Justifying 'Justice': Tracing the role of ignorance in the cultural politics of punishment in the UK

反思2011年英国“骚乱”十周年，本研究探讨了不同形式的无知如何使国家对骚乱的迅速和惩罚性的社会政策和刑事反应合法化。在这样做的过程中，它力求推动目前关于否认、健忘症、沉默和保密在维持和合法化刑事司法制度的政策和做法方面的多方面作用的学术研究。该奖学金巩固了我的博士研究，该研究借鉴了对检察官、判决人员和政策制定者的原始定性访谈（2018年进行），他们负责设计和实施对骚乱的迅速和惊人严厉的刑事反应；其特点是在每个阶段都非常严重（Lightowlers和Quirk, 2015； Pina-Sánchez等人，2017）。除了针对“问题家庭”和“帮派文化”的大量社会政策反应外，这种刑事反应不成比例地针对种族化和边缘化背景的年轻人（大赦国际，2018年；克罗斯利，2016年；威廉姆斯，2015年）。使用批判性话语分析方法，我的论文表明，四种相互关联和重叠的无知使专业人士能够将这种反应定义为相称的、必要的和公平的。我认为，这些因素——对犯罪的非历史化和非情境化的理解，对犯罪的扭曲、种族化和分类的想象，对公众舆论的高度选择性想象，以及对惩罚的种族化和分类危害的否认——共同作用，使刑事司法专业人员能够为他们工作的系统的惩罚性和歧视性方面辩护。虽然学者们早就提醒我们，作为强大的社会、文化和政治力量，欺骗、错误信息和神秘化的重要性至关重要（Box, 1983; Cohen, 2001），但近年来，关于这一主题的工作加速了，围绕着不可知论的概念，即对无知及其重要的社会和政治功能的研究（Gilroy, 2019; McGoey, 2016, 2019； Proctor和Schiebinger, 2008; Rayner, 2016； Sullivan和Tuana， 2007）。强调“战略未知”（McGoey, 2016）或“精心策划的无知”（Canning, 2018）在制定惩罚性社会政策议程以及刑事司法政策和实践方面的重要作用（Barton and Davis, 2018; Scott, 2018）。这个奖学金提供了一个机会，通过探索无知，广义上的概念，如何塑造英国当代刑事司法政策和实践，为这一学术努力做出重大贡献；特别是，使刑事司法系统中种族化和边缘化社区的过度代表性正常化和自然化（Lammy, 2017; Williams and Clarke, 2018）。通过提供高质量的出版物，学术研讨会，利益相关者研讨会和未来研究项目的建议，该奖学金为我的学术生涯提供了一个理想的机会，通过最大限度地提高我的博士研究的学术和非学术影响，发展良好的出版记录，建立一个研究无知和刑事司法的学者网络，也提高了我作为无知和刑事司法专家的知名度和地位。在布里斯托尔大学社会学、政治与国际研究学院开展这项研究，将使我的研究为社会学、政治学、社会政策和犯罪学等一系列学科的杰出研究做出贡献，并从中受益。在Elspeth Van Veeren博士的指导下，作为秘密，权力和无知研究网络（SPIN）的一部分，将为与世界领先的无知和保密，刑事司法，种族和种族主义学者合作提供独特的机会。

Reflecting on the 10-year anniversary of the 2011 English 'riots', this fellowship explores how different forms of ignorance enabled and legitimised the state's swift and punitive social policy and penal reaction to the disturbances. In doing so, it seeks to advance current scholarship on the multifaceted role of denial, amnesia, silence and secrecy in maintaining and legitimising the policies and practices of the criminal justice system.The fellowship consolidates my doctoral research, which drew on original qualitative interviews (conducted in 2018) with prosecutors, sentencers and policymakers who were responsible for designing and delivering the swift and strikingly harsh penal response to the unrest; which was characterised by extraordinary severity at each stage (Lightowlers and Quirk, 2015; Pina-Sánchez et al., 2017). Alongside a raft of social policy responses targeting 'troubled families' and 'gang culture', this penal reaction disproportionately targeted young people from racialised and marginalised backgrounds (Amnesty International, 2018; Crossley, 2016; Williams, 2015). Using a critical discourse analysis approach, my thesis shows that four interlocking and overlapping kinds of ignorance enabled professionals to frame this reaction as proportionate, necessary and fair. I contend that these elements - dehistoricised and decontextualised understandings of crime, distorted, racialised and classed imaginations of criminality, highly selective imaginations of public opinion, and denial of the racialised and classed harms of punishment - work together to allow criminal justice professionals to justify the punitive and discriminatory aspects of the system within which they work. While scholars have long since alerted us to the crucial importance of deception, misinformation and mystification, as powerful social, cultural and political forces (Box, 1983; Cohen, 2001), work on this theme has accelerated in recent years, coalescing around the notion of agnotology as the study of ignorance and its crucial social and political functions (Gilroy, 2019; McGoey, 2016, 2019; Proctor and Schiebinger, 2008; Rayner, 2016; Sullivan and Tuana, 2007); emphasising the vital role of 'strategic unknowns' (McGoey, 2016) or 'orchestrated ignorance' (Canning, 2018) in shaping punitive social policy agendas and, to a lesser extent, criminal justice policy and practice (Barton and Davis, 2018; Scott, 2018). This fellowship offers an opportunity to make a significant contribution to this academic endeavour by exploring how ignorance, broadly conceived, shapes contemporary criminal justice policy and practice in the UK; and in particular, normalises and naturalises the well-documented overrepresentation of racialised and marginalised communities in the criminal justice system (Lammy, 2017; Williams and Clarke, 2018).Through the delivery of high quality publications, an academic symposium, a stakeholder workshop and a proposal for a future research project, the fellowship offers an ideal opportunity to progress my academic career by maximising the academic and non-academic impacts of my doctoral research, developing an excellent track record of publication, creating a network of scholars working on ignorance and criminal justice, and increasing my profile and standing as an expert in ignorance and criminal justice.Conducting this fellowship in the School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies at the University of Bristol will allow my research to contribute to, and benefit from, outstanding research across a range of disciplines including sociology, politics, social policy and criminology. Being mentored by Dr Elspeth Van Veeren, and being part of the Secrecy, Power and Ignorance research Network (SPIN) will provide unique opportunities for collaboration with world-leading scholars working on ignorance and secrecy, criminal justice, race and racism.