Drift, design and transition: A roundtable on vulnerable groups and the spaces of criminal justice

R. White, Y. Jewkes2 , A. Young3 *

University of Tasmania
University of Brighton
University of Melbourne

*corresponding author: ayoung@unimelb.edu.au

Criminology has long been interested in the spaces in which crimes take place and in which criminal justice is practised. Criminological researchers have studied disparate issues such as fear of crime in city spaces, environmental design as a crime prevention technique, and the impact of courtroom architecture upon the experiences of those who are judged or punished. In recent years, however, new ways have emerged for thinking about the spaces of crime and criminal justice, resulting in attention to the impact of design upon marginal groups and individuals, and to the ways in which space and place are not static but respond to fluctuations in economic and social realities. Jeff Ferrell has examined ‘drift’ as a (sometimes subversive) spatial phenomenon and also increasingly as caused by the strategies of criminal justice and neo-liberal policing. Yvonne Jewkes’s research has engaged with the powerful impact of design within prisons, and considers also the question of the prison as a space. Alison Young’s work examines new modes of citizenship forged within transitional spaces by marginalized individuals engaging in illicit or censured conduct.  In this roundtable, the participants will present brief accounts of the ways in which they understand design, drift and transition in their research in order to generate a conversation about how we might think through social vulnerability, space, and criminal justice.

Biography

Jeff Ferrell is Visiting Professor of Criminology at the University of Kent and author of Crimes of Style, Tearing Down the Streets, and, with K. Hayward and J. Young, Cultural Criminology: An Invitation. Yvonne Jewkes is Research Professor in Criminology at the University of Brighton, and author of Media and Crime, co-editor of the Handbook on Prisons, and a founding editor (with Jeff Ferrell) of Crime, Media, Culture. Alison Young is the Francine V. McNiff Professor of Criminology at the University of Melbourne and author of Street Art World, Street Art, Public City, The Scene of Violence, and Imagining Crime.