The activities of the CRAS research cluster combine critical approaches to the traditional concerns of criminology and criminal justice with research interests in social control, surveillance and security as well as in forms of deviance, protest and resistance. Thus, while we are interested in undertaking work which explores the operation of criminal justice systems, we are as often preoccupied by the recognition that such 'systems' are frequently dysfunctional and that justice may not always be their chief purpose or outcome.
Current areas of research include:
Processes of criminalisation
We are interested in processes of 'criminalisation' as much as crime itself and the ways in which interventions to police, prevent or control illegalities are often labelling, stigmatising, self-defeating, counter-productive and frequently predicated upon wider inequalities, deprivations, discriminations, rights breaches or exclusions. Some of this work culminated in the CRAS symposium on Urban Marginality and Punitiveness during 2010, the papers from which are published as Criminalisation and Advanced Marginality: Critically exploring the work of Loic Wacquant. (Policy Press: 2012).
Security, risk and prevention
In the late 20th century security became both a marketable commodity, a public good, and a political resource, with wider inequalities mapping onto differences in security opportunities or vulnerabilities and patterns of victimisation and risk exposure. These processes were accompanied by a series of fears and insecurities and a hardening of attitudes (an aspect of the so-called 'punitive turn') towards the delinquent and/or deprived and different. Young people have often appeared at the forefront of these processes (both over-controlled and under-protected), encountering several waves of problematic interventions since the early 1990s (including: 'persistent young offenders', the 'new' youth justice, the ASB and Respect Agendas, gang strategies and weaponisation concerns and 'youth disconnection'). These are issues which members of our research group have explored.
On-going research initiatives
Recent work undertaken by the research group, in addition to those issues referred to above, include: research on policing and police activities, including armed response and public order management; community safety policy and responses to domestic and intimate violence; gun crime and gun control, the management of urban disorder, including CCTV and public area surveillance. In our work we are especially keen to develop participatory, ethnographic and action research methodologies.
Doctoral students working in these areas meet regularly with staff and we welcome informal enquiries from those interested in pursuing doctoral studies in any of the above areas. Contact Professor Peter Squires P.A.Squires@brighton.ac.uk
Cluster members
The CRAS cluster is led by Professor Peter Squires and current members include:
- Matt Adams
- Daren Britt
- Roxy Cavalcanti
- Craig Johnstone
- John Lea
- Denise Martin
- Aidan Mcgarry
- Lynda Measor
- Tony Sneller
- Greta Squire
- Peter Squires
- Dawn Stephen
- Paula Wilcox
