This thesis focuses upon the new rehabilitation of male prisoners within the context of idealised masculinity. Through the discourse analysis of written policy documents, this work addresses two fundamental questions: How is idealised masculinity constituted within political discourse and how does idealised masculinity influence the formulation of prison rehabilitation programmes? Idealised masculinity is defined as the heterosexual breadwinning role attributed to men as workers and providers for the family. It is this that is articulated within political discourses as a technique of government by which to reduce re-offending amongst the male prisoner population. Within the Foucauldian analysis of governmentality and Neo-Marxist theorising around Post-Fordism, idealised masculinity represent a form of governance that the state employs to inform its programme of managing the risks posed by offenders. This is evident through two particular pathways to reduce re-offending. Namely Pathway Two Education, Training and Employment and Pathway Six Children and Families. The argument presented is that current forms of punishment and imprisonment are characterised and defined within gender specific practices underpinned by the constitution of masculinity. The purpose of which is to reconstruct male prisoner’s attitudes and behaviour from that of deviant to non-deviant behaviour, from anti-social to pro-social values and through their moral and responsible reconstruction towards active, self-governing subjects. Thus the importance of maintaining family ties and the re-skilling and training of male prisoners to be able to compete within the labour market and obtain legitimate employment underpins political discourses surrounding penal concerns of the new rehabilitation. However governing at a distance and the state being unable or unwilling to place the children and family of offender’s on a formal footing and to effectively intervene to stimulate job creation activities within the labour market could mean that male prisoners are merely set up to fail.

This thesis is based upon empirical research, which explores how the police service in one Constabulary area has accommodated the mandate to work in crime prevention partnerships with other agencies, following the implementation of the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act. The focus is specifically upon crime and disorder reduction partnerships (CDRPs). The research is based upon a multi-method research design. It draws most heavily upon data obtained from semi-structured interviews with police officers holding varying experiences of crime prevention partnership working across one Constabulary area. It also analyses official documents, and draws upon the results of a short survey combined with the author's own relevant experiences as a serving police officer engaged within the partnership arena. The research is informed by a literature review, which examines the police service role in crime prevention alongside wider aspects of police reform and partnership working. The literature review suggests the police service has been drawn reluctantly into greater engagement with crime prevention, and that crime prevention competes, often unsuccessfully, against other aspects of policing, which have been promoted within the wider police reform agenda. It also suggests that partnership working in crime prevention has had a difficult and chequered history. Despite official efforts to encourage the adoption of 'critical success factors' in partnership working, such working has more usually encountered a range of obstacles, relating particularly to difficulties in inter-organisational relations, and the ambiguities contradictions and tensions, which have been an inherent feature of policy making in this area. The research upon which this thesis is based supports much of what is found in the literature, however, it also expands considerably upon the problems posed to partnership working by a range of 'intra'- organisational issues. In particular, certain features of the police organisational and occupational culture, which serve to Undermine partnership working by treating it more as a symbolic, legitimacy building function and by regarding it as out-of-place within a largely 'detectionist', 'here and now', dominant construction of policing. In addition, by introducing alternative lines of accountability' through to government offices, as well as to other agencies, partnership working, in the wake of the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act, provokes an internal organisational politics, which threatens to undermine the authority of police headquarters and has prompted a defensive internal response, which continues with the advent of Local Area Agreements (LAAs). Despite or even because of these problems, the police have tended to dominate local CDRPs i n the areas examined by the research. However, they have used such dominance largely to contain the threat to the culture and authority of the police, rather than to exploit the potential for genuine, proactive, problem-oriented partnership working.

No description available.

No description available.

In recent decades theories of late modernity place the criminal justice system in a time of change and perceive amongst the general population growing levels of insecurity and intolerance of crime and offenders. Along with government policy and practice, these developments are seen as contributing to an increasingly punitive system that imprisons more than ever before and seeks to punish and manage offenders in the community, rather than to attempt their rehabilitation. For these reasons, along with a loss of faith in rehabilitation, the probation service is described by many as becoming a law enforcement agency, charged by government with the assessment and management of risk, the protection of the public and the management and punishment of offenders, rather than their transformation into pro-social citizens. This study seeks to discover the extent to which a sample of practitioners within the National Probation Service for England and Wales and the National Offender Management Service ascribe to the values, attitudes and beliefs associated with these macro and mezzo level changes and how much their practice has changed accordingly. It examines offender assessment, case management and supervision and the enforcement of community sentences and post-custody licences, concluding that whilst this group of practitioners do not reject these new approaches outright, they interpret them in ways that may be seen to differ somewhat from those of government, mainly around the aims and purposes of probation practice, the enforcement of orders and especially the invasive influence of managerialism. Based on these data, it would appear that successive governments have not succeeded in completely transforming the culture of the service, nor in recruiting and training a 'new breed' of technicians concerned only to manage and punish offenders and protect the public. As a result, 'real practice' may not be developing in quite the way intended by government and may have more links to 'traditional' modes of practice than has sometimes been assumed.

The research found that empirical evidence of securitisation varies <italic> across</italic> the three policy levels and <italic>decreases</italic> as the empirical focus moves from policy 'talk' and 'decision' to the level of police practice or 'action'.

Money laundering activity in China emerged hundreds of years ago, although the concept of money laundering is recent terminology. The thesis provides an overview of money laundering history in China. This includes selected dynastic periods, the time between the creation of the People's Republic of China in 1949 and the beginning of economic reform, the resurgence of money laundering following the 1980s, and underground banking. It explores the money laundering 'problem' and contemporary responses in China. This includes discussion of the external pressures exerted by international bodies and agreements, including the influence of the United States, and an overview of the domestic Chinese response to the 'problem' of money laundering. Data collection methods included reviews of money laundering cases identified in newspaper and journal articles, and court cases. It also includes twenty (N=20) interviews with participants drawn from the fields of banking, police, security, entrepreneurs and members of the general public. These methods permitted the identification of twenty-three (N=23) cases that were subject to systematic analysis, and compared against international evidence on money laundering methods and predicate offences. Using the generic AML structure of prevention and enforcement components (Levi and Reuter 2006) that addresses the international standards, an effort is made to assess the potential impact of the AML regime in the context of China. The work concludes with discussion of the major themes that have emerged, and it offers recommendations for AML policy and further research on this topic.

No description available.

The object of this study is to provide an empirical account of the nature and scope of home invasion robbery, an emerging form of serious and organised crime in Canada. This is situated within the ongoing definitional debate of what constitutes organised crime. It is also contextualised with anomie theory to elaborate the impact of American Empire upon Canada through the intertwined vehicles of law and political economy. A case study of home invasion robbery is provided that illustrates the spectrum of criminal enterprise this phenomenon is linked to or represents. I also provide an analysis of the rise in the use of financial intelligence in Canada's fight against serious and organised crime, and the links this may entail with respect to home invasion robbery.

Participating residents actively interpret crime and disorder in relation to their representations of Atlantic Wharf as a place. Following Simmel's (1997) understanding of boundaries, the conceptual distancing of Atlantic Wharf from other places in relation to crime and disorder turns on a necessary connection with places near and far. The thesis shows that representations of crime and place inform and are informed by pedestrian practice. Empirical analysis reveals a tension between different ways of 'knowing' both crime and place relating to Ingold's (2000) concepts of navigation and wayfaring. This tension between direction 'from above' and finding a way through the neighbourhood landscape on the ground reveals processes of crime and place that are both mutual and mutable.