Beyond Criminology: Taking Harm Seriously

Crime forms only a small and often insignificant amount of the harm experienced by people. While custom and tradition play an important role in the perpetuation of some types of harm, many forms of harm are rooted in the inequalities and social divisions systematically produced in - and by - contemporary states. Exploring a range of topics including violence, indifference, corporate and state harms, murder, children, asylum and immigration policies, sexuality and poverty, the contributors raise a number of theoretical and methodological issues associated with a social harm approach. Only once we have identified the origins, scale and consequences of social harms, they argue, can we begin to formulate possible responses -- and these are more likely to be located in public and social policy than in the criminal justice system. The book provides an original and challenging new perspective that goes beyond criminology - one which will be of interest to students, teachers and policy makers.

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction 2. Beyond criminology? by Paddy Hillyard and Steve Tombs 3. Towards a political economy of harm: states, corporations and the production of inequality by Paddy Hillyard and Steve Tombs 4. Violence in democratic societies: towards an analytic framework by Jamil Salmi 5. A theory of moral indifference: understanding the production of harm by capitalist society by Simon Pemberton 6. State harms by Tony Ward 7. Re-orientating miscarriages of justice by Michael Naughton 8. The victimised state and the mystification of social harm by Joe Sim 9. The war on migration by Frances Webber 10. Workplace injury and death: social harm and the illusions of law by Steve Tombs 11. Prime suspect: murder in Britain by Danny Dorling 12. Gendering harm through a life course perspective by Christina Pantazis 13. Heterosexuality as harm: fitting in by Lois Bibbings 14. Children and the concept of harm by Roy Parker 15. Poverty, death and disease by Dave Gordon 16. Conclusion Notes on Contributors Index

About the Author :
Paddy Hillyard is a Professor of Sociology at Queen's University, Belfast. His research focuses on social order and control in modern welfare states, with particular attention to violence, criminality, poverty, and inequality. He has done extensive work on political violence in Northern Ireland and Britain and the attendant growth of police power. His recent work includes research not only in Northern Ireland but also South Africa and Lebanon. He is the co-author of Beyond Criminology: Taking Harm Seriously (Pluto Press). Christina Pantazis is Research Fellow in Social Justice at the University of Bristol. Steve Tombs is Head of the Department of Social Policy and Criminology at the Open University Dave Gordon is Professor of Social Justice at the University of Bristol.