News
Recap of CJC events in the AY 2025-26!
The Criminal Justice Centre organised and supported a range of events throughout the 2025–26 academic year. The programme included seminars with academics from across the UK, workshops with practitioners and victim support organisations, roundtables, book launches, and events bringing together researchers and PGRs.
In May, we organised the CJC PhD Conference 2026, themed: Criminal Justice in the Spotlight: Musings on Theory and/or Practice, which brought together PhD candidates from across the UK.
Other events included a book talk with Dr Daanika Kamal on her book focusing on the legal construction of “bad” and “mad” women in Pakistan, a talk led by Dr Arushi Garg on the role of respectability in rape prosecutions in India, and a book seminar by Dr Louise BranganLink opens in a new window on her recent book, The Fallen. CJC member Faye Claridge organised a range of collaborative sessions with Victim Support. We hosted a roundtable on critical and psychoanalytic approaches to criminal law and justice, as well as a book launch on the criminalisation of UK rap, grime and drill music, co-hosted with the Centre for Critical Legal Studies.
Stay tuned for similar events and new additions this academic year!
CJC Member to exhibit prison artwork in major British Library show.
Faye Claridge, a CJC memer, exhibit's her artwork in major shows Unearthed and We Roar.
CJC Member Silvia Gomes releases new book with co-author Dixie Rocker- Gender, Prison and Reentry Experiences - A Matter of Time
Silvia Gomes has released her new book today (30th April) with co-author Dixie Rocker- "Gender, Prison and Reentry Experiences- A Matter of Time".Link opens in a new window This book examines the reentry journeys of incarcerated men and women about to leave Portuguese prisons.
"Gender, Prison and Reentry ExperienceLink opens in a new window explores the gendered reentry experiences of incarcerated men and women who are about to be released from prisons in Portugal. It reveals how men and women narrate and attribute meaning to their time in prison and how they navigate their ‘prisoner’ and ‘gendered’ identities. In doing so, this book demonstrates the importance of these identities in relation to recidivism and desistance, whilst also questioning the role incarceration has in further criminalising and obstructing individuals’ reentry process. It puts forward recommendations that aim to improve the lives of all incarcerated individuals within the current system, in addition to advocating for decarceration and prison abolition. It presents a novel contribution to the internationalisation of knowledge across multiple disciplinary subfields, namely critical reentry studies and feminist criminology, filling a gap in the current knowledge as few studies focus on prison experiences as a core aspect of understanding the reentry process. An accessible and compelling read, this book will appeal to students and scholars of criminology, sociology, law, desistance studies, and those interested in gaining a unique insight into the experience of incarcerated individuals."
CJC member, Laura Lammasniemi, releases podcast episode on the concept of consent
CJC co-director, Henrique Carvalho, and CJC member, Anastasia Chamberlen, publish a book on the concept of punishment
The book pulls together discussions and research conducted collaboratively between Henrique and Anastasia over the past 10 years and has just been published (October 6th) by Routledge in their Criminology and Criminal Justice Series. Details are hereLink opens in a new window.
By drawing on a scholarship from law, sociology, criminology, and philosophy the book questions punishment as concept, social phenomenon and contemporary practice. It seeks to examine what are the assumptions underpinning its normalisation and legitimation in society and examines punishment’s targets, objectives and implications. The book also seeks to locate punishment and punitivity within their wider social-cultural contexts. It ultimately aims to unsettle the idea that there is something common-sensical, necessary and unavoidable about punitive justice.
As its title suggests, the book attempts to answer a series of questions, including what punishment is; who punishment’s targets and subjects are; how punishment is perpetuated and experienced; when and where punishment unfolds and finally, why we punish. It ends by considering the implications of this enquiry to understandings of punishment and broader pursuits of justice.