When Children Kill Children : Penal Populism and Political Culture - David A. Green

When Children Kill Children

Penal Populism and Political Culture

By: David A. Green

Hardcover | 1 February 2008

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This title examines the role of political culture and penal populism in the response to the subject of child-on-child homicide.

Green explores the reasons underlying the vastly differing responses of the English and Norwegian criminal justice systems to the cases of James Bulger and Silje Redergard respectively. Whereas James Bulger's killers were subject to extreme press and public hostility, held in secure detention for nine months before being tried in an adversarial court, and served eight years in custody, Redergard's killers were shielded from public antagonism and carefully reintegrated into the local community. This book argues that English adversarial political culture creates far more incentives to politicize high-profile crimes than Norwegian consensus political culture. Drawing on a wealth of empirical research, Green suggests that the tendency for politicians to justify punitive responses to crime by invoking harsh public attitudes is based upon a flawed understanding of public opinion.

In a compelling study, Green proposes a more deliberative response to crime is possible by making English culture less adversarial and by making informed public judgment more assessable.
Industry Reviews
Covers all bases * David Wilson, Professor of Criminology, Centre of Applied Criminology, Birmingham City University, The Howard Journal, May 2010 *
a most valuable and informative work which provides new insights and ways forward in the face of the destructive potentialities of penal populism. * Dennis Eady, Criminology and Criminal Justice *
this important, stimulating book has the potential to become a landmark contribution to the development of comparative penology. * John Pratt, Punishment & Society *
a most valuable and informative work which provides new insights and ways forward in the face of the destructive potentialities of penal populism. * Dennis Eady, Criminology and Criminal Justice *

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