggested.
Through the lens of a new interpretation of criminal justice history Sectarian Order in Bahrain focuses on a cache of colonial criminal cases dated 1924 to 1940. It outlines major shifts in notions ...of the social order, highlighting a sectarianism modus operandi within the colonial criminal justice system.
Carrying ahead the project of cultural criminology, Phillips and Strobl dare to take seriously that which amuses and entertains us - and to find in it the most significant of themes. Audiences, ...images, ideologies of justice and injustice - all populate the pages of Comic Book Crime. The result is an analysis as colorful as a good comic, and as sharp as the point on a superhero's sword. - Jeff Ferrell, author of Empire of Scrounge Superman, Batman, Daredevil, and Wonder Woman are iconic cultural figures that embody values of order, fairness, justice, and retribution. Comic Book Crime digs deep into these and other celebrated characters, providing a comprehensive understanding of crime and justice in contemporary American comic books. This is a world where justice is delivered, where heroes save ordinary citizens from certain doom, where evil is easily identified and thwarted by powers far greater than mere mortals could possess. Nickie Phillips and Staci Strobl explore these representations and show that comic books, as a historically important American cultural medium, participate in both reflecting and shaping an American ideological identity that is often focused on ideas of the apocalypse, utopia, retribution, and nationalism. Through an analysis of approximately 200 comic books sold from 2002 to 2010, as well as several years of immersion in comic book fan culture, Phillips and Strobl reveal the kinds of themes and plots popular comics feature in a post-9/11 context. They discuss heroes' calculations of deathworthiness, or who should be killed in meting out justice, and how these judgments have as much to do with the hero's character as they do with the actions of the villains. This fascinating volume also analyzes how class, race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation are used to construct difference for both the heroes and the villains in ways that are both conservative and progressive. Engaging, sharp, and insightful, Comic Book Crime is a fresh take on the very meaning of truth, justice, and the American way.Nickie D. Phillipsis Associate Professor in the Sociology and Criminal Justice Department at St. Francis College in Brooklyn, NY.Staci Stroblis Associate Professor in the Department of Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.In theAlternative Criminologyseries
Abstract
Isle de Jean Charles is disappearing into the sea. Taking a critical eye to explanations of coastal land loss that focus on climate change as the primary cause, this article illustrates the ...nuanced drivers of the harm and the ways in which major stakeholders describe it. This case is analysed within the context of coastal land loss in Southern Louisiana. The analysis pays attention to state, corporate and green-cultural crime elements, based on expert interviews, public documents, archival data and field visits. The findings suggest that the contribution of oil and gas extraction to the harm has been under-interrogated. Economic interests may have discouraged social and political actors from discussing or demanding state and corporate responsibility for coastal land loss.
In regard to the United Nations' (UN) framework for promoting gender equality in policing, including women in national police forces remains a global challenge. Even countries possessing a stable ...history of women's involvement reveal that women are significantly under-represented in policing when compared to other professions-even though prior research has strongly suggested that women are important actors in establishing post-conflict democratic order. This article outlines the political, social and institutional challenges that are faced to achieve significant gender representation in national police forces. It also recommends countering these challenges by using a 'women-oriented' approach. Such an approach does not merely fulfil the aspirational UN goals of achieving greater gender balance, it also yields many practical advantages for improving policing, including 1) leveraging the unique skills that women offer in policing, 2) making better use of force decisions, 3) combatting police corruption and 4) increasing the gender responsiveness of police. Finally, several operational strategies for promoting more women into policing are suggested.
This article explores state-sponsored sectarian violence in 1920s Bahrain and the key characteristics that violence shares with contemporary, sociological definitions of genocide, the most serious of ...crimes against humanity. Using colonial archives as well as other relevant documentary evidence-but also acknowledging limitations in these sources-the article applies what is known about the sectarian violence to Jacques Semelin's concept of the subjugatory massacre. The article suggests that scholarship on Bahrain should fully confront the question of past crimes against humanity in order to understand contemporary political struggles for human rights and participatory democracy, as well as generational trauma within Shi'a communities.
After experiencing riots involving police and a Roma village, a community in north-eastern Slovenia hosted the million-dollar production of a major motion picture, Shanghai Gypsy (2012), which ...focuses on Roma and criminal justice themes. Several current Slovenian police officers played the role of police while local Roma were 'extras' as Roma villagers. This research explored the meaning of cooperating on production of the film for participants from two groups formerly in conflict. The current study consisted of semi-structured interviews conducted approximately 18 months after the film was produced with a sample of participants. We hypothesized that the film participants were able to interact with each other in ways that opened up new modes of communication, improved interpersonal relationships, and aided mutual understanding. Participants indicated that the film was regarded as a powerful means of generating Roma cultural awareness. Both police and Roma tended to downplay the intensity of the original conflict, yet often offered stories and anecdotes that seemed to indicate that relations between the groups had indeed improved as a result of their participation in the film.
This article examines the historical and political legacy of police-Shi'a relations in the Eastern Province of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Shi'a form a significant minority population in the ...Kingdom. The group is oppressed socially, politically and economically by the Sunni, Wahhabi ruling class of the Kingdom, and this has shaped Saudi Arabian police strategies and tactics. Shi'a are nearly unrepresented among the leadership, rank and file of the national police, which have investigated many serious crimes allegedly attributed to members of this population, including numerous terrorist attacks since the 1990s. Using a variety of sources, as well as media accounts, this article is a case study, arguing from a critical perspective that understanding Sunni-Shi'a sectarian politics is fundamental to ascertaining the nature of the relationship between the public and the police in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. This article emphasises that cultural notions of order and order maintenance, which involve Shi'a social exclusion, significantly factor into how the Saudi police are deployed. Further, understanding policing in persistent authoritarian contexts such as Saudi Arabia is important for grasping the full landscape of policing as it operates worldwide.
Study of production of Slovenian motion picture Sanghai Gypsy - tensions between police and local Roma - how production resonated among police and members of Roma community - interviews with sample ...of participants in movie - finding that participation in production allowed participants to communicate in different way, improved interpersonal relationships and aided mutual relationships - film seen as way of generating Roma cultural awareness.
The past few decades have witnessed unprecedented global economic catastrophes that exacerbated pre-existing socioeconomic inequalities. Although many scholars have attributed the resulting social ...harms to the failures of neoliberal capitalism—and recognize it as criminogenic—the logics upholding the economic order continue to hold sway among the public. Given that these logics are commonly reinforced through media and popular culture narratives, in this paper we explore how economic inequalities are portrayed in American comic books. We employ a thematic analysis of comic book depictions of mass economic destruction and economic inequality from the financial crisis of 2008 through the Occupy Wall Street movement to the more recent characterization of a post-capitalist existence under the throes of a global plutocracy. In doing so we recognize the potential for re-imagining alternatives to neoliberal capitalism, taking a critical criminological lens to the comic books. We then place
The Black Monday Murders
, a culmination of portrayals of economic inequality and related violence, in the context of more mainstream comic book depictions and discuss how this particular work exemplifies a rising theme in comics—a purported trade-off between global capitalism and human life, a discussion point that explicitly entered American public discourse during the coronavirus pandemic.
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