Exploring Harm and Evidence

This conference sees the formal launch of the Open University’s Harm and  Evidence Research Collaborative (HERC). HERC’s research can be summarised as “evidencing harm and harmful evidence” which encompasses a range of areas such as the use of evidence in the criminal justice system and the harmful practices of public and private institutions. The notion of harm is increasingly central to new initiatives in policy and practice. However, policy-makers and practitioners fail to regard their own institutional practices as harmful to health and wellbeing and fail to recognise that institutional neglect can severely impact on people’s life chances.

This conference brings together a range of HERC members and guest speakers all drawing on different areas – drugs, homelessness, vagrancy, sexual violence, harms against LGBT communities, miscarriages of justice, crimes of the powerful and youth justice – to engage critically with notions of harm and evidence. Tackling key issues about how harm is used problematically in social policy and the criminal justice system, speakers will also demonstrate how evidence is used harmfully against  diverse constituencies.

Confirmed participants include:

Vickie Cooper, (OU), Steve Tombs, (OU),  Rebecca Roberts, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (CCJS),  David Nutt, Duncan Banks, Lynne Copson,  (OU),  Dan McCulloch, (OU), Ross Fergusson, (OU), Paul Lawrence (OU), Graham Pike, (OU),  Ailsa Strathie, (OU),  Catriona Havard, (OU),  Hayley Ness, (OU), Avi Boukli, (OU),  Vicky Canning, (OU),  Julia Downes, (OU),  Sarah Lamble, (Birkbeck), Maya Goodfellow, (Labourlist), Saqib Deshmukh, (Justice for Paps and United Families & Friends), James Mehigan, (Barrister for Hillsborough Families and OU), Richard Whittell, (Corporate Watch), Jo Pheonix, (OU)

Convenors: Dr Victoria Cooper and Prof Steve Tombs, The Open University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.

Registration: Free