This Wednesday 12 November at @qubcriminology.bsky.social and @ICCJ we have📣 @nicolacarr.bsky.social from @tcddublin.bsky.social. ✨ do join us! The talk on Exploring Crime and Punishment is in the Law School at 1 pm.

On sentence inflation (in case anyone was in any doubt) www.sentencingacademy.org.uk/measuring-se...

BREAKING: The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office has issued arrest warrants for 37 Israeli officials, including PM Netanyahu, Defence Minister Israel Katz, and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, reports Turkish media. 🔴 LIVE updates: aje.io/lx1bfd

I'm calling bullshit on college students these days being lazy or disinterested. They're great, and it's a privilege to teach them. That is all.

No surprises here then. Just talk to families of those whose relatives have died after police violence and neglect - read inquest and inquiry reports going back decades. A commissioner who denies institutional racism. A system incapable of reform. www.bbc.com/news/article...

One of the clearest signs of #ToxicManagerialism in #HigherEducation is when senior managers perceive their institutions fiscally rather than epistemically. This is where ideology trumps function. Result = cuts with minimal short-term monetary benefit but cause long-term harm #UCUStrikes

“Tyranny sets up its own echo-chamber; a void where confused signals buzz about at random; where a murmur or innuendo causes panic: so, in the end, the machinery of repression is more likely to vanish, not with the war or revolution, but with a puff, or the voice of falling leaves” Bruce Chatwin Utz

Everything you need to know about the health of people in prison and on probation New landmark report on the health of people in prison, on probation and in the secure NHS estate. www.russellwebster.com/everything-y...

Horrific, stupid news from @uniofnottingham.bsky.social — they are closing their music department. Apparently they all found out suddently in a meeting yesterday. It is one of the best music departments in the country — solidarity with my colleagues and their students www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Vital piece of investigative reporting from Sky. They've uncovered the X algorithm which feeds users extremist right wing material from the moment they join the site. It is a far-right radicalisation engine, by design. news.sky.com/story/the-x-...

Ministers commissioned a sentencing review and introduced the Sentencing Bill, knowing that change was needed to address the prisons crisis. But they risk making it even worse. Briefing: https://howardleague.org/news/earned-regression-howard-league-outlines-concern-about-governments-prison-reforms/

When people talk about the #CarceralContinuum ... #Criminology

Your friendly neighbourhood #Criminologist here: Dont know who needs to hear this, but ... No, your position on #StopAndSearch right now is not based on 'legitimate concerns', its based on #xenophobic, #racist, fuckery! Using tragedy to push such an agenda is red flag #racism! #Criminology

Have you been thinking about giving the old #agency and #structure binary a bit of a disruption #Criminology, #SocialTheory, #Geography, #UrbanStudies? Wondering how we can give it a rethink beyond #confinement and mix it up a bit? FEAR NOT, THIS IS COMING SOON: www.routledge.com/Agency-Beyon...

I really think if we all pull together, we can make bluesky what academic twitter was before they mangled it up? We need to get more proactive though (myself included). Big up early careers and one anothers' students, get excited by new works... #Criminology, we can do this...

My forthcoming book”Police Reform: An Obituary” is now listed on the Routledge website and will be released on March 31st!! Please have your university library order a copy. www.routledge.com/Police-Refor...

Are you a PhD student working on a criminological topic (broadly construed)? If so, then please consider applying to the LSE's inaugural criminology PhD Symposium: www.lse.ac.uk/social-polic...

A really sobering story about how vulnerable UK universities are to intimidation to get them to abandon human rights research. Claims by China in this report of inadequate "fact checking" should always be accompanied by mention of their exclusions from Xinjiang: share.google/KY9SxTEk3rUM...

How is a chatbot's output, which is mediated by a big company, which is designed to make you addicted to it through inter alia sycophancy and the Barnum effect, and which is designed to trick you into thinking you created it, when it's fractally stolen labour, IN ANY WAY AT ALL good and cool?

Police have announced that a 32-year-old man who was arrested is now being treated as the only suspect for the train stabbing and the 35-year-old has been released with no further action They say he was "reported in good faith" by witnesses but enquiries confirmed that he was not involved

I emailed Nadia Sass the wife of the man who was charged alongside the former leader of Reform Wales, Nathan Gill, & she sent me a long reply..all about Nigel Farage. The weird thing is that I didn’t ask her anything about Nigel Farage. 2/

Kate Wilson was deceived into a relationship by #spycops officer Mark Kennedy. The courts ruled the entire political spying operation unlawful. She's written a book, Disclosure: Unravelling the Spycops Files & is doing a speaking tour in Nov/Dec 🧵 www.weidenfeldandnicolson.co.uk/titles/kate-...

This is only the latest version of a recurring pattern. In the 1930s it was ‘if they are so poor how can they afford to go to the cinema?’ The response is that poverty is revealed not in choices but the cost of choices. What do they have to sacrifice to do or have things others take for granted?

“……there appears to be a growing pattern of undercover officers raising mental ill-health as a reason that they should not attend the inquiry to give oral evidence” www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Our book is out this month so tell your institutional library to order a copy! Or use the code below to get a hardback edition for 30% off!

(2/2)👮‍♀️ This study explores how co-located support services in a UK police station shaped survivor experiences and professional collaboration in domestic abuse response. 📖 Read the article: doi.org/10.1177/1748...

Last chance to turn it off. On Monday, November 3rd, Microsoft will start using your LinkedIn data for AI training. And remember, you're opted in by default. To toggle it off 👉 Account - Settings & Privacy > Data privacy > Data for Generative AI Improvement.

I have always said that, while Frankenstein is a masterpiece, I wish more people knew about Shelley’s book ‘The Last Man’ (1826). I urge everyone to give it a read: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Las...

UK's stupid immigration policy doing as badly as Trump in attracting income and skills from international students.

We need a critique of AI in academic publishing. Following my decision not to sign an AI addendum to my contract with Cambridge University Press, I wrote this short essay which is now out in the Dublin Review of Books. 👇 drb.ie/move-over-fo...

Today the Justice Select Committee has published a report on drug use in prisons. The report finds it has reached endemic levels and urgent reform is needed. Read the report and the Committee's recommendations to the Government on how to tackle this crisis: committees.parliament.uk/publications...

New paper from the @probationres.bsky.social team! We provide broad lessons from the insourcing of probation in England & Wales 1. Structural change is exhausting 2. Milestones ≠ progress 3. Legitimacy can be improved, or undermined, by structural reform www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

I'd love to say lots of nice things about this invaluable preventable disease tracker from @monscience.bsky.social and team at Think Global Health. It's an incredible resource. But I can't get over my anger & sadness that this resource is even needed. www.thinkglobalhealth.org/article/vacc...

Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.

Ife Thompson strives to challenge systems of bias, ensuring Black voices are heard, understood and given the weight they deserve. In 2014, Ife founded BLAM UK, which aims to promote a positive dialogue of social identity and culture through history. Find out more⬇️ https://blamuk.org/

Just going over my talk for a conference event in London tomorrow where I'll be speaking on #racism, #colonialism, and #criminology and saw this old boozer ...

As #woodburning starts up again and the nights draw in, it's worth sharing this again. A lot can be done between no regulation on the one hand and total bans on the other 🔥 🔥 🔥 #airquality #airpollution #particulatematter #emissions #autumn #winter #publichealth airqualitynews.com/health/whats...

📚 We’re rewinding to 2019… (1/2) Vol. 19, Issue 4 featured a thematic section on: The Uses of Historical Criminology: Explanation, Characterisation and Context Guest contributions explore historical methods, periodisation, and the role of imagination in criminological inquiry.

I dare say this book release has impeccable timing. However, getting my author copies just in time for Halloween might have caused a less-than-serious approach to this post. 🎃 #criminology

“Ultimately, the collective strategy of AI companies threatens to deskill precisely those people who are essential for society to function(…) automation of knowledge and culture by private companies is a worrying prospect – conjuring dystopian and outright fascistic scenarios.” — @olivia.science

Let us (the #British) be honest. If your major #politics proposal involves the mass deportation of 'others' on the basis of cultural cohesion... you're trying to legitimate a form of ethnic cleansing! In a moral society that immoral shit should get you banished from a political life! #UKPolitics

After submitting a FOIA request UKRI, I obtained success rates by three grant call scheme and I can only say that I am disheartened by the results: - AHRC Responsive Mode 2025: 2% - ESRC New Investigator Grant 2025: 1% - ESRC Research Grant Round 2025: 1%

In the second part of this episode, Dr Nikhaela Wicks discusses her paper 'Why is my Criminology Curriculum so white?' - Great for introducing the topic to students & for thinking about how we shape our degree courses open.spotify.com/episode/5UmK...

Given that many in both the Tory party and the Reform business want the destruction of the #NHS and a move to privatised medicine (as well as the racist utopia of a 'coherent cultural' Britain), this is perfectly in keeping with what their designs!

Let us (the #British) be honest. If your major #politics proposal involves the mass deportation of 'others' on the basis of cultural cohesion... you're trying to legitimate a form of ethnic cleansing! In a moral society that immoral shit should get you banished from a political life! #UKPolitics

Please, #BluSky folk: 1. Don't say #criminology when you mean criminality - concept clarity is important! 2. As others have noted this week - #TrueCrime is not criminology 3. Profiling is not a legitimate job role in the UK/British #policing - stop misleading potential criminology students!

'A quarter of #prisoners leaving #HMP #Norwich earlier this year were released #homeless, according to an @IMB #report.'

Ding, ding, ding -> "students who use an AI tutor often score higher in tests immediately after a class than do those who don’t use the agent. But two to three weeks later, the AI users scored lower than their peers. “Students might have a false sense of understanding,"

Our next S&CS seminar is taking place tomorrow (22nd October, 3.30–5.00) in Room 432, St Andrews Bldg. We’re really pleased to be welcoming @kateherrity.bsky.social. She will be exploring the sensory aspects of the ways in which time is experienced in the context of imprisonment.

If you're around lovely Glasgow, I'm be chatting to the lovely SCS folk!! (#Sound, #Prisons, #Criminology, #Anthropology, #Sociology, a bit of #Music and even a mention of David O'Doherty)