News from 2007
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2008 News
I was asked to be a rapporteur for an ESRC research project.
I took part in the BBC Radio Manchester breakfast show to give listeners an overview of the problems rape complainants have in securing justice through the criminal courts. With a current conviction rate of 5.8% there is a serious justice gap for complainants. The government is announcing measures (28th Nov) which might help to improve the current situation.
I attended the C-SAP Conference in Cardiff where I presented a poster on recent work on student e-communication networks.
I gave an invited lecture 'The UK Prison System' to criminology students at the Emerald Coast campus of the University of West Florida.
I attended the American Society of Criminology Annual Conference in Atlanta where I presented a paper 'Cross Cultural Criminology: An International Exchange'
I have sent the manuscript for a book to the publisher. I have also been notified that a book that I have a chapter in has now been published:
Handbook of Victims and Victimology
I have been working with Nicole Westmarland and Sonya McMillan on issues connected to the Rape Crisis National Group.
I was approached by a researcher from the Governance and Social Development Resource Centre, about the passage of the CEDAW Bill in Nigeria.
A busy summer saw consultancy provided to the Rape and Sexual Assault Centre in Merseyside to help them construct a history of the agency since it began in 1986. I've also been discussing a public awareness campaign with Vancouver Rape Crisis to celebrate their 35th birthday next year.
I've also just about finished a book that I've been writing with friend and colleague Dr Kate Cook - more details will follow when it is safely at the publishers.
I gave a paper at Sheffield Halam University - Teaching Criminology - cross-disciplinary workshop, organised in collaboration with the Higher Education Academy Subject Centres for Law (UKCLE), Sociology, Anthropology and Politics (C-SAP), and Social Policy and Social Work (SWAP)
'e-learning and criminology', Dr Helen Jones
Sheffield.pps
This session discussed the impact of international collaboration within criminology and showed how this model can be used by other disciplines
I am giving a paper at the HEA annual conference July 2007
'e-communication unleashed' Dr Helen Jones
HEA2007.pps
The aim of this session is to consider the expansion of an existing e-communication
project which began when a UK and a US academic engaged their students in penpal
type activity and which now encompasses seven universities in the UK and the
US. The session will begin with a short presentation outlining the development of an
international e-communication project. The session will then model the structure of
asynchronous communication as the facilitator poses questions for discussion and
participants reply and respond to each other through placing post-it notes on boards.
The presenter will then, having noted key themes and issues, return the group to
synchronous discussion and these key issues will be discussed further. The outcomes
of this session are to highlight the challenges which emerge in developing international
collaboration through asynchronous discussion and to gain useful input into the
problem of scalability.
I was an independent observer at a prison-death demonstration on Wednesday 13 June 2007 at HMP & YOI Styal, Cheshire. This was the 24th demonstration to be held outside women's prisons in England since protests began in 2004. The protest was about the death of Helen Mary Cole, 48, who died in the care of HMP & YOI Styal on 3 June 2007. Helen Mary Cole is the fifth woman to die from apparently self-inflicted injuries in women's jails so far this year, a figure that already exceeds the number of women's deaths for the whole of last year.Mrs Cole died less than 48 hours after arriving at HMP Styal. She was on remand, located in the 'first night centre', and was not on 'suicide watch'. Pauline Campbell, the organiser of the protest, requested the Governor (Steve Hall) to speak to protesters at the prison gates. Governor Steve Hall was on duty, but instead Mr C. Bailey came out to speak to protesters. He was accompanied by Ms Lucy Merrick, Head of Psychology; both declined to comment on Helen Cole's death. Read more here -
London
I attended the Inter-ministerial Stakeholder Group on Sexual Violence in Whitehall, London.
Media
I was asked to contribute to the national End Violence Against Women Blog. The article is about a court case where a barrister made inappropriate comments about a rape complainant.
"The barrister, Sheilagh Davies, has made unsupported allegations about the character and the actions of the rape complainant. The complainants dress-size has no bearing on this case at all and this is little more than another example of the mobilization of rape myths to attack the credibility of a rape complainant".
Read more...
http://endviolenceagainstwomen.blogspot.com/2007/05/barrister-gang-rape-girl-was-glad-of.html
Ormskirk: UK
I presented at the SOLSTICE conference Edge Hill University - Reflection v Soundbites: the potential of VLEs to enhance the quality of students’ communication, participation and learning (with Dr Eileen Berrington) Conference Abstract
Media
I was asked to contribute to the national End Violence Against Women Blog. The article is about the killings at the university campus in Virginia.
"As the world’s media retreat from Virginia, it is worth looking at how the tragedy of the campus shootings has been interpreted and how a feminist analysis can go beyond the reports of the past week".
Read more...
http://endviolenceagainstwomen.blogspot.com/2007/05/responding-to-virginia-gender-matters.html
Brighton: UK
I presented a lecture and seminar to graduate students at Brighton University on the subject of 'Rape: A Four Lettered Word'.
London:UK
I presented at the 2007 British-Irish Section of the European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control. The conference was entitled “Things Can Only Get Better": Crime and Deviance after Ten Years of New Labour and my paper, which focused on the efforts of the last ten years to improve justice to women in the aftermath of male violence, was entitled: F+ Must Try Harder: A Report Card to Government on Violence Against Women. See Research page for conference details.
Manchester:UK
International E-Communication Exchange Conference - Communicating Across Boundaries: E-communication on Criminal Justice Issues.
This month I hosted an event to celebrate the fourth year of the International E-Communication Exchange IEE Project . The conference at Manchester Metropolitan University was opened by Professor Janet Beer, Dean and Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the Faculty of Humanities, Law and Social Sciences. Other speakers included Dr Paula Wilcox, Principal Lecturer Brighton University; Maggie Sumner, Head of the Sociology Department Westminster University and Drs Kunselman and Johnson of the University of West Florida.
Over the past three years, a virtual communication exchange initiative has been providing students in the UK and the US with the opportunity to learn from each other. The initiative began in 2004 with a small-scale email exchange project between Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) and the University of West Florida (UWF). Since then the International E-communication Exchange (IEE) has grown in scale and scope and now takes advantage of the functionality of the WebCT platform to deliver the exchange to over 400 students studying in six universities in the UK and the USA.
(Dr Helen Jones welcomes Professor Janet Beer)
Partners from the USA attended and students from the three participating UK universities also presented at the event.
(The brave students)
The event was closed by Helen Howard from C-SAP.
(Helen Howard of C-SAP)
Nice: France
International Collaboration: Two Nations Separated by a Common Language
Anita J. Gill and Helen Jones
This presentation is based on a collaborative e-Learning initiative developed by criminologists at Manchester Metropolitan University, U.K. and the University of West Florida, U.S. The presentation examines the advantages gained from utilising Blackboard functionality to an international communication exchange and the benefits to students, academics and the participating institutions. It also explores challenges faced, critical success factors and developments for the future. Students themselves tell the story of a point of conflict, how it manifested itself and its resolution.
Conference Details
See The Truth About Rape Website (February comments)http://www.truthaboutrape.co.uk/4655.html
I was contacted to ask for a comment about a TV programme that used a celebrity jury to try a fictionalised rape case:
The Verdict does little more than sensationalise the tragic reality of justice for rape victims in this country. Whilst the responsibility for the appalling injustice in rape cases lies with the Criminal Justice system, the media could do much more to educate in a way that does not distort the truth and titillate the audience. Rather than give any useful representation of how a jury acts in such cases, we are faced with a collection of 'celebrities' who seem set on mobilising rape myths to support their own beliefs. We should not be surprised that some female members of the jury are quick to voice disbelief in the complainant, as it is often too disturbing to stand in the shoes of a raped woman and accept that this too could happen to any of us. Nor should we be surprised that some of the men dismiss the complainant's story as 'not real rape' as it is often disturbing for men to stand in the shoes of rapists who do not conform to stereotypes of sexual predators. What is surprising is that the BBC has descended to such depths in an attempt to secure ratings and it should be ashamed to give the telephone numbers of rape crisis groups at the end of each programme when such groups have asked for the programme to be withdrawn. Anyone with even a little knowledge of the Criminal Justice system knows that a case such as this would never have made it past the Crown Prosecution Service. In constructing a case such as this, the programme makers simply re-enforce the belief that rape cases are impossible to try. This does little to further truth and justice but a lot to entrench discrimination and injustice.
I was contacted by the BBC to give a profile of the perpetrator of the Ipswich murders. I declined and I'm glad that I did as the next day an article was published by The Guardian which criticises the type of academics who enhance their own public profiles through this sort of engagement with the media. I am happy to participate in debate on a number of crime related issues but I have no interest in speculating on the psychological characteristics of offenders. Catherine Bennett gives voice to many in her criticism of pseudo, CSI-style profiling and also the way in which many of her fellow journalists sensationalise this case.
Read the article here - The Guardian, December 14th 2006
November 2006
|
| Woman's Hour |
Old age, vulnerability and sexual violence.
Around 3 percent of offences against the elderly involve sexual abuse, be they living in their own home or in a residential care home. But is this problem being adequately dealt with? Not according to Dr Helen Jones of Manchester Metropolitan University. She argues that sexual violence against the elderly is an issue we just don’t want to confront and as a consequence those who are most vulnerable are not being listened to.
Jenni is joined by Dr Helen Jones, Principal Lecturer in Criminology at Manchester Metropolitan University and Dr Cath White, Clinical Director of St Mary’s Sexual Assault Referral Centre, Manchester.
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