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Restorative justice in criminology? Critically examining the production, and exclusion, of restorative justice knowledge(s) within undergraduate criminology in England and Wales.

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Sweeney, Rowan ORCID: 0000-0003-4697-3302 (2022) Restorative justice in criminology? Critically examining the production, and exclusion, of restorative justice knowledge(s) within undergraduate criminology in England and Wales. PhD thesis, York St John University.

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Official URL: https://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/id/eprint/8415

Abstract

This thesis critically examines restorative justice knowledge production within undergraduate criminology in England and Wales. It discusses empirical data collected across two phases. Phase one involved a scoping study to map out restorative justice inclusion across all undergraduate criminology degree programmes in England and Wales. In phase two, perspectives of academics and criminology students, from seven different universities, were collected via interviews, focus groups, and documents. Findings show that restorative justice knowledge production in undergraduate criminology was minimal, and even when included it was marginalised in curricula. It suggests that factors influencing the lack of restorative justice inclusion were the: repetitive, status quomaintaining, character of criminology curricula, position of restorative justice as a criminological specialism, and wider socio-economic forces influencing higher education. Findings also indicate that when restorative justice knowledge production was enabled it was largely presented and understood as an alternative justice form. Yet, due to the marginalisation of restorative justice in curricula, and the ambiguity surrounding the concept, there was limited space to explore the complex theoretical and practical knowledges of restorative justice. This research also shows that, when included, restorative justice was a valuable topic and pedagogic tool to support development of the criminological imagination among students by encouraging critical thinking, imagining otherwise, and activism. Overall, this thesis argues that restorative justice should be core to criminology curricula because it encourages students to question dominant narratives of crime and justice, humanises criminological themes, and supports students to recognise themselves as social actors. However, it also puts forth that the influence of marketisation and neoliberal processes inherent to higher education are problematic for criminology teaching, learning and curricula. It suggests that criminology must evaluate its purpose in the academy and strengthen critical criminological perspectives within curricula if it wants to act against, rather than reproduce, oppression and injustice.

Item Type:

Thesis (PhD)

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