The construction of ‘So What?’ criminology: a realist analysis

Matthews, Roger

doi:10.1007/s10611-010-9249-2

Cited by 14 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…'Culture' is difficult to measure, which means it is difficult to research, and by extension, difficult to absorb into practice in the same way one might adopt a new risk measure or therapeutic procedure. Furthermore, social systems are open and complex, and it can be difficult to isolate components of interest under controlled conditions as may occur in the natural sciences63 . Whereas empirical knowledge is concerned with laws, cultural observation and engagement demands an interpretive focus in order to elicit meaning.Practices: Prioritised v. privileged The use of actuarial tools of risk prediction is an essential and routine component of risk assessment practice, reflecting a conclusion made by Quinsey, Harris, Hart, and Cormier's 64 conclusion that actuarial methods are 'too good and clinical judgement too poor to risk contaminating the former with the latter'.…”

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confidence: 99%

Culture is our business: Issues and challenges for forensic and correctional psychologists

Tamatea

2016

Australian Journal of Forensic Sciences

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Psychology has made significant advances in the development of more empirical, standardised, and consistent approaches to the prediction, assessment, and treatment of offending behaviour. However, crime occurs in a cultural context. Similarly, forensic and correctional psychology derive from a cultural basis that privileges certain types of knowledge and promotes certain forms of practice that are incommensurate with the outlook and realities of some offenders and their communities. While there is an emerging literature on ethnicity and race in criminal justice psychology, very little research that addresses culture is published. The reasons for this knowledge gap are complex, not least because the worldviews of indigenous and diverse communities do not superimpose neatly onto current best-practice models of risk assessment or offender rehabilitation. Given Australia and New Zealand's commitment to the involvement and wellbeing of indigenous peoples as well as the shared experience of progressively more pluralistic societies, it is argued that there is a critical need to bring the somewhat disparate domains of forensic psychology and culture into conversation with a view to informing policy and practice. The example of risk assessment is used to illustrate some of the complexities of working with cultural difference. Central to this article is a call for a culturally-engaged and proactive philosophy of practice that embraces the needs of diverse offenders, victims, and communities.

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confidence: 99%

Culture is our business: Issues and challenges for forensic and correctional psychologists

Tamatea

2016

Australian Journal of Forensic Sciences

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“…That is, there is an increasing number of publications that are weak theoretically, employ dubious methodologies Matthews: Yeah… "So what?" criminology… [Matthews 2009[Matthews , 2010.…”

Section: Cordeiromentioning

confidence: 99%

“Through Roger Matthews' eyes"

Machado¹,

Cordeiro²

2022

Oñati Socio-Legal Series

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Roger Matthews was a British criminologist renowned as a left realist. He was Professor of Criminology at the University of Kent and was part of the National Deviancy Conference. In this interview, Matthews presented a brief context of the British socio-criminological academia in the 1970’s and on. He showed us the academic network between North American and British academics and the rivalry among them. Afterwards, Matthews talked about his impressions on European and Latin American Criminology. His statements led us to reflect about recent debates in the Brazilian criminological field and alert us of some limits of a marginal criminology.

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“…Critical realism’s nuanced understanding of social reality and causal mechanisms makes it unsuitable for general theory-building or testing, but appropriate for critical enquiry. Roger Matthews (2010, 2014), for example, has long argued that a critical realist approach could address the fundamental theoretical inadequacies of both traditional and critical criminology, reversing what he sees as a worrying drift towards empiricism. A further reason to found zemiology on critical realism is the latter’s understanding of the causal power of absence.…”

Section: A Zemiology Of the Bordermentioning

confidence: 99%

States of exception, human rights, and social harm: Towards a border zemiology

Soliman

2019

Theoretical Criminology

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Crimmigration, that is, the merging of criminal and migration law, is receiving increasing attention within criminology. However, while crimmigration widens our understanding of coercion and punishment, it is a reductive lens through which to make sense of migration control. This article comprises three parts: first, I critique the concept of crimmigration, its conceptual foundations, and its methodological limitations. Second, I explore how migration control practice transcends both the state’s territory and sovereignty, using the example of the European Union’s policy of non-assistance, and argue that this policy evidences the need to move beyond crime-based categories in favour of a social harm-based approach. Lastly, I propose a zemiological methodology for the study of migration control, based on a critical realist view of society and building on Nancy Fraser’s idea of social justice. The resulting framework provides a coherent and empirically useful tool for the study of border-related harms.

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The construction of ‘So What?’ criminology: a realist analysis

Cited by 14 publications

References 37 publications

Culture is our business: Issues and challenges for forensic and correctional psychologists

Culture is our business: Issues and challenges for forensic and correctional psychologists

“Through Roger Matthews' eyes"

States of exception, human rights, and social harm: Towards a border zemiology

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