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ECAN Bulletin, Issue 43, January 2020
Early Career Academics Network Bulletin
January 2020 – Issue 43
ECAN Bulletin, Issue 43, January 2020
Early Career Academics Network Bulletin
Contents
Page
Introduction
Dr Keir Irwin-Rogers and Professor Jo Phoenix 1
Howard League International Conference 2020: Call for papers 6
Features
Challenging state-corporate harm: making an inch of difference?
Steve Tombs, The Open University 8
Transforming responses to hate crime
Stevie-Jade Hardy, the University of Leicester 17
Supporting strategies for survival in immigration systems
Victoria Canning, the University of Bristol 22
Exploring sensory experience and collapsing distance in prisons
research
Kate Herrity, the University of Leicester 26
Increasing fairness in sentencing using quantitative research
Jose Pina-Sanchez, the University of Leeds 33
Making a difference in the area of sexual violence and the law:
Theoretical underpinnings
Anna Carline, the University of Liverpool 44
Become a Howard League Fellow 51
Guidelines for submission 52
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ECAN Bulletin, Issue 43, January 2020
Introduction
Alternatively, they may have been
Using research to make a difference convinced by Becker’s (1967)
injunction to ‘humanise the deviant’
Many people conducting when he rhetorically asked, ‘whose
criminological research do so in large
part because of the perceived
shortcomings and
limitations associated
with the policies and
practices in their area of
interest. The vast
majority of the
colleagues alongside
whom we work in the
fields of crime, harm and
criminal justice believe
passionately that certain
things ought to change, and that they side are we on’? Perhaps, however,
have a legitimate role to play in they might have been swayed by
securing such change. To what Gouldner’s later riposte to Becker —
extent, however, should researchers that unless we are laying bare the
be concerned with influencing policy structures of power that determine
and practice? And, if this is their aim, who and under what circumstances
how best might they go about the powerful are able to define acts
ensuring their own research has and people as deviant, then
impact? How indeed should ‘impact’ humanising them is doing little more
be understood in the context of than zookeeping (Gouldner 1968).
researching the various and variable
meanings of ‘crime’, ‘justice’ and The point here is that for this
‘harm’? In short, what does it mean generation of criminologists, making
for one’s research to have ‘impact’ or a difference was as much about
make a difference when there is also politicising the academy as it was
the expectation for us, as academics, about understanding the social world.
to produce new knowledge? For today’s academics, the external
audit of universities’ research efficacy
As the contributions to this ECAN (the Research Excellence
bulletin demonstrate, ‘making a Framework (REF)) has created an
difference’ or ‘impact’ can be alternative set of priorities – that is,
interpreted in many different ways. the imperative to measure and
Earlier generations of social demonstrate the tangible impact that
scientists may have thought about one’s own criminological research
the link between politics and has had on the social world. It is
knowledge production in relation to perhaps unsurprising that academics
Weber’s (1919) observation that working today have taken on board
social science ought to strive for how the REF defines research
value freedom. Or, they may have impact given that it preoccupies the
been more persuaded by Gouldner’s agendas of academic institutions
argument that value freedom is not through its promise of lucrative
possible (Gouldner 1961). rewards. The spoils of league table
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ECAN Bulletin, Issue 43, January 2020
performance and money go to those certainly are easier to measure and
institutions whose members of staff evidence in an impact case study.
have supposedly secured the
greatest impact through their The hyper-competitive, resource-
research. consuming, toxic climate fostered by
the REF provides good grounds for
There are many problems with the collective resistance to the entire
REF-defined impact agenda. For process. In relation to research
instance, the complex impact in particular, we would like to
methodological questions of whether see a move away from top-down,
it is possible to know the actual prescriptive definitions of ‘research
impact of a programme of research impact’, with, minimally, its
replacement by the pursuit of ‘making
— perhaps research is widely read
a difference’ in the specific context in
and acted on by government
which research is produced. Perhaps
ministers in Bogotá, Columbia, yet more ambitiously, we aim for its
the authors are completely unaware entire displacement by a new
that it has had such an influence — generation of academics returning to
or indeed the ethical issues of and working through the politics of
trimming and shaping one’s research what ‘making a difference’ has the
project with the view to creating potential to mean. To the extent that
impact (see Carlen and Phoenix the ‘difference’ in ‘making a
2018) which may distort how social difference’ is defined on a case-by-
and political change is case basis and by people’s personal
conceptualised and pursued. passions, concerns and priorities -
we would argue that using research
One of the authors in this bulletin, for in this way constitutes a worthy and
example, has found themselves admirable use of academics’ time
fighting the temptation to narrow their and energies.
ambitions for large-scale policy
change (which may or may not In the contributions that follow,
materialise) in favour of relatively readers will find six excellent
minor technical tweaks to policy and examples of academics who have
practice, which would constitute used, and continue to use, their
quick and easy wins in support of a research to make a difference in
REF impact case study. To be clear, different ways: some in ways that are
this is not the result of any individual apt to be utilised by their institutions
exerting pressure on another in the pursuit of bettering supposed
individual, but of a system that institutional performance; others in
incentivises and/or has the potential ways that conceptualise ‘making a
to penalise the pursuit of certain difference’ through more abstract
kinds of impact. The direction of lenses, such as shaping other
pressure exerted by the REF is clear: people’s (including academics’) ways
forsake the relatively risky pursuit of of thinking about established
difficult-to-achieve radical reform criminological problems.
agendas in favour of more modest
and incremental changes within the Steve Tombs provides a moving
existing system – changes that are account of a career in teaching and
more likely to materialise and research that has spanned over three
decades. He takes readers on a
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ECAN Bulletin, Issue 43, January 2020
chronological journey through his the intersectional impacts of asylum
research and activism, describing systems on people seeking asylum.
various and overwhelmingly joint Victoria highlights the importance of
endeavours. These have involved not allowing external pressures to
making a difference by, for example, dictate the type of outputs we
shaping government regulatory policy produce. To this end, she cites the
and influencing public opinion examples of the book, Strategies for
through a range of public-facing Survival, Recipes for Resistance, and
activities. Steve highlights that all the Right to Remain Asylum
research is inherently political, Navigation Board – a tool that helps
whether or not we choose to to bring those seeking asylum
recognise this explicitly, and argues together and challenge false
against the tendency for people to information that can hamper asylum
distinguish between activists and applications. Victoria discusses the
academics. In this respect, his potential for the REF to put pressure
contribution represents a politicised on academics to produce work that
version of impact in which academics satisfies its own internal criteria to the
have a role to play in addressing neglect of other outputs that are most
issues around power, social needed by those with whom we
inequalities and (in)justice. collaborate.
Stevie-Jade Hardy describes a Kate Herrity describes a very
series of research projects, all of different way of pursuing prison
which were designed with the research – one which draws on the
purpose of bringing to light and auditory experience, the
recognising otherwise unseen forms ‘soundscape’ of a prison. Starting
of victimisation that, in themselves, from personal experience about what
are political – or at the very least it felt like to walk into a prison (being
occur in relation to other people’s an assault on the senses), Kate
prejudices. Of equal concern in these writes about the possibility of making
projects was the ideal of transforming a difference by shifting the object of
official responses to hate crime. analysis from text to sound. For Kate,
Stevie places the pursuit of a more noise (or the soundscape) becomes
‘traditional’ definition of impact into a part and parcel of both the harms of
less traditional context. For her, co- imprisonment as well as a means by
design and co-production of research which we, as academics, can
with policy makers (i.e. creating the displace established meanings and
‘incremental changes’ referred to understandings of the prison,
above) becomes increasingly proffering new ways of thinking that
important in today’s society if only to reach beyond the academy to ‘the
counterbalance wider ‘hate- great unwashed’ of the everyday and
generating’ social forces. Stevie’s ordinary people. Along the way, Kate
short piece demonstrates that even makes a set of observations about
the more REF-inclined, narrow the purpose of research and offers
version of ‘impact’ nevertheless an awkward reading of impact
contains within it the seeds of potent through which she represents an
and meaningful social change. older tradition in which ‘making a
difference’ is framed in relation to
Victoria Canning reflects on her how people think about, see, or more
experience conducting research on
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ECAN Bulletin, Issue 43, January 2020
pertinently, hear, a prison and its The articles in this issue provide
effects. readers with an insight into the
various ways in which six academics
Jose Pina-Sanchez has for many think about what it means to make a
years acted in a critical yet difference, and how they have been
collaborative capacity alongside the using their research to do just that.
Sentencing Council for England and Whether their focus is state-
Wales. His research in the field of corporate harm, hate crime, unjust
sentencing has been nothing short of immigration systems, prisons,
trail-blazing, both responding to and sentencing, or the links between
informing the Council’s priorities. criminal justice and the regulation of
Jose has collaborated with numerous gender identity, the means by which
academics along the way, producing these academics have sought to
innovative and insightful research achieve change is striking. For some,
across various areas of sentencing change is hardwired into their
policy and practice. His article research design. For others, it is part
provides readers with an archetypal of the magic that happens when
example of how researchers might academics collaborate with a range
seek to engage with professional of non-academic partners in thinking
bodies inside the criminal justice through what could be done to
system, helping them achieve their address any specific social problem.
goals by conducting rigorous For others still, making a difference is
research that simultaneously about fundamentally shifting the way
supports and holds such bodies to we (academics and non-academics)
account. see and understand things.
Anna Carline gives readers an For us as editors, one of the
insight into how she, as an academic, unexpected outcomes of asking
connects her substantive interests (in these six academics to write about
sexual violence, gender and the law) their research and pursuit of impact
with her theoretical interests and her is the distance between how
ethical stance to create collaborative research efficacy is measured in the
and imaginative ways of ‘making a REF and what academics actually
difference’. For Anna, her theoretical do. We were not surprised to read
framework points her towards that for each of our contributors, a
thinking about affect and particular political or ethical stance
transformation in the courts and underpinned their choice of research
across the criminal justice system. subject, as well as how they framed
Her commitment to improving the their impact.
experiences of women (as victims of
sexual violence) then drives We hope that readers whose usual
imaginative, collaborative interests diverge from these
explorations with others about what particular subject areas will
to ‘transform’ in those specific nevertheless enjoy reading about
interactions, and how to do so. topics that would ordinarily fall
Whether it is ‘targeted’ or outside of their usual scope. In
unexpected, for Anna impact and particular, we hope that the following
making a difference are not articles provide a source of
measured but rather are the reason inspiration and support for those
for doing the work she does. early career academics who are just
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ECAN Bulletin, Issue 43, January 2020
beginning to lay down some Dr Keir Irwin-Rogers is a lecturer in
preliminary tracks for their own criminology with The Open University.
careers, which may well go on to His research focuses on the causes of
generate a life-time of research that violence between young people and the
makes a difference – however they harms of prohibitionist drug policies. Keir
is lead criminologist to the on-going,
wish to define it. cross-party Youth Violence Commission.
He is also a member of the Howard
References League’s Research Advisory Group.
Becker, H. (1967) “Whose Side are We
On?”, Social Problems, vol 14, no. 3, pp Professor Jo Phoenix is a Chair in
239-247 criminology at The Open University. She
is interested in a wide range of
Carlen, P. and Phoenix, J. (2018) substantive topics: youth justice;
‘Alternative Criminologies, Academic prostitution and prostitution policy
Markets and Corporatism in Universities’ reform; child sexual exploitation; gender;
in Pat Carlen and Leandro Franca-Ayres sex and sexualities; research ethics. She
(eds.) Alternative Criminologies, Taylor is a member of the Howard League’s
& Francis: London Research Advisory Group as well as a
Trustee for the Centre for Crime and
Gouldner, A. W. (1968) “The Sociologist Justice Studies.
as Partisan: Sociology and the Welfare
State”, The American Sociologist, vol 3,
no 2, pp 103-116. Retrieved from
www.jstor.org/stable/27701326
Gouldner, A. W. (1961) "Anti-Minotaur:
The myth of a value-free sociology."
Social Problems, vol 9, no 1, pp 199-214
Weber, M. (1919) 'Science as a
profession and a vocation', in H. Bruun
and S. Whimster (Eds.), Max Weber:
Collected methodological writings,
London, Routledge, 2012.
About the editors
5
ECAN Bulletin, Issue 43, January 2020
Crime, Justice and Social Harms
Two-day International Conference
31 March – 1 April 2020, Keble College Oxford
Call for papers
How social harms are understood, questioned and tackled can have a
profound effect on how communities approach crime and justice. This
conference comes at a time when communities across the world are
experiencing change and uncertainly affecting how they understand
themselves and challenges to the status quo. Coping with, responding to and
supporting such uncertainty and change brings challenges for political
institutions, criminal justice agencies and civic society in developing values,
strategies and systems. We will bring together academics, parliamentarians,
practitioners and those directly affected by the criminal justice system to
discuss, reflect on and suggest alternative strategies.
The Howard League's conference will consider the intersection of issues
relating to crime, justice and social harms. Building on the Howard League’s
Commission on Crime and Problem Gambling and the burgeoning
international concern around it, we are keen to explore the impact of problem
gambling on patterns of crime and the societal harms that link crime and
problem gambling.
The Howard League is looking for papers from academics, policy makers,
practitioners, PhD students and researchers from within the criminological and
legal disciplines, however we are also keen to include contributions from fields
of study including philosophy, geography, political science and economics.
We will consider theoretical, policy, practice-based and more innovative
contributions around a wide range of issues that encompass the broad theme
of justice and the wider conference themes. We would particularly welcome
papers on the following themes, however other topics will also be positively
considered:
• political instability, austerity and social change
• addictions as a social harm including gambling, drugs and alcohol
• racism as a social harm
• cybercrime, technology and social media
• policing
• sentencing and legal change
• the role of probation, prisons and the criminal justice system in
responding to social harms
• community and civil society's responses to social harms
• relationships and responsibility of social, health and (criminal)
justice
• gender, men and masculinities
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ECAN Bulletin, Issue 43, January 2020
• equality and social justice
• women, gender and justice
• overuse of the penal system: mass imprisonment, mass supervision
and mass surveillance
• poverty and criminal justice
• domestic violence as a social harm
• young people, young adults – social justice and criminal justice
• victims of crime in a social harm context
Abstract guidelines
Abstracts should be a maximum of 200 words and include a title and 4–5 key
words. Your submission should be submitted in English. Papers will normally be
presented in panel sessions with 3 or 4 papers presented in either slots of 20 or 15
minutes, followed by 20/30 minutes discussion. This conference is particularly
interested in and will respond positively to papers that incorporate participatory and
creative methods to discuss ideas and findings, lightning talks, panels, or
roundtables. We will ask you indicate your preferred method of delivering your
paper. Include the proposer’s name and contact details along with the job title or
role. Please submit abstracts via email to: anita.dockley@howardleague.org
The deadline for submissions is Friday 31 January 2020. Decisions will be made by
Monday 10 February 2020.
Conference fees
All conference participants, whether presenting a paper or not, are expected to pay
conference fees. Further information can be found at: www.howardleague.org/our-
events/
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ECAN Bulletin, Issue 43, January 2020
Features
Challenging state-corporate
harm: making an inch of
difference?
Steve Tombs
To begin at the beginning…
In December 1984, a fire and
explosion at a US-owned chemical
plant in Bhopal, India, killed thousands
instantly and has since led to tens of
thousands of deaths, and hundreds of
thousands of lives detrimentally
affected. This toxic chemical plant
abandoned within the midst of a city of quickly to address the relationships
almost 2 million people, is still awaiting between the deaths of thousands of
clean up some 35 years later. Indians, injury and illnesses amongst
UK workers, law, regulation and crime.
At the time, I was an MA student, In turn this took me on an accidental
studying Marxist Political Theory. But journey from political economy through
as someone who lived in sociology to criminology.
Wolverhampton for most of the period
1981-1993, the ‘Bhopal disaster’, as it This intensely political nexus of early
quickly came to be known, was of experiences and commitments was
enormous import. Wolverhampton had ultimately and decisively to shape my
a very large Indian population, whilst career and life. The work I did and
the Indian Workers Association was a have done since was for a reason. For
very active leftist organisation in the me, it was about a contribution to
town. So, the ‘disaster’ had a great progressive social change, to a world
resonance for me personally, politically which did not treat the lives of working
and - though I didn’t know it at the time men and women as disposable, mere
- professionally. Within 18 months of commodities of state-guaranteed
the gas leak I was enrolled as a PhD corporate activity. And, although I
student and research assistant at the ended up working in and around
then Wolverhampton Polytechnic, ‘criminology’, I never trained in
studying the global dynamics of the criminology nor defined my work in
chemical industry (‘Toxic Capitalism', terms of that discipline - so I have
see Pearce and Tombs 1988) through always brought my political theory,
the lenses of both Bhopal and the political economy and ultimately
struggles of workers in British sociology to my work, in turn, I think,
chemicals plants for safer and reinforcing its politicised dimensions.
healthier workplaces. These formed a
prism which was to lead me very
8ECAN Bulletin, Issue 43, January 2020
1999 discipline, Zemiology. The latter word
Following my PhD, my work revolved was adopted in 1998 from the Greek
around health and safety at work (or, word for criminal harm, Zemia, during
rather, lack thereof), as well as the Annual Conference of the
regulation and enforcement in relation European Group for the Study of
to that (ditto). During this period, I Deviance and Social Control on the
began to forge working relationships Greek island of Spetses.
with the UK’s Hazards
Movement and the Institute Months later, in February
for Employment Rights (IER) 1999, a conference,
- organisations which exist for Zemiology: Beyond
the sole purposes of making criminology?, was held in
a difference, seeking to Dartington, England.
improve the quality of Subsequently, some of
working life, not least in these papers, along with
relation to workers’ health commissioned essays,
and safety. These have been were published as Beyond
two of the most significant Criminology: Taking Harm
and I like to think mutually Seriously (Hillyard et al
beneficial relationships of my 2004), a collection in
working life, relationships which I was centrally
which persist to this day. I’ll involved. Whatever the
come back to both in this merits or otherwise of
quasi-chronological Beyond Criminology, it
autobiography, but first I will turn to a proved to be influential within and
momentous year for me. around the discipline, with ‘social
harm’ and ‘zemiology’ now being
In 1999, three quite disparate but routine reference points in books,
equally crucial events came together. journals, conferences, and, more
latterly, appearing in the Quality
In the late 1990s, I was one of a group Assurance Agency’s benchmark
of academics thinking about how a statement for the discipline of
concept of social harm could be more criminology (Hillyard and Tombs
progressively developed as an 2017). For me, the significance of the
alternative to ‘crime’. The motivations development was that it had
or routes via which individuals joined encouraged some progressive social
this conversation were various. I had science to be done that otherwise
been pursuing the conceptual might not have been done. And part of
struggles of Sellin, Sutherland and that social science has thrown a
others to operationalise a concept of critical gaze upon the activities and
crime in the areas of corporate, white- omissions of the powerful – the
collar crime and state crime (for corporations, senior executives and
example, Slapper and Tombs 1998) states with whom my original interest
where a lack of definitional and legal in the ‘beyond criminology’ venture
clarity, and indeed non-criminalisation, had begun.
were the norm. An outcome of these
discussions was speculative Still in 1999, in May of that year –
consideration of a sustained focus on although in truth the product of several
the study of social harm, or the years of intermittent, anorak-like
development of an alternative research – Sociological Review
9ECAN Bulletin, Issue 43, January 2020
published my article ‘Death and Work was alongside significant
in Britain’ (Tombs 1999). This was a developments from others, not least
version of a paper I’d given at a the crucial subsequent work that
conference in 1998 to mark the tenth added recorded and estimated levels
anniversary of the Piper Alpha of death from occupational diseases to
disaster, part-organised by the truly these fatal injuries to produce a now
inspirational convenors of the Offshore widely-accepted estimate of 50,000
Oil Industry Liaison Committee (OILC) deaths related to work in Britain, year-
– a trade union which had the in, year-out (Palmer 2008, O’Neill et al.
noteworthy distinction of being banned 2007).
from the Trades Union Congress
(TUC) and by oil companies from Finally, 1999 was also the year in
organising offshore! which I was part of a small group –
myself, two human rights lawyers, two
The article began by taking the official health and safety activists as well as
figure for fatal occupational injuries in the then co-director of the charity
Britain, then providing a sustained INQUEST – who formed the Centre for
critique of the means by which this Corporate Accountability on the basis
‘headline figure’ was reached. It of a charitable grant of some
addressed various anomalies and £400,000. I became chair of its board
inconsistencies within the legally of directors from its inception until it
constituted categories of data entered voluntary liquidation in
collection, the effect of which was to September 2009, a decision taken with
exclude indeterminate numbers of the support of four of its five
occupational fatalities, not least to the employees – although the CCA had
self-employed, to other groups of generated approximately £1.6million
workers including thousands on the across its ten years in active
roads, at sea or in the air and to existence, we had simply run out of
members of the public. Further, it money and did not have the income to
addressed some of the social continue operating. In its relatively
processes of under-reporting whereby short existence, however, it is fair to
occupational fatalities ended up not say that the CCA punched above its
being recorded in official data. It weight, and as the chair of what was a
concluded that fatal injury data is very small charity I was intimately
grossly incomplete, requires work of involved in most of its activities –
reconstruction, and that the actual although the key driving force was
number of fatalities incurred through undoubtedly our director, David
work in Britain at the end of the 1990s Bergman, a former prominent
was a largely obscured social problem. campaigner for justice for the victims
of Bhopal, with whom I worked closely
Through numerous addresses to for many years.
trades union audiences in the years
around and following this article being To further our charitable purpose of
published, it made, I think, a promoting worker and public safety,
contribution to the development of we produced a series of key research
what Hazards, the TUC and virtually reports - on safety law enforcement,
all constituent trades unions and the directors’ duties, and levers for law
IER gradually became accustomed to compliance - mostly funded by trades
presenting as the ‘real figure’ of unions and sympathetic law firms.
occupational deaths in Britain. This These quickly established our
10ECAN Bulletin, Issue 43, January 2020
reputation as a key source of research indicates significant social impact
and expertise on matters of which earned the charity the Law
occupational safety regulation. The Society Quality Mark. Some of these
CCA was routinely engaged in formal families’ experiences were
and informal interventions into law and documented in the one research paper
policy, which included an ongoing I wrote on their double victimisation, by
engagement with senior civil servants the employer who killed their loved
and ministers. The CCA successfully one and then the criminal justice
campaigned for numerous changes in system which was unable or unwilling
HSE policy and practice, for example to treat that killing as a ‘real’ crime
related to investigation of occupational (Snell and Tombs 2011).
deaths and the maintenance and
publication of a register of such Into the 21st century
deaths. Perhaps most notably, if Through much of the twenty years that
ironically, the CCA was central in followed, I have continued to plough
interventions leading to the passage of similar furrows. One key development
the Corporate Manslaughter and worth mentioning, perhaps, was one of
Corporate Homicide Act, which came the (few, in my opinion) progressive
into force in April 2008. In retrospect, reforms of the Blair governments – the
we had become so closely associated passage of the Freedom of Information
with the struggle for that law that its Act, in 2000. This allowed for access
passage was the beginning of the end to data held by public bodies – and
for the flow of funds to the immediately opened up a mass of
organisation. A sense out there of ‘job material on the activities of regulatory
done’ I thought. Then, with further and agencies, including details such as
awful irony, changes in the law in its funding, numbers of inspectors and
very final consultation period led to it inspections, formal enforcement action
being passed in an altered form so including prosecutions, outcomes of
that it was likely to prove to be a these, as well as a plethora of internal
“damp squib” as described by the BBC papers, reports, minutes, and so on.
in 2008 – a verdict which I was This Act and the material to which it
subsequently led to endorse in a gave access allowed me to develop,
review of its first ten years in operation with various colleagues, and notably
(Tombs 2018a). David Whyte, several broad strands of
work through the past couple of
Most centrally, however, the core of decades, including the following.
the CCA’s function was our Work-
Related Death Advisory Service First, we produced detailed empirical
(WRDAS) which provided support and analyses that demonstrated how
free legal advice to families bereaved Labour government policy had
from work-related death, notably profoundly damaged workplace health
around investigation and prosecution and safety regulation. This detailed the
issues arising from the death. We impact of under-funding, under-
provided a unique service to a enforcement, and the “better
marginalised, forgotten and bewildered regulation” regime between 1997 and
group of victimised families, as they 2010. The underpinning research was
worked their way through dealings with based on an extensive and unique
the HSE, police, the coronial system, data set generated by a research
the CPS and the courts. The CCA’s project which established a significant
annual case load of 40-60 cases “regulatory surrender” on the part of
11ECAN Bulletin, Issue 43, January 2020
UK health and safety regulators 35 years. This had led to an
between 1997 and 2010 (James et al. environment – not least in the past 15
2013, Tombs and Whyte 2010). years, through the ‘Better Regulation’
initiative – in which social protection is
Second, we continued with detailed dismantled. At best, this leaves a
policy analysis of the impact of the system of regulation without
2010 coalition government regulatory enforcement and so facilitates ‘social
regime. This analysis established that murder’, a phrase which achieved
government significant salience
assessments of high following the atrocity
and low risk work at Grenfell Tower.
upon which targeted
intervention is based The Freedom of
is flawed and likely to Information Act has
significantly been significant for
exacerbate risks in some critical
workplaces. In so researchers.
doing, we developed Crucially, for me,
a reconceptualisation having the time and
of risk categories to skills to collate this
support arguments data, to put it
for a re-shaping of together, to analyse
government it, and to provide
regulatory policy. On commentary to it has
the basis of this and the longer term really supported working with pro-
research on health and safety regulatory organisations and victims’
protection, we co-authored the IER’s groups. Each of the three strands of
‘Health and Safety at Work’ sections of work highlighted above really added
their Manifesto for Labour Law, which value to the campaigning, public
itself fed into the Labour Party’s 2017 arguments and written statements of
General Election Manifesto and the pro-regulatory, counter-hegemonic
Hazards Campaign Manifesto for a organisations with whom, I, along with
Health and Safety System Fit for colleagues – notably David Whyte -
Workers. worked. Each has also allowed us to
directly challenge the work of
Third, I extended my research around regulators, their relationships with the
worker safety to considerations of companies against whom they were
public safety with a focus on food supposed to be enforcing law, and
safety and environmental protection. thus the increasingly insidious state-
This again used a mass of mostly corporate relationships (Tombs 2012)
Freedom of Information generated that have characterised the post-
quantitative data but was also Thatcherite neo-liberalism in the UK
supplemented with considerable from the Blair governments to the
qualitative interview data. Further, present day. Much of this work – and
alongside analysis of trends in my broader work on social harm which
enforcement, the research used I continued during this period - also
discourse analysis to explore how the proved to be of particular interest to a
very idea of regulation and criminal justice think-tank, the Centre
enforcement have been systematically for Crime and Justice studies, which
undermined over a period of at least sought to highlight hidden areas of
12ECAN Bulletin, Issue 43, January 2020
harm and biases in law enforcement, most significantly, I have used publicly
and which was particularly adept at available material – of which there is a
targeting policy makers and key mass - to document the experiences of
influencers within political circles the bereaved, survivors, and wider
(Dorling et al. 2008, Tombs 2016, affected communities through the lens
Tombs and Whyte 2008). of social harm. In this way, I have
sought to reveal the combination of
It remains to add that the past two physical, emotional, cultural, relational,
years of my research, writing and financial, and economic harms that
speaking has been almost entirely have unfolded spatially and
consumed with the atrocity which killed geographically following the fire. This
72 residents at Grenfell Tower in June work has generated academic articles
2017, an event which has generated and numerous blogs (see, for
unimaginable and unquantifiable example, Tombs 2019, 2018b, 2017).
harmful effects. There is a gruesome But more importantly, since the fire, I
irony in the fact that on the morning of have given some 30 public lectures on
the Grenfell Tower fire, 14 June 2017, the subject to trade unionists,
I was speaking on campaign groups, the
‘The State, Social general public, HE, FE
Murder and Social and secondary school
Protection’ at a students. Audiences
conference in have ranged from 40 to
Liverpool 450, right across
(‘Emotions and England, Scotland and
State Power’). My Wales, as well as
topic was how Barcelona, Ljubljana,
regulation had Paris and Turku,
become an object Finland. I have taken
of hatred, facilitating part in several
the dismantling of documentaries around
social protection. Grenfell, including the
Suddenly that was OU’s film The Grenfell
a view which few Tower fire and Social
wished to admit to holding – albeit for Murder which won the Life Changing
a very short period. Award at the British Documentary Film
Festival in 2018, and was the
My research around Grenfell has three academic consultant for the BBC/OU
aspects. First, I have sought to detail production The Fires that Foretold
how the processes and practices that Grenfell – which went on to win the
produced Grenfell can only be Learning on Screen Broadcast Award
understood within the wider in 2019.
tendencies of the dismantling of social
protection and therefore creating the On activism
conditions for greater levels of social In conclusion, then, I consider my
murder. Second, I’ve located the fire in academic work (and here I have talked
relation to law and criminal justice, not only about research and not teaching)
least through the realities of class- to have been and to be a form of
based law and the failings of the political activism, a claim and a phrase
Corporate Manslaughter and upon which I’d like to make several
Corporate Homicide Act. Third, and observations.
13ECAN Bulletin, Issue 43, January 2020
engage in, I really regret the distinction
First, being active for me has involved which seems to remain (and in some
a wide variety of activities. These respects, I think is being exacerbated)
include writing – by which I mean between activists and academics. And
books, journal articles, book chapters, with this distinction, or dichotomy, is
pamphlets, leaflets and flyers, blogs, an association, implicit or otherwise,
letters to newspapers, writing and between academics and the ‘ivory
contributing to position papers, tower’, activists and the real world.
organisational and political party These distinctions are, ironically,
manifestos, written evidence to highly ideological and support claims
parliamentary select committees and on the part of the academy to be
to formal consultation processes. Note producing disinterested, value-free
that many or most of these are not knowledge – usually entirely
‘REF-able’, and it is certainly the case supportive of the status quo (Tombs
that when I began my ‘career’ the and Whyte 2003a, 2003b).
pressures on newer academics were
far less intense than they have Third, and following from the previous
become in the era of the neo-liberal point, I have emphasised throughout
university. Beyond writing, I’ve been this reflective piece that from the onset
fortunate enough to be involved in of my career I made an explicit choice
making podcasts, radio programmes, to engage in politicised research. And I
TV documentaries, as well as have encountered criticisms for that
appearing on live TV and radio, in choice and that activity at times. But
every country of the UK of course but my response has always been that all
in many others beyond. I’ve spoken at of us have a choice to make, whether
annual conferences of the Labour we make that explicit or even whether
Party and the TUC, as well as at we recognise it. All academics can
national and regional conferences – choose what they claim or believe to
taking in seaside towns across the UK be disengaged, disinterested ‘value-
– of the STUC and virtually every free’ research – but this in itself is as
major British trade unions, as well as political a choice as that which I and
at demonstrations and assemblies, many others have made to engage in
large and (usually!) small in high explicitly politicised work.
streets, at docks and outside factory
gates, and in parliaments. Most of all, Lastly, it has been my pleasure to do
being active has involved developing so, and to my benefit. I have met lots
long term relationships of trust and of fantastic people, made lifelong
reciprocity – one aspect of which is to friends, been to places and spaces I
organise events including workshops, otherwise would not have visited, and
debates, conferences, seminars, film had access to data and insights I
screenings and even tours such as would otherwise never have
that by victims of the Bhopal gas encountered. So, my work with
disaster in 2012, when I was lucky counter-hegemonic organisations has
enough to fund and arrange a three not been borne out of altruism. Far
day visit to Liverpool as part of a UK from it. At the same time, I do
tour. recognise, as I think we all must, that
however we are employed as
The second thing to say, then, is that, academics, even under the most
not least in the context of the various precarious conditions, that academic
activities I and others spend time and work is relatively privileged. It is
14ECAN Bulletin, Issue 43, January 2020
relatively well-paid, it is relatively References
comfortable, and it carries status. This BBC (2008) New law targets corporate
status, comfort, pay, etc – this killing, BBC News Online,
privilege – is highly differentially http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7332900.st,
distributed. As a white, late-middle- accessed 30 October 2019.
aged professor, I am at the apex of Dorling, D., Gordon, D., Hillyard, P.,
such privilege. And I am much more Pantazis, C., Pemberton, S. and Tombs,
privileged now than in the ‘early S. (2008) Criminal Obsessions. Why harm
career’ years when I supplemented my matters more than crime. Second Edition,
work as a university lecturer by London: Crime and Society Foundation.
working my holidays on building sites
and in butchers’ shops. So, the Hillyard, P., Pantazis, C., Tombs, S. and
obligation that we all have to ‘give Gordon, D., eds. (2004) Beyond
back’ is, too, differentially distributed. Criminology? Taking Harm Seriously,
But to be clear: for me, we all can, and London: Pluto Press.
all should be trying to, make at least
Hillyard, P. and Tombs, S. (2017) Social
an inch of difference.1 Harm and Zemiology, in McAra, Liebling,
A. and Maruna, S., eds., Oxford
Handbook of Criminology. 6th Edition,
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 284-305.
James, P., Tombs, S. and Whyte, D.
(2013) “An Independent Review of British
Health and Safety Regulation? From
common-sense to non-sense", Policy
Studies 34, (1), 36-52.
O’Neill, R., Pickvance, S. and Watterson,
A. (2007), ‘Burying the Evidence: how
Great Britain is prolonging the
occupational cancer epidemic’,
International Journal of Occupational and
Environmental Health, 4, 428–436.
Palmer. H. (2008), Work Related Deaths –
What is the true picture? SHP Online, 10
December,
http://www.shponline.co.uk/features-
content/full/the-whole-story, accessed 30
October 2019.
Pearce, F and Tombs, S (1998) Toxic
Capitalism: corporate crime in the
chemical industry, Aldershot: Ashgate.
Slapper, G and Tombs, S (1999)
Corporate Crime, London: Longman.
1
My friend Joe Sim first made me aware co-founder and editor of the 1960s
of the phrase “an inch of difference”, and counterculture magazine Oz.
tells me its origins are with Richard Neville,
15ECAN Bulletin, Issue 43, January 2020
Snell, K. and Tombs, S. (2011) ’How Do non-enforcement of law, London: Institute
You Get Your Voice Heard When No-One of Employment Rights.
Will Let You?’ Victimisation at work,
Criminology & Criminal Justice, 11, (3), Tombs, S. (1999) “Death and Work in
207–223. Britain”, Sociological Review, 47, (2), May
345-367.
Tombs, S. (2019) Grenfell: the unfolding
dimensions of social harm, Justice, Power Tombs, S. and Whyte, D. (2008) A Crisis
and Resistance, 3 (1), 61-88. of Enforcement: the decriminalisation of
death and injury at work, London: Centre
Tombs, S. (2018a) The UK’s Corporate for Crime and Justice Studies.
Killing Law: Un/fit for purpose?
Criminology & Criminal Justice, 18 (4), Tombs, S. and Whyte, D. (2003a)
September 488-507. Researching the Powerful: contemporary
political economy and critical social
Tombs, S. (2018b) Grenfell Tower: Mis- science, in Tombs, S. and Whyte, D., eds.,
Trust, Contempt and the Ongoing Unmasking the Crimes of the Powerful:
Struggle to be Heard, Brave New Europe, scrutinising states and corporations, New
12 June, York: Peter Lang, 3-45.
https://braveneweurope.com/steve-tombs-
grenfell-mis-trust-contempt-and-the- Tombs, S. and Whyte, D. (2003b)
ongoing-struggle-to-be-heard, accessed Researching the Crimes of the Powerful:
30 October 2019. establishing some rules of engagement, in
Tombs, S. and Whyte, D., eds., Unmasking
Tombs, S. (2017) Grenfell: unfolding the Crimes of the Powerful: scrutinising
dimensions of harm, Harm and Evidence states and corporations, 261-272.
Research Collaborative, 14 December,
https://oucriminology.wordpress.com/2017 About the author
/12/14/grenfell-unfolding-dimensions-of- Steve Tombs is Professor of Criminology
harm/ accessed, 30 October 2019. at The Open University. He has a long-
standing interest in the incidence, nature
Tombs, S. (2016) ‘Better Regulation’: and regulation of corporate and sate crime
better for whom? Centre for Crime and and harm. His most recent publications
Justice Studies Briefing No 14, April, are Social Protection After the Crisis:
London: Centre for Crime and Justice regulation without enforcement (Bristol:
Studies. Policy Press, 2016) and, with David
Whyte, The Corporate Criminal: why
Tombs, S. (2012) State-Corporate corporations must be abolished (London:
Symbiosis in the Production of Crime and Routledge, 2015). He is a trustee and
Harm, State Crime, 1(2), October 170- board member of INQUEST.
195.
Tombs, S. and Whyte, D. (2010)
Regulatory Surrender: death, injury and the
16ECAN Bulletin, Issue 43, January 2020
Transforming responses to
hate crime
Stevie-Jade Hardy
I’ve been spat on, kicked, punched,
thrown up against a wall.
Keith was targeted on the basis of his
learning difficulties.
In terms of verbal abuse, loads and
loads. Like F’ing old dyke … you faeces and fireworks shoved through
got very used to it. letterboxes; spat at; tormented
countless times in person and via
Nicola was targeted on the basis of her social media; and, violently and
sexual orientation. sexually assaulted on the basis of their
identity or perceived difference. I saw
It makes you feel demoralised. It first-hand the considerable damage
makes you feel hated. It makes you that hate crime can cause: from the
feel isolated, unwanted. sense of despair; isolation and anger
experienced by victims to the fear;
Ahmed was targeted on the basis of his concern; and, anxiety which can
religion. permeate wider communities.
Conducting such a challenging study
I don’t feel myself or my children stays with you and so do the harrowing
are safe because I know that the accounts which I can still recall with
group are going to attack me again. stark clarity nearly seven years on. Of
In my house they attacked me particular note were the following
twice, and then they attacked my findings:
wife and car and the children and
everything has been damaged. I • Many victims, witnesses, members
don’t feel my children are safe if I of the public and professionals were
leave home and when I’m outside unaware of what constitutes a hate
all I think about is hoping that my crime.
home has not been attacked again. • There are multiple inter-connected
barriers which result in victims being
Beyani was targeted on the basis of his reluctant or unwilling to report.
race. • When victims do report they are
often dissatisfied with the response
These are just four of the voices that from frontline professionals, feeling
we heard from as part of the ESRC- that their experiences are not taken
funded Leicester Hate Crime Project seriously or that they are not treated
which took place between 2012-2014 empathetically.
and which became Britain’s biggest • Many victims do not achieve
study of hate crime victimisation a successful criminal justice or
(Chakraborti et al. 2014). During this alternative outcome.
study I spoke to people who had been:
tipped out of their wheelchairs; had (Hardy and Chakraborti 2019)
17ECAN Bulletin, Issue 43, January 2020
When confronted with this reality, we to hate crime in a more cohesive,
felt compelled (and to some extent we victim-centred way.
had a responsibility) to find ways of
addressing these issues. It is the accessibility of the reports
Subsequently, in 2014, Professor Neil that we particularly applaud. It is a
Chakraborti and I established the standout piece of victim-focused
Centre for Hate Studies which was the research containing a wealth of
first academic Centre of its kind real-world insights into hate crime.
anywhere in the world. The aim was to It has given a voice to those who
bridge the gap between research are scarcely heard … The
evidence on hate crime and policy and research has significantly
practice. Since the beginning, we have influenced the development of our
worked with organisations across the county hate crime strategy.
globe to improve responses to hate
crime through evidence-based training, (Rebecca Joy, Victim Services
research, evaluation and knowledge Delivery Manager, Victim Support)
exchange events.
The key to translating these
Improving policy and practice recommendations to concrete
Over the course of the past five years, outcomes was to continue collaborating
we have been commissioned to with the funders (and with many other
undertake a series of policy-focused criminal justice agencies, local
studies, including a four-month study in authorities, health and social care
2015 for the Equality and Human organisations and educational
Rights Commission to explore the institutions) during the design and
barriers faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual implementation phases of new policies
and/or trans people in terms of and practices. This has resulted in the
reporting to the police or to an development of new and improved hate
alternative organisation (Chakraborti crime strategies; changes to reporting
and Hardy, 2015); a four-month study mechanisms to ensure that they are
in 2016 commissioned by the Office for accessible and victim-friendly; the
the Police and Crime Commissioner creation of new awareness-raising
(OPCC) in Hertfordshire; a six-month campaigns which now resonate with
study in 2016-2017 on behalf of the the target audience; and the
OPCC in the West Midlands to identify commissioning of specialist support
hate crime victims’ support needs services to provide an enhanced
(Hardy and Chakraborti, 2016, 2017a); support package for hate crime victims.
and a six-month study in 2016-17 for
Amnesty International UK to identify We have also sought to improve
shortcomings in existing policy and frontline and organisational practices
legislative frameworks (Hardy and through the development of evidence-
Chakraborti, 2017b). As part of these based training which is delivered face
projects, we produced a set of to face and through digital training.
practitioner-orientated reports which Over the course of the last five years
contained evidence-based we have trained more than 2500
recommendations that were not only professionals on how best to engage
tangible and achievable but also, if with diversity, support victims and
implemented, had the potential to make tackle hate. In order to assess the
a difference with respect to helping impact of the training we administer
organisations and individuals respond evaluative surveys at three- and six-
18ECAN Bulletin, Issue 43, January 2020
monthly intervals after the training. ways in which I communicate research
Evidence from these surveys indicates findings with policy-makers.
that the training has contributed to a
number of significant outcomes, Improving public awareness
including improvements in: Aside from policy-focused work, as a
Centre we have invested considerable
• awareness of the nature, scale and effort into enhancing public recognition
impact of hate crime victimisation; of hate crime. Research evidence
• knowledge of hate crime policy and suggests that this activity is especially
laws; important because not only are many of
• identification of hate crimes and those who are at risk of hate crime
incidents; unfamiliar with the behaviours
• flagging or recording practices; associated with it, but also because
• investigative processes; most hate incidents take place in public
• outcomes for victims (e.g. more settings and yet few witnesses
cases going to court, dispute intervene (Hardy and Chakraborti
resolved); and 2019). To address these issues, we
• organisational practice (e.g. new have produced a series of award-
assessment tools, engagement winning short films and animations
approaches, infrastructure). which document the diverse range of
people affected by hate crimes and the
Over the course of the last five years associated harms and highlight the
we have found that one of the most ways in which we can safely challenge
effective ways of influencing expressions of hate and support
operational responses has been victims. Collectively, these films have
through participating on scrutiny been accessed 32,100 times online
panels, expert reference groups and since 2014, and have been shown in
roundtables. Most recently, I have had schools, colleges and universities, and
the opportunity to used in training by criminal
shape national The training delivered to our senior justice practitioners,
policy through leaders and frontline officers was educators and health care
membership on really effective and has certainly professionals around the
advisory panels made an impact in terms of people’s world. Additionally, we have
for the Crown knowledge and understanding of maximised the reach of our
Prosecution such crimes. research by presenting at
Service, the hundreds of regional,
Suzette Davenport national and international
Government
Equalities Office, practitioner focused
Former Chief Constable
Her Majesty's conferences, public events,
Gloucestershire Constabulary
Inspectorate of and contributed to media
Constabulary and Fire and Rescue articles, including television,
Services, the Office for Students and radio and blog pieces.
Universities UK. These platforms have
provided me with much-needed
exposure to the realities and Renewed importance of impact-
challenges associated with policy- related work
making which in turn has generated The significance and need for impact-
new research ideas and influenced the related work becomes all the more
evident at a time when levels of hate
and extremism are rising and when
19ECAN Bulletin, Issue 43, January 2020
scepticism towards the concept of hate (Douglas Murray’s ‘The Great Hate
crime and ignorance of the harms Crime Hoax’ in The Daily Mail on 26
associated with it, are becoming ever October 2019)
more palpable. The Home Office
recently published new hate crime Britain is in the grip of an
figures which indicate that 103,379 epidemic, apparently. An epidemic
hate crimes were recorded by the of hate. Barely a day passes
police in England and Wales in without some policeman or
2017/18, which was not only an journalist telling us about the wave
increase of 10% compared to the of criminal bigotry that is sweeping
previous year but it was also a through the country … what the
continuation of an upward trend since BBC calls an ‘epidemic’ is a
2012/13, with recorded hate crime product of the authorities
having more than doubled in that redefining racism and prejudice to
timeframe (Home Office 2019). While such an extent that almost any
this rise is likely to be the result of a unpleasant encounter between
culmination of factors – including people of different backgrounds
increased reporting and improved can now be recorded as ‘hatred’
recording – ‘trigger’ events of local, … According to one leftie online
national and international significance magazine, Britain now evokes
have also influenced the prevalence ‘nightmares of 1930s Germany’.
and severity of hate-fuelled violence But this doesn’t square with the
and micro-aggressions. reality of our country today, and
you shouldn’t believe it. The hate-
And yet, amidst a backdrop of more crime epidemic is a self-sustaining
virulent and visible hateful sentiment myth — a libel against the nation.
and behaviours there are those who
continue to de-value, disparage and (Brendan O’Neill’s ‘Britain's Real Hate
deny the pervasiveness of hate crime. Crime Scandal’ in The Spectator on 6
The examples cited below not only August 2016)
reinforce the sense of isolation and
marginalisation felt by many hate crime After having spent nearly a decade
victims but also seek to silence their investigating this phenomenon and
voices and to invalidate their hearing from thousands of hate crime
experiences. victims(many of whom are scared to do
their weekly shop, to drop their children
Do you feel ten per cent more at school or to catch a bus) I feel a
hateful than you did this time last sense of obligation to engage in as
year? Do you think the British public much impact-related work as possible
as a whole are ten per cent more and to show that hate crime is a very-
unpleasant in 2019 as compared to real, repetitive and damaging problem.
2018? If you believe the latest ‘hate We live in societies which are
crimes’ stats, then you may come to becoming increasingly disconnected
such a ludicrous conclusion… If you and disillusioned, and within this
are sane and reasonable you will context the need for meaningful action-
realise that all of this is nonsense – based research and knowledge
nonsense, in fact, of the purest, exchange activity is all the more
most disgraceful kind: professional pressing. But crucially, this work needs
nonsense, cooked up to serve a to be co-designed and co-produced
political purpose. with policy-makers, practitioners, NGOs
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