In my quest to expose the writing process I have structured this paper using named paragraphs. Each paragraph has a title showing the purpose it performs as part of the overall paper structure. This should help putting the paper together as a coherent argument, showing how each bit adds to …
Cultural accounts of illicit markets and criminal activities are the best way to develop a feel for them. Here are my recommendations: Podcasts Some of the most insightful sociology is done in economics, so Planet Money is my go to for understanding how the economy shapes our lives. Episodes on …
I want to engage with a type of argument that is self-undermining. The months after Al-Qaeda’s attacks on New York and Washington in 2001 birthed an immoral decision. The USA at the highest level began publicly legitimising torture as a means to an end in the War on Terror. As …
One of the annoying things academic competition does is push us to develop elaborate ways of not quite saying what is staring us in the face. There is a tendency to produce theoretical solutions to problems that only exist because there is something we want to avoid saying, in this …
…really just one social fact Crime is behaviour that is intentional, measurable and directly harmful. The only reason to care about crime is that it gets in the way of the good life. Ignore anything about obeying the law for its own sake because otherwise our moral sphere will crumble. …
Never ask me ‘do you think this is fence electrified? Are these berries poisonous? Is this knife super-sharp?’ Or somesuch. I know only one path to knowledge and am the sort of person who likes to find out what something is by jabbing it with my finger/licking or eating it …
… or possibly it will make you feel very much worse. Not sure. But I think you need to know this. Discussing with research students about the many troubles of PhD life we often come back to a disagreement or misunderstanding about what a PhD is. So I want to …
This post is inspired by an invitation from Andreas Hackl to a workshop organised by himself and Margie Cheesman on The risks of working online: refugees in the internet economy, supported by the UNHCR. The digital society has various used for refugees beyond the usual. Digital traces might be used …
This is the draft of a paper I am presenting at the International Forum on Drug Policy, hosted by the International Center for Drug Policy Studies at Shanghai University. The theme of the forum is ‘The Fentanyl and Other Synthetic Opioids Crises: New Challenges and New Responses’. Introduction: the present …
‘Common Swindles of India’ (Daly, 1931) is an impressionistic criminology where the author gathers together accounts from colonial Indian police on frequent cons they encounter. It is written with genteel disdain towards the Indian population who are portrayed as variously greedy and gullible, liable to fall for cheap and obvious …
