Obstetric violence is a term that has sparked considerable debate. It represents a range of harmful practices around unwanted intimate examinations. This article explores the contested boundaries of obstetric violence, examining both overtly abusive actions and more routine, yet potentially harmful, medical practices during childbirth and beyond. By delving into the underlying patriarchal and misogynistic structures within healthcare, the article challenges traditional understandings of care in childbirth. It argues for a broader, more nuanced recognition of obstetric violence, emphasising its connection to gender-based violence and the need for a more context-sensitive approach in both legal and medical frameworks. The aim is to expand the discourse on obstetric violence to include often overlooked and normalised practices that contribute to the mistreatment and dehumanisation of women, birthing people, and transgender people receiving gender-affirming care.
We are two colleagues and friends of Thomas Mathiesen who have written about Thomas from two perspectives. Kristian Andenæs contributes with the inside perspective of a long-time colleague at the Institute for Sociology of Law and the Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law. Knut Papendorf, as a colleague and former criminologist and activist in Germany, focuses on the potential provided by the abolitionist model, as advocated by Thomas Mathiesen.
This article challenges the notion of police neutrality and independence by highlighting the inherent politicisation within the policing apparatus. It explores the complex relationship between the police and political authorities in managing crowds and maintaining public order. Drawing on criminological and sociological perspectives, the study adopts a critical approach to analyse the operational decisions made by the police and their interactions with political authorities. This interaction significantly influences the operational strategies employed during the management of public demonstrations. The dynamic emphasises how a segment of the police force in Italy is tasked with ‘political policing’, serving as a link between government authorities and field agents. Ultimately, this work aims to fill a gap in the literature by demonstrating the ongoing politicisation of the police mandate in Italy, particularly in the context of public order management.
Scholars have only recently begun to link transitional justice frameworks to legal settlements after terror. In the wake of Anders Breivik’s 2011 attacks, Norway has witnessed a series of terror and mass violence events, each followed by extensive legal proceedings. These include the 2019 mosque attack, the 2021 Kongsberg killings, and the 2022 Islamist attack during Oslo Pride week. This article examines these trials as a societal, ongoing process. This research contributes to the field of transitional justice by examining how legal systems grapple with the aftermath of terror in the absence of clear-cut criminal narratives. Focus is given to how we can expand our understanding of the meaning of legal accountability in terror contexts. The central contribution of the article is to problematise the relationship between terror trials as vehicles for perpetrator responsibility, and justice and healing. Starting from the mental health narratives surrounding all the perpetrators, the article suggests that there is a tension between holding terrorists accountable and defining them as patients. To contribute to alternative ways of construing legal accountability, the article puts forward examples of how accountability for terror is being navigated and negotiated in bureaucratic, political, and international legal discourse and practice. The article is part of a special issue honouring the contributions of the late Professor Thomas Mathiesen.
In his article ‘Selective incapacitation revisited’, Thomas Mathiesen (1998) addresses the dominance of a technical and scientific language associated with the risk prediction culture that originated from a criminological research community where risk is considered as objective and measurable. In this article I discuss how practitioners perceive these aspects of risk prediction. For policymakers, targeting means using thresholds to target groups of offenders, but for frontline officers, it means targeting an individual. The officer must set an individualised assessment against the aggregated assessments from risk predictions. I will analyse how this has manifested in three Norwegian risk assessment projects: the offender assessment system, risk assessment of violent extremism, and early intervention to prevent youth crime. This article contributes to the understanding of how the political aspects of risk impact practitioners, and how the concept of risk as an artifact is understood by practitioners. I will first present the context of selective incapacitation and the history of research in this field. I will then contextualise the different understandings of risk within policy and practice. The main section is an analysis of the three cases. I end by discussing how acknowledgement of the political aspects of risk can promote sensitivity around the use of risk assessment tools.
Creative responses to societal issues can be used to highlight topics, provoke discussion, and encourage solutions. Art can take on a multiplicity of roles in response to gender-based violence from enabling individuals with personal experience sharing their stories to critiquing media/political representations. The ‘I’m terrified of becoming a headline’ exhibition (Munster Technological University Gallery Cork, Ireland, April/May 2022) deployed poetry and song, in written and recorded performance formats, newspaper headlines, and interactive spaces to further renew discussion of gender-based violence in Ireland. This article considers the installation’s role by connecting our reflections and feedback from participants with larger discussions of creativity as a process to foster progress in addressing gender-based violence.
In late 2021, some six months after his death, the University of Oslo held a commemoration of the work of Professor Thomas Mathiesen. As this issue of Justice, Power and Resistance will attest, Mathiesen cut across definitions of theorist, scholar, pedagogue and archetypal academic activist. In this short intervention, I pay tribute to the influence Thomas’ work has had not only on my own, but on so many interventions around injustice and ever-expanding aspects of surveillant social controls which proliferate contemporarily. In doing so, this short article will highlight an overview of his most recognised work, before delving into a perspective that I consider to be more relevant than ever: Mathiesen’s conceptualisation of ‘silent silencing’ (Mathiesen, 2004). Overall, this contribution seeks to remind those new to studies of harm and social control of the value of critical work which came before us, and the need to engage, reflect and rebuild perspectives such as Mathiesen’s in ways which are meaningful to contemporary problems and optimal (abolitionist) solutions.
