Keith Soothill
Biographic Data
| ID | 165222 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Keith Soothill |
| GIVEN NAMES | Keith |
| FAMILY NAME | Soothill |
| SIGNATURE | SOOTHILL K |
| AFFILIATIONS | Lancaster University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 47 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 130 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 46 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1971 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Marginal’ Crime: The Example of Blackmail in Representing Evolving Crime Narratives
Newspaper representation of blackmail cases from over half a century (1960–2009) is used to illustrate ‘marginal’ crime reporting in an era of social change: we asked how such crimes fare in attracting public attention and what meanings they represent during a period of politicised, public and criminological narratives of crime and disorder. ‘Marginal’ crimes sit at the edges of crime narratives and at the boundaries of criminology, yet the examp…
Questioning Crime and Criminology
Introduction: crime is exciting but what of criminology? Moira Peelo and Keith Soothill 1. Capturing criminology, Keith Soothill 2. Crime and the media: public narratives and private consumption, Moira Peelo 3. Racing to conclusions: thinking sociologically about police race relations, Simon Holdaway 4. Inequality and crime, Chris Grover 5. Burning issues: fire, carnival and crime, Mike Presdee 6. Drugs and society, Fiona Measham 7. Explaining ch…
Understanding Criminal Careers
The study of criminal careers is of increasing interest in criminology. It is now generally recognised that it is important to try to understand criminal behaviour across the life-course rather than focusing on fragmented incidents which provide only a partial picture. This is an accessible text which clarifies the crucial theoretical and methodological debates surrounding the study of criminal careers. It focuses on some major longitudinal studi…
Middle-Class Offenders: A 35-Year Follow-Up
The long-term outcome for middle-class offenders after conviction is an under-researched area in criminology. This present study considers 317 offenders—with a follow-up of at least 35 years—who are seeking white-collar employment after conviction. On the basis of their previous criminal history, five clusters of offenders can be identified using latent class analysis (LCA): low-rate white-collar, low-rate general, medium-rate acquisitive special…
The importance of co-convictions in the prediction of dangerous recidivism: Blackmail and kidnapping as a demonstration study
Co-convictions are court convictions made at the same time as a more serious conviction. Their importance has been little recognized.We investigate their value using data on two separate serious crimes. Taking official conviction careers in England and Wales (1979—2001) for blackmail ( n = 5774) and kidnapping offenders ( n = 7291), we considered how much information on co-convictions is normally overlooked, and how knowledge of co-convictions co…
Sex Offender Recidivism
There have been major shifts in the perception of sex offender recidivism over the past 30 years and increased interest in public and professional spheres. However, the discourses of the public and the professionals are becoming increasingly discrepant. The media are pivotal in demonizing all sex offenders and focusing on punitiveness. Media myths have developed that mask professional advances. A paradigm shift is needed from the current emphasis…
When do Ex‐Offenders Become Like Non‐Offenders
When can ex-offenders with no further convictions be considered as exhibiting the same risk of reconviction as non-offenders? This issue is relevant for the retention and disclosure of early criminal records, and is a controversial issue. Replicating American work by Kurlychek and his colleagues (2006, 2007), this study focusing on England and Wales broadly endorses their findings by suggesting that groups whose members have either a finding of g…
Changing Perceptions of Non‐Consensual Sex Crime: The Mediation of a Local Newspaper
This article aims to consider all cases of non‐consensual sex crime involving a court appearance that were reported in a local newspaper, the Lancaster Guardian, over a period of 120 years (1860–1979). Searching over 6,000 editions of a local newspaper, there are huge shifts in the outcome of non‐consensual cases over the 120 years. There is evidence of a lively direct interest from the local populace in some of the early cases, but it is only si…
Criminal convictions among children and young adults: Changes over time
This study focuses on court conviction rates—that is, the numbers and proportion of the population in England and Wales who are convicted of a crime between the ages of 10—25. Data on over 47,000 male and 10,000 female offenders for six specific birth cohorts (those born in 1953, 1958, 1963, 1968, 1973 and 1978) were extracted from the Offenders Index. We related convictions in three age groups (10—15, 16—20, 21—25) to population estimates for th…
Does Serious Offending Lead to Homicide: Exploring the Interrelationships and Sequencing of Serious Crime
The interrelationships between serious types of crime have been neglected. Focusing on those convicted of arson (n = 45,915), blackmail (n = 5,774), kidnapping (n = 7,291) and threats to kill (n = 9,816) in England and Wales (1979–2001), we examine the specialization and sequencing of these crimes in relation to the risk of subsequent homicide. All four offences have a heightened likelihood of subsequent homicide compared to the general populatio…
Constructing British Criminology
How has knowledge been constructed in British criminology since the 1960s? While histories of theory are plentiful and, due to such activities as the Research Assessment Exercise, awareness of citation counts has grown, we have become interested in a less formal – harder to assess – area of knowledge construction. Our questions have formed around the ways in which current, practising criminologists perceive the development of their discipline (if…
The Geographical Mobility, Preferences and Pleasures of Prolific Punters: A Demonstration Study of the Activities of Prostitutes' Clients
Clients of prostitutes have been traditionally neglected in the study of prostitution. This demonstration study suggests that the Internet, particularly one prominent website for patrons of commercial sex in Britain, can assist in learning more about the activities of prostitutes' clients, their patterns of behaviour and the organisation of commercial sex in contemporary society. The specific focus here is on the geographical locations of the pai…
Profiles of Crime Recruitment: Changing Patterns over Time
Labelling theorists have stressed the importance of the first conviction in court as a significant change in an individual's public identity. Being described as a ‘murderer’, ‘thief’, etc. may have different implications for the development of a deviant identity. This paper describes the crime profile of offenders at the defining moment of their first criminal conviction. Using the six birth cohorts derived from the Offenders Index, changes over …
The Reporting Trajectories of Top Homicide Cases in the Media: A Case Study of The Times
This study describes the reporting trajectories of the 13 cases that received the most coverage in a leading British newspaper, The Times, over a period of 23 years (1977 to 1999 inclusive). We have classified these as ‘mega‐cases’. This approach moves beyond merely measuring the coverage of cases to charting how cases can escalate to become ‘moral panics’, move into a shared ‘general knowledge’ of killing or, in some cases, come to occupy iconic…
Using an Old Search Engine: The Value of the Times Index
The Times Index is a well-established and important paper resource for researchers that is perhaps not fully recognized. Using a study on ‘Homicide and the Media’ as an exemplar, this article considers the strengths and weaknesses of the Index.The Index will usually provide better focus into the researcher’s area of study than CD-ROM searches, and can identify stories which CD-ROM searches miss. A modest quality control study indicates its accura…
Homicide and the Media: Identifying the Top Cases in The Times
Recent work on homicide and the media has focused on the United States. This study considers the British context and examines the coverage of homicide by a leading British newspaper ( The Times ) over a period of 23 years (1977 to 1999 inclusive). The focus is on the newspaper coverage of the top cases each year and over the whole period. This approach allows for an exploration of the hierarchy within ‘media–homicides’ that are distinguished in t…
Moral panics and the aftermath: A study of incest
A ‘moral panic’ about child sexual abuse in Britain in the 1980s culminated in ‘the Cleveland affair’ that produced the challenge of widespread incest and sexual abuse within families. This paper considers the aftermath of this ‘moral panic’. The main focus is on the offenders convicted of incest during the years 1988–96 inclusive, with comparative data from an earlier 1973 cohort. A shift in the incest offender profile is demonstrated. The after…
Gender, ethics and social work An international study of students' perceptions at entry into social work education
The connections between gender, ethics and social work are complex. Based on a cross-national project, this article investigates how student social workers commencing their professional education in Australia, Canada, the USA and the UK rank the importance of selected social work aims. The equivocal findings from a statistical analysis of gender, age and university of enrolment pose interesting questions for further exploration
Informal carers of cancer patients: What are their unmet psychosocial needs
This paper considers the significant unmet psychosocial needs of the informal carers of cancer patients, drawing on data generated in a 3-year UK study (1997-2000) on the psychosocial needs of cancer patients and their main carers. While the needs of the carers of cancer patients are increasingly being recognised in healthcare policy documents, there is relatively little published literature on these needs. A "significant unmet need" is defined h…
The Place of Public Narratives in Reproducing Social Order
Legal systems work not only to protect individuals and prosecute others in order to maintain `law and order', but they also define the boundaries of what, in a complex and fragmented society, are the agreed social values and symbols which we decide to protect. The complex role of newspaper reporting in these debates forms a part of the public narratives by which law and order are understood. In this article we look at the reporting of the Taylor …
Sex Offenders: Specialists, Generalists--or Both
Sexual offending is on the political agenda but there has been little research focus on the four offence categories—indecent assault against a female, indecent assault against a male, indecency between males and unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl under 16—which together comprise the vast majority of convictions for sexual offences in England and Wales. We consider the criminal record (1963–94 inclusive) of the 6,097 males convicted of one of…
Bigamy: Neither Love Nor Marriage, but a Threat to the Nation
In a computer search of 18 national newspapers over a three-year period (1993-1995) 420 mentions of bigamy were identified. 110 items (or 26 per cent) referred to 26 current criminal cases involving bigamy. Seven cases attracted 70 per cent of the coverage. The comments of the presiding judge were widely reported in five of these cases together with titillating detail. Two other cases included comments by judges. Using Phoenix's (1996) distinctio…
Rapists under 14 in the News
Following abolition in September 1993 of the common law presumption that a boy aged under 14 years is incapable of sexual intercourse, there were twelve prosecutions of boys aged 10 to under 14 years for rape and just two convictions (of which one was overturned on appeal) in 1993 and 1994. This study identifies and discusses newspaper reports of such cases coming to court in the period 1993 to 1995. It is suggested that the law change has not be…
A Note on Computer Searches of Newspapers
Online technology now provides the press-focused social science researcher with an accessible and fast means of selecting newspaper articles for analysis. Taking examples from their experiences of using both hard copy newspapers and online output, the authors argue that whilst computer searches of newspapers are often appropriate, there are problems with the current technology. In particular, the relationships between graphics, the spatial locati…
The Value of Finding Employment for White-Collar Ex-Offenders: A 20-Year Criminological Follow-Up
The study describes a 20-year criminological follow-up of a consecutive series of 348 male ex-offenders seeking white-collar employment who were offered the services of a specialist employment agency (APEX) in the early 1970s. At the end of the 20-year follow-up, 36 per cent had been reconvicted. While only 30 per cent of those placed into employment were reconvicted compared with 42 per cent of the ‘unplaced’ group, this variation is explained b…
Sex crime in the news
The Geographical Mobility, Preferences and Pleasures of Prolific Punters: A Demonstration Study of the Activities of Prostitutes' Clients
Clients of prostitutes have been traditionally neglected in the study of prostitution. This demonstration study suggests that the Internet, particularly one prominent website for patrons of commercial sex in Britain, can assist in learning more about the activities of prostitutes' clients, their patterns of behaviour and the organisation of commercial sex in contemporary society. The specific focus here is on the geographical locations of the pai…
Sex Offenders: Specialists, Generalists--or Both
Sexual offending is on the political agenda but there has been little research focus on the four offence categories—indecent assault against a female, indecent assault against a male, indecency between males and unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl under 16—which together comprise the vast majority of convictions for sexual offences in England and Wales. We consider the criminal record (1963–94 inclusive) of the 6,097 males convicted of one of…
The Place of Public Narratives in Reproducing Social Order
Legal systems work not only to protect individuals and prosecute others in order to maintain `law and order', but they also define the boundaries of what, in a complex and fragmented society, are the agreed social values and symbols which we decide to protect. The complex role of newspaper reporting in these debates forms a part of the public narratives by which law and order are understood. In this article we look at the reporting of the Taylor …
Sex Offender Recidivism
There have been major shifts in the perception of sex offender recidivism over the past 30 years and increased interest in public and professional spheres. However, the discourses of the public and the professionals are becoming increasingly discrepant. The media are pivotal in demonizing all sex offenders and focusing on punitiveness. Media myths have developed that mask professional advances. A paradigm shift is needed from the current emphasis…
Recidivism of Sexual Offenders: A Re-Appraisal
K. L. SOOTHILL, T. C. N. GIBBENS; RECIDIVISM OF SEXUAL OFFENDERS: A RE-APPRAISAL, The British Journal of Criminology, Volume 18, Issue 3, 1 July 1978, Page
The Social Construction of Rape
A Note on Computer Searches of Newspapers
Online technology now provides the press-focused social science researcher with an accessible and fast means of selecting newspaper articles for analysis. Taking examples from their experiences of using both hard copy newspapers and online output, the authors argue that whilst computer searches of newspapers are often appropriate, there are problems with the current technology. In particular, the relationships between graphics, the spatial locati…
Ethnicity, the search for rapists and the press
Media reporting of rape continues to provoke concern. This article focuses on the press reporting of the discovery and search for alleged rapists. On examining nine British newspapers for one complete year (1992), a serious distortion in the media reporting of ethnicity emerges at this early stage of the criminal process. While there is an over-representation of minority ethnic men accused of rape coming to the notice of the police, the cases ide…
The Changing Face of Rape
Journal Article THE CHANGING FACE OF RAPE? Get access KEITH SOOTHILL KEITH SOOTHILL * Keith Soothill is Professor, Department of Applied Social Science, Lancaster University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The British Journal of Criminology, Volume 31, Issue 4, 1991, Pages 383–392, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.bjc.a048136 Published: 01 December 1991
Judges, the Media, and Rape
The judiciary is the focus of quite unprecedented attention by the media. The controversy about legal reforms as well as human peccadilloes have made judges much more visible in the public domain.1 Comments by judges in criminal cases nowadays may produce banner headlines.2 However, media coverage of sexual attacks in which male judges have made sexist or discriminatory remarks have a much longer history. For nearly two decades feminist-led conce…
Does Serious Offending Lead to Homicide: Exploring the Interrelationships and Sequencing of Serious Crime
The interrelationships between serious types of crime have been neglected. Focusing on those convicted of arson (n = 45,915), blackmail (n = 5,774), kidnapping (n = 7,291) and threats to kill (n = 9,816) in England and Wales (1979–2001), we examine the specialization and sequencing of these crimes in relation to the risk of subsequent homicide. All four offences have a heightened likelihood of subsequent homicide compared to the general populatio…
Moral panics and the aftermath: A study of incest
A ‘moral panic’ about child sexual abuse in Britain in the 1980s culminated in ‘the Cleveland affair’ that produced the challenge of widespread incest and sexual abuse within families. This paper considers the aftermath of this ‘moral panic’. The main focus is on the offenders convicted of incest during the years 1988–96 inclusive, with comparative data from an earlier 1973 cohort. A shift in the incest offender profile is demonstrated. The after…
Informal carers of cancer patients: What are their unmet psychosocial needs
This paper considers the significant unmet psychosocial needs of the informal carers of cancer patients, drawing on data generated in a 3-year UK study (1997-2000) on the psychosocial needs of cancer patients and their main carers. While the needs of the carers of cancer patients are increasingly being recognised in healthcare policy documents, there is relatively little published literature on these needs. A "significant unmet need" is defined h…
The importance of co-convictions in the prediction of dangerous recidivism: Blackmail and kidnapping as a demonstration study
Co-convictions are court convictions made at the same time as a more serious conviction. Their importance has been little recognized.We investigate their value using data on two separate serious crimes. Taking official conviction careers in England and Wales (1979—2001) for blackmail ( n = 5774) and kidnapping offenders ( n = 7291), we considered how much information on co-convictions is normally overlooked, and how knowledge of co-convictions co…
Criminal convictions among children and young adults: Changes over time
This study focuses on court conviction rates—that is, the numbers and proportion of the population in England and Wales who are convicted of a crime between the ages of 10—25. Data on over 47,000 male and 10,000 female offenders for six specific birth cohorts (those born in 1953, 1958, 1963, 1968, 1973 and 1978) were extracted from the Offenders Index. We related convictions in three age groups (10—15, 16—20, 21—25) to population estimates for th…
The Value of Finding Employment for White-Collar Ex-Offenders: A 20-Year Criminological Follow-Up
The study describes a 20-year criminological follow-up of a consecutive series of 348 male ex-offenders seeking white-collar employment who were offered the services of a specialist employment agency (APEX) in the early 1970s. At the end of the 20-year follow-up, 36 per cent had been reconvicted. While only 30 per cent of those placed into employment were reconvicted compared with 42 per cent of the ‘unplaced’ group, this variation is explained b…
Interaction of Personality and Treatment Conditions Associated with Success in a Smoking Control Program
The long-term outcome for white-collar offenders after conviction is a comparatively under-researched area in criminology. Do they continue to be engaged in offences involving white-collar crime, for example? Usually the focus is on those who have committed white collar offences. This present study confronts the issue in a different way. It considers offenders who are seeking white collar employment after conviction who may or may not have been e…
On Licence: A Study of Parole, Ex-Offenders as Parole Officers
Recidivism of Sexual Offenders: A Re-Appraisal
K. L. SOOTHILL, T. C. N. GIBBENS; RECIDIVISM OF SEXUAL OFFENDERS: A RE-APPRAISAL, The British Journal of Criminology, Volume 18, Issue 3, 1 July 1978, Page
Sibling and Parent-Child Ingest Offenders
T. C. N. GIBBENS, K. L. SOOTHILL, C. K. WAY; SIBLING AND PARENT-CHILD INGEST OFFENDERS: A Long-term Follow-up, The British Journal of Criminology, Volume 1
Images of Law
Recruitment Campaigns
Rape Acquittals
Subsequent Dangerousness Among Compulsory Hospital Patients
K. L. SOOTHILL, C. K. WAY, T. C. N. GIBBENS; SUBSEQUENT DANGEROUSNESS AMONG COMPULSORY HOSPITAL PATIENTS, The British Journal of Criminology, Volume 20, Is
Finding Employment for Ex‐Prisoners: A Ten‐Year Follow‐up Study
The efforts of a specialist employment agency for ex‐prisoners resulted in 65 men starting work soon after their release from prison. The present study considers evidence regarding their involvement in further criminal activity in the subsequent ten years. The claims in terms of modifying subsequent reconviction rates must be modest but, remarkably, of the men who worked in the job for at least a year, not one was reconvicted. The authors argue t…
Selecting Foster Parents
Psychiatric Treatment on Probation
T. C. N. GIBBENS, K. SOOTHILL, C. WAY; PSYCHIATRIC TREATMENT ON PROBATION, The British Journal of Criminology, Volume 21, Issue 4, 1 October 1981, Pages 32
Retention of Foster Parents
The Social Construction of Rape
The Outcome for Prisoners Who Rejected Offers of Help
Journal Article THE OUTCOME FOR PRISONERS WHO REJECTED OFFERS OF HELP: A 12-Year Criminological Follow-up Get access KEITH SOOTHILL KEITH SOOTHILL *Ph.D. Senior lecturer, Departmmt of Sociology, University of Lancaster Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The British Journal of Criminology, Volume 25, Issue 2, April 1985, Pages 172–181, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.bjc.a047511 Published: 01 April 1985
Judges, the Media, and Rape
The judiciary is the focus of quite unprecedented attention by the media. The controversy about legal reforms as well as human peccadilloes have made judges much more visible in the public domain.1 Comments by judges in criminal cases nowadays may produce banner headlines.2 However, media coverage of sexual attacks in which male judges have made sexist or discriminatory remarks have a much longer history. For nearly two decades feminist-led conce…
Sex crime in the news
The Changing Face of Rape
Journal Article THE CHANGING FACE OF RAPE? Get access KEITH SOOTHILL KEITH SOOTHILL * Keith Soothill is Professor, Department of Applied Social Science, Lancaster University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The British Journal of Criminology, Volume 31, Issue 4, 1991, Pages 383–392, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.bjc.a048136 Published: 01 December 1991
Prosecuting the Victim? A Study of the Reporting of Barristers' Comments in Rape Cases
This study focusses on how the media portrays barristers' comments in rape trials. It examines shifts in reporting since the Second World War. The importance of the contributions of the prosecuting counsel is noted. In fact, it is not simply assumptions of the defence taken up by the media which sustain sexist attitudes but on occasions the prosecuting counsel can also be seen as colluding. This has legal and media implications. It not only quest…
Personal Power and Public Control: Sex Crimes and Problem Pages
In this paper we examine the process whereby problem pages contribute to turning what some would perceive to be private troubles' into ‘public issues’, while offering public acknowledgemenl of crimes committed as well as solace and advice to victims of sex crimes. The two examples used, ‘male rape’ and ‘underage sex’ illustrate the complex role of moral arbiter, whereby agony aunts and uncles act as social barometers, reflecting the confusion sur…
‘A Murderous ‘Underclass’? The Press Reporting of Sexually Motivated Murder
The ‘underclass’ is widely held by commentators of the Right to be responsible for a host of social problems, including violent crime. This paper shows how in the reporting of sexually motivated murder in a sample of nine British newspapers for one complete year (1992), the image constructed is one where unemployed and other marginalised men are portrayed as the main perpetrators of sexual violence. This, the authors argue, hampers our understand…
Medicine and Nursing. Professions in a Changing Health Service
Introduction Professional Boundaries Interprofessional Relations in Theory and History Fragmented and Functioning Teams Managing Professionals Post-Fordism and the Health Professions
Ethnicity, the search for rapists and the press
Media reporting of rape continues to provoke concern. This article focuses on the press reporting of the discovery and search for alleged rapists. On examining nine British newspapers for one complete year (1992), a serious distortion in the media reporting of ethnicity emerges at this early stage of the criminal process. While there is an over-representation of minority ethnic men accused of rape coming to the notice of the police, the cases ide…
Rapists under 14 in the News
Following abolition in September 1993 of the common law presumption that a boy aged under 14 years is incapable of sexual intercourse, there were twelve prosecutions of boys aged 10 to under 14 years for rape and just two convictions (of which one was overturned on appeal) in 1993 and 1994. This study identifies and discusses newspaper reports of such cases coming to court in the period 1993 to 1995. It is suggested that the law change has not be…
A Note on Computer Searches of Newspapers
Online technology now provides the press-focused social science researcher with an accessible and fast means of selecting newspaper articles for analysis. Taking examples from their experiences of using both hard copy newspapers and online output, the authors argue that whilst computer searches of newspapers are often appropriate, there are problems with the current technology. In particular, the relationships between graphics, the spatial locati…
The Value of Finding Employment for White-Collar Ex-Offenders: A 20-Year Criminological Follow-Up
The study describes a 20-year criminological follow-up of a consecutive series of 348 male ex-offenders seeking white-collar employment who were offered the services of a specialist employment agency (APEX) in the early 1970s. At the end of the 20-year follow-up, 36 per cent had been reconvicted. While only 30 per cent of those placed into employment were reconvicted compared with 42 per cent of the ‘unplaced’ group, this variation is explained b…
Sociology (34 works) · Criminology (33 works) · Psychology (33 works) · Political science (28 works) · Law (24 works) · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis (21 works) · Crime Patterns and Interventions (20 works) · Law (16 works) · Medicine (13 works) · Computer Science (12 works)