Using data from an original qualitative study carried out during 2009-10 with a sample located in the north of England (NES), this article considers the satisfaction levels of black minority ethnic (BME) groups with a north of England police force (NEPF). The study sought to examine existing levels (as well as improve) satisfaction with police responses among BME populations. This was done by asking local BME communities about their encounters with NEPF, including how they felt the police should respond when they are a victim of crime and more broadly how the police could better engage with BME populations. What emerged in the responses was not just practical 'solutions' for 'better engagement' but a series of narratives that placed the broader historical and contemporary complexities, and recent developments of BME relations with the police into focus. The article begins by exploring current literature and claims to knowledge in the areas of problematic police responses, especially with the use of 'race' 1 in stop and search, and developments in communicating police progress. The literature setting the context draws upon case studies from the north of England but also more generally from across the UK, using examples that while geographically located beyond the NES context have had significant impact more broadly. The findings section discusses the qualitative data from the study and explores the emerging themes of communication and the local community nexus, disconnections from young people and police (ab)use of stop and search powers. The article highlights how in addition to actually policing in a fair way, direct and indirect communication plays a key role in satisfaction

No abstract

Reviewed by Samantha FletcherThe term ecocide dates back to the 1950s, but was more recently made popular and brought into the public consciousness anew by the late barrister and international campaigner Polly Higgins (1968Higgins ( -2019. Throughout her life's work, Polly Higgins sought to bring global recognition to the pressing matter of ecocide; the widespread, severe and systematic mass destruction of nature, the environment and its ecosystems. Higgins further campaigned to make ecocide part of criminal law and her ideas have been the catalyst for countless further campaigns and authored texts concerned with unpacking these very issues. Ecocide: Kill the Corporation Before it Kills us is born out of these concerns about the "deliberate destruction of our natural environment" (2) alongside "the entirety of threats to the sustainability of the planet: climate change, the ravaging of ecosystems, the eradication of species and the pollution of air, land and water." (3).What Ecocide: Kill the Corporation Before it Kills us offers its readers specifically is a comprehensive and coherent depiction of the inextricable relationship between the proliferation of the corporation and ecocide. For the regular reader of corporate crime and harm literature this will come as no surprise, as it has long been well documented that the very structure, essence and nature of the corporation is one of destruction, made manifest by its structured irresponsibility and negligence in multiple arenas. These facts are reiterated in the book and this is always something worth repeating, especially given the continued conspicuous absence and lack of accountability of the corporation in public debate, something which continues to serve to mask its protagonist role in environmental destruction (8). For readers familiar with other works from David Whyte and colleagues, the book's concern regarding the corporation and its role in relation to ecocide, both historically and contemporarily, are the natural continuations and expansions to an already well-established set of literature on the nature of the corporation. This book proposes a compelling, and I would argue, undeniable argument, through its rigorous and exceptionally well researched content, that averting the ecocide crisis will remain impossible whilst the corporation continues to dominate worldwide. This book demonstrates with all certainty, via a series of key illustrations, that the corporation is "probably as close as we could get to a model organisation that is capable of destroying our world." (3). To compound matters

The UK funeral industry is a frequently overlooked sector within critical policy discussions of State practice and welfare provision. In this article, we propose three ‘ideal types’ for making sense of State-Industry interactions: Explicit State Provision; Public-Private Legislation; and Corporate Capital. Situating these ideal types against the backdrop of austerity, we highlight three respective examples from the industry to evidence different roles performed by Funeral Directors (FDs), including: negotiations with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP); HM Coroner contract tendering; and larger scale processes of capital accumulation through the industry’s biggest provider, Dignity plc. Our analysis reveals that the funeral industry represents a nebulous political and moral economy whose local practices differ markedly, evidencing critical insights into the workings, both present and ‘absent’, of the neoliberal State.

No abstract