#NEcrime2014

Conference Programme

(All sessions take place in the Penthouse Suites, Collingwood College, Durham University, DH1 3LT.)

9.00 am 9.30 am Registration, foyer Collingwood College.
Tea /Coffee (Penthouse Boardroom)
9.30 am 9.40 am Welcome (Penthouse B)
9.40 am 10.10 am Roger Smith, Durham University: Current Developments and the Future of
Youth Justice (Penthouse B)
10.15 am 11.55 pm Panel 1 (Penthouse B) & Panel 2 (Penthouse A)
11:55 pm 12.45 pm Lunch (Penthouse Boardroom)
12:45 pm 2:05 pm Panel 3 (Penthouse A) & Panel 4 (Penthouse B)
2:10 pm 3:30 pm Panel 5 (Penthouse A) & Panel 6 (Penthouse B)
3:30 pm 4 pm Tea/Coffee (Penthouse Boardroom)
4 pm 4.30 pm Maggie ONeill and Ivan Hill, Durham University: Ghosts of Our Future: walking,
crime and justice in Durham City (Penthouse B)
4.30 pm 5.10 pm Soapbox Session (Penthouse B)
5.10 pm -5.20 pm Conference Close, including Presentation for best Soapbox Sessions (Penthouse B)
5.30 pm Assemble in the foyer for after conference walk: Ghosts of Our Future: walking, crime and
justice in Durham City led by Maggie ONeill and Ivan Hill. Followed by drinks and dinner at a local
establishment in Durham City.


#NEcrime2014
Panel 1: The Role of the Practitioner and Volunteer Relationships
Mike Rowe and Sarah Soppitt Northumbria University: Who You Gonna Call? Motivation,
trust and relationships in desistance from crime
Drawing upon studies of two programmes in the north of England, this paper contributes to
research relating to the effectiveness of Integrated Offender Management (IOM) schemes
and further examines the significance of motivation to offender desistance. The results of
the two studies suggest that the nature and status of offender motivation is highly
contextual. It is argued that motivation needs to be understood as a complex and
inconsistent aspect of desistance, contingent upon other material, social and emotive
factors. Offenders motivation to develop non-criminal identity was related to the
characteristics and ethos of programmes and staff provision of a focused response to the
needs of individual offenders and to their intrinsic characteristics. A key argument is that
motivation was highly related to personal relations with staff the who is in the room
question but that, in practice, what was central was the perceived roles being filled. The
who factor was less important than the perception that staff were working outside the
boundaries of mainstream offender management.

Melissa Henderson Royal Holloway University: Exploring the Role of Mentoring for Female
Offenders Do Relationships Matter?
This research takes a focused look at female offenders undertaking mentoring programmes
as a contemporary form of rehabilitation. Despite a growing interest in this area, there is
limited research that explores the principles and practices of mentoring, particularly for
women. Offender mentoring is a contemporary form of social programme intervention
often conducted with third sector organisations to provide support and assistance to
offenders during incarceration, through-the-gate and post-release. Mentoring programmes
incorporate a desistance-based approach, concentrating on promoting individual strengths
and setting goals.
This research study is particularly interested in whether mentoring is able to facilitate the
construction of a reformed, positive, self-identity. There is also little empirical research that
focuses specifically on the mentoring relationship, this study will therefore look to explore
this aspect in greater detail in order to understand the nature of the relationship that
develops between mentor and service-user (such as mother, sister or role model) and
the impact this can have on female desistance. This study emphasises the significance of
relationships due to the perceived success a positive connection can have for female
offenders in their ability to desist from crime. The relationships developed during mentoring
can also be regarded as one of the most crucial and unique aspects for this form of
rehabilitation. The research interviews will take place in two stages: firstly with female
mentors and secondly with female service-users. This study looks to demonstrate the effect
of a gendered-approach to female rehabilitation and the extent to which mentoring can
facilitate desistance from crime.


#NEcrime2014
Louise Griffiths Nottingham Trent University: Prison Listeners supporting offenders who
self-harm: what can we learn from peer support schemes in custody?
Whilst the perceived benefits of peer support in prison have been documented to a limited
extent, research is still inconclusive as to the role peer support can play within the custodial
environment. The current government identifies peer support in prison as a cost effective
solution to prisoners social and health care needs, which could be utilised within every
prison establishment across the country (NOMS, 2012). To date, reviews of the literature
have not considered in detail the role prison peer support may play for offenders who self-
harm. This paper endeavours to assess the evidence regarding prison peer support within
the academic and policy based literature, with particular attention paid to role of the prison
listener scheme in supporting offenders who self-harm.
This paper suggests that prison peer support could be considered on a continuum based on
the different types of peer involvement. The listener scheme, because of its emphasis on
prisoner confidentiality with listeners trained to act as volunteer peer supporters, is
different from other schemes where supporters are paid staff or are trained to take on a
quasi professional role (for example health trainer champions). This paper will also explore
to what extent the success of peer support schemes and in particular the prison listener
scheme for supporting those who self-harm, hinges upon staffs willingness to promote or
engage with the initiative.

Daryl Edmunds Durham Constabulary / Oxford City Council: The importance of
engagement: lessons from past experience in relation to the Polish community

Panel 2: Restorative Justice
Yasmin Devi-McGleish - Aberystwyth University: Restorativeness: Something you are or
something you do?

Restorative justice in schools presents a set of values and practices that provide an
alternative paradigm for dealing with misbehaviour. The use of restorative justice in
education has been researched for the past decade or so, with largely positive changes
observed when it is used in schools. However, restorative is still only used in a relatively
small number of schools throughout the UK. The paper presented will discuss the use of
restorative justice in schools, and what factors affect the implementation of restorative
justice in schools. Of particular interest will be the concept of restorativeness, and
whether this is something that one is or something that one does. The paper will discuss the
concept of a whole-school restorative approach and whether this is a useful or desirable
concept.


#NEcrime2014
Heather Norris - Aberystwyth University: A Better Measure of Success: Student Engagement
and Restorative Approaches

Restorative Approaches is quickly becoming a panacea for the pipeline between schools and
the Youth Justice System. The Youth Justice Service is keen to curb this pipeline by
implementing new programmes in the education sector. The Youth Justice Services
evaluations of the success of such programmes usually look towards the traditional
measurements of reoffending, absences, truancies and satisfaction levels. However, none of
these traditional measurements actually determine the success of such an approach based
on the fundamental purpose of a restorative process, albeit they may be a positive by
product. It is argued that Student Engagement is much more aligned with the central tenets
of restoration than the typical aspects used to gauge the success of such a process.
Furthermore, it is necessary to improve engagement through a restorative approach before
the behavioural outcomes can be achieved.

Adeniyi Olayode Durham University: Pre-Colonial Judicial Practices in Eastern Nigeria;
Restorative or Not?
Recently in Nigeria, various calls have been made from stakeholders and international
organisations for radical change in the criminal justice system. This call has been made,
mainly for two reasons. Firstly, the current sanctions in place, including the stipulation of
the death penalty, have failed to act as successful deterrents. Secondly, the system fails to
address the damages suffered by victims and the community at large. Therefore, there is a
need to explore for an alternative judicial process that not only ensures that appropriate
sanctions are meted out for various offences but also, encourages participation by victims
and the community.
One possible avenue being considered as a basis for reform is Restorative Justice,
particularly because of its perceived similarity to pre-colonial judicial practices in Nigeria.
Before the arrival of the British colonialists in the 19th century, the main objective of the
pre-colonial justice systems in various regions was to restore social safety with little or no
recourse to use of extreme punishment like imprisonment and the death penalty. These
procedures focused on achieving reconciliation between all parties concerned and restoring
communal harmony.
This paper will examine the pre-colonial judicial practices in Igbo communities, with
particular focus on the procedure adopted, the roles of the victims, offenders and
communities and the types of sanctions agreed. Comparisons will also be made between
this practice and the current judicial process.

Ali Gohar Just Peace Initiatives: The Pakistani Indigenous system of peace building: Jirga
(video)



#NEcrime2014
Panel 3: Ethics and Understandings of Crime
Stefano Bonino - University of Durham: The Necessity and Ethics of Undercover Policing in
Preventing Political Violence in Britain 1968-2008
This paper will outline the history and discuss issues around the necessity and ethics of the
Special Demonstration Squad (SDS), a covert unit within the Metropolitan Police Special
Branch that gathered pre-emptive intelligence on a range of political, activist and protest
groups between 1968 and 2008. In 2011, the Guardian exposed a number of former SDS
officers along with some of the units controversial practices. This led to the publication of
the text Undercover: The True Story of Britains Secret Police which in turn stimulated public
and political interest in the necessity, legality and ethics of the unit. After outlining the
history of the SDS, this paper will argue that its necessity needs to be assessed through a
head-over-heart approach that considers whether undercover activities aimed at gathering
pre-emptive intelligence were: a) proportional to the threat posed by the groups infiltrated,
b) the best course of action to deal with such a threat; and c) a lesser evil compared to the
greater evil posed by the risk of violence, subversion and disorder. The paper will also
question whether ethical conduct and the respect for civil liberties can ever be enshrined in
pre-emptive intelligence gathering activities that are based on deception and secrecy, that
are performed by quasi extra-legem police units and that are subject to the priorities of
ensuring public safety.

Donna Peacock - University of Sunderland: Crossing the Line: Hacking and Ethical Hacking
Despite the diversity, freedom, and community offered by the computer underground a
number of computer hackers choose to be employed or subcontracted by security
organisations.
This paper is based upon interviews with individuals who are employed to use their hacking
skills legitimately, as part of their employment, and will explore the extent to which these
individuals engage in criminality and the potential risks that this poses for the industry.
It is apparent that traditional formulations of black hat and white hat hacking are no
longer useful, and that in order to understand why people cross the line between
legitimate and illegal activity it is necessary that we attempt to understand the factors that
influence and that bound the reasoning processes of Ethical Hackers. In this way it is
possible to suggest some solutions that may minimise the harms that are associated with
criminality within the computer security industry.


#NEcrime2014
Jo Large Teesside University: Constructing Seriousness of Crime and Negotiating Harm in
Leisure and Consumption: The Case of Buying Fake Fashion
Through using the specific example of fashion counterfeiting, a topic which transcends
traditional notions of crime, criminality and the criminal other, this paper examines
peoples interpretations and constructions of crime and furthermore, how this relates to
notions of harm. Seeking to challenge the surface level understanding, which is perpetuated
by a seemingly continuing demand for counterfeit goods, and consumer survey research,
that counterfeiting is viewed, as a victimless crime and thus not harmful, this paper argues
that the public actually have complex interpretations of crime, and importantly, harm, and
this is closely tied into how far these are constructed as serious. These constructions and
interpretations of crime, seriousness and harm and how these are negotiated, are key to
understanding the motivations of people in their decisions to consume (or not) counterfeit
fashion. Through examining the micro dynamics of consumer motivations and behaviour, it
is possible to see how whilst as consumers, we do recognise harm, the nature of living in a
consumer society where we are driven by the desire to gain pleasure through leisure and
consumption, we have to negotiate harm through a series of justifications and displacement
of our ideals and morals.

Panel 4: The Court Process
Jac Armstrong Chester University: Restorative Justice and the Apparitional Court: a
qualitative examination of victim experiences
Restorative justice has (re)emerged as a contemporary disposal within the criminal justice
system of England and Wales. The use of restorative practices have increased in popularity
and implementation, receiving (albeit limited) statutory support within the Criminal Justice
Act 2003. Restorative justice practices represent a departure from the western, formal
court based justice process, towards a process of justice located firmly outside the
traditional physical and symbolic place occupied by the courtroom.
This paper examines the extent to which the spectre of the traditional courtroom persists
within victims experiences of restorative justice practices in England. It draws upon original
empirical research undertaken with victim participants of restorative practices in England.
Through reference to qualitative interviews, undertaken with victims who had participated
in a restorative practice, the ever-present image of the courtroom within the restorative
encounter is explored. The continued desire of victims for a court-like process relates to the
physical demarcation of space (and segregation of the offender) together with the role of a
judge in sentencing. These concepts all appear to contradict the central elements of
restorative justice philosophy.
Through close examination and subsequent interpretation of this interview data, the
apparent reluctance or inability of victims to relinquish their reliance upon the traditional
courtroom concepts during their participation in restorative practices is identified. The
relevance and impact of such comments are explored and potential explanations for such
findings are posed.

#NEcrime2014


Christopher Rose New Park Court Chambers: Vulnerable Victims and Defendants

Sarah Lucy Cooper Birmingham City University: Judicial Responses to Challenges to
Firearms Identification Evidence in the United States: A Need for New Perspectives on
Finality
Firearms identification evidence has long been admitted into American courtrooms. The
discipline is premised on the notion that a weapon leaves unique tool-marks on the
ammunition it fires, and those marks are reproduced each time the weapon is discharged.
However, in 2009, significant concerns were raised about the disciplines ability to engage in
individualization. These concerns coincided with some courts curtailing expert testimony
connecting weapons to suspect ammunition. Defendants continue, however, to challenge
the use of firearms identification evidence unsuccessfully. The obvious theoretical reason
for this judicial pattern is finality. Finality refers to a collection of interests allegedly
furthered by restrictions on post-conviction review. These interests include conserving state
resources, furthering efficiency and the deterrent and educational functions of the criminal
law, incentivizing defense counsel, and preventing a flood of non-controversial claims.
These latter two interests are prominent in cases where courts reject challenges to firearms
identification evidence. Courts often conclude (1) the admission of firearms identification
evidence was harmless i.e., non-controversial in light of other evidence against the
defendant; and (2) defense counsel should have addressed weak forensic evidence via the
adversarial system.
This rationale is problematic because it overlooks (1) the high impact scientific evidence has
on jurors who lack expertise to evaluate such evidence accurately; and (2) that defense
counsel is poorly equipped to challenge such evidence. Consequently, the courts should
take new perspectives on these finality interests and engage in a more meaningful
consideration of the issues that arise when law consumes science.


#NEcrime2014
Panel 5: Victims and Vulnerability
Holly Taylor Worcester University: Evaluating Criminal Justice Interventions in the field of
Domestic Violence A Realist Approach
This paper presents the findings of a PhD thesis which evaluated the combination of two
criminal justice interventions in the field of the domestic violence Independent Domestic
Violence Advisers (IDVAs) and Specialist Domestic Violence Courts (SDVCs). Both initiatives
were instituted in the wake of much criticism of the treatment of domestic violence in the
Criminal Justice System (CJS). Despite their initial criminal justice focus however, IDVA
services have become synonymous with a further policy development in this area - Multi-
Agency Risk Assessment Conferences (MARACs). The result being that many IDVA services
work exclusively with high risk victims, who may not necessarily be involved in criminal
proceedings. As a result, there has been no rigorous evaluation of the combined efficacy of
IDVAs and SDVCs in particular, regarding their impact on the number of offenders brought
to justice.
This paper examines how an IDVA service based within a SDVC can increase the successful
prosecution of domestic violence offences through increased victim participation, better
court outcomes and a wide and varied use of sentencing options. The paper highlights
what works and why in prosecuting domestic violence offences, and in so doing identifies a
number of outcomes to suggest that certain practices in the police and CPS do not always
support these initiatives in achieving their aims, in particular, through ineffective
investigations, inappropriate safeguarding responses and poor prosecution practices.

Supt Steve Wade Northumbria Police & Kelly Henderson Durham University / Domestic
Abuse lead Gentoo Housing & co-founder of Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance (DAHA):
Innovations in Dealing with Domestic Violence Perpetrators

Faris Al-Anaibi - Durham University: Victims of Violence and their Right to Justice: A Case
Study of Iraq
The prevalence of indiscriminate violence against the right to life at the present time shows
that we are living in a high-risk society, where a huge number of victims lack a sense of
protection and justice in their states criminal justice system. As recent media coverage has
made clear, this is particularly true in Iraq. This paper considers the extent to which both
general ethical principles as well as international human rights instruments are able to play
a role in addressing this lack protection and justice felt by victims. Victims have a legitimate
expectation that their sense of protection and justice cannot be restored unless the states
moral and legal duty is established in practice.

This paper seeks to examine the nature of such expectation. It will begin by exploring the
right of victims to justice and the procedural obligations of the state under moral/ethical
principles. It will then proceed to explore the specific nature of international and regional
human rights law and the jurisprudence of various human rights courts. The paper will also
seek to establish that the state is morally and legally bound by its citizens expectations that
their sense of protection and justice must be restored. In addition, it will be contended that
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even if international and regional standards of human rights are merely notionally
acknowledged by the state, that state is, nevertheless, morally bound to observe them in
practice if its legal system is to have any legitimacy in the sphere of human rights.


Panel 6: Policing, Prisons and Offenders
Jamie Harding Northumbria University: The Future Investigation of Complaints Against the
Police
The creation of a just system for investigating complaints against the police, which has the
confidence of the public, is a task which has proved extremely difficult in the UK and
elsewhere. Despite a historical trend towards greater independence in the investigation of
complaints, there remains widespread scepticism among the public, politicians and
academics that the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) operates sufficiently
independently from the police forces that it investigates. Any number of reasons may
underlie this lack of confidence, including some intrinsic difficulties such as equipping non-
police staff with the skills to conduct investigations and assessing how much physical force
should be considered excessive. However, failings that have arisen in the high profile cases
of Ian Tomlinson and Mark Duggan, together with concerns over the resources needed to
conduct the investigation into the Hillsborough disaster, have raised questions over the
future of the IPCC. In response to these questions, the present government is in the process
of providing more power and resources to the IPCC, but the review of policing
commissioned by the Labour Party proposed a more radical solution the replacement of
the IPCC and Her Majestys Inspectorate of Constabulary with a new body that essentially
combines their roles. This paper will consider how far the measures proposed by either of
the main parties will address the substantial difficulties associated with creating a system
which provides just outcomes to complaints and inspires public confidence.


Zarek Khan - University of Cambridge: Incentives and Earned Privileges: Working in Prison
and the Impact on Prisoner Status
This paper centres on the Incentives and Earned Privileges (IEP) scheme with a specific focus
on prison work and how this impacts the status of those incarcerated. Examination of
working schemes within diverse prison settings provides a detailed analysis of the
contemporary prison experience as well as the ways in which status is differentially
manifested within the work ethic of different institutions. Exploration of the meaning and
utilities of work to those who have experienced prison offers potential for enriched
understanding of the mechanisms prisoners use to sustain well-being and self-improvement
within the prison environment. The application of these ideas to the role of work in enabling
psychological survival within a total institution offers potential for developing understanding
of the effects of imprisonment. Further exploration of these issues sheds light on the
transferable skills that support the resettlement pathways of education and employment in
preparation for life beyond prison and desistance. This paper concludes that the social and
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cultural effects of prison work through the IEP scheme paves the way for a new survival
paradigm which can ameliorate the negative health effects of a sedentary lifestyle in
contemporary prison settings.

Andrew Gray PORSCH: Prison and Offender Research in Social Care and Health Network

Natalie Maidment CLINKS: Supporting voluntary organisations that work with offenders
and their families


#NEcrime2014
Morning and Afternoon Speakers: The Past and Future
Roger Smith Durham University: Current Developments and the Future of Youth Justice
This paper provides a brief overview of current developments in youth justice, focusing on
recent trends in practice and outcomes. In doing so, it identifies a number of emerging
themes which are of particular interest and suggest potential changes in direction in future.
Notably, the paper will summarise the significant reversal in the treatment of young people
identified as offenders in recent years, and the substitution of criminalising practices with
forms of intervention characterised by informality and the avoidance of criminal sanctions
to a much greater extent than previously. In parallel with this, the paper will also reflect on
the re-emergence of re-integrative forms of practice, largely organised around notions of
minimum intervention, diversion, restorative practice and normalisation. This will lead to
consideration of whether or not these changes represent the emergence of a new paradigm
in youth justice; or whether, more prosaically, they constitute a simple pragmatic
adaptation to a context of reduced resources and neo-liberal realignment, in which new
developments such as payment by results may play an increasing role.

Maggie ONeill and Ivan Hill Durham University: Ghosts of Our Future: walking, crime and
justice in Durham City
Building upon earlier work that combines walking as a method alongside participatory,
biographical and visual research (ONeill) to generate understanding and to get in touch
with storied lives in sensory and corporeal ways, we argue that walking can also be
used as a method for conducting a critical recovery of histories of crime, justice and
punishment. This necessarily involves connecting with places, spaces, archives,
photographs, stories by and from local people and the potential of walking as method for
the criminologist concerned with history and the future, indeed with Ghosts of the Future.
In our presentation we share a crime walk developed as part of a collaboration with
Durham County Council and Durham prison, specifically the writer and residence and the
prison library, and suggest that through walking we are able to get in touch with past,
present and future of crime, justice and punishment in ways that foster understanding and
critical reflection across time and through space.



#NEcrime2014
SOAPBOX SESSIONS
Ian Marder Leeds University: The need for an International Conflict Resolution and
Peacebuilding Agency

Cameron Gordon - Service Design for The Public Realm: Restorative Justice as it is
currently administered is not Restorative
Restorative means putting things back to how they were and were we to give a criminal
the opportunity to return things to how they were before they intervened, we could ensure
it is both punitive and rehabilitating at the same time, with the damage cleared up at no
cost to the public purse. win-win-win

Joanne Clough Northumbria University: Dont bring a knife to a gun fight: Imprisonment
for possessing a bladed article in a public place is a disproportionate and ineffective
sentencing strategy
Over the past 60 years, Parliament has become ever more concerned with the use of knives
in criminal offences and, as a result, has introduced a range of increasingly authoritative
legislative measures to regulate the possession of blades and to punish those who violate
the provisions. When first enacted, the maximum penalty for possession of a bladed article
was merely a fine. Following a number of staged increases, the offence is now punishable
with up to four years imprisonment. Sentencing guidelines provide that the starting point
for an offender carrying a knife in a public place, in circumstances where it is not used to
threaten or cause fear and where it was not likely to be so used, is 12 weeks imprisonment.
This distinctly utilitarian threat of imprisonment projects a clear message that carrying
knives is abhorrent but given the reasons why offenders carry such items, it is questionable
whether it is in fact a disincentive. This soapbox speech postulates that a prison sentence is
a disproportionate response to the carrying of a knife in a public place and will never be an
effective deterrent.


Paul Dargue Northumbria University: Assessing the impartiality of the Court of Appeal
does the Court of Appeal continue the story of old white men in criminal law?

Kelly Henderson Durham University and Gentoo Housing Group: Housing providers are
best placed to tackle Domestic Violence