Melissa Munn first graduate of the Criminology PhD program and Chris Clarkson have published a book “Disruptive Prisoners: Resistance, Reform and the New Deal”
Two uOttawa Alumni, Chris Clarkson and Melissa Munn have published the co-authored book “Disruptive Prisoners: Resistance, Reform and the New Deal” at the University of Toronto Press.
Disruptive Prisoners reconstitutes the history of Canada’s federal prison system in the mid-twentieth century through a process of collective biography – one involving prisoners, administrators, prison reformers, and politicians. This social history relies on extensive archival research and access to government documents, but more importantly, uses the penal press materials created by prisoners themselves and an interview with one of the founding penal press editors to provide a unique and unprecedented analysis.
Disruptive Prisoners is grounded in the lived experiences of men who were incarcerated in federal penitentiaries in Canada and argues that they were not merely passive recipients of intervention. Evidence indicates that prisoners were active agents of change who advocated for and resisted the initiatives that were part of Canada’s "New Deal in Corrections." While prisoners are silent in other criminological and historical texts, here they are central figures: the juxtaposition of their voices with the official administrative, parliamentary, and government records challenges the dominant tropes of progress and provides a more nuanced and complicated reframing of the post-Archambault Commission era.
The Department of Criminology is nationally and internationally recognized for its cutting-edge approach to a variety of criminal justice issues, including crime prevention, social justice, violence against women, drug policy, sex work, prisons, youth, media representations of crime, political violence, human rights, policing, victimology and cybercrime.
Our professors are interested in various research fields, including: abolitionism and alternatives to criminal justice, crimes of the powerful, criminological theory and socio-legal studies, First Nations, racism and (in)justice, gender, sexuality and (in)justice, policing, governance and (in)security, popular culture, media and technology, prevention and intervention, prison, punishment and social control, youth, age and (in)justice
Discover some of the research projects done at the Department of Criminology.
uoCal | Events
There are no results for this content list.