Security and Risk Technologies in Criminal Justice: A Critical Discussion

This seminar is co-hosted by the Centre for Crime, Law and Justice and the Allens Hub for Technology, Law and Innovation

Speakers: 

• Associate Professor Stacey Hannem, Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada
• Associate Professor Christopher J. Schneider, Brandon University, Canada

This presentation will discuss the 2019 book Security and Risk Technologies in Criminal Justice: Critical Perspectives (Canadian Scholars’ Press). Co-editors Dr. Stacey Hannem and Dr. Christopher Schneider will provide a short overview of the book and its themes regarding the role of technology’s influence in contemporary understandings of governance and social order in the areas of criminal justice, policing, and security. They will then discuss their individual chapters. Hannem’s chapter, “The Ion Mobility Spectrometry Device and Risk Management in Canadian Federal Correctional Institutions,” uses the example of ion scanners that detect drugs in prison to illustrate the “theatre of security,” in which the visible enactment of risk management provides an inflated or false sense of security. Hannem argues that ion scan technology legitimizes the symbolic enactment of stigma when visiting family members of prisoners ring falsely positive for drugs and become the targets of suspicion. Schneider’s chapter, “Policing and Media: Social Media as Risk Media,” explores risk management in the area of policing. Schneider investigates the process by which social media products spotlighted in news media become the latest type of risk media for police. Schneider will discuss three basic themes of risks attributed to social media: (1) threats to order; (2) organizational threats to police, and; (3) individual threats to police.

Stacey Hannem is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Criminology at Wilfrid Laurier University (Ontario, Canada) and Vice-President of the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction (2018-19). Hannem’s research focuses on the intersections of criminal law and justice policy with stigma and marginalization, with a theoretical focus on unpacking the structural and institutional aspects of stigmatization. Her current SSHRC-funded research is a comparative, qualitative study of how the legal regulation of sex work in Canada, Nevada (USA), and New Zealand affects the everyday lives of sex workers. She is the co-editor of Stigma Revisited: Implications of the Mark (with Bruckert, University of Ottawa Press, 2012), and lead editor of Security and Risk Technologies in Criminal Justice: Critical Perspectives (with Sanders, Schneider, Doyle and Christensen, Canadian Scholars Press, 2019). Dr. Hannem’s work has recently been published in Revue Criminologie, Sexuality and Culture, Symbolic Interaction, and Deviant Behavior.

Christopher J. Schneider is Associate Professor of Sociology at Brandon University (Manitoba, Canada). Schneider’s research and publications have focused largely on information technologies and related changes to police work. He has written or collaborated on five books and has published dozens of scholarly articles, chapters and essays. He is author of Policing and Social Media: Social Control in an Era of New Media (Lexington Books | Rowman & Littlefield, 2016). The book has been profiled extensively receiving acclaim from scholars, activists, police practitioners, and journalists in academic journals and news media including Contemporary Sociology and Maclean’s Magazine. He is the 2017 recipient of the Canadian Criminal Justice Association’s Public Education Award given to “persons who significantly advance public understanding in Canada of the need for, and elements of, a humane, effective criminal justice system.” Other notable award distinctions include the 2016 Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction’s Early in Career Award in recognition of junior scholars who have made “significant” academic contributions, a 2013 Confederation of University Faculty Associations of British Columbia Distinguished Academics Award for “outstanding contributions made by scholars,” and more than a dozen teaching awards and related honours. Schneider’s research and commentary have been featured in hundreds of news reports across North America, including the New York Times and CBC’s The National. He previously held the Endowed Chair of Criminology and Criminal Justice (spring term 2019) at St. Thomas University and the Public Visiting Scholar position at Wilfrid Laurier University (fall term 2016).