Lecture 1 Introduction; Why is a historical imagination important to understanding crime and criminology PDF

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Introduction; Why is a historical imagination important to understanding crime and criminology...

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Why is a historical imagination important to understanding crime and criminology? We live in a society where it is so much easier to access information, but can we trust it? Assessment         

Book review (1000 words) due 19 November 2019 (40% of total mark). 1 x 2 hours end of module Multiple Choice Question (MCQ) examination (60% of total mark). In the event of failure caused by poor performance in assessments, re-assessment is in the form an MCQ examination (weighted at 100%) in the August 2020 supplementary period. Essential book you must purchase for this unit: Pearson, G. (1983), Hooligan: A History of Respectable Fears, London: Pearson An overview of the main argument: main themes and issues Present alternative viewpoints to the one taken, providing references as appropriate. This can be direct challenges to Pearson, and theoretical alternatives to the one taken by Pearson. An assessment: strengths and weaknesses. What did you find interesting and illuminating about the book and the reverse? To help write the book review: o Book Review Symposium: Jeff Ferrell, Keith Hayward and Jock Young (2008), Cultural Criminology: An Invitation, London: Sage. o Reviews by Stephen Lyng, Peter K Manning, Angela McRobbie, and Craig Webber Sociology, December 2011; vol. 45, 6: pp. 1126-1133.

The Sociological Imagination – justification for why we need sociology to see the world  

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C. Wright Mills (1959) Nowadays people often feel that their private lives are a series of traps. They sense that within their everyday worlds, they cannot overcome their troubles, and in this feeling, they are often quite correct. What ordinary people are directly aware of and what they try to do are bounded by the private orbits in which they live; their visions and their powers are limited to the close-up scenes of job, family, neighbourhood; in other milieux, they move vicariously and remain spectators. And the more aware they become, however vaguely, of ambitions and of threats which transcend their immediate locales, the more trapped they seem to feel. (opening of chapter 1, p.3) In our daily lives, we just go through the motions, get up, go to work, eat, go to sleep etc and we never seem to go beyond that limited vision and we feel trapped In 1959 individuals did not have social media, so now have globalisation, however can argue there is a social media bubble (the algerhythm chooses what it shows) – echo chamber – also may not be looking at the people you don’t want to look at Also individuals can be trapped in their areas, such as social mobility, leading to individuals not being able to move out of certain areas – poverty What the public did – wanted to kick the establishments e.g. Brexit Solution?

The Criminological Imagination?   

Jock Young (2011) Draws heavily on C. Wright Mills Argues for the role of historical context in order to understand the individual – we cannot understand how one person, one group, one class etc thinks or feels without understanding the world in which they live

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Links this to inequalities and the power of political elites to shape the agenda e.g. Trump didn’t have the whole population voting but he is shaping America – rich are getting richer and poor getting poorer Argues for a transformative politics to make a difference – the left cannot fight the gap e.g. more money for NHS but vote conservative Habitus – history embodied – history in us (Bourdieu) personal history becomes embodied e.g. bullies. Individuals will perform certain behaviours due to their history Barnum – convinced people to believe in things that weren’t true e.g. horoscopes

The Historical Imagination       

Why is History important? E.H. Carr (1961), What is History? History provides a collective memory – no media, live in filter bubbles But this is often contested (like real memory) Provides lessons to prevent mistakes in the present – harsher sentences have been shown to no work e.g. harsher sentences for rape (closer to manslaughter) would just kill them Need better techniques of rehab and prevention e.g. teaching boys not to rape Provides a sense of where you are in the world based on where you and your society have come from...