About
“One might say that even more than before, communicative rationality lives its life in the secluded corners of the professional journals and meetings, while the public debate, flooded as it is with dire warnings by the police and sensational crime stories and, most significantly by opportunistic political initiatives in the context of burlesque television shows called ‘debates’, is predominantly characterized by the rationality of the market place.”
Thomas Mathiesen. Television, public space and prison population In Garland, D (Ed) (2001) Mass Imprisonment: Social Causes and Consequences Sage London.
Origins
CjScotland (http:www.cjscotland.org.uk) first appeared as a simple news blog in October 2003 – really just experimenting with the form and discovering how and what it could do. I felt that there was a need for an accessible online publication that kept up to date with rapidly changing policies coming from the newly devolved Parliament, and to inform a national debate about how we deal with crime in Scotland.
This new (April 2011) venture as a WordPress blog aims to make the project more sustainable and also to help with the prospect of collaboration with the Scottish Consortium of Crime and Criminal Justice (SCCCJ).
Unfortunately the entire database of over 7000 entries has to be transferred by hand and this is obviously time consuming. The present site (co.uk) is an interim arrangement pending completion of the transfer at which point both the established site and this one will automatically re-direct to the final version.
People
Mary Munro is a visiting fellow at Strathclyde Law School’s Centre for Law, Crime and Justice, a freelance researcher, has been a part-time criminology lecturer with several Scottish Universities, is a member of the SCCCJ, has been a SACRO board member, probation officer (in Northumbria) and (many years ago) was a solicitor. She is co-editor, with Hazel Croall and Gerry Mooney, Criminal Justice in Scotland published by Willan in 2010. She lives in Glasgow.
Ceri Evans graduated in law from Strathclyde University in 2011 and subsequently completed an M.Sc in Criminology and Criminal Justice at Glasgow University, where she is currently studying for the Diploma in Professional Legal Practice. Her M.Sc. dissertation looked at the re-integration of sex offenders in the community post-release. She hopes to become a criminal defence solicitor. Alongside her academic and professional activities, Ceri has, for some years, been a volunteer with the Guide Dogs for the Blind.
Katrina Morrison was CjScotland’s Parliamentary associate when we had funding to run this service. She has recently completed a PhD on criminal justice policy making in Scotland since devolution at the University of Edinburgh. Her undergraduate dissertation on restorative justice was awarded the James Carruthers Memorial Prize. Katrina is also a volunteer with the Witness Support Service at Edinburgh Sheriff Court. She now works as a researcher for the SCCJR, although is currently on maternity leave.
Mike Nellis is a Professor Emeritus at Strathclyde Law School’s Centre for Law, Crime and Justice, a foremost expert on surveillance and criminal justice, and has published extensively on probation and criminal justice, and now our guest blogger. Mike started his career as an intermediate treatment worker.
Aims
Views about crime in Scotland are dominated by myths and tend to be closed to alternative visions of how a just, low crime society might work.
Therefore, CjScotland aims to
- focus in-depth on Scottish criminal justice issues but without neglecting both the wider European and UK context;
- be a gateway to comprehensive information about Scottish criminal justice;
- offer a platform for official agencies, voluntary organisations, and others, or people affected by crime, to exchange information and publicise their projects, events and research findings;
- be useful for both the expert and general reader;
- to give record positive news about what works, at the same time as recognising the destructiveness of crime in our communities.
Funding
CjScotland was awarded a year’s grant by the Scottish Executive from September 2004. We have received grants from the Scottish Consortium for Crime and Criminal Justice the most recent being for £1000 for the year 2009-10. The Clarke Foundation for Legal Education awarded a grant in July 2006 to help with the maintenance of the Parliamentary section, the development of Human Rights coverage, and the digitisation of James Devon’s (1912) text The Criminal and the Community.
This is the only funding the site has attracted since start-up in October 2003, other than small sums for specific purposes from the universities of Strathclyde and Glasgow, and, from 2007, annual sponsorship of the ‘Events’ page by SASO, the Scottish Association for the Study of Offending.
We are very grateful for these donations.
To contact CjScotland please e-mail us at munro@cjscotland.org.uk
