US legal system beckons for Victoria Professor

US legal system beckons for Victoria Professor

The issue of crime and punishment is the focus of a year-long fellowship in New York that has been awarded to Victoria University Professor John Pratt.

The Professor of Criminology is one of 14 international academics to further their study at the prestigious Straus Institute for the Advanced Study of Law and Justice at New York University.

Professor Pratt, who takes up the Straus Fellowship in September 2010, says being invited to the fellowship was “remarkable”.

“When they contacted me, I was astounded. Opportunities like this don’t come along very often,” he says.

The Straus Institute provides a general theme for fellows to study each year. The theme for the 2010/2011 academic year is Questions of Punishment, an issue that is closely aligned with Professor Pratt’s current research as the James Cook Research Fellow for 2009-2011.

“As part of this Fellowship, I have been looking at the penal systems of Scandinavian countries and the very different approaches they have to punishing criminals than New Zealand does.”

His research, which took him to 16 Scandinavian prisons and included discussion with academics, policymakers, criminal justice practitioners, politicians, judges and prisoners, found that conditions there are in stark contrast to New Zealand’s penal system.

“One of the main differences to come to light so far is that in Scandinavia, going to prison is itself the punishment. Conditions within most of their prisons are as normal as possible to those on the outside world, meaning that prisoners are not subjected to further deprivations inside and are continuously having to make decisions for themselves rather than rely on the prison authorities to do so for them.”

Professor Pratt envisages most of his time in New York will be spent writing up his research and exchanging ideas with the other Fellows.

“As one of the few people in New Zealand focusing on this area of study, it can be quite isolating. So the opportunity to be in the company of some of the world’s leading scholars, and to be able to share research and findings, will be invaluable.”

Some of the topics Professor Pratt and the other fellows will focus on include the law of politics and crime control, the principles and purposes of criminal justice, the sociology of punishment and the challenges for policy and law reform.

ENDS

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