Winner of the 2021 ESC Book Award.

Despite its dramatic proliferation and diversification in recent decades, supervisory forms of punishment in the community (like probation, parole and unpaid work) have been largely invisible in scholarly and public discussion of criminal justice and its development in late-modern societies. The long-standing pre-occupation with the prison, and more recent concerns about 'mass incarceration' have allowed the emergence of 'mass supervision' to remain in the shadows.

Pervasive Punishment insists that we remedy this neglect and exemplifies how we can do so. Drawing on thirty years of personal, practice and research experiences, it offers a compelling and rich account of the scale and social distribution of mass supervision, of the processes by which it has been legitimated, and of how it is experienced by those subject to it. Its innovative approach invites readers to look at, listen to and imagine punishment beyond the prison, through the use of innovative and creative methods including photography, song-writing and story-telling to explore and to represent 'mass supervision'. By so doing, this book offers new insights into how and why combining social science and creative practice can help develop a different kind of democratic dialogue about contentious social issues like crime and punishment.

Though focused on the UK and the USA, the methods used in and analysis developed in this book will be of interest to scholars, students and practitioners elsewhere.

About the Author
Fergus McNeill is Professor of Criminology & Social Work at the University of Glasgow where he works in Sociology and in the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research. His research explores institutions, cultures and practices of punishment, and alternatives to punishment, particularly in the community. Before becoming an academic, he worked in drug rehabilitation and as a criminal justice social worker.

Reviews
"an impassioned, informative and important work that delivers deep insights into the character of mass supervision" - Punishment and Society
"Brings to life the deep harms of supervision and how we might reconfigure it to create more justice for individuals and our communities" - Dr Michelle S. Phelps, University of Minnesota, USA
"Remarkable and ground-breaking...this singular work will challenge your understanding of punishment as well as your views about the limitations of academic work" - Professor Shadd Maruna, Queen's University Belfast, UK
"Deserves to be widely read by scholars, students and policy makers" - Dr Gwen Robinson, University of Sheffield, UK
"An immensely readable account that is compassionate, empathetic, and humane - yet sharply observed and deeply critical" - Professor David Garland, New York University, USA
Beginning with the terms probation and parole, McNeill explores the diverse set of sanctions or measure imposed by criminal courts that involve some form of supervision in the community, whether instead of a custodial sentence as in certain forms of suspended or conditional sentences, as a community-based sentence in its own right (like probation in some jurisdiction), or as part of a sentence that begins with imprisonment but extends beyond it as in parole. He looks at the scale and social distribution of such mass supervision, the processes by which it has been legitimated, and how it is experienced by those subject to it. -- Annotation (c)2019 * (protoview.com) *


Awards
Winner of Winner of the 2021 ESC Book Award. 2021 (UK).



Book Information
ISBN 9781787564664
Author Fergus McNeill
Format Paperback
Page Count 264
Imprint Emerald Publishing Limited
Publisher Emerald Publishing Limited