With over 1.5 million adults incarcerated each day in the United States, the development of successful criminal rehabilitation has now become imperative (Public Safety Performance Project, 2010). Higher education has emerged as a potential ‘solution’, with many undergraduate programmes for prisoners boasting lower rates of recidivism than any other rehabilitative programming available. This doctoral research is a mixed methods investigation of Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison, an undergraduate degree programme operating at a maximum-security correctional facility in the New York State. While most work in the field of prison education asks whether or not participation reduces recidivism, my research set out to discover how students engage with the processes of education – how they use the tools offered by membership in the social world of the prison college to reframe their understanding of their own experiences, what it means for their identities to be college students in the larger context of the prison, and how education changes their day-to-day lives and their plans for the future. My understanding is informed primarily by student writing data, generated through the facilitation of autobiographical writing workshops with two groups of men from the programme. Over the course of two ten-week sessions, students in these workshops constructed narratives describing their experiences in education both before and during their prison terms. These narratives define education as experiences of learning – allowing for inclusion of those lessons taught by the family unit and/or “in the street” – rather than just those activities involving school. The workshop process allowed me to build and maintain a significant degree of participant trust, as well as to ask for more clarification and detail as necessary in order to build a rich and thorough understanding of their stories and experiences. This understanding was also supported by six months’ worth of ethnographic and participant observation data, and a quantitative profile of every student Hudson Link has served during its twelve years in operation. Data analysis using a cultural-historical framework reveals that these students make sense of their lives using tools offered to them by the figured world of the prison college. Reinterpreting past experiences allows them to come to terms with their lives before prison. Identity reconstruction is achieved through guided authoring of personal change narratives, incorporation of education into the sense of self, and discoursal practices of academic English. These constructions of identity are used to reclaim the sense of agency that prison is designed to take away, which in turn influences student and graduate behaviour.

This thesis evaluated the new law since 2015 of the support services by Japanese Juvenile Classification Home (JCH) which is a detention facility for juveniles. The support services by the JCHs is providing psychological and educational individualized support who are facing crime-related or deliquency-related problems based on the requests from any individuals and organizations in community. It is based on the classification for the support services in the former law. This study also examined the role of population density among three categories of large, medium-sized, and small prefectures. The relationship between delinquent rates and support services for the juvenile population three years of before and after the new law among the three geographic categories was examined. Delinquent outcome rates significantly decreased among the geographic categories. By contrast, support services by the JCH rates significantly increased among all three geographic categories. Small and medium-sized had more the classification for support services and support services than large prefectures; their support services rate were higher than delinquent rates. With regard to common services, workshop (providing lecture or workshop to the group of people) was most major, institutional counseling (providing individualized services based on the request of organizations) was second, case conference (attending case conference of other organizations), and individual counseling(providing individualized services based on the request or individuals) was third. Most of these four types of services were provided more in small and medium-sized prefectures than large prefectures. The results supported the richness in social capital in small and medium-sized prefectures. Though this study did not examine the effects of support services by the JCH, but it suggested the needs in the community has been increased. Considering the basic characteristics of the support services, it could meet the Risk-Needs-Responsivity principle, but further information about the clients’ basic demographic, risk level, criminological needs and their responsivity is needed in the future.

With the expansion of the use of private prisons and detention centres worldwide and the increasing involvement of private actors in the provision of custodial services, this doctoral thesis considers life inside two private prisons in England. Using theoretically informed ethnography it evaluates the effect of responsibility on men imprisoned in two private prisons in England. Firstly, it briefly reviews the background and development of prison privatisation in England and Wales and considers the role and place of private prisons as part of a wider neo-liberal shift. Secondly, using qualitative data gathered inside two private prisons, it evaluates if these prisons, through their regimes, are trying to create responsible self-governing prisoners. The thesis reviews both, how regimes and practices in place in these two prisons attempt to forge responsible prisoners, and how individual men and groups of prisoners experience, feel about, cope with and assimilate penal messages of self-governance and responsibility. Finally, it questions both the impact of responsible prisoners for prisons and the impact of responsibility on prisoners and argues that, whilst there is a benefit to fostering environments in which prisoners are enabled to become responsible and self-governing, a careful balance must be maintained, as for some men the responsibility itself becomes characteristic of the "pain of imprisonment".

This thesis examines the interaction of criminal justice policy and social policy within the Prolific and Priority Offenders Scheme (PPOS), a government initiative which aims to reduce offending by persistent offenders. The research on which this thesis is based takes an interpretative approach to social inquiry and employs a qualitative methodology. It examines the operation of four PPO Schemes in the Thames Valley through semi-structured interviews with 22 practitioners and 16 offenders, and participant observation of over 45 multi-agency meetings. The interaction between crime and social policy is explored through examination of three aspects of the PPOS: the coercion of offenders within the Schemes; the working practices and roles of the police and probation officers seconded to the Schemes; and the way in which information and intelligence is used and generated within the Schemes. The central argument of this thesis is that the widely-accepted idea that social policy is being ‘criminalised’ provides an inadequate account of the relationship between criminal justice and social policy in the PPOS. Rather, this Scheme evidences a merger of criminal justice and social welfare agendas, which includes elements of the ‘socialisation’ of crime policy in addition to elements of ‘criminalisation’ of social policy. Whilst the ultimate aim of the PPOS is to reduce crime, and whilst social welfare services such as health, housing and benefits are provided in pursuance of this aim, the ways in which these services are provided accords with the ethos and values of social policy. The idea of a merger of criminal justice and social policy has relevance beyond the PPOS, providing a framework for analysis of other contemporary criminal justice policies, and contributing to broader debates in criminology which have for so long been dominated by the ‘criminalisation’ thesis.

La tesi si occupa del concetto di “riflessione critica” dell’autore di reato sull’illecito commesso. Secondo l’art. 27 d.P.R. 30 giugno 2000, n. 230, essa consiste in una riflessione dialogica concernente le condotte antigiuridiche e colpevoli, le correlate motivazioni, le conseguenze che discendono per l’autore medesimo e le possibili azioni di riparazione attuabili nella fase di esecuzione. La ricerca si sviluppa in cinque momenti: il primo capitolo focalizza l’attenzione sullo studio di un fondamento costituzionale del concetto di “riflessione critica”, anche al fine di una rinnovata lettura del finalismo rieducativo; il secondo capitolo mette in luce i punti di intersezione tra “riflessione critica” sull’illecito commesso e “teoria generale del reato”; il capitolo successivo offre una panoramica degli ostacoli e dei problemi operativi che impediscono la piena predisposizione di un modello responsabilizzante e che sollecitano ipotesi di riforma del sistema penale e penitenziario; nel quarto capitolo ci si sofferma sull’approfondimento delle premesse di un modello dialogico e riparativo di giustizia; quindi, il capitolo conclusivo si dedica a un’esplorazione dei confini e delle congruenze dei concetti di “rehabilitation” e “restorative justice”, per muovere oltre verso la considerazione di un modello di giustizia ispirato all’idea di “responsività” [John Braithwaite] e di “restorative justice dialogue” [Mark S. Umbreit]. In sostanza, lo studio mira a proporre un modello che faciliti, in modo dialogico e inclusivo, forme di responsabilità attiva nel settore penale. / The dissertation examines how offenders deal with “critical rethinking” on their crimes. According to art. 27 d.P.R. 30 June 2000, n. 230, it consists in a dialogical reflection on the wrongdoings they committed, their motivations, the consequences that follow on for the offenders themselves, and the possible reparations during the post-sentencing phase. The study is divided into five chapters. The first chapter focuses on the research for a constitutional basis of the “critical rethinking” and for a renewed understanding of the “finalismo rieducativo” (equivalent to the rehabilitative goal). The second chapter highlights the points of intersection between the “critical rethinking” and the “general theory of crime”. The third chapter summarizes the obstacles and the operative problems that hamper the implementation of this dialogical reflection and describes hints for a possible reform of the criminal justice system, particularly with regard to the post-sentencing phase. The fourth chapter proposes an in-depth analysis of some of the basic key-concepts for the introduction of a dialogical-restorative model of justice. Finally, the fifth chapter investigates the relationship between “rehabilitation” and “restorative justice” and takes into consideration a justice model that is inspired by “responsivity” [John Braithwaite] and “restorative justice dialogue” [Mark S. Umbreit]. By means of that, the study aims at providing a framework for an active assumption of responsibility in a more dialogical and inclusive culture.

This thesis is an anthropological study of Internet sexual offending, more specifically the viewing of child abuse media. It is based on 17 months of participant-observation in UK group programs for individuals who had downloaded illegal child abuse media, semi-structured interviews with participants, program staff, and police, and staff focus groups. Through engaging directly with offenders and those managing them, it provides an in-depth, qualitative understanding of how Internet use and perceptions of online spaces play a key role in Internet sexual offending, while also asking broader questions about online sociality, morality, and effects on normative behaviour. The central argument posits that in moving beyond commonplace explanations for Internet offending, more attention must be given to Internet use, perceptions and constructions of online spaces, and effects on social norms to explain this phenomenon. It then follows to suggest that for some offenders, these elements can be instrumental in their sexualization of children and choice to view abusive media. The thesis specifically explores why and how some people in the UK engage with illegal child abuse media, with particular attention to notions of risk, childhood, morality, and the Internet. Employing Foucauldian and neo-Foucauldian theory, anthropology of the Internet, and constructionist theories of childhood, focus is placed on multiple areas: the potential social, emotional, sexual, and Internet-specific factors associated with offending; participants' relationships with the Internet and constructions of online spaces; participants' perceptions of childhood and children online and offline; and, societal and institutional efforts to respond to the above, including the larger justice system and fieldwork group program. The general research areas are social science of the Internet, childhood studies, human sexuality, group therapeutic processes, policy and law, and research methodology and ethics.