Amy Cullen

Bio

Working Title of PhD: Women offenders and fiscal fines in Scotland

Year commenced PhD study: 2019 Institution/Organisation: University of Glasgow

Funding Source: ESRC
Full or part-time: Full time

PhD Supervisors: Dr Susan Batchelor (Glasgow) Professor Margaret Malloch (Stirling)

Synopsis of PhD:

Engaging with the limited theoretical literature concerning fines (Young 1987; 1989; 1994; O’Malley, 2009; Faraldo-Cabana, 2017), my project will focus on the fiscal fine – a distinct feature of the Scottish criminal justice system wherein prosecution of less serious offences is diverted from court through payment of a fixed amount determined by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Services (COPFS) (Duff, 1993) – to provide a critical analysis of women’s justice at ‘the “soft end” of the criminal justice system’ (ibid., 483).

Though fines scholarship in the UK remains limited, innovative international research has made greater use of qualitative evidence (see Harris, 2016; Bögelein, 2017). Responding to these innovations and to the ‘importance of using women’s experiences as resources for social analysis’ (Harding 1983, 7) that is a defining feature of the contemporary study of women’s offending, my project will engage these methods to explore how women experience fines within the broader context of their lives and their involvement with the criminal justice system.