Criminology and Criminal Justice current issue

'Urban safety, anti-social behaviour and the night-time economy'

Crawford, A., Flint, J. — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 01:00:53 PDT

The contemporary city is a contested space and its governance is the subject of complex global economic forces, local interests and political struggles as well as a response to the changing face of governing alliances in residential and commercial areas, forms of consumption, commercially-generated crime and disorder and cultural expressions of leisure. This article seeks to provide a thematic introduction to the manner in which the regulation of contemporary British cities has been influenced by concerns with tackling anti-social behaviour and promoting civility. It argues that in governing urban safety, the normative governmental agendas that seek to remoralize and cleanse city spaces and promote certain values of appropriate consumer-citizen, often clash with commercially-driven imperatives to (excessive) consumption and the allure of cities, for some, as places of difference that exhibit relaxed normative constraints; most notably in the night-time economy. It argues that the manner in which these forces are played out is conditioned by the interplay between different actors and organizations, as both regulators and regulated, some of whom have assumed new responsibilities in the governance of urban safety. The resultant pressures have produced mixed experiences of the city as a meeting place for loosely connected strangers, as a place of indulgence and as a place of cultural expression.

Social landlords and the regulation of conduct in urban spaces in the United Kingdom

Flint, J., Pawson, H. — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 01:00:53 PDT

Social landlords in the United Kingdom are embedded in governance regimes that regulate citizens’ conduct, including addressing antisocial behaviour. This article seeks to contribute to the literature on the geography of regulating conduct through examining the spatial dimensions of social landlords’ attempts to influence behaviour, and to map the range of technologies and measures utilized by social landlords on to particular urban spaces. Two spaces are identified: the property and its vicinity, and the wider neighbourhood. The article argues that social landlords have been engaging in increasingly intensive regulation of the private and domestic arena of the home as well as expanding their role in the regulation of spaces and populations within and beyond residential neighbourhoods.

Repertoires of distinction: Exploring patterns of weekend polydrug use within local leisure scenes across the English night time economy

Measham, F., Moore, K. — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 01:00:53 PDT

Presented here are the first findings of self report surveys of prevalence of illicit drug use by customers in the night time economy of a large English city. Five random sample surveys conducted with dance club customers and three similar surveys with bar customers identified an association between illicit drug use, entertainment type and venue type. First, club customers were significantly more likely to report lifetime, past month and fieldwork night drug use than bar customers. Second, distinct and prolific polydrug repertoires were associated with the genres of electronic dance music favoured within different clubs, along with evidence of the growing popularity of emergent drugs such as MDMA powder. Such polydrug repertoires support the notion of culturally, spatially and pharmacologically distinct local leisure scenes operating within the contemporary night time economy; rather than the same broad mass of customers choosing different leisure experiences on different occasions, or the more fluid, ‘neo-tribal’ cultural groupings suggested by some. The article concludes by suggesting that prolific and enduring weekend polydrug repertoires within local leisure scenes increasingly polarize such scenes from drug use in the general population, with implications for policing and governance, alongside the need for a more nuanced understanding of the night time economy as an analytical concept in social research.

'This town's a different town today': Policing and regulating the night-time economy

Hadfield, P., Lister, S., Traynor, P. — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 01:00:53 PDT

This article considers recent policing and regulatory responses to the night-time economy in England and Wales. Drawing upon the findings of a broader two-year qualitative investigation of local and national developments in alcohol policy, it identifies a dramatic acceleration of statutory activity, with 12 new or revised powers, and several more in prospect, introduced by the Labour Government within its first decade in office. Interview data and documentary sources are used to explore the degree to which the introduction of such powers, often accompanied by forceful rhetoric and high profile police action, has translated into a sustained expansion of control. Many of the new powers are spatially directed, as well as being focused upon the actions of distinct individuals or businesses, yet the willingness and capacity to apply powers to offending individuals in comparison to businesses is often variable and asymmetrical. The practice of negotiating order in the night-time economy is riddled with tensions and ambiguities that reflect the ad hoc nature and rapid escalation of the regulatory architecture. Night-time urban security governance is understood as the outcome of subtle organizational and interpersonal power-plays. Social orders, normative schemas and apportionments of blame thus arise as a byproduct of patterned (structural) relations.

Planning, urban design and the night-time city: Still at the margins?

Roberts, M. — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 01:00:53 PDT

The planning system was constrained by a neo-liberalist insistence on land-use planning in the 1980s and early 1990s, thereby providing the institutional framework for deregulation of the numbers, capacities and types of licensed premises in town and city centres. This had a direct impact on levels of crime, violence and anti-social behaviour. Criminologists have criticized planners for their complicity in this process. The article argues that entertainment uses have been marginal to the social and ecological preoccupations of the planning profession. It suggests that the reintroduction of spatial planning by the New Labour government has allowed planners to reassert social and environmental objectives into their development plans and potentially to introduce a greater degree of regulatory control. The article examines the changes to the planning system and its complex relation to licensing. Finally, it questions whether this new opportunity for planners to intervene will be realized in the current economic downturn.

Controlling the 'anti sexual' city: Sexual citizenship and the disciplining of female street sex workers

Sanders, T. — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 01:00:53 PDT

This article makes connections between the politics and policies relating to prostitution and anti social behaviour, with the construction of sexual citizenship. Through an analysis of what I have termed policing the ‘anti sexual’ city, I argue that new social technologies of control applied by a range of policing agencies include a gendered and sexual dimension to enforce ‘appropriate’ conduct among those considered to be sexually ‘disordered’ and ‘uncivil’. I apply the concept of public patriarchy to the case of the management of female street prostitution, through New Labour’s insistence on an eradication and ‘exiting’ agenda. I argue that ‘forced welfarism’, through anti social behaviour mechanisms, are used to enforce ‘correct’ sexual citizenship through the tools of public patriarchy. Mechanisms of coercion, rehabilitation, and responsibilization are applied to sex workers through the contradictory narratives of ‘victim’ and ‘offender’ that are played out in policy and practice. In summary, I argue that anti social behaviour policies that implement contractual governance have become a vehicle for ensuring that the benchmarks of sexual citizenship are maintained through the politics of inclusion and exclusion.