SAP sponsored event: The harms beyond punishment?

University of Nottingham, 11th-12th June, 2021
William Bülow (Stockholm University)
Zachary Hoskins (University of Nottingham)
 
It is well known that legal punishment often carries with it numerous hardships in addition to the ones that we usually think of as comprising the formal sentence itself. Punishment often has both formal and informal collateral consequences, in terms of how it affects individuals’ opportunities for housing, education and employment. Punishment – most notably imprisonment – also has consequences for the families and children of those being punished. The experience of family separation can constitute a trauma, and recent studies also suggest that parental imprisonment negatively affects children of prisoners’ education as well as their success in securing future employment. Research also highlights how children of prisoners might be at risk of delinquent behaviour themselves. These consequences are most prevalent in the case where the children come from socially disadvantaged families – a group which is already vulnerable to the hardships of imprisonment.

Although these effects of the criminal justice system are well known to social scientists, serious attempts to examine them systematically from a philosophical perspective have only recently begun. Instead, philosophers working on penal philosophy have largely focused on the supposed moral justification of legal punishment. In short, the focus has been on whether intentional imposition of harsh treatment, such as imprisonment, can be morally justified as a response to criminal wrongdoing. Without denying the importance of philosophical theorising of this sort, it has too often been silent on the collateral consequences of punishment.

This two-day workshop, organised by Dr. Zachary Hoskins (Nottingham) and Dr. William Bülow (Stockholm) will gather scholars working on the collateral consequences of punishment, broadly conceived, to engage critically with the philosophical questions that these consequences raise, including these: Should prospective employers have the right to have access to criminal records? Is it ever morally justified to deny those with criminal records access to certain educational programs? What are the obligations owed to children of prisoners? How does the recognition of informal collateral consequences bear on common moral justifications of punishment, such as deterrence or deserved censure? By bringing in the perspectives from philosophy, legal studies, and criminology, this workshop aims to lay the foundation for future scholarship on this topic.

The workshop is generously supported by conference grants from The Society for Applied Philosophy, The Analysis Trust and The Aristotelian Society.

Speakers and commentators
Dr. William Bülow, Stockholm University
Dr. Helen Brown Coverdale, University College London
Dr. Nicola Carr, University of Nottingham
Dr. Rachel Condry, University of Oxford
Dr. Andrew Cornford, University of Birmingham
Professor Antony Duff, University of Stirling (emeritus)
Dr. Andrew Henley, University of Nottingham
Dr. Zachary Hoskins, University of Nottingham
Dr. Jeffrey Howard, University College London
Dr. Ambrose Lee, University of Surrey
Dr. Lars Lindblom, Linköping University
Professor Richard Lippke, University of Indiana
Professor Sandra Marshall, University of Stirling (emeritus)
Dr. Shona Minson, University of Oxford
Dr. Andrei Poama, Leiden University
Mr. Christopher Stacey, co-director, Unlock
Dr. Philippa Tomczak, University of Nottingham
Dr. Milena Tripkovic, University of Birmingham

Registration
Registration for this event is free. If you want to attend, please send an email with your name and affiliation to william.​bulow@​philosophy.​su.​se. Do note that because of the COVID-19 Pandemic there is a risk that we won’t be able to host the workshop at Nottingham. In that case, the workshop will be hosted online in the form of a seminar series.

Thanks to The Analysis Trust, we have the opportunity to offer bursaries to cover part of the accommodation costs  for up to three PhD students who wish to attend the workshop, should it be possible to host the event on campus at Nottingham. If you interested, please send your request to william.​bulow@​philosophy.​su.​se.