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THREAD: Once again, we are seeing the need for a proper system of expungement for juvenile criminal records highlighted, but all we have seen is slight tinkering from government (usually because they have been compelled to by the highest court in the land)... https://twitter.com/theSCYJ/status/1303296129275133953
The question then arises - why the inaction on this important issue? In my view, there are multiple reasons/explanations. 1. Good old populist punitiveness (Ministers are terrified of scaremongering tabloid headlines about any 'relaxation' of the current criminal records regime.
2. Inability to break free from understanding this issue as being about a 'balance' between 'rehabilitation' v. 'public protection' as those these two ends are somehow mutually exclusive and part of a zero-sum game. I have lost count of how many times I've read/heard this.
3. The 'responsibilisation' agenda associated with neoliberal governmentality lends itself perfectly to the imposition of so-called 'collateral consequences' of a conviction. This egregious expansion of penality works on two levels....
4. Firstly, former lawbreakers are (perpetually) held 'responsible' through the restriction of their life chances & treated as 'failed subjects' who are unable to self-govern effectively and who must be subject to risk-oriented restrictions rather than treated as rights bearers
5. Secondly, employers and others are 'responsibilised' by being invited to conduct their own strategies to mitigate the risk of crime on their premises through the crude process of DBS checks on prospective employees.
6. The problem is that criminal records have limited utility as a crime prevention measure largely because their predictive validity tails off over time ( @weaver_beth has done a great summary of research on this here https://www.sccjr.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Weaver_SCCJR_2018_Time_for_policy_redemption_a_review_of_the_evidence.pdf) but also...
7... because the vast majority of people with convictions DO NOT go on to reoffend (the Ministry of Justice's own research demonstrates this https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/217474/criminal-histories-bulletin.pdf) Most offend once or twice, then settle down and do not appear in front of the courts again.
8. But 'what about the sex offenders?' comes the inevitable reply! Research by @rkarlhanson suggests that 'Similar time-free effects are found for both sexual and nonsexual offenses' ( https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0093854818793382?journalCode=cjbb&)
9. What is needed then is a radical rethink of the uses of criminal records and a more fair approach which allows for disclosure only where strictly necessary. I set out my thoughts on this here https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327405369_ALTERNATIVE_APPROACHES_TO_CRIMINAL_RECORDS_HOW_CAN_WE_ACHIEVE_JUSTICE_AS_FAIRNESS
10. Thank you for listening to my TED Talk! THREAD ENDS
