Criminological knowledge, policy, and penal reform in Scotland since 1990

Overview:

This research will examine the way debates over reform and the role of imprisonment in Scotland link to wider ideological and political conversations over how society should be run; and how these shape the creation, communication, and uptake of academic knowledge. Existing criminological histories of penal change simplify this relationship in top down analyses of broad ideological shifts in the academy and in UK-wide and Scottish penal policy (e.g. policy from 'rehabilitative' to 'punitive'; academic links to policy from strong to severed; academic work as either 'critical' or 'administrative') failing to explore the ideological and political dynamics, movements, and struggles involved in periods of change and conflict.

Context:

I will look in detail at some of these key 'struggles' to shape penal culture and policy in Scotland since 1990, through recollections of key actors on: how research is shaped, how ideological boundaries are formed, the way they choose to communicate knowledge, and what seems possible in political contexts. 1990 marked a transformation in Scotland's penal rhetoric, a culmination of years of tensions around nation building and the politicization of, and riots against, penal regimes. This turning point expanded the 'carceral framework' and shaped the future of the relationship between government and academic research and publications, with strong implications for the creation and uptake of knowledge.

The government and penal reform lobby frequently use aspirational comparisons with other penal cultures in nation building narratives, and incorporating abolitionist knowledge into 'reformist' government funded publications, despite continued high imprisonment. Ideological divides between criminologists pursuing different futures and modes of interacting with government continue to divide the field. The research will explore how knowledge has been entangled with political and cultural struggles, and how actors have responded to this in pursuit of particular political and ideological futures.

Methodology:

Firstly, through the hermeneutic examination of texts, identifying key moments in Scottish penal culture and setting a context for the main empirical project: qualitative 'life-history' style interviews with several key actors in these contests. These would be individuals with insight into these debates through their positions in government, the criminal justice system, universities, and relevant organizations.

This methodology distinguishes the project from existing work on the relationship between ideas and penal culture in Scotland. The micro recovery of the dynamics of penal struggles and change will uncover how criminological ideas are situated within visions of political futures, and offer a more sociological understanding of academic criminology's impact on responses to crime- in and outside policy.

Impact:

This will address the need for engagement with Scottish penal culture and politics beyond 'exceptionalism', increased reflexivity in the field of criminology. Through better understanding the relationship of different kinds of criminological knowledge to wider ideological and political conversations and movements, we better understand the how to enact change, in the interest of 'utopian realism'. This is timely given longstanding debates over the future of criminological knowledge, and the role of penal reform debate and imprisonment as a site to negotiate issues of social justice, the relationship between government and citizens, and Scotland's national identity.