Public confidence in criminal justice : a history and critique /

Public confidence in criminal justice : a history and critique /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:	Turner, Elizabeth R., author.
Imprint:	Cham : Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.
Description:	1 online resource
Language:	English
Series:	Palgrave pivot Critical criminological perspectives Palgrave pivot. Critical criminological perspectives.
Subject:	Criminal justice, Administration of -- Great Britain -- Public opinion. Criminal justice, Administration of -- Research -- Great Britain -- Methodology. Criminal justice, Administration of -- Political aspects -- Great Britain. Criminal justice, Administration of -- Research -- Methodology. Criminal justice, Administration of -- Public opinion. Criminal justice, Administration of -- Political aspects. Judicial process. Great Britain.
Format:	E-Resource Book
URL for this record:	http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/12455559

Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:	9783319678979 3319678973 9783319678962 3319678965
Notes:	Includes bibliographical references and index. Online resource; title from PDF title page (EBSCO, viewed December 20, 2017)
Summary:	In this book, Liz Turner argues that survey methods have gained an unwarranted and unhealthy level of dominance when it comes to understanding how the public views the criminal justice system. The focus on measuring public confidence in criminal justice by researchers, politicians and criminal justice agencies has tended to prioritise the production of quantitative representations of general opinions, at the expense of more specific, qualitative or deliberative approaches. This has occurred not due to any inherent methodological superiority of survey-based approaches, but due to the congruence of the survey-based, general measure of opinion with the prevailing neoliberal political tendency to engage with citizens as consumers. By identifying the historical conditions on which contemporary knowledge claims rest, and tracing the political power struggles out of which sprang the idea of public confidence in criminal justice as a real and measurable object, Turner shows that things could be otherwise. She also draws attention to the ways in which survey researchers have asserted their dominance over other approaches, suppressing convincing claims by advocates of deliberative methods that a better politics of crime and justice is possible. Ultimately, Turner concludes, researchers need to be more upfront about their political objectives, and more alert to the political responsibilities that go along with the making of knowledge claims. Providing a provocative critique of the dominant approaches to measuring public confidence, this timely study will be of special interest to scholars of the criminal justice system, research methods, and British politics.
Other form:	Print version : 9783319678962 3319678965

Description
Summary:	<p>In this book, Liz Turner argues that survey methods have gained an unwarranted and unhealthy level of dominance when it comes to understanding how the public views the criminal justice system. The focus on measuring public confidence in criminal justice by researchers, politicians and criminal justice agencies has tended to prioritise the production of quantitative representations of general opinions, at the expense of more specific, qualitative or deliberative approaches. This has occurred not due to any inherent methodological superiority of survey-based approaches, but due to the congruence of the survey-based, general measure of opinion with the prevailing neoliberal political tendency to engage with citizens as consumers.</p> By identifying the historical conditions on which contemporary knowledge claims rest, and tracing the political power struggles out of which sprang the idea of public confidence in criminal justice as a real and measurable object, Turnershows that things could be otherwise. She also draws attention to the ways in which survey researchers have asserted their dominance over other approaches, suppressing convincing claims by advocates of deliberative methods that a better politics of crime and justice is possible. Ultimately, Turner concludes, researchers need to be more upfront about their political objectives, and more alert to the political responsibilities that go along with the making of knowledge claims. Providing a provocative critique of the dominant approaches to measuring public confidence, this timely study will be of special interest to scholars of the criminal justice system, research methods, and British politics.
Physical Description:	1 online resource
Bibliography:	Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:	9783319678979 3319678973 9783319678962 3319678965