When Children Kill Children: Penal Populism and Political Culture (Clarendon Studies in Criminology)

This title examines the role of political culture and penal populism in the response to the emotive 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, and held in secure detention for nine months before being tried in an adversarial court, and served eight years in custody, a 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 political 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.

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.

General Editor’s Introduction 6 Dedication 8 Epigraph 9 Foreword • Michael Tonry 10 Preface and Acknowledgements 14 Contents 18 List of Tables 22 List of Figures 23 1 When Children Kill Children 26 2 Culture, Politics, and the Media in Norway and England 54 3 Crime and Punishment in Norway and England 78 4 The Constraints and Effects of Political Culture 102 5 The Constraints of Discourse 120 6 Media Constraints and the Formation of Political Opinions 142 7 Contextualizing Tragedy 166 8 English Penal Policy Climates and Political Culture 214 9 Political Culture, Legitimacy, and Penal Populism 246 10 Public Opinion versus Public Judgment 266 11 Effecting Penal Climate Change 296 References 318 Index 346 Examining the role of political culture and penal populism in the response to the emotive subject of child-on-child homicide this title compares the differing responses of English and Norwegian criminal justice systems to two high profile cases those of the killers of James Bulger and Silke Redergard