Public Perceptions of Childhood Criminality

Abstract

This paper begins with the Jamie Bulger murder in Britain in late 1993 and sets out to examine the sociological contexts of the waves of shock and reaction that were manifested in the public perceptions of this event. Traditional conceptions of the child through modernity and their social and moral implications for generating a particular view of innocence and dependency are considered as providing the baseline from which childhood today appears to drift. Public reaction is analysed in terms of mass media content, against a general ignorance of the actual child's point of view. The paper concludes with the broader idea that images of childhood have become closely aligned with expectations of social integration and any fracture of one subsequently threatens the other.

Reflections on the Sociology of Childhood in the UK

“…At present, there may be some divergence between the policy and political agendas that are current and scholarly agendas. Equally, a challenging question arises as to how the sociology of childhood should engage with these political agendas at a time when the capacity to be agentic as a child or young person is not seen in a very positive light in cultural terms (see also James and Jenks, 1996).…”

The Young Sexual Offender: managing ‘the dangerous’

“…This group, after all, perfectly captures the 'iconologically irreconcilable' (James and Jenks 1996) idea of dangerous children. As the Guardian put it: "Not even a world where a London headmaster is stabbed to death by teenagers at the school gate, and a toddler is abducted and killed by pre-teen children in Merseyside, prepares the public for primary school rape" (Guardian, 1998).…”

Who needs restraining? Re-examining the use of physical restraint in an English young offender institution

“…The history of youth justice reveals a persistent tendency to conceptualise juvenile offenders as 'other', as 'undeserving' and as a 'threat' (Fionda, 2005;Goldson, 2009, p. 96;Jenks, 1996, p. 128). They are essentially 'evicted' from the state of true childhood (Davis & Bourhill, 1997;James & Jenks, 1996), justifying the use of custodial sanctions (Fionda, 2005) but this leads to a profound 'indifference' (Goldson, 2006, p. 140) and 'insensitivity' (Goldson, 2009, p. 96) to the treatment of children in custody. Children are seen as prisoners in need of control, ultimately justifying the use of coercive force, which is seen, not as state-sanctioned violence, but as a legitimate form of corrective intervention (Goldson, 2009).…”