The Influence of the Home Office Research and Planning Unit on British Criminology

• In Event: International CJ Policy and Practice II

Abstract

In the early sixties Bob Dylan claimed that influence was impossible to avoid - you open your eyes and ears and you’re influenced. In academic work, influence is acknowledged in pretty well everything that is done, at the very least to avoid accusations of plagiarism. Influence can be direct or indirect; it can be positive or negative; it can be long-term or short. As criminologists, we assiduously locate the context of what we are doing by pointing out in literature reviews the works that have preceded our efforts. Virtually all of our commentaries on influence are focused upon individuals: Robert Merton, Freda Adler, Michel Foucault, David Garland for example. And occasionally on a group of some kind – the Chicago school. Those we acknowledge as influential are academics. But in England and Wales, the Home Office Research and Planning Unit (RPU), a group of civil servants based in a government department, have had a massive influence on British criminology and also more widely. This paper begins to tease out the various ways in which the RPU had an impact upon criminology for better and for worse.

Author

• George Mair, Liverpool Hope University