The Crime and Justice Research Collection
This discussion explores the role and value of criminology, and academia more broadly, in a democratic society. The recent publication by Ian Loader and Richard Sparks, Public Criminology?, is taken as the starting point for discussion, and after outlining some of the key points of the book, participants respond with their own experiences and perspectives.
Beth Weaver is lecturer at the Glasgow School of Social Work, University of Strathclyde. Here she talks about research she has been working on with Sarah Armstrong (University of Glasgow) entitled 'What the punished think of their punishment'. The research involved speaking with 35 men and women ranging in age from 19 to 55 about their experiences of punishment. The aim was to accurately describe the experience for offenders of doing a short sentence, in prison or the community. Here Beth talks about the key findings from the research and the implications for policy and practice.
Fiona Mitchell is the co-ordinator for the Scottish Child Care and Protection Network (http://withscotland.org/). In this clip she talks about an evaluation to explore the most effective ways of delivering Return Home Welfare Interviews (RHWI) for young runaways, which Fiona was involve in along with Margaret Malloch and Cheryl Burgess (University of Stirling) and Vanessa Chan, Jane Eunson, Lorraine Murray (IPSOS Mori Scotland).