Posted: April 1st, 2015

Comparative Studies in Crime and Criminal Justice

Comparative Studies in Crime and Criminal Justice

Order Description

Answer 1 of the following:
1) From a comparative perspective, critically discuss EITHER community policing OR police use of force.
2) How should reform of the death penalty in China be best understood.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jth8z45h0HU P.A.J. Waddington discussing study of police use of force
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaH0KkYH_mQ Human Rights Watch testimony to US Congress…police in Brazil…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LG473XqIRc Kettling tactic England ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycxDF6Dxz2U Empire work..Kenya (MauMau revolt)..23.3 mins into video. You may also be interested in “Britain’s Gulag” by Caroline Elkins, “Histories of the Hanged” by David Anderson and “Web of Deceit” by Mark Curtis which all look at the Mau Mau revolt in Kenya in the 1950s.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-21478485 Taser use of force

PPT slides uploaded, and Kutateladze video linked.
Besiki Kutateladze Is America Really So Punitive?, explores multidimensional measurement of state punitiveness to explore how harsh some state penal policies are compared to others. Punitiveness was measured with 44 variables, including average prison sentences, life imprisonment, whether a state used the death penalty, prison conditions, juvenile justice policies, and so on. Kutateladze’s examination of these variables revealed that Florida was the most punitive, and Maine was the least punitive. The data also suggest that the American South is highly punitive, the West and the Midwest moderately punitive, and the Northeast the least punitive of all the regions.
Please read Tonry / Brodeur and others for analytical approaches to the complexities of explaining comparative punitiveness.
Two different analyses on the influence of religion on punishment can be seen in Melossi (2001) where he writes of the importance of ‘cultural embeddedness’ and Savelsberg (2004), who takes a more institutional view. Papers uploaded.