Research Institute for Social Sciences

Prior to commencing my PhD studies at Keele, I completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Social Research Methods and a Master of Arts degree in Social Sciences with the Open University.

My research interests include:

• the sociology of punishment and rehabilitation,
• human rights and their relationship to punishment,
• the political discourse of criminal justice,
• the sociology of stigma and advanced marginality. 

I am a member of the European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control and the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies.

In addition to my PhD research I am a trustee of the charity Unlock, which aims to assist people in overcoming the long-term disadvantage caused by criminal convictions so that they can move on positively in their lives.

Working title: The emergence and erosion of legal protections against discrimination for people with criminal convictions in the UK.

Project summary: Over 9.2 million people in the UK have criminal records. The possession of a criminal record can have stigmatising effects on individuals which restrict and limit their enjoyment of full and inclusive citizenship. The precarious status of former lawbreakers can therefore be regarded as a significant social problem, particularly for those who have long desisted from criminal offending and ‘gone straight’.

The notion of ‘legal rehabilitation’ involves the restoration of previously criminalised people through the formal removal of criminal stigma, but this has always been partial, qualified and limited through concerns about risk and public safety. These concerns have grown significantly with the ascendancy of neo-liberal governmental rationalities associated with future crime prevention.

This thesis will make a unique contribution to knowledge by producing a genealogy of the discourses which have surrounded legal rehabilitation in the UK since its achievement in the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 through to its erosion and marginalisation as a desirable social objective in the present day. It will then seek to further analyse these discourses using a governmentality perspective.

With reference to the discourse of policy makers, my research questions are:

1. What were the discursive frameworks which enabled the introduction of legal rehabilitation for (some) former lawbreakers to be achieved in the 1974 Act

2. What were the discursive frameworks that contributed to the erosion of the principle of legal rehabilitation from its actualisation in the 1974 Act through to the present day?

3. To what extent have prevailing governmental ideologies (e.g. state welfarism, neoliberalism and hybrids of these) delimited the restoration of citizenship to lawbreakers both before 1974 and during subsequent phases of governance?

Supervisors: Dr Mary Corcoran and Professor Ronnie Lippens.

Journal Articles:

• Drake, D. and Henley, A. (in press) ‘‘Victims’ versus ‘offenders’ in British political discourse: The construction of a false dichotomy’, The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice (forthcoming)

Conference papers:

• Henley, A. (2013) ‘You say you want a revolution? Alternatives to reducing re-offending by numbers’, Research Institute for Social Sciences: Postgraduate symposium, Keele University, 14th June
• Henley, A. (2013) ‘A false dichotomy: Prisoners versus the ‘law-abiding public’, The Prison and the Public, Edge Hill University, 27th March
• Hudson, K.; Taylor C. and Henley, A. (2012) ‘Trends in the management of registered sexual offenders in Wales’, Understanding sex offender disclosure in Wales: Devolution, Context and Partnership Networks - ESRC Knowledge Exchange Network, Cardiff University, 28th September

Book reviews:

Henley, A. (2013). Ikponwosa O Ekunwe and Richard S Jones (eds), Global Perspectives on Re-Entry. Punishment & Society, 15 (2), 200-202.

Selected journalism:

• Henley, A. (2012) 'Tough but intelligent: Can prison really punish and rehabilitate at the same time?' Inside Time, 1st November, p.23 - Available at: http://www.insidetime.org/articleview.asp?a=1324&c=tough_but_intelligent
• Henley, A. (2012) 'A dangerous dichotomy', The Justice Gap, 20th January [online] - Available at: http://thejusticegap.com/2012/01/a-dangerous-dichotomy/

As a graduate teaching assistant I have either taught or assisted in the delivery of the following criminology modules:

• CRI-10010: Understanding Crime
• CRI-10011: Murder
• CRI-10013: Criminal Justice: Process, Policy and Practice
• CRI-10015: Punishment: Beyond the Popular Imagination
• CRI-40030: Advanced Topics in Criminology and Criminal Justice