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The article investigates the role of transnational criminal groups in migration governance. Although this topic has attracted increasing global attention due to the intersection of migration management and crime, academic research remains limited. Most studies tend to view criminal groups merely as threats to migration governance or as peripheral actors. The article advocates for a significant paradigm shift in conventional debate on transnational governance. Rather than merely viewing criminal groups as global challenges for various actors to tackle, we should acknowledge them as pivotal actors influencing these challenges. Based on empirical research on migrant smuggling and human trafficking in the Greece and Libya, the article sheds more light on the complex relationships between these criminal actors, state actors and other key stakeholders in migration governance. It shows how criminal groups not only disrupt but also actively shape migration governance, and may even play a crucial role in the functioning and reproduction of its legal apparatus. In so doing, the article transcends both mainstream perspectives that view crime as a mere challenge to migration governance and critical studies that frame the role of crime in migration governance solely in terms of a state-driven process of ‘criminalization’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay analyzes the affective and intimate dimensions of the criminalization of solidarity towards migrants. The core argument is that the criminalization of solidarity is a form of governance that acts through affectivity. It is mainly a way of containing migration by trying to govern the emotions of citizens, fostering feelings of hostility and fear while discouraging feelings of solidarity and empathy. The data that will be discussed comes from broader ethnographic research, investigating the affective transformations in solidarity networks supporting migrants. Data collection took place between 2020 and 2021 in Turin and Florence, Italy. It will be shown how, in the everyday life of supporters, the most pervasive forms of criminalization do not come from political discourse, but rather from the people to whom they are most attached (friends, partners, siblings, parents, etc.). This is the intimacy of criminalization. The situated, vernacular, and more socio-psychologically painful form of criminalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intensive police raids targeted southern German asylum camps in 2018. The police accused black men of rioting against deportation enforcement, and local courts prosecuted numerous individuals. This article examines three such raids as political policing during a time of a strong yet contested state mandate for deportations. Drawing on observations of court proceedings, police and court statements, and ethnographic fieldwork conducted over several years with West African residents of these camps, I analyse how the police and courts intervened in local conflicts over deportation. As these authorities sought to restore deportability, emotions, particularly fear, functioned as a vital supplement to exercising state violence. By criminalizing protest and solidarity among the migrants and spreading fear, the raids drove many to leave the centres. The police and courts also performed fear as they depicted black, dangerous 'others' as endangering law enforcement and the 'Nation'. This contributed to the broader deportation agenda and produced race by normalizing migrants' exposure to deportation and policing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dobbs v.Jackson Women's Health Organization took the unprecedented step of revoking a constitutional right that citizens had relied upon for half a century. The opinion created a legal chaos with no clear answers to medical crises. It also targets victims who are particularly vulnerable due to financial, medical, or legal constraints. This article examines what groups have become legal targets in the wake of Dobbs, including medically compromised patients, the intellectually disabled, immigrants, and doctors. Also discussed are those who cause abortion but have not been targeted by Dobbs (such as biological fathers and criminals who commit acts of rape or incest). A discussion of who is doing the targeting examines officials acting in a law enforcement capacity and "civilians" who have financial incentives to target vulnerable victims. Recommendations are made for effective abortion policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay discusses the issue of body repatriation as it is dealt with in Kamila Shamsie's 2017 novel Home Fire. Part of this modern rewriting of Sophocles' Antigone deals with the protagonist Aneeka's attempts to have the remains of her twin brother, Parvaiz, repatriated from Pakistan to England – as the siblings have always lived in London. Yet Parvaiz has been characterized as a terrorist by the British government and the repatriation of his body has thus been rejected by the Home Secretary. Drawing on Judith Butler's work on public mourning and grievable lives, I will show how Shamsie's novel offers a form of literary reparation regarding the death of a character that can be mourned neither privately nor publicly. Such reparation operates in at least two ways: it relies on the corporealization of its Muslim subjects as if what was at stake was to counter their invisibilization in society – the fact that Karamat Lone will not have the body repatriated, which complicates the mourning process; it also occurs through Shamsie's use of intermediality. The omnipresent screens and media, instead of documenting the situation in an exhaustive way, add further distance between the Muslim subjects and us, readers, which counters the risk of the former becoming prone to public consumption. Shamsie's novel also offers an acknowledgement of the extent to which the death of a relative occurring in a migratory context has forcible impact upon the ways of mourning and remembering the departed, as far as the bereaved family members are concerned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our study examined the association between HIV disclosure without consent and verbal and/or physical violence due to HIV status among women living with HIV (WLWH). This study draws on baseline data of a sample (N = 316) from SHAWNA, a longitudinal community-based open cohort with WLWH in Metro Vancouver, Canada (2010-2019). Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression was used to investigate factors associated with physical and/or verbal violence due to HIV status. Adjusted odds ratios (AOR) and 95% confidence intervals [95%CIs] are reported. In total, 46.5% experienced non-consensual disclosure of HIV status without consent and 34.2% experienced physical and/or verbal violence related to HIV status in their lifetime. In multivariable analysis, HIV disclosure without consent was associated with increased odds of experiencing HIV-related physical and/or verbal violence (AOR: 7.46[4.21-13.21]). Lifetime exposure to homelessness was also associated with increased odds of physical and/or verbal violence due to HIV status (AOR: 2.15[1.03-4.49]). This research underscores the reality of HIV stigmatization and criminalization and suggests a critical need to remove HIV disclosure from the reach of criminal law and ensure women's rights to confidentiality. Governments and organizations must work to identify and address the drivers of various levels of stigma and gender-based violence and invest in inclusive, trauma-informed, culturally safe support and care programs and policies designed in collaboration with WLWH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractHistorically, public and political discourse around people who nonmedically use opioids has largely been rendered via a deficits-oriented lens, presenting this population as weak, disinterested, and deviant,and thus undesirable and ill-positioned for wellness and communal integration. These narratives, and subsequent policies used to engage people who use opioids, are intermittently formed and disrupted by geopolitical changes, as public and institutional attitudes, often driven by racial and class-related considerations, shift. As part of what we term the crimedical cycle, a population’s behaviors fluctuate between periods of medicalization and criminalization. Strengths-based theory, an offshoot of ‘positive psychology’ that helps contextualize the crimedical cycle, emphasizes the value of recognizing and affirming the inherent and learned skills that individuals possess and can leverage toward self-actualization. A strengths-based orientation and approach to clinical praxis is particularly critical in improving the health and well-being of populations, namely those who nonmedically use opioids, that are highly criminalized and disenfranchized through social and public policy. However, strengths-based theory is underdeveloped in addiction medicine, despite it having deep roots in the treatment field. This ongoing omission engenders narratives around opioid use that congeal to propel the stigmatization, over-policing, economic marginalization, and poor health of those who use opioids. This article discusses the historical trajectory of views and attitudes on opioid use and presents a model that advances strengths-based approaches to engaging this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Context Methods Findings Conclusions In March 2020, British Columbia introduced the Risk Mitigation Guidance (RMG) to enable the prescription of pharmaceutical substitutes for the unregulated drug market to decrease overdose deaths and COVID-19 infections. This study presents health planners’ perspectives on the RMG adoption within a medicalized system of care.We conducted interviews with 28 health planners to obtain their views on implementation. We undertook a thematic analysis, drawing on the theory of medicalization to analyze and interpret findings.We identified four themes regarding the implementation of the RMG within a medical model: (1) The medical model as expeditious and pragmatic; (2) Increasing medicalization of safer supply in response to prescriber tensions and distress; (3) Intersecting harms to people who use drugs; (4) Recommendations for additional safer supply models, decriminalization and regulation.Health planners recognized and often problematized the over-medicalized nature of current safer supply models. Challenges with medicalization include privileging dominant ideologies (e.g. biomedicine), exerting social control, and perpetuating inequities. Greater attention to the relationships between harm reduction, medical, and criminal justice models in drug policy is needed to avoid compromises of medicalization within criminalization. Grassroots harm reduction may be critical in advancing safer supply beyond medical models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Objectives Methods Results Conclusions \nHIGHLIGHTS To evaluate whether a history of incarceration was associated with increased odds of suicidal ideation and suicide attempts, and to determine if this association was further strengthened when combined with a history of solitary confinement.We collected cross-sectional data from a general population sample in New York City and Baltimore in March 2017. Participants were categorized based on their history of incarceration and solitary confinement: (1) no incarceration, (2) incarceration-only, and (3) incarceration plus solitary confinement. We compared these three groups, utilizing hierarchical adjustments for sociodemographic factors and adverse childhood experiences. Missing data were accounted for utilizing multiple imputation via chained equation.A total of 1221 individuals were analyzed. Those who experienced both incarceration and solitary confinement consistently had higher odds of suicidal ideation (OR, 2.80; 95% CI, 1.43 to 5.48) and suicide attempts (OR, 6.98; 95% CI, 2.77 to 17.61) than never incarcerated individuals. Those who experienced incarceration without solitary confinement had higher odds of suicide attempts (OR, 3.77; 95% CI, 1.35 to 10.56) than never incarcerated individuals, whereas this association was not evident for suicidal ideation. Solitary confinement increased the odds of suicidal ideation even compared to incarceration without solitary confinement (OR, 2.71; 95% CI, 1.09 to 6.74).Our findings support the need to address the higher likelihood of suicide-related outcomes among those in contact with the criminal justice system, and to consider alternatives to solitary confinement. Those who experienced both incarceration and solitary confinement had higher odds of suicidal ideation and suicide attempts than never incarcerated individuals. Solitary confinement increased the likelihood of suicidal ideation, even more so than incarceration without solitary confinement. Those who experienced both incarceration and solitary confinement had higher odds of suicidal ideation and suicide attempts than never incarcerated individuals.Solitary confinement increased the likelihood of suicidal ideation, even more so than incarceration without solitary confinement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we explore the twisted consequences of the worldwide turn toward prohibitive policies and criminalization in conservation. We argue that tackling environmental challenges with legal repertoires that are coercive and punitive in nature increases criminalization and produces insidious and overt forms of violence. Tough-on-crime measures aimed at curbing illegal logging advance social vulnerabilities, further marginalizing already disenfranchised rural populations. Also, such measures trigger the formation of a culture of patronage, secrecy, fear, and anger, which facilitates the rise of forest violence. Transformations of forest use under increasingly harsh regimes of conservation have been documented worldwide, but these processes in Eastern Europe have received far less scholarly attention. Here we explore forest criminalization in Romania after it became a member state of the European Union, looking at different groups of alleged wrongdoers: petty community users, local forestry businessmen, and forestry officers. Drawing on interviews with forestry and conservation actors, media analysis, and ethnographic research of communities for which illegal logging was an everyday reality, we show how criminalization escalated into insidious forms of violence and the deepening of rural vulnerabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research investigating how trans women come to be criminalized is limited. In this article, using a feminist pathways approach, we explore phu-ying-kham-phet (Thai trans women's) narratives of their journeys to prison. Results show several common threads of discrimination, oppression, marginalization, and harm in their backstories. These encompassed adverse childhood experiences, such as abuse, familial disavowal of feminine gender expression, separation from parents, and impoverishment. During adulthood, discrimination in the labor market was common, as was substance dependence, earning a living in the underground economy, criminal (in)justice system mistreatment, and, for some, domestic violence victimization. In addition to identifying common features in the life histories of imprisoned phu-ying-kham-phet, we mapped the circumstances, experiences, and events that culminated in their imprisonment. Three distinct pathways to prison were found: 1) criminalized lives, 2) normative lives, and 3) other. Many of the central mechanisms constituting these trajectories aligned with previous cisgender feminist pathways studies. However, features unique to the imprisonment journeys of phu-ying-kham-phet were also identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern times are marked by the march of preventive theories of punishment. Prevention is a promise of benefit, of social utility, as accordingly the practices of punishment promise us an impact on future offending. Preventionism has often been understood as a problem and even as a threat, since setting such a vague goal on our criminal law and criminal justice, we might risk loosening all the limiting principles concerning what can be done by means of criminal law. It is precisely these concerns that have triggered a growing interest in the topic. In the following, we will first present some historical lines of development which have prepared us for a turn towards prevention. Interventionist policies of the state towards society are nothing new themselves. My own take on the subject will be exemplified in a discussion of two recent areas of intensive international regulation: money laundering and terrorist financing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses 15-M and anti-austerity mobilizations in Spain from the perspective of repression and penalization. The literature has paid a great deal of attention to the consequences of this cycle of protest in relation to the quality of democratic participation and governance; it could be argued that the 15-M movement has raised the standards for key aspects of Spanish democracy. In articulating new counter-hegemonic claims, however, 15-M mobilizations have created an opportunity for new forms of repression. Drawing on criminology, socio-legal studies, and mobilization literature, we argue that this cycle of protest has been penalized. This involves a combination of technologies of repression that include invasive policing, securitization, and criminalization. Penalization needs to be seen as a dissent-suppressing mechanism, a negative response by political authorities and private actors that thrives when societies suffer from widespread anxieties about insecurity and crime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines racialized encounters with the police from the perspectives of people experiencing homelessness in San Diego, California in 2020. By some estimates, homelessness doubled in San Diego during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. We conducted a survey of (n = 244) and interviews with (n = 57) homeless San Diegans during initial shelter-in-place orders, oversampling for Black respondents, whose voices are often under-represented despite high rates of homelessness nationally. Our respondents reported high rates of police contact, frequent lack of respect; overt racism, sexism, and homophobia; and a failure to offer basic services during these encounters. Centering our Black respondents' experiences of criminalization and racism in what Clair calls "criminalized subjectivity," we develop a conceptual framework that brings together critical theoretical perspectives on the role of race in the governance of poverty and crime. When people experiencing extreme poverty face apathy, disrespect, and discrimination from police—as our data show—the result is a reluctance to seek services and to engage with outreach when offered. This reinforces stereotypes of unhoused people as not "wanting" help or "choosing" to be homeless. We reflect on these findings and our framework for envisioning a system of public safety that supports and cares for—rather than punishes—the most vulnerable members of our society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corporations or business actors have an important role in increasing economic development, but in practice these corporations or business actors often commit business crimes that harm the community by means of intimidation and criminalization to seize land or land rights owned by the community. The purpose of this research is to combat corporate crime that intimidates and criminalizes land grabbing through Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participations (SLAPP). The approach method used is normative juridical, by presenting data analysis in a descriptive-qualitative manner. The result of this research is that: (1) Land Grabbing relating to the factors of the occurrence of the financial crisis, food crisis, energy crisis and global climate crisis; (2) The mode of appropriation of community land is carried out through use action RELAX to silence and stop public participation; and (3) Application of Anti Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participations (SLAPP) provide legal protection against resistance to public participation in defending their land rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canada is among several countries to have implemented 'end-demand' criminalization frameworks for sex work. Drawing on interviews with sex workers (n = 200) in five cities, we employed multivariate logistic regression to identify associations with workplace violence. We also analysed descriptive data on trafficking and on workplace violence under end-demand legislation. In the past 12 months, being unable to call 911 in a safety emergency at work for fear of police detection (Adjusted Odd Ratio AOR: 4.307, 95% Confidence Interval CI: 1.697 –10.927), being unable to screen clients due to fear of police detection (AOR: 2.175, 95% CI: 1.074 –4.405), having experienced anti-sex work housing policy/eviction (AOR: 2.031, 95% CI: 0.897–4.598), and being Indigenous (Adjusted Odd Ratio (AOR): 2.167, 95% Confidence Interval (CI): 1.060–4.428) were all independently associated with workplace violence in the past 12 months. Of those who worked prior to the law change (n = 167), a majority of respondents (80.24% (134)) reported that violence in the workplace had increased or stayed the same compared to the previous criminalization model and 87.43% (n = 146) reported it was harder or the same to get help in an emergency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The overall goal was to synthesize knowledge on actions that need to be taken to promote health equity and the mental health of Black refugees in Canada. Group concept mapping systems were applied to generate and organize action-oriented statements related to the different social determinants of health. A total of 174 participants from the cities of Calgary and Edmonton with experience working with Black Canadians participated in four focus groups: (a) 2 focus groups that engaged 123 participants in brainstorming 84 statements guided by the following focus prompt: 'A specific action that would improve the mental health equity of Black refugees living in Canada is ... ' and (b) 2 focus groups of 51 participants who sorted the generated statements and rated them by order of 'importance' and 'ideas seen in action.' Data was further computed and analysed by the research team and a select advisory group from the participants. A 10-cluster map generated included the following clusters: (1) promoting cultural identity, (2) promoting ways of knowing, (3) addressing discrimination and racism, (4) addressing the criminalization of Black Canadians, (5) investing in employment for equity, (6) promoting equity in housing, (7) facilitating self-determination, (8) improving (public) services, (9) promoting appropriate and culturally relevant mental health services, and (10) working with and addressing faith and belief related issues. Clusters 4 and 9 ranked as the most important clusters in promoting health equity and the mental health of Black Canadians. Addressing the criminalization of Black Canadians through a range of rehumanizing interventions at institutional levels will provide a platform from which they can participate and engage others in developing appropriate and culturally relevant mental health services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study identifies the key themes in online commenting on news reports about gas rig placements near Israel's coastline. We employed an inductive thematic analysis to study 1276 comments and three main themes emerged from the analysis: (a) views on protesting against the rigs; (b) criminal labels; and (c) dangers of nearshore rigs. Although the majority of the comments supported the protest against the rigs, there was no consensus. The commenters who supported the protest described the acts that lead to environmental harm as criminal, deviant and corrupt. They also criticized the Israeli government and considered capital-government relations as the driving mechanism to place the rigs near the coast. The discussion addresses the meanings of the themes in the context of green cultural criminology, rhetorical strategies, including politics of definitions and causes, the rhetoric of rectitude and rationality, domain statements, and Aristotle's rhetoric framework (logos, pathos, and ethos). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Israel has long sought to erase Palestinians, Palestinian resistance, and Palestinian organizations. In Israel’s latest rendition of erasure, Palestinian nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have become the new target. By labeling NGO staff, and now NGOs, as “terror-affiliated,” Israel is attempting to silence these organizations by making it impossible for them to be funded. Looking at the case of Mohammed El Halabi from World Vision, one can see that it does not take much for donors to run scared: just using the “t” word is sufficient, with no need for evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Criminalization of social groups can create new norms for intergroup relations. An example for this is the 2018 amendment to the Hungarian Fundamental Law, which openly criminalizes homeless people. In our research, we investigated whether criminalization of homelessness can become a source of justifying violence against homeless people in the Hungarian context. We assumed that right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation would positively predict support for violence against the homeless, and the acceptance of a criminalizing law can serve as a justification for this. Our hypotheses were tested using a convenience (N = 196) and a representative sample of the population of Budapest (N = 674). We found that both RWA and SDO predicted support for violence, and this connection was mediated by the new law. We also found that justification was influenced by educational level, as the association between SDO and violence increased with higher levels of education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Does society have the right to force pregnant drug addicts to abort their fetuses?" This was the question that Professor George Schendler from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale posed in his 1991 journal article. Schendler was not the only person to suggest criminalizing the behavior of pregnant people to prevent what were colloquially known as "crack babies." This article analyzes how discursive narratives of an immediate and long-term crisis, framed through the diseased body of an innocent yet simultaneously dangerous infant, erroneously predicted the onslaught of dependent Black and Brown children who would supposedly cripple American society. By focusing on the infamous 1994 "Keystone Kids" case in Chicago, IL, I argue that the steps taken to eliminate "crack babies" instead criminalized Black and Brown women's pregnancies and separated children from their parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using previously collected data from a multi-site, mixed methods longitudinal study, we operationalize a conceptual frame of invisibility to describe and understand the phenomenon of erasure that some Boys of Color experienced by teachers in science learning environments where most others were hyper-visible (and subsequently hyper-criminalized). Recentering these invisible Boys of Color revealed three descriptive categories: (a) introversion, (b) newcomers, and (c) frequently absent. In detailing these categories and their associated narratives and labels, we complexify our understandings of the lived experiences of Boys of Color in science education and offer frameworks for ways in which teacher education can equip pre-service and in-service science teachers to disrupt these insidious and sophisticated forms of systemic racism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although U.S. cities are expanding "anti-homeless" legislation – such as laws against public sleeping or use of shelter – there is little research on the public health consequences. Officials argue that laws forbidding public sleeping, and other forms of behavioral supervision, are "tough love" strategies to compel people experiencing homelessness to improve their health by leaving the streets and using services. To test these claims and understand the public health implications of "quality of life" laws enforced against the homeless, this paper reports on a community-based participatory research survey of 484 individuals experiencing homelessness in Denver, Colorado. Results indicate that respondents have worse sleep habits and mental health outcomes when worried about police contact; people seek isolated sleeping locations to avoid police contact, resulting in more assault; and individuals are more at risk of exposure to weather-related hazards if they have been instructed to quit using shelter. This evidence contradicts the "tough love" defense of the criminalization of homelessness, as the health and wellbeing of people experiencing homelessness is worsened through "quality of life" policing. Results from this survey have been used by community partners and local policymakers to successfully advance district court arguments that anti-homeless legislation in Denver, Colorado is unconstitutional. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the use of the term 'gachul (absconding from home)' in courts and immigration policies to punish the behavior of marriage migrant women who enter South Korea after marriage and then leave their husbands. The study focuses on penalized mobility outside migrants' marital homes, which is interpreted as deviance from the expected family role. By conceptualizing home as a confinable space, the paper discusses migrant women's exclusion from citizenship based on their contribution to the family. The paper draws from cases heard in criminal courts and laws and policies, paying attention to the conflation of criminal, immigration, and family laws and the effect on marriage and family. Notably, it highlights cases of uxoricide, marital rape, and international child abduction. The cases reveal that judicial and executive bodies penalize marriage migrants' departure from home, regardless of the justification for their actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Domestic violence work typically happens within the confines of significant macro forces that shape most social work practice, including but not limited to neoliberalism, criminalization and professionalization. Using the concept of professional resistance, we discuss and present our case study research that sought to understand how these intersecting macro forces shape domestic violence advocacy training in Oregon. House Bill (HB) 3476 established privilege for certain communications between people seeking DV services and "certified advocates." This bill mandates training for advocates as a condition for accessing privileged communications. Our research suggests that understanding dynamics of power, resistance, and compliance with macro forces that shape domestic violence advocacy training and consequently social work require epistemologies that move us beyond binary thinking, and toward the assemblage of complicated dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of a racialized moral panic around serious youth violence, we have seen a resurgence of calls to increase the presence of police in English schools in recent years. As well as a lack of popular and political opposition, there is a dearth of critical academic consideration of the placement of police in schools, and even less from a Critical Race Theory perspective. Given that teachers' perspectives are relatively absent from academic and popular debates, this paper draws upon data from semi-structured interviews with 24 secondary school teachers. In doing so, the paper argues that an increased police presence in school will impact negatively upon learning environments, create a culture of low expectations, criminalize young people, and feed a school-to-prison pipeline. Noting that racially minoritized students will be affected most harshly, the article provides empirical evidence to warn against the presence of police in schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

School resource officers' (SROs) presence (e.g., engagement in patrol, carrying firearms, etc.) and prevention (e.g., mentoring, teaching) roles have not been distinguished in investigations of SROs' association with student outcomes. A model predicting nonviolent incidents and serious violent incidents reported to police from SRO presence and prevention roles while controlling for limits in mental health availability, teacher training, and school problems was fit to an archival dataset of 1529 school administrators' responses to the School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSCOS). SRO prevention significantly predicted lower numbers of nonviolent incidents reported to police (β = −.28) and SRO presence significantly predicted higher numbers of nonviolent (β =.51) and serious violent (β =.24) incidents reported to police in the high school sample. SRO presence and SRO prevention were not significantly associated with either nonviolent or serious violent incidents reported to police in the middle level sample. Greater acknowledgement of limitations in mental health service availability was associated with reports of school problems across samples, and school problems were significantly associated with higher numbers of nonviolent and serious violent incidents reported to police. Results suggest that investment in the SRO prevention role over presence is needed. Impact Statement In high schools employing school resource officers (SROs), law enforcement SRO presence was associated with higher levels of nonviolent and serious violent incidents reported to police, whereas the SRO prevention role was associated with lower levels of nonviolent and serious violent incidents reported to police. Only mental health availability had a significant influence on reducing school problem behavior across middle and high schools. Investment in the SRO prevention role over presence is needed, and collaboration with other mental health professionals to support the SRO preventative role is suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amidst growing recognition that people who use drugs are often vulnerable and in need of health-focused support, international conventions and national priorities on personal drug use are changing with emphasis shifting from criminal justice to health narratives. In Scotland, there has been a move toward health-led drug policymaking, and yet little is known about how diversion operates in this context. An exploratory qualitative study was conducted utilizing semi-structured interviews with professionals holding lead, strategic-level roles in Scottish diversion policy and practice (n = 15). Interview transcripts were thematically analyzed using a structured framework technique. Findings show that the term 'diversion' is used to refer to criminal justice-initiated drug treatment routes, both pre- and post-conviction. Unlike many international examples, Scottish diversions tend to embed health-focused support within criminal sanctions, rather than acting as alternatives. Participants expressed the view that the term diversion implied a shift from criminal justice sanctions to health-led support that did not occur in reality. We, therefore, argue that the term diversion may function to mute a 'discursive struggle' between criminal justice sanctions and health interventions for people who use drugs, obscuring a growing gap between aspirational governance principles and institutional and lived realities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 'Satellite Sites' are a harm reduction intervention in which people who use illicit drugs are employed by a community health centre to run satellite harm reduction programs within their homes. Satellite Sites straddle two worlds, at once sites of illicit and stigmatized activities, while also being sites of public health intervention. They offer a unique opportunity to examine the challenges of medicalizing a place that is still criminalized. Using data collected during 7 months of ethnographic observation and 20 interviews with key members of the program, we explore the tactics of medicalization that are deployed to legitimize the Satellite Sites. Medicalization provides legitimacy to Satellite Sites, and provides people who use drugs who run the Satellite Sites with some protection from the criminal justice system. Our results explore the friction between processes of medicalization and criminalization, with continued criminalization of drug possession and distribution negatively impacting the uptake and effectiveness of public health recommendations. Study findings highlight how the ability of public health authorities to develop safer environment interventions to improve the health of people who use drugs—including measures to address the current overdose crisis - may be severely limited by the continued criminalization of drug use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immigration controls and incarceration both comprise state efforts to limit people's freedom of movement. Usually analyzed separately, both are part of the legacy of slavery. In this paper, I examine the British Empire's first implementation of immigration controls against 'coolie labour' from its colony of British India following the abolition of slavery in 1835. I also examine the implementation of methods of control and discipline enacted against formerly enslaved people in the United States following its abolition of slavery in 1865. Just ten years after abolition, the U.S. also passed its first immigration controls, the 1875 Page Act. I argue that both immigration controls and mass incarceration were state methods aimed at weakening people's position in the capitalist labour market and, more generally, to weaken people's ability to realize social justice. Together, immigration and carceral controls created racialized and gendered categories of people denied access to the mythical institutions of liberal democracy: liberty, fellowship, and equality. Both also strengthened nationalism(s) through the production of a U.S. 'nation' secured against 'criminals' and 'foreigners.' By making connections between immigration controls and mass incarceration, I argue, we can more clearly recognize that the success of prison abolition and No Borders movements are, together, integral parts of the unfinished project to realize liberty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is extensive debate about whether criminal justice responses are appropriate or effective in helping domestic violence (DV) victim/survivors achieve safety. Supporters argue that criminalization best protects victim/survivors; others have expressed serious concerns about the unintended consequences of criminalization. Victim/survivors (especially women of color) are routinely made more vulnerable by the legal resources designed to help them. They are often arrested with or instead of their abuser, prosecuted for DV as "victim-defendants," and reported to governmental agencies such as child protection services and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Even the protection order system may not provide safety, especially when abusers are able to obtain protection orders against victim/survivors. We examine one facet of the "abuse-to-prison" pipeline – cross-filings for protection orders. We analyze 313 cross-filings for protection orders, comparing them to 1,004 single-filings. We find that cross-filings are a gendered phenomenon, with men more likely to be involved in cross-filings than women, and men less likely than women to report the types of abuse that qualifies for an order. Cross-filings may be an example of abusers leveraging the legal system to extend control over victim/survivors, rendering victim/survivors ineligible for resources and making them vulnerable to arrest and other forms of state control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past 25 years, migrant detention and criminalisation has steadily increased in the United States. This state of affairs has triggered social workers to advocate through policy and service on behalf of migrants. In order to evaluate contemporary practice, a critical position is generated through a genealogy of social work practice with migrants where the colonial archeology of contemporary social work practice is found in the history of the settlement movement. Here, an irony becomes apparent within social work. Social work practice is a settler colonialism paralleled by Gayatri Spivak's reading of colonial discourses resulting in the subaltern condition. Following Spivak's analysis, social work advocacies affirm migrant subalternity by re-presenting the migrant as an image of nonagentive victimhood while simultaneously representing migrants through political advocacies on their behalf. As a liberation ethics counter to the colonial discourses, Spivak's exit of subalternity as the road to hegemony is drawn for social work practice. In this effort, Indigenous Action Media's distinction between allies and accomplices is central to develop a social work practice as an ethics of liberation. Social workers thus become accomplices with criminalised and detained migrants on the road to hegemony. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay explores one man's life as a person experiencing homelessness and the societal impositions (stigma) and barriers (criminal ordinances) that shape his sense of self and perceived ability to transcend homelessness. The focus is on trying to understand what leisure is – or if it can even exist – for someone experiencing homelessness. As will be demonstrated, much of the societally available resources are lacking (shelters, legal help, access to water and hygiene needs) for those who need them; yet still others are wary of using anything in the 'system' because it saps whatever sense of agency they may have left. Still others prefer to stay on the periphery of society and focus solely on their daily survival. As public space is contested and evermore privatized, how do those without spaces of their own fight for their right to exist? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Public health experts in the US and Canada are increasingly mobilizing molecular-based surveillance techniques in seeking to identify and control HIV. Both countries are also leading in the world to criminalize HIV exposure, transmission and non-disclosure, as well as having pervasive ongoing criminalization regimes toward drug use, sex work and migration. Molecular surveillance aims to rapidly identify 'risk network' clusters of people normally out of reach to public health (e.g. drug taking sexual networks of gay men, rural people living in poverty), in the near real-time, where transmissions are taking place, and to then intervene with enhanced public health approaches. This commentary critically interrogates the seemingly benign new technology that is being presented by leading public health authorities evacuated of social and political context. We outline a series of concerns facing people living with HIV related to molecular surveillance as it intersects with consent and criminalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kratom (Mitragyna speciosa), an indigenous medicinal plant of Southeast Asia, is believed to be harmful. We compared the perceptions toward kratom use among kratom users and non-users in Malaysia. 356 respondents (137 kratom users and 219 non-users) were recruited for this cross-sectional study. The majority of respondents were male (60%, n = 212/356), Malays (88%), and 51% were ≥37 years old. Non-users showed higher unadjusted odds of reporting a perception that kratom use can cause addiction (OR = 6.72, CI: 3.91-11.54, p < .0001), withdrawal symptoms (OR = 7.58, CI: 4.62-12.42, p < .0001), illicit drug use problems (OR = 10.12, CI: 6.14-16.68, p < .0001), impaired social-functioning (OR = 12.05, CI: 7.24-20.05, p < .0001), and health problems (OR = 10.44, CI: 6.32-17.24, p < .0001). Similarly, non-users viewed kratom policies differently from kratom users, displaying increased odds of reporting the belief that kratom use and sales must be regulated with stringent laws (OR = 5.75, CI: 3.61-9.18, p < .0001), and kratom should be regulated instead under the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 to overcome kratom use problems (OR = 8.26, CI: 4.94-13.82, p < .0001). Because of the disconnect in kratom use perceptions and personal experiences between kratom users and non-users, hastily criminalizing kratom without investigating carefully its scientific merits can significantly impede future kratom research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the discursive process of criminalization of African asylum seekers in Israel. The Israeli case illuminates the way that marginalized social groups are constructed as a criminal threat, thus becoming a focal point of moral panic. Using content analysis, in-depth interviews and observations, we assert that the criminalization of asylum seekers is facilitated by their portrayal as 'infiltrators' who are beyond state control. State authorities' ostensible inability to keep asylum seekers under surveillance is dialectically constructed along two main axes: the private space axis and the public space axis. On the private space axis, the asylum seekers are portrayed as unidentified people living beyond the authorities' field of vision whose largely unreported criminality is directed against vulnerable asylum seeker women and children in the private sphere. At the same time, asylum seekers are portrayed as a prominent, faceless and animalistic presence in public space, a presence that breaches physical-spatial borders as well as social-cultural boundaries, thereby undermining the social order. Thus, asylum seekers are viewed as conspicuously invisible. This rhetoric connects border violation with criminal activity; emphasizes the pent-up potential for violence by asylum seekers; and blurs the lines between criminal threat and security threat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, there has been increasing public health and scholarly interest in chemsex, where the consumption of drugs is related to enhancing sexual pleasure, often in a group context, particularly among gay men or men who have sex with other men (MSM). Since the early 2000s, Hong Kong has witnessed the growth of a chemsex scene. In recent years, HIV/AIDs surveillance reports indicate that chemsex goers have contributed to the rise of HIV infections among MSM, and with increasing pressure from frontline workers, the government has recently acknowledged that this is an emerging issue. Drawing on neoliberalism as a policy framework, ideology, and mode of government, this article traces the adoption of neoliberal discourses of harm reduction in HIV/AIDS and drug policies in Hong Kong. We argue that this emergent issue is the result of two divergent policy orientations, thereby leading to a critical health service gap. This article examines the intersection between HIV/AIDS and drug policies in a particular cultural context to underscore health policy gaps and extend our understanding of the construction of neoliberal subjects in health policies beyond the West. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unjust racial disparities persist in the United States criminal justice system fueled by a school to prison pipeline which, through criminalizing processes, disproportionately and unjustly targets boys of color in our schools. This criminalization and the ways in which boys of color resist, remains largely under-researched on the elementary school level. This study utilizes data from multiple qualitative sources collected from three elementary school STEM programs during a year and a half time period to examine acts of resistance in which boys of color engaged, and ways in which educators and school staff responded. Findings indicate that criminalization and resistance were normaland ordinary parts of the daily experiences of boys of color; and the acts of resistance themselves were regularly hyper-criminalized, creating cycles of escalation. These findings support a counternarrative that boys of color engage in resistance as a normal and healthy response to oppressive measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Criminal records have become an increasingly important mechanism for managing and containing criminalized populations beyond prison walls. This ethnographic analysis of a formerly imprisoned woman's search for work explores how the feeling of captivity resonates not only with the imprisoned but also with the recently released. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates how an account of hidden, internal properties of an everyday technology became a framework to interpret human action as a serious crime. Using a case study situated in the New York subway system, I examine the criminalization of a practice of New York's poor known as "selling swipes" performed by so-called "swipers". A high court came to classify the practice as felony forgery, interpreting it though an expert-witness account of how objects physically manipulated by swipers interact with a secretive, proprietary digital information system. Thousands of felony arrests – overwhelmingly of nonwhite men – have been legitimated under this theory, in which the crime occurs on a plane of technical interactions to which swipers have no access. Through close examination of the underlying technology (known as MetroCard), however, I show considerable problems in the authorities' understanding of the technology, illustrating the hazards of interpreting human action through proprietary or complex systems, especially as they are represented solely through expert accounts. The case demonstrates fresh connections between technology and unequal outcomes in the U.S. criminal justice system, and suggests an emerging form of social vulnerability, to interpretations of our actions through the logic of technologies black-boxed to us. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing research establishes the importance of social identities and public discourse in reifying existing power structures. By examining the poignant case of the crime of sexual violence, we explore the construction of the identities of rapist and victim. In this paper, we look specifically at police reporting of sexual violence as perpetuating a 'common sense' of criminalization, with the identity of the rapist serving as the primary factor of police reporting. We employ regression analyses of victim responses in the 2015 National Criminal Victimization Survey in order to understand the dynamics behind victim reporting. This research confirms the hypothesis that, in the case of sexual assault, rape victims are more likely to perceive the bodies criminalized in public discourse – particularly Black offenders – as those as having committed crimes, and are therefore more likely to engage with the state through police reporting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how a delusive social imaginary of criminal-justice has underpinned contemporary U.S. mass incarceration and encouraged widespread indifference to its violence. I trace the complicity of this criminal-justice imaginary with state-organized violence by comparing it to an imaginary that supported colonial violence. I conclude by discussing how those of us outside of prison can begin to resist the entrenched images and institutions of mass incarceration by engaging the work and imagining the perspective of incarcerated people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For some time now, the specific experiences that lesbians have with the law have been considerably overlooked. This is because there is a focus on how gay males have contact with the law, as gay males are the group whose same-sex intimacies are most often criminalized in legislative frameworks. It is rare for the same-sex intimacies of lesbians to be targeted explicitly in legislative frameworks. This special issue therefore focuses on how lesbians have contact with the law. It features articles focused on what the guest editors conceptualize as how lesbians are being made wrong, being excluded, and being ignored by the law, and each of these are outlined in further detail in this introduction. The articles highlight the relational nexus between lesbians and different frameworks, processes, rules, policies, institutions and applications of law, and the far-reaching impacts this nexus produces in the lives of lesbians around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

HIV epidemic control requires improving access and uptake of HIV services by key populations (KPs). In Zambia, the behaviors of female sex workers (FSWs), men who have sex with men (MSM), and people of who use drugs (PWUD) are criminalized, and little information exists about their HIV/STI service use. Using a quality of care (QOC) framework, we compared barriers to and opportunities for HIV/STI service access and uptake among the three KPs. We conducted in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with 314 KP members between July 2013 and September 2015 in eight districts. Poorer QOC was received at public health facilities compared to private, NGOs and traditional healers. Stigma and discrimination, confidentiality, and legal prosecution were barriers to service use and more salient among MSM than FSWs and PWUD. Invasive facility policies were barriers and more prominent among FSWs than MSM and PWUD. Service unavailability was of equally high salience among MSM and PWUD than FSWs. Comfort in the clinic and perceived treatment effectiveness were facilitators for all three KPs. The health care experiences of KPs are not monolithic; HIV/STI service improvement strategies should address the concerns and be tailored to the needs of each key population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The use of cannabis is criminalized in Nigeria and punitive law enforcement is the primary drug control strategy. Young cannabis users conceal use because of stigma, criminal identity and social ostracism. This qualitative study explored young people’s perspectives about how criminalization affects the use of cannabis in Lagos, Nigeria. Methods: Focus groups and interviews were conducted among 39 cannabis users aged 16-21 years recruited using snowball sampling. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: Most interviewees did not view the criminal identity associated with cannabis use as a deterrent to use; they considered it a risk that could be mitigated by concealment of use. Reinforcement from social networks, personal meanings and dependence on cannabis for daily functioning sustained the decision to continue cannabis use despite associated risks. Female cannabis users who faced additional vulnerabilities addressed the risk of assault by clandestinely obtaining cannabis through third parties. The “criminal” stereotype from the negative societal perception about users as criminals which often resulted in stigma and lost opportunities paradoxically appeared to reinforce cannabis use among male users. Conclusion: A non-judgmental participatory approach is needed to contextualize their needs, inform health promotion and empower them to seek help. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, the US has dramatically expanded immigration enforcement. At the same time, some advocates have sought to support “good” immigrants. This paper considers how the resulting good/bad binaries affect undocumented immigrants. I examine a case study in Los Angeles, where policing intertwined with protection. Based on participant observation and interviews, I show that respondents believed state agents classified them either as “bad” criminals or “good”, immigrants. To the extent immigrants identified as “good”, they credited the US with offering them “freedom” and hoped for political inclusion. At the same time, in what I call moralizing regulation, they also performed “good” behaviour and distinguished themselves from those seen as “bad”. Some also tied “good” behaviour to femininity and “acting white”. At the extreme, they blamed other migrants for inviting state mistreatment. The effects were ambivalent: while immigrants appreciated US support, they also adopted and adapted to the state’s moral norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to housing crises across the country, many localities are implementing homeless-targeted policies that attempt to regulate public space by prohibiting sitting, lying, sleeping, and storing property in public places such as parks and sidewalks. We term these sociospatial control policies. Our research investigates the direct impacts of such policies in the city of Honolulu, which had become notorious for legal measures targeting homeless residents. We interviewed members of 70 households living in temporary shelters in public spaces, all of whom had experienced enforcement of city ordinances, such as receiving citations or being forcibly moved by city agents. Our data revealed three interconnected ways that enforcements of sit-lie and nuisance policies harmed homeless households. (a) Our respondents described feeling dehumanized and treated unfairly by city agents. We therefore argue that enforcement catalyzed both civic and social exclusion. (b) Second, the city’s confiscation of property spurred material hardship and posed obstacles to work, education, and access to services. And, finally, (c) respondents’ narratives revealed that enforcements provoked lasting worry, fear, anxiety, and despair. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While sex workers (SWs) bear the brunt of the epidemic in Uganda, there remains a dearth of empirical research on the structural drivers of HIV prevention among SWs. This study examined the drivers of inconsistent condom use by one-time and regular clients of young women SWs in Gulu, Northern Uganda. Data were drawn from the Gulu Sexual Health Study, a cross-sectional study of young SWs, aged 14 years and older (2011-2012). SWs were recruited using peer/SW-led outreach, in partnership with The AIDS Support Organization and other CBOs. Multivariable logistic regression was used to examine the correlates of inconsistent condom use by one-time and regular clients. In total, 84.5% of the 381 SWs servicing regular clients and 76.8% of the 393 SWs servicing one-time clients reported inconsistent client condom use. In multivariable analysis, physical/sexual violence by clients (AOR = 5.39; 95%CI 3.05-9.49), low sexual control by workers (measured by the validated Pulweritz scale) (AOR = 2.86; 95%CI 1.47-5.58), alcohol/drug use while working (AOR = 1.98; 95%CI 1.17-3.35) and migration to Gulu for sex work (AOR = 1.73; 95%CI 0.95-3.14) were positively correlated with inconsistent condom use by one-time clients. Correlates of inconsistent condom use by regular clients included: low sexual control by workers (AOR = 4.63; 95%CI 2.32-9.23); physical/sexual violence by clients (AOR = 3.48; 95%CI 1.85-6.53); police harassment (AOR = 2.57; 95%CI 1.17-5.65); and being a single mother (AOR = 2.07; 95%CI 1.09-3.93). Structural and interpersonal factors strongly influence inconsistent condom use by clients, with violence by clients and police, low sexual control by workers, migration and single-parenthood all linked to non-condom use. There is a need for peer-led structural interventions that improve access to occupational health and safety standards (e.g., violence prevention and alcohol/drug harm reduction policies/programming). Shifts away from the current punitive approaches towards SWs are integral to the success of such interventions, as they continue to undermine HIV prevention efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]