School for Policy Studies

Justice Work – Sisters (having to) do it for themselves

Professor Nancy Lombard, Glasgow Caledonian University

Time: 13:00-13:50

Scotland’s record of accomplishment in tackling issues such as stalking and coercive control has been identified as an exemplar. However, it is important to recognise that the Scottish Criminal Justice System (SCJS) is not designed inherently, to meet the needs of those victimised. This research explored whether the SCJS facilitates the empowerment of the victims who access its support or exacerbates their disempowerment.

The theme of ‘Justice Work’ was identified as a significant and common experience for the majority of participants. Women described the significant amount of practical, bureaucratic, and emotional work that they had to do to keep their cases ‘live’ e.g. conducting their own investigations and gathering evidence, keeping detailed records, and maintaining the visibility of their case within the system. Furthermore, women felt they must manage their communications and behaviour to maintain a sympathetic response from professionals in an effort to keep their case ‘worthy’ of continued investigation. Although in moderation, conducting practical elements of the ‘justice work’ was empowering for some, more often it was experienced as disempowering as women had no choice but to do the work if they wanted their case to progress.

Please see More Info tab for information about Professor Nancy Lombard.

Time of event: 17:00-19:00

Over the past 100 years or so, the framework of children's rights has gained an important place not only in policy and practice, but also in academia. The anchoring of children’s rights scholarship is such that one can talk about a field of ‘children's rights studies.’ Although this field of ‘children’s rights studies’ is very diverse in terms of academic disciplines, geographic spread and topics, the dominant perspective within this field can be briefly summarised as a ‘top-down understanding’ of children’s rights. Such an approach principally considers children’s rights as objective standards that simply need implementation in practice or policy. What is lacking in this field of ‘children’s rights studies’ is a critical perspective, i.e., an approach that considers children’s rights a ‘contested terrain’ with different (conflicting) normative foundations and traditions. This is especially important now as children’s rights are, arguably, under siege. To explore what a critical approach to children's rights means, this panel discussion brings together key thinkers in the emerging field of critical children’s rights studies to explore the limitations of dominant children’s rights discourses, expand on what a critical children's rights stance means, and outline what it can offer to existing rights discourses.

The event will be chaired by Dr. Afua Twum-Danso Imoh, the University of Bristol. The event is organised by the Centre for Children and Families Research in the School for Policy Studies (www.bristol.ac.uk/sps/research/centres/family/)

Details on the panellists can be found under the More Info tab.

This is an open event and all are welcome.