The second volume on safeguards for young suspects has been published. It is the result of a large-scale research project funded by the European Union and with the participation of researchers from five jurisdictions, including Prof Jackie Hodgson. The project consists of a comparative empirical study of the different legal procedural safeguards in place in Belgium, England and Wales, Italy, Poland and the Netherlands.

The first part of the research project resulted in the publication of 'Interrogating Young Suspects - Procedural Safeguards from a Legal Perspective' (Panzavolta, M., de Vocht, D., Van Oosterhout, M. and Vanderhallen, M. (eds) (2015) Intersentia). The second volume has now been published: 'Interrogating Young Suspects: Procedural Safeguards from an Empirical Perspective' (Panzavolta, M., de Vocht, D., Van Oosterhout, M. and Vanderhallen, M. (eds) (2016) Intersentia). This second volume contains the results of the empirical research conducted in the five Member States consisting of focus group interviews and observations of recorded interrogations. These country reports are followed by an integrated analysis and a set of guidelines.

Both volumes are available on the project website under project publications http://youngsuspects.eu

CJC members Jackie Hodgson and Kevin Hearty have secured funding for the Centre for Operational Police Research with colleagues from other departments.

Professors Jackie Hodgson, Neil Stewart (Psychology) and Carsten Maple (WMG) have secured £40,000 from Warwick Strategic Impact Fund for collaborative work with the Metropolitan Police Service. The funding is set to help develop a network of academics and active police staff and officers around three central research projects.

Professor Jackie Hodgson and Dr Kevin Hearty, along with Associate Professor Kim Wade and Professor Neil Stewart (Psychology), have also secured £20,000 from the ESRC Impact Acceleration Account to collaborate with West Mercia and Warwickshire Police. The funded project: “We don’t buy crime” will develop and evaluate the impact of Smartwater technology and other preventive interventions on public confidence in and satisfaction with the policing of burglary.

The CJC is delighted to have been awarded funding by the ESRC to host an event as part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science on Saturday 14 November 2015.

The CJC multi-format event aims to bring together different perspectives on the experience of punishment, in order to raise awareness of, promote social science research on and generate debate on prisoner wellbeing and its consequences to criminal justice policy and practice. The full-day event will encourage an interactive open debate between academics and non-academics through drawing on a range of perspectives on the topic, from that of those responsible for formulating and implementing prison policy, and that of social scientists researching punishment and criminal justice, to that of those with first-hand, lived experiences of punishment within prisons. Interactive sessions will include: screening and discussion of the film ‘Herman’s House’ (a movie about the communication between an architect and a life prisoner in the US); a workshop run by the Empty Cages Collective about the conditions and experience of imprisonment in England and Wales; and an exhibition of prisoners’ creative self-expression (letters, photography, paintings, etc.) followed by discussion.

Criminal Justice Centre director Professor Jackie Hodgson and CJC researcher Juliet Horne have recently published their research report ‘Imagining more than just a prisoner: The work of Prisoners’ Penfriends’. The research examined the work of Prisoners’ Penfriends a small charitable organisation that facilitates and supervises letter-writing between prisoners and trained volunteers. Based on interviews and questionnaires with prisoners and volunteers, the report examines the workings of the scheme and concludes that it is likely to improve prisoner well-being and to raise prisoners’ chances of successful rehabilitation. The research has already attracted the attention of significant policymakers within the Ministry of Justice. Building on this interest, the research report will be formally launched to an audience of policymakers and practitioners in the House of Lords on Thursday 25th June. Speakers at the event include representatives from Prisoners’ Penfriends, Juliet Lyon of the Prison Reform Trust, Lynn Saunders Governor of HMP Whatton and Professor Hodgson.

The full report is available here: Prisoners' Penfriends Report

Dr Ana Aliverti has been awarded the British Academy Rising Star Engagement Award (BARSEA).

The BARSEA aims at providing an opportunity for early career researchers who have established their academic credentials as leaders in their field to enhance their skills and career development through playing a leading role in engaging others through the organisation of engagement events.

Ana is the co-host and leading organiser of a two-day international workshop entitled ‘Criminal adjudication in the age of migration’ to take place in March 2016 at the University of Oxford. This workshop will bring together leading international scholars and early career researchers from various countries, doctoral students, and British policy makers and practitioners to shed light on the relevance of citizenship and immigration status in criminal justice decision-making.

The theme of the workshop is associated to Ana’s current research project, funded by the British Academy and the Leverhulme Trust, which investigates the impact of immigration status and citizenship on the treatment of defendants before the criminal justice system.