Writing for the public in criminology: Memoir, podcasting and essay

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Abstract

How can criminologists communicate their work for the public? In this roundtable Alistair Fraser, Yvonne Jewkes and Jennifer Fleetwood discuss their experiences of writing criminology for a public audience through podcasting, memoir and essay. Alistair Fraser will discuss his podcast Young Warriors (2025) which seeks to challenge the public narrative on youth violence by platforming the voices of street-involved young people and their youth workers, telling positive stories that challenge audience perceptions of youth culture. Yvonne Jewkes will discuss An Architecture of Hope: Reimagining the Prison, Restoring a House, Rebuilding Myself (Scribe, 2024), which combines narratives from her research career in prisons, and helping to design prisons around the world to be rehabilitative, rather than punitive, with a very personal story about the meaning of home. Jennifer Fleetwood will discuss What We Talk About When We Talk About Crime (Notting Hill Editions, 2024), a short book/long-form essay examining case studies of personal accounts of crime told for the public. Together, the panelists will discuss some of the practical realities of writing for the public, what happens when the work is 'out there' in the world, and the positives at pitfalls of writing for a non-academic audience.

Subtopic

• Topic 1: Perspectives on Crime and Criminal Behavior / Cultural Criminology

Chair

• Sveinung Sandberg, Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law, University of Oslo

Discussants

• Alistair Fraser, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Glasgow

• Yvonne Jewkes, University of Bath

• Jennifer Fleetwood, City University of London, UK