Jo Deakin

The Reintegration of Sex Offenders: Barriers and Opportunities for Employment

The process of reintegration of offenders after release from prison, or during a community sentence, is a key aim of criminal justice policy. This article provides details from recent research that investigated the barriers and opportunities to employment for sex offenders. The authors describe the barriers that are faced by sex offenders and the anxieties that employers experience when employing sex offenders. The authors conclude that the approach taken by the State is less than reintegrative and serves to increase the barriers and reduce the opportunities for employment for sex offenders.

Women Behind Bars: Explanations and Implications

Increases in the womens prison population in the UK, in line with many other industrialised countries, is occurring at an alarming rate and yet the types of offences for which women are imprisoned and the lengths of sentences they receive suggest that most present little risk to society. However, the personal and social costs to these women and their families of being imprisoned, and the economic costs to society, can be immense. Through an analysis of official statistics, this article explores some possible explanations for the growth in female imprisonment set within the framework of effective practice with a particular emphasis on the actuarial approach to managing offenders.

Tough Choices: School Behaviour Management and Institutional Context

In the light of recent disciplinary reform in United States and United Kingdom schools, academic attention has increasingly focused on school punishment. Drawing on interviews with school staff in alternative and mainstream schools in the United States and the United Kingdom, we highlight differences in understandings and practices of school discipline. We argue that, in both countries, there is a mismatch between mainstream schools and alternative schools regarding approaches to punishment, techniques employed to manage student behaviour and supports given to students. While these disparities mirror what one would expect based on the distinct institutional arrangements and organizational priorities of alternative and mainstream schools, they pose particular problems for children transitioning between the two types of school. In this article, we raise a series of questions about the impact of these mismatches on children’s experiences and the potential for school disciplinary reform to achieve lasting results.

The Changing Landscape of School Discipline, Surveillance, and Social Control

This chapter provides an introduction to the key themes and focus of the The Palgrave International Handbook of School Discipline, Surveillance, and Social Control. Adopting an international perspective, it provides an overview of some of the notable shifts in approach and understanding in recent years. In this chapter, the editors introduce the structure and contents of the handbook and synthesise the contribution of this timely collection that brings together leading scholars from a wide spectrum of disciplinary backgrounds to tackle the most pressing developments and policy issues relating to school discipline and social control.

Safeguarding, Surveillance and Control: School Policy and Practice Responses to the Prevent Duty and the “War on Terror” in the UK

In this chapter we provide a critical analysis of counter-terrorism strategies (Prevent) in UK schools. We provide a critique of some key, and often controversial, aspects of the Prevent policy, from its introduction in schools, through to its implementation and outcomes. Research is limited, particularly in relation to students’ experiences of the strategy, but we review the existing evidence to provide some insights, as far as possible, into how Prevent has been received by teachers and students, its impact on the working practices of teachers, and the experiences of students and local communities subject to Prevent policy and practice. In so doing we raise questions about the implications of the Prevent strategy, in particular the heightened measures of security and surveillance, imposed upon teachers, students, and communities and point towards possibilities for future policy and practice.