Reconceptualising Penality

Dr Claire Hamilton LLB. (Ling. Franc.); Barrister-at-Law; M.Litt; Dip EurCon in Human Rights; Diploma in Third Level Learning and Teaching practised as a barrister in criminal law until 2004 when she became a full time academic. She is currently a Lecturer in Criminology in the School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work in Queen’s University Belfast.

’The study of punitive criminal justice policy has been badly lacking in comparative international research and Hamilton has chosen some ideal case studies to contrast here in a mixed-method tour de force - a real model for how criminology can and should be done.’ Shadd Maruna, author of Making Good: How Ex-Convicts Reform and Rebuild Their Lives ’Hamilton has moved the analysis of punitiveness within penology beyond a reliance on the shorthands often used hitherto. By developing a new framework of punitiveness, this work demonstrates the importance of the local and the global in patterns of punitiveness in small jurisdictions.’ Katrina Morrison, Edinburgh Napier University, UK ’Dr Hamilton’s book provides an excellent examination of the extent to which the criminal justice systems of Ireland, Scotland, and New Zealand are becoming increasingly punitive. She demonstrates an excellent ability to engage with contemporary penological and criminological accounts of structural changes in criminal justice practices, and displays a strong commitment to evidence-based analysis, constantly tacking back and forth between generalised accounts and local and particular practices. Trading in careful analysis and nuanced insights, the book provides a wealth of diverse materials for the reader to consider in determining the extent to which a new punitiveness has emerged. The result of her endeavours is an excellent book, one that revels in the messiness of the present, a contested site where central and peripheral penal practices cannot easily be compartmentalised.’ Shane Kilcommins, University of Limerick, Ireland

• Reconceptualising Penality