Karen Corteen

The formation of fear in gay space: the ‘straights' story:

It is well-known that lesbians and gay men have long been produced and examined as objects of fear. However, this article analyses lesbians and gay men as subjects of fear. This paper offers an exploration of the formation and uses of fear in the context of lesbian and gay experiences of danger and safety associated with violence. In so doing it explores the politics and geography of fear that inform lesbian and gay perceptions of danger and safety. The evidence provided is based upon an analysis of an established and a non-established arena of lesbian and gay performance and visibility/invisibility.

Schools' fulfilment of sex and relationship education documentation: three school‐based case studies

This article presents a critical evaluation of school policies, programmes of work and practices in three state secondary schools in one district in one local authority in England. They are evaluated regarding Sex and Relationship Education (SRE) documentation, statutory and non‐statutory from 1900 to the most recent SRE guidance introduced in July 2000 by the Department for Education and Employment. The article concludes that historically and contemporarily SRE documentation has mainly been inadequate and that in the three case studies legislative requirements concerning SRE policy and practice are predominantly not met. This is particularly the case regarding the most recent SRE guidance. Young peoples access to information was institutionally limited and partial. Within the three case studies there was a failure to equip children and young people with an appropriate knowledge and understanding of sexuality, which reflects their lives and the realities of a diverse society.

Reading the Word and Reading the World: The Impact of a Critical Pedagogical Approach to the Teaching of Criminology in Higher Education

Critical pedagogical approaches are underpinned by the principal that education is an inherently political process which should be concerned with enabling students to be reflective, independent, and critical thinkers. In this paper we argue that facilitating the development of a critical consciousness is an integral part of the teaching of critical criminology in higher education. We contend that it is essential if students are to recognize the broader social and political contexts of their own, and others’, lived experiences and thus be able to challenge political oppressions and domain ideologies. By drawing on a pilot study conducted with final‐year undergraduates from a university in the north west of England, the paper will demonstrate how a critical education (critical in terms of subject content, and teaching practice) can better enable students to develop both academically and, as importantly, with regard to their personal, social, and political consciousness.

In plain sight – examining the harms of professional wrestling as state-corporate crime

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore critically the potentially harmful business of professional wrestling in the USA as state-corporate crime. Design/methodology/approach This paper comprises desk-based research of secondary sources. The lack of official data on the harms experienced by professional wrestlers means that much of the data regarding this is derived from quantitative and qualitative accounts from internet sites dedicated to this issue. Findings A major finding is that with regard to the work-related harms experienced by professional wrestlers, the business may not be wholly to be blamed, but nor is it entirely blame free. It proposes that one way the work-related harms can be understood is via an examination of the political economic context of neo-liberalism from the 1980s onwards and subsequent state-corporate actions and inactions. Practical implications The paper raises questions about the regulation of the professional wrestling industry together with the misclassification of wrestlers’ worker status (also known as wage theft and tax fraud) and the potential role they play in the harms incurred in this industry. Social implications The potential wider social implications of the misclassification of workers are raised. Originality/value The originality and value of this paper is the examination of work-related harms within the professional wrestling industry through the lens of state-corporate crime.

Service user suicides and coroner's inquests

The expansion of victimology in the 1980s produced a more nuanced understanding of victims and victimisation. Yet responses of government, criminal justice agencies, media and general public to victims are predictably and predominantly focused on victims of ‘conventional crime’. We challenge this perspective, thus widening the victimological lens. We discuss the impact of self-inflicted deaths and subsequent coronial inquests on practitioners working on behalf of the state.