Liamcrime

When I first discovered that notorious serial killer Ian Brady (the Moors Murderer) had written a book from his prison cell offering an insight into the phenomenon of serial killing and its analysis, I thought this can offer a fresh insight into the mind, motive and methodology of a serial killer, through the lens of a serial killer himself. The book within itself holds so much room for critical analysis and interpretation, it is incredibly challenging to pinpoint one particular finding. This blog aims to explore in smaller parts, numerous findings throughout the book- “Gates of Janus”. The book is broken into three significant chapters. The first chapter explores the contextualisation and social construction of serial murder with ties to morality, hedonistic nihilism and the social constriction of murder, and the ways in which the phenomenon of murder has been commodified and romanticised, this is explored through the lens of the media, and produces a cultural criminological narrati...

‘Criminological research for beginners—A student’s guide’ is written by Laura Caulfield and Jane Hill who are both experts in criminological research and have conducted research themselves on a range of interests including criminal psychology, restorative justice and community approaches to crime and deviance. This book is in my opinion, an essential read for those such as myself who are new to the field of criminology and find use in reading about the learned experiences and empirical conclusions made from those who have conducted academic research as well as those who may wish to re cap on key skills and philosophical theories surrounding the methodologies and routines within criminological research. It can be argued that throughout reading the book, we are provided with a space to critically reflect upon our own epistemologies, ontologies, methods and attitudes to criminological research and how we can apply them to a real life, day to day framework when researching society, ind...

It has been all over the news that Boris Johnson has put £3.6 Billion into the funding of 20,000 new police officers and has ‘created’ 10,000 more prison spaces. ( https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-49318400 ). This blog aims to critically examine the portrayal of violence with its causations and solutions through the Neo- conservative lens and its distorted realities as well as methods of Conservative retention of power through these right realist approaches concerning crime and justice. It can be argued that this right realist approach is deeply flawed and problematic. Firstly this policy simply is a case of exploring the issue of a rise in violent crime as being an issue to tackle with punitive measures. The individual is to blame entirely and rational choice is where we must lie our societal blame. However it is apparent that structural issues and social harms fuelled through consumer capitalism and Neoliberal social policy is not considered here. Since the Conservatives have come...

Day after day, the wider media issue reports on violent crimes, with a heavy focus on knife crime. It can be argued that the way in which violent crime is reported in the media focuses on pointing the blame on race, age, gender and the local communities in which they are immersed into. This blog aims to explore these narratives and to point out that the representation of violent crime, in the media is often misguided and does not truly reflect the reality as well as exploring central social structures and political philosophies which need to be held to account as well. On Monday April 1 st , 2019, BBC News published a headline on their website titled, - ‘Schools and NHS could be held accountable over Youth Crime’. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-477686 3 1 The article discussed the ways in which schools and the NHS have ‘failed’ to prevent youth groups falling into violent crime. First, this article is blatant evidence that the wider media are not willing to accept that the Pol...

Ross Kemp is best known as playing the role of Grant Mitchell in EastEnders, more recently however he has become a world known journalist and political investigator. Ross Kemp has been to the most dangerous parts of the world, he has been to war torn Syria to interview active ISIS fighters, as well as travelling to the world’s most dangerous regions which are torn apart by deadly gang rivalries and political instability. Ross Kemp has shown time and time again that it is possible to gain access to these communities. There is a clear need to investigate and hear the stories of those living in these communities whose lives have been turned upside down by the brutal mechanisms of gang culture. It is apparent to me, that the gang members, who agreed to be interviewed wanted to be heard. When Ross visited Moscow, he interviewed members of a far-right Neo Nazi group.   They appeared only too happy to be interviewed, which would have given them a vocal platform and a sense of recog...