Phil Scraton

Phil Scraton (born 1949) is a criminologist, academic and author. He is a critical social researcher known particularly for his investigative work into the context, circumstances and aftermath of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster that claimed the lives of 96 men, women and children. More recently he was a member of the Hillsborough Independent Panel and headed its research. Currently he is Professor of Criminology in the Institute of Criminology and Criminal Justice, School of Law at Queen's University Belfast, and Director of the Childhood, Transition and Social Justice Initiative. His research includes the investigation of and inquiry into controversial deaths, particularly deaths in custody; the marginalisation and criminalisation of children and young people; the politics of imprisonment; analysis of disasters and their impact on the bereaved and survivors.

Early life and education

Phil Scraton was born in 1949 in Wallasey, Wirral, Cheshire and moved to Liverpool in the late 1960s. He studied Sociology at the University of Liverpool, taking a BA and an MA by research. His Masters thesis "Images of Deviance and Politics of Assimilation" examined institutional racism against the Irish Travelling community in Liverpool. His doctoral thesis "Unreasonable Force: Class, Marginality and the Political Autonomy of the Police" was awarded by Lancaster University and focused on policing in the context of the United Kingdom's inner city disturbances in the early 1980s and the 1984/85 Coal Dispute. A qualified teacher, he holds an Advanced Diploma in Outdoor Education.

Career

In 1979 Phil Scraton joined the Open University's teaching staff as a member of the "Crime, Justice and Society" course team, contributing also to the Social Sciences' Foundation Course. In 1984 at Edge Hill University, with Kathryn Chadwick, he established the Centre for Studies in Crime and Social Justice, developing the University's first Masters and Doctoral programmes. Promoted to Professor in 1990 he remained Director of the Centre until 2003. In 2000 he was awarded a Nuffield grant to set up a disasters' research archive and to examine the aftermath of disasters and other traumatising events. In 2001 he and Chadwick were awarded an ESRC Seminars Award to hold six two-day seminars on the theme Disasters: Origins, Consequences, Aftermath bringing together researchers, practitioners, campaigners, bereaved and survivors. A member of the Young People, Power and Justice collective, he edited its collection Childhood' in 'Crisis? (UCL Press/ Routledge 1997). In September 2003, he was appointed to a Chair in Criminology in the School of Law at Queen's University, Belfast. He has held visiting scholarships at the University of Western Sydney, Monash University Melbourne and the University of Sydney. In 2013 he was awarded a Lowenstein Fellowship at Amherst College, Massachusetts, and in 2014 was Visiting Fellow at the University of Central Lancashire. He is the all-Ireland representative for the European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control.

His first book, a co-edited collection with Paul Gordon, was published by Penguin in 1984: Causes for Concern: British criminal justice on trial. Soon after he edited a special edition of the international Journal of Law and Society entitled: The State v. the People: Lessons from the Coal Dispute (1985). He is author of The State of the Police (Pluto 1985) and co-author (with Kathryn Chadwick) of In the Arms of the Law: Coroners' Inquests and Deaths in Custody (Pluto 1987) and, with Joe Sim and Paula Skidmore, Prisons Under Protest (Open University Press 1991) and editor of Law, Order and the Authoritarian State (Open University Press 1987). The first edition of Hillsborough: The Truth (Mainstream) was published in 1999 (2nd edn 2000; 3rd edn 2009).

More recently, alongside his work on Hillsborough, he published Power, Conflict and Criminalisation (Routledge, 2007) a book that covers the full range of his critical research. This was followed by a collection of research writing on prisons, The Violence of Incarceration (Routledge, 2009), co-edited with Jude McCulloch. With co-researchers Siobhan McAlister and Deena Haydon, he co-authored Childhood in Transition: Experiencing Marginalisation and Conflict in Northern Ireland (Save the Children/ The Prince's Trust, 2009). His research with Linda Moore for the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission into women's imprisonment was published initially by the Commission in two extensive reports, The Hurt Inside (2005) and The Prison Within(2007), followed by the text, The Incarceration of Women: Punishing Bodies, Breaking Spirits (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014). He edited recent special issues of Social Justice: Journal of Crime, Conflict and World Order (with Jude McCulloch 2006) on Deaths in Custody and Detention and Current Issues in Criminal Justice on the criminalisation and punishment of children and young people (2008).

In 2013, in partnership with Siobhán McAlister, he was awarded ESRC Knowledge Exchange funding for the project Identifying and Challenging the Negative Media Representation of Children and Young People in Northern Ireland. The project, in collaboration with Include Youth and a range of other children's and young people's rights charitable organisations, appointed Faith Gordon as Research Fellow. An initial summary of research findings, 'Behind the Headlines; Media Representations of Children and Young People in Northern Ireland - The voices and experiences of children and young people was published in April 2015.

Scraton was a member of the Hillsborough Independent Panel (2010-2012) and primary author of Hillsborough: The Report of the Independent Panel (2012). His recent research also includes the European funded international comparative project Children of Imprisoned Parents. He is on the Board of the Howard Journal, of Current Issues in Criminal Justice and Statewatch. He is a founder member of INQUEST, United Campaigns for Justice, and a member of the Statewatch Editorial Collective. He was Chair of the Board of Include Youth 2006-2013.

Hillsborough disaster research

The Hillsborough disaster occurred on 15 April 1989 at the Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, England. During the FA Cup semi-final match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest football clubs, a human crush resulted in the deaths of 96 people and injuries to 766 others. In the immediate aftermath Scraton received funding from Liverpool City Council to establish the Hillsborough Project to ensure external, independent scrutiny of the investigations and inquiries following the disaster.

Stuart-Smith Scrutiny

Scraton provided extensive submissions to the 1997-1998 judicial scrutiny undertaken by Lord Justice Stuart-Smith. These submissions included disclosure of the 'review and alteration' of police officers' statements. Following negotiations he eventually accessed and researched all police statements in their original and altered form in the House of Lords Reading Room. Scraton has remained highly critical of the Stuart-Smith scrutiny, describing it as a "debacle". Speaking in October 2012, Scraton said the findings of the Hillsborough Independent Panel – which disclosed that 41 of the 96 who died had the potential to survive had there been a more effective response to the emergency – showed "just how wrong he (LJ Stuart-Smith) was."

Hillsborough: The Truth

Scraton's book Hillsborough: The Truth is now widely accepted as a definitive account of the disaster and its aftermath. The book focused on the inadequacies of the police investigations, official inquiries and inquests, and revealed the extent of the systematic review and alteration of South Yorkshire Police statements. It also detailed the treatment of the bereaved and survivors in the immediate aftermath of the disaster, and the "inhumanity" of the body identification process. At the time the book was described by Liverpool playwright Jimmy McGovern as a "brilliant achievement" and The Independent as "a scarcely believable story of incompetence and mendacity". The book went to three editions, 2000 and 2009, with chapters added as the Hillsborough campaign for justice persisted leading to the establishment of the Hillsborough Independent Panel. The fourth edition, was about to be published in 2014 when the Coroner at the new inquests into the deaths of the 96 imposed stringent contempt of court regulations on publications and broadcasting for the duration of the inquests (which ended in April 2016). Scraton's research contributed significantly to the ESPN/ BBC two-hour documentary, Hillsborough, directed and produced by Dan Gordon. It was shown internationally in 2014 to widespread acclaim and was short-listed for an EMMY. The following year it won Most Outstanding Factual Program at the Australian ASTRA awards. It could not be shown in the UK until the inquests were completed.

Hillsborough Independent Panel

Following the 20th anniversary of the disaster in 2009, the Government gave a commitment to the full disclosure of all documents relating to Hillsborough, appointing the Hillsborough Independent Panel to manage the process of the disclosure and to produce a report explaining the work of the Panel illustrating how its work added to the public's understanding of the disaster. Scraton was appointed as a member of the Panel. He led the Panel's research team, based at Queen's University Belfast and was primary author of the Panel's report.

In a Parliamentary debate following the publication of the Panel's Report Scraton’s work was commended in Parliament by Andy Burnham MP Shadow Health Secretary as, ‘a huge service not just to the Hillsborough families but to this country’ anticipating the unique research ‘approach, with the emphasis on disclosure, not adversarial argument, [provides] a model for resolving other contested issues arising from our past’. The Report led directly to: the quashing of the 96 inquest verdicts of 'accidental death' and the ordering of new inquests by the Attorney General; a full investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Authority; and a full criminal investigation.

Sir John Goldring was appointed as Assistant Coroner for South Yorkshire (East) and West Yorkshire (West) to conduct the new inquest. On 26 April 2016, the inquest jury returned a verdict of unlawful killing in respect of all 96 victims (by majority verdict of 7–2).

In 2012-13, Scraton received the Queen's University Vice-Chancellor's inaugural award for research impact. In 2013 his research was runner-up in the Times Higher Educational Supplement's Research Project of the year award.