Crime control and devolution: policy-making and expert knowledge in a multi-tiered democracy

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These four seminars bring together academics from a number of relevant fields (including criminology, politics and law), policy-makers, practitioners, and interested others (journalists, for example) to discuss the making of crime policy in the various parts of the United Kingdom since devolution. The UK is no longer, if it ever was, a unitary state. There are extended traditions of criminology and legal studies across the UK; and these speak to distinct histories and circumstances. Yet studies of crime as a public issue and of crime policy formation have not yet fully addressed the realities of living in a multi-tiered democracy. Neither, by extension, have they explored the potential for discovery and innovation that this may herald by sytematic comparative work. How differently has policy developed in Scotland, Wales, England and Northern Ireland in recent years in light of the very distinct powers and political trajectories of the places concerned? Do any such differences owe their character to factors that pre-exist devolution given that, for example, the Scottish or Northern Irish prison and probation services were already quite separate from the English and Welsh system, as were various other agencies? On the other hand can we see new bodies of law, new practices or policies that clearly flow from the devolved arrangements? How differently have these evolved in Wales and Scotland, after more than a decade of devolution, given the quite different powers of the institutions there? What can be learned from these for Northern Ireland, where key areas of criminal justice have only recently been devolved, from these accounts? What can we learn anew about England - the dominant yet in some salient respects unexamined case - by viewing it from other vantage points? There is great scope for mutual learning for all concerned in creating a forum in which people with a range of insights and responsibilities can discuss these matters in a concerted way. There is also great potential for comparative studies of the effects and effectiveness of policy within the UK. Yet few examples of systematic comparison yet exist. We can learn a lot about policy-making in this way. In what different networks and social settings is policy developed in Edinburgh, Cardiff, Belfast and London, or in other locations? How do political demands bear upon the generation, formulation or implementation of policies in each place? What resources of expertise are called upon? Who takes part in consultative processes and how inclusive or how effective are these? How is research organized, funded and used? What opportunities or obstacles attend the principle of evidence-informed policy-making in each case? Finally, what can research and policy-makers in the new policy spaces of the devolved UK learn from those in other European countries with their distinct experiences of federal or regional governance. Who makes policy, and who provides and who uses what kinds of knowledge, in Germany or in Spain, for example? What is the bearing on each of the assumption of greater competences for the 'area of freedom, justice and security' of European institutions themselves? We will hold four one-day seminars in Edinburgh, Belfast, Cardiff and Oxford. They will cover: i) History, politics and culture in criminal justice before and since devolution; ii) Questions of knowledge and policy - doing and using research on crime and justice; iii) Mutual learning and comparative studies: offender management and policing; iv) Crime and justice in the UK in European perspective: comparative case studies and European institutions. We aim to produce at least one edited book and a number of articles, possibly including a special issue of a journal. We will provide accessible and widely circulated briefings following each seminar and will share insights from the seminars with policy communities and wider publics through a range of established and 'new' media