AV大平台

More

Professor Robert Canton

Job: Professor in Community and Criminal Justice

Faculty: Health and Life Sciences

School/department: School of Applied Social Sciences

Address: AV大平台, The Gateway, Leicester, LE1 9BH.

T: N/A

E: RCanton@dmu.ac.uk

W: /hls

 

Close all sections
Open all sections

Personal profile

  • Probation
  • Prison
  • Punishment
  • Sentencing
  • Human Rights
  • Crime
  • Criminology.

Research group affiliations

Criminal Justice, Policy and Practice

Publications and outputs


  • dc.title: Should there be a right to rehabilitation? dc.contributor.author: Canton, Robert dc.description.abstract: Chapter explores what might be involved in deciding a 'right to rehabilitation'

  • dc.title: Theories of Punishment dc.contributor.author: Canton, Robert

  • dc.title: Policy Transfer in Criminal Justice: Crossing cultures, Breaking Barriers dc.contributor.author: McFarlane,Mary Anne; Canton, Robert dc.description: This is an edited collection of papers discussing policy transfer initiatives in Turkey

  • dc.title: Transfer of Policies and Practices to Other Countries dc.contributor.author: Canton, Robert dc.description.abstract: There is a long history of the international exchange of ideas, research findings, policies and practices in criminal justice. In recent years, there has been a marked increase in more deliberate and strategic activity to 鈥榣earn lessons鈥� from the achievements (and sometimes the failures) of other nations and to 鈥榠mport鈥� policies and practices. This has become known as policy transfer, which has been defined as 鈥榯he process by which knowledge of ideas, institutions, policies and programmes in one setting is fed into the policy-making arena in the development and change of policies and programmes in another setting鈥� (Dolowitz et al. 2000: 9). Transfer can take different forms, including copying, emulation or inspiration. A nexus of factors 鈥� economic, political, social, cultural and organisational - will influence the character and outcome of transfer attempts and the complexity of these interactions makes the consequences of transfer inherently unpredictable. Different people may have different and changing motivations to transfer and, since neither the intended nor the actual consequences are always easy to identify, evaluation is far from straightforward. Consideration of policy transfer foregrounds the importance of agency and choice in penal policy, redressing theoretical tendencies to explain penal development solely in structural terms. Experiences of policy transfer often expose taken-for-granted features of criminal justice systems and illuminate influences that shape their character and development. dc.description: This is a book-chapter-length contribution to a prestigious and authoritative international encyclopaedia.

  • dc.title: Yes, No, Possibly, Maybe: Community Sanctions, Consent and Cooperation dc.contributor.author: Rob Canton; Canton, Robert dc.description.abstract: This article explores the significance of consent to community sanctions and measures. The value of consent derives from the principle of autonomy and rights to freedom and dignity. While normally these are rights that should be upheld and defended, the question is complicated in the case of penal sanctions. The account goes on to discuss the necessary conditions for meaningful informed consent and to inquire into the extent to which these conditions apply to community sentences. The origin of consent to the probation order and other community penalties in England and Wales is outlined 鈥� the reason why it was originally expected and why it was eventually abolished. Yet even if consent is not formally required, there is reason to think that England and Wales is an example of a country where in practice consent is actively sought. The relationship between consent and compliance 鈥� and the distinct concept of active cooperation 鈥� is discussed. It is concluded that a formal expression of consent in Court has symbolic value, but does not resolve the challenge of trying to secure consent and cooperation that must persist throughout the duration of the community order.

  • dc.title: Foreigners to Justice? Irregular migrants and foreign national offenders in England and Wales dc.contributor.author: Canton, Robert; Hammond, Nick dc.description.abstract: There is a long tradition of blaming foreigners for crime problems in England and Wales. The contemporary manifestation of this centres on suspicion about the involvement in crime of foreign nationals and irregular migrants. General descriptive terms like foreign nationals encompass people in widely diverse circumstances and of different legal immigration statuses. Debates about crime and about the management of movement across national borders have become entangled in political debate, to the detriment of clear thinking about either matter. The rehabilitation principle has a different significance and application for foreign nationals, in practice if not in law. The limited statistics available concerning the involvement of foreign nationals in crime and their treatment by judicial and criminal justice agencies, require more analysis. In criminal justice and sentencing, there are no formal requirements for agencies and courts to bring different principles to their decisions about foreign nationals, but in practice this group of offenders can be disadvantaged. The context of offending by foreign nationals and their distinctive and individual needs are often insufficiently appreciated and too little is done to support rehabilitation and desistance. The perceived political imperative to remove foreign national offenders by deportation distorts any principled approach to policy and practice.

  • dc.title: The point of probation: On effectiveness, human rights and the virtues of obliquity dc.contributor.author: Canton, Robert dc.description.abstract: Policy debate assumes the point of probation is to administer community punishment, reduce reoffending and protect the public. Dominant punitive and instrumental understandings of probation鈥檚 work have regarded the human rights of offenders as of secondary importance or even as obstacles to attaining these objectives. This paper argues that, on the contrary, policy and practice should be grounded on human rights rather than on direct endeavours for effectiveness. It advances a personal and ethical understanding of probation and, considering probation鈥檚 principal tasks of enforcement, rehabilitation and public protection, argues that a respectful professional relationship is indispensable, though threatened by punitive and instrumental approaches. The concept of obliquity 鈥� the idea that some of our most important goals are best achieved indirectly 鈥� can explain how a personal approach can turn out not only to respect ethical entitlements, but indeed to be more effective in the terms that probation sets for itself.

  • dc.title: European Probation Rules: What they are, why they matter dc.contributor.author: Canton, Robert

  • dc.title: Human rights and youth justice in Europe. dc.contributor.author: Canton, Robert

  • dc.title: Towards a European approach to probation education and training. dc.contributor.author: Stout, Brian; Canton, Robert

 

.

Research interests/expertise

  • Probation
  • Prison
  • Penal Policy
  • Criminology
  • Mental health
  • International / comparative criminal justice studies.

Qualifications

BA, MA (CQSW), PhD

Membership of professional associations and societies

  • Howard League
  • British Society of Criminology
  • European Society of Criminology.

Conference attendance

European Society of Criminology (Ljubljana) presentation ‘Good Lives, Good Societies’ September 2009.

Consultancy work

  • Co-opted Expert to Council of Penological Cooperation, Council of Europe (2007 - 10)
  • Adviser to the Council of Europe in developing European Probation Rules (2008 – 2010)
  • Specialist Adviser to House of Commons Justice Select Committee Inquiry into the role of the probation service (2010 - 11)

Current research students

  • Susan Atherton
  • Kim Sadique (2nd supervisor)
  • Hannah Begum
  • Jacqui Norton (2nd supervisor)

Externally funded research grants information

Place, Social Situation and Burglary in Nottinghamshire, Safer Nottinghamshire Board / Nottinghamshire Police, Inquiry into reasons for high levels of burglary in Nottinghamshire, March - September 2009 (PI).

Offender Learning in the Community, City and Guilds Centre for Skills Development, attempt to hear the “user voice” of offenders accessing – or maybe failing to access – learning services through probation, April - November 2010 (PI).

ISTEP - Implementation Support for Transfer of European Probation Sentences (PI) – EU funded project in partnership with National Offender Management Service, May 2011 - May 2013.

4SWEEP Erasmus Life-long Learning programme (PI) Erasmus funded in partnership with several European universities – October 2011 - October 2013.

Professional esteem indicators

Editorial boards/reviewing activities: journal, date from, date to, role

  • British Journal of Community and Criminal Justice (2003 - )
  • European Probation Journal (2009 - )
  • EuroVista (editor)
  • European Probation Journal (2009 - )
  • Criminology and Criminal Justice
  • Regular reviewer of book proposals for Willan / Routledge Palgrave Macmillan Policy Press

Professor Canton has reviewed for:

  • Ghent University Research Group
  • NIHR
  • Canadian
  • Free University Brussels

Case studies

Professor Canton's research work has been mainly conceptual rather than empirical. The area where his work would be most likely to have an impact is probation in the assessment period.  Professor Canton has written several papers that seek to clarify the purpose and significance of the tasks of probation. This has had international (European) significance and impact.

Rob Canton

Probation Working With Offenders Rob Canton

Dictionary of probation and offender management