Metaphor & Metonymy in Criminal Justice

Sarah Armstrong, Glasgow University(Please do not cite with author permission.)

• Edinburgh’s an hour from Glasgow.

(SPACE IS TIME metaphor)

• See what I mean?

(UNDERSTANDING IS SEEING metaphor)

Metaphor Examples

Metonymy Examples

• Who’s the cheese toastie?

(metonymy for customer who ordered it)

• The Crown chose not to proceed.

(metonymy for agency and people)

• Get out of my face!

(metaphor and/or metonymy)

Conceptual Metaphor Theory

Metaphors (& metonymies):• can be inconspicuous, tacit, and habituated.• feature constantly in language (written and

spoken).• do more than supply ornamental imagery.• organise our knowledge of reality by creating

dominant frames of reference.

(Lakoff & Johnson 1980, et seq.; Schön 1993)

ARGUMENT IS WAR

• Target domain = ARGUMENT

• Source domain = WAR

(involves weapons, strategic decisions, two sides, an enemy, win/lose possibilities)

Qualitative Metaphor Analysis of Two Important Policy Texts

Appendix 1: Steering Group on Review of the Use of Community Disposals and Custody for Women Offenders in Scotland Members

*Clive Fairweather, Chief Inspector

HM Inspectorate of Prisons

*Angus Skinner, Chief Inspector SWSI

*Val Cox, Assistant Chief Inspector

SWSI

*Stella Perrott, Inspector SWSI

Valerie Macniven, Head of Division

SWSG 1

*Dr Fiona Paterson, Principal Research Officer

CRU, SWSG

*Duncan Gourlay, Researcher CRU, SWSG

Dr Anne MacDonald, Principal Medical Officer

ME, Medical Staff

*Dr Nancy Loucks, Researcher Independent

Peter Withers, Area Director SPS, Directorate of Prisons

Dr Jim Carnie, Research Manager SPS, Directorate of Strategy

Anna H Thomson, M & A Team SWSI

Other administrative and clerical support provided by:-

Brian Henaghen HM Inspectorate of Prisons

Janet Reid HM Inspectorate of Prisons

* Members of Review team.

Policy Documents: By Everyone and No one

SEX OFFENDERS ARE

WILD ANIMALS

• It is a fundamental aspect of the new sentence that the offenders should not be released into the community until they have served an adequate period of time in prison to meet the requirements of punishment, and do not present an unacceptable risk to public safety.

• However there are others, notably paedophiles, who present no problems whatsoever in prison but who would be highly dangerous on release

• In British Columbia we saw initiatives that had been taken to improve the training of practitioners and decision takers involved in

implementing the …Canadian dangerous offender legislation.

• The developments we saw offer a real opportunity in Scotland to achieve better protection for the public from this group of offenders.

• ….we saw a system of satellite tracking of ‘tagged’ offenders in operation in Phoenix, Arizona…the capability to restrict and monitor offenders’ movements automatically may well have potential that an Authority might wish to explore.

• Our experience of the system in parts of the USA, particularly as it deals with sex offenders, was highly instructive….[where] legislation striking at the sexually violent predator has been introduced in several States.

• Other orders which can be imposed to control anti-social behaviour in the community include Anti-Social Behaviour Orders and Non-Harassment Orders. The latter, in particular, are intended to deal with ‘stalking’

• The offenders with whom we are concerned are predominantly male. On a visit to Durham prison, members of the committee heard of the very difficult problems that can be presented by some women offenders with severe personality disorders - particularly in relation to self-harming behaviour

Building up Difference: Unsympathetic and Irrational

• ‘The emphasis on serious sexual or violent offending means that we excluded from our consideration the large number of intractable recidivists who repeatedly commit minor offences against the person or property. These people are a considerable problem….Many may have personality difficulties, often combined with substance abuse.’

• We also ‘largely…excluded from our consideration those who are involved in organised crime, such as large-scale drug dealing’

Justifies Special Procedures

• The underlying supposition in the terms of reference is that something special may need to be done for this group, over and above what is currently available in the

criminal justice system.

• However, the existence of this wider group may put into context the difficulty of accommodating the needs of the more serious offender, who may well be even more resistant to any attempt to modify his/her behaviour.

• The arrangements we are proposing…will continue for the rest of the offender’s life.

Lower frequency appearance of two more conceptual metaphors about offenders

Sex Offenders = Patients

(metaphors of diagnosis, treatment; SVSO to be worked on, treated)

Sex Offenders = Therapeutic Clients

(metaphors of counseling; SVSO to be worked with, engaged)

WOMEN (IN PRISON)ARE

VICTIMS

[Metonymical Metaphor?]

• Some women may be attracted by the excitement crime offers or are drawn into crime because of their associates or other factors in their lifestyle - such as a propensity to be rowdy and aggressive in their social lives. The small number of women who do commit violent crimes, particularly murder or culpable homicide, are more likely to do so following a history of being abused themselves.

• Although the bulk of the research into female offenders looks at those who are in custody, it makes clear that the lives of many of these women - more so than for their male counterparts - are likely to be filled with addiction, abuse, anxiety and underprivilege.

• We received information from a number of voluntary projects working with women who have been abused. They all commented on the links between experience of abuse, offending and self harm, and the need for services to tackle all these issues.

• Attention needs to be given to the social context of women's offending and lives through, for example,…. applying national standards in ways that take account of women's domestic and childcare responsibilities. For example, an 8.45 am community service start may not be feasible for a woman who normally takes her children to school. Having a husband or partner at home who could (and perhaps should) do this task does not necessarily mean that he will or that the woman has any control over this.

• There are strong associations between abuse as a child, drug misuse, homelessness and abusive relationships as an adult. These factors are also associated with self harm and suicide….Whilst they may not cause offending, women returning from prison to unstable accommodation, abusive relationships, lack of any real employment prospects and a drug misusing peer group are poorly equipped for living a crime free life.

• …custody is often a very stressful experience which increases the risk of mental illness or distress - for example, due to the pressure of adapting to an alien culture. Female prisoners are particularly vulnerable to developing such problems due to the higher incidence of past and recent abuse.

The characterisation of the people who are the focus of a policy occurs simultaneously with the characterisation of the system for dealing with them.

Both raise concerns about danger.

Prison, Criminal Justice

• Prison is probably not often in itself a 'cause' of suicide but it can, however, be a 'last straw' for those who are already vulnerable. Any means of keeping vulnerable people out of custody must therefore be deemed as a potential life saving measure.

• The design of most criminal justice services may make them unwelcoming to some women and may even increase the risk of harassment or abuse in some cases. Inappropriately designed services run the risk of contributing to breach of orders.

Clinical judgement

• the clinical approach has been criticised as relying on ‘an informal, “in the head” impressionistic, subjective conclusion, reached (somehow) by a human clinical judge.’ This characterisation sounds harsh, but the evidence is unequivocal that clinical judgements, even by experienced practitioners, are poor predictors of future violence.

• Decisions have, of necessity, been based as much on ‘feel’ as on solid evidence.

• This is not to deny that a professional with experience and specialist skills can contribute greatly to risk assessment. It is simply to say that for any such assessment to have real predictive power it must be carried out in a structured way, having due regard to all relevant factors.

Legal judgement• It is because [sentencing] aims are so diverse, as of course are

offenders and the crimes they commit, that sentencers have traditionally enjoyed a wide discretion in Scotland

• the procedures for deciding what sentence to impose or whether to release an offender may not be sufficiently discriminating to use the discretion effectively….. . [Judicial discretion] has many advantages, but one possible disadvantage is that guidance which might assist a sentencer in selecting an appropriate sentence is relatively unsystematic.

• judges are alert to some of the key factors which create higher risk, but the decision about risk is taken in an unstructured way.

• A case can be made for saying that to require judges to impose mandatory life sentences for repeat serious offenders will enhance public safety.

Control is Management: but what is management?

“Our proposals are designed to establish a clear responsibility, to be vested in a new Authority, for the maintenance and delivery of a

systematic risk management plan throughout the lives of offenders.”

• Something that is continuous in time• Something that sees everything• Something that can be delivered• Something that is built• Something that connects everything in a network

• Time: assessing ‘future serious violence and sexual violence’ risk, ‘staged approach’, ‘progress in manageable steps’, ‘transition to the community’

• Seeing: ‘intensive supervision and surveillance’, need to ‘monitor and supervise’

• Delivery: ‘service delivery’, ‘deliver a management plan’

• Building/Entity: ‘need for structural improvements’, ‘concrete and usable results’, ‘assessment tools’, ‘flexible service response’, ‘robust’

• Networks: ‘information exchange’, ‘systems incompatibility’, ‘systems and procedures’, ‘assessment links to positive action to manage risk’, ‘integrated management of custody, therapy, and community services’

Raises problem 1

Equivalence with problem 2

Creates frame for solutions

Solution follows from characterisation of problems 1 and 2

animals need to be controlled/contained

Clinicians and judges can’t control

animals

Sex offenders are animals

Risk Management

New organisation (RMA)

New control instrument (OLR)

New knowledge paradigm (statistical science)

Women are victims

Prisons, CJ are abusers

Victims need something done for

them

Focus on Women

Tailor sanctions to women

Provide information by gender

More local prisons for women

Competing frames• ‘The operational role of the Risk Management Authority is to

manage the risks presented by serious violent and sexual offenders’

Compare to…

• punish the harm (legal)• treat the disease (medical)• address the needs (social welfare)

Or…

Limitations & Cautions

• Reading too much into a text…

• Can’t explain motivation and intent, emotional disposition or attitude of speaker, or prove consciousness of use

• Can’t alone explain change (causation)

• Doesn’t tell us when or how M&M entered language (historical perspective)

• Doesn’t prove legitimacy of particular ideas or institutions (political, ideological perspective; cf. CMA)

Potential for metaphor & metonymy analysis

• Captures a process in action

• Focuses attention on implicit frames shaping and constraining debates