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Prisons, Prisoners and Prison Records in Historical Perspective

Perspectives historiques sur les prisons, les personnes incarcérées et les archives des prisons

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Published on Wednesday, October 03, 2018

Abstract

The rise of the prison as an institution of mass incarceration for offenders has for long fascinated researchers. In part, this is due to the unusually detailed nature of most prison records. The wide availability of somewhat similar sources across diverse European and European-derived societies provides criminologists, social and economic historians, demographers and other social scientists with rich collections of personal information that have been analysed intensively since the 1970s. The increasing power of software and hardware and the accumulation of very large quantities of prison data, some of it linked to other sources, offers challenges and opportunities for researchers today. The workshop responds to the challenge of harnessing criminal justice records by bringing together scholars in different disciplines and countries to share information about their sources, methodologies of classification and analysis, and to reconceptualize research paradigms.

Announcement

April 23-24, 2019 / University of Guelph, Canada

Presentation

The rise of the prison as an institution of mass incarceration for offenders has for long fascinated researchers. In part, this is due to the unusually detailed nature of most prison records. The wide availability of somewhat similar sources across diverse European and European-derived societies provides criminologists, social and economic historians, demographers and other social scientists with rich collections of personal information that have been analysed intensively since the 1970s. The increasing power of software and hardware and the accumulation of very large quantities of prison data, some of it linked to other sources, offers challenges and opportunities for researchers today. The workshop responds to the challenge of harnessing criminal justice records by bringing together scholars in different disciplines and countries to share information about their sources, methodologies of classification and analysis, and to reconceptualize research paradigms.

This workshop welcomes researchers with an interest in one or more of several broad discussions.

  1. What research is now ongoing in Canada and elsewhere to examine prison and prison-like institutions and their populations, and how does it fit into the rich history of research since the 1970s? Literature reviews and case studies that draw from ongoing research programmes are welcome.
  2. What difficulties are encountered as we try to understand the life experience of the incarcerated using records generated by an institution without permission from the incarcerated and often without their knowledge?
  3. What conceptual and methodological challenges are encountered in constructing and using databases that result from a digitization process and that describe an entire population of prisoners? How do we ensure that digitized resources created today will survive and be useful for future generations?
  4. Can we organize information about institutions in a way that will facilitate comparative analysis of prosecution, conviction and incarceration practices and experiences across jurisdictions?
  5. What does social science analysis of historical criminal justice records, criminology in the past, offer to scholars and policy-makers responding to current and future challenges?

Submission Guidelines

Researchers who might like to offer a paper or simply join the discussion are encouraged to express their interest. Graduate students are especially welcome.

Please direct a 250 word abstract and a brief cv

by September 30

to Kris Inwood kinwood@uoguelph.ca

Organizing committee

  • Catrien Bijleveld (Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement)
  • François Fenchel (Université Laval)
  • Donald Fyson (Université Laval)
  • Barry Godfrey (University of Liverpool)
  • Kris Inwood (University of Guelph) and Hamish Maxwell-Stewart (U of Tasmania)

Places

  • University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada
    Guelph, Canada (N1G 2W1)

Date(s)

  • Sunday, September 30, 2018

Keywords

  • prison, prisonniers, prisonnières, incarcération, crime, justice

Contact(s)

  • Kris Inwood
    courriel : kinwood [at] uoguelph [dot] ca

Information source

  • Kris Inwood
    courriel : kinwood [at] uoguelph [dot] ca

License

CC0-1.0 This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.

To cite this announcement

« Prisons, Prisoners and Prison Records in Historical Perspective », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Wednesday, October 03, 2018, https://doi.org/10.58079/10ye

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