Seminar and book launch on Social Censure and Critical Criminology

The University's Centre for Criminal Justice Research hosted an afternoon seminar and book launch on 10 November 2017. The event was convened and chaired by Professor Paul Roberts in the School of Law, to coincide with the publication of Anthony Amatrudo's edited collection of essays on Social Censure and Critical Criminology: After Sumner (Palgrave 2017). Book and seminar alike celebrated, and further engage with, Colin Sumner's seminal contributions to theoretical criminology.

Seminar participants included six of the book's contributors, several of whom were Colin Sumner's former students at Cambridge. The afternoon kicked off with two chapter-based presentations. Professor Roberts presented some methodological thoughts on 'Thinking Through Critical Criminology', followed by Dr James Hardie-Bick, of Sussex University, who spoke on the topic of 'Idealism, Violence and Censure', particularly featuring the psychoanalytic inquires of Eric Fromm. In a late change to the programme, Professor Bill Dixon, Professor of Criminology in the School of Sociology and Social Policy, rounded off the first session with some observations on 'Southern Criminology' informed by his own experience of living and teaching criminology in South Africa.

The highlight of the afternoon was a new lecture by Colin Sumner himself, who – post-'retirement' - is now based in Sociology at University College Cork. Sumner proposed 'A New Paradigm in Criminology: Censure, Harm and Pathology', leaving the audience in no doubt that the originator of the idea of 'social censure' is still actively contributing to its further development and contextual applications. Censure, it appears, is a criminological concept with enduring theoretical vitality.

The seminar was followed by a book launch and drinks reception. The event was kindly sponsored by the School of Law and Palgrave Macmillan publishers.