Institute of Criminology Public Seminars: 'Justice for the 96: Researching Truth, Delivering Justice in the Aftermath of the Hillsborough Disaster'

Speaker: Phil Scraton,
Emeritus Professor in the School of Law, Queen’s University, Belfast

This presentation reflects primary, documentary and observational research conducted over three decades into the context, circumstances and aftermath of the Hillsborough Disaster. On 15 April 1989 ninety-six men, women and children lost their lives at an FA Cup Semi-Final football match in Sheffield. Hundreds more were seriously injured, thousands traumatised and many have died prematurely as a direct consequence. The investigations, inquests, appeals and reviews that followed failed the bereaved and the survivors. Their sustained but lonely campaign led eventually to the unprecedented Hillsborough Independent Panel (2010-2012) and its ground breaking report, providing the foundation for criminal and Independent Police Complaints Commission investigations, the quashing of the ‘accidental death’ verdicts and new inquests. Concluding the longest inquests in legal history in April 2016, the jury’s verdict was ‘unlawful killing’. It levelled severe criticisms against those in authority, the majority against the police, and that fans’ behaviour had not contributed to the deaths. The presentation raises profound concerns regarding the potential of long-term, critical social research within an academic work inhibited by financial, political and ‘ethical’ constraints. It demonstrates the political, ethical and personal challenges involved in bearing witness to the ‘pain of others’; and how structural relations of power, authority and legitimacy contextualise daily life, social interaction and individual opportunity. Focusing on the ‘view from below’, hearing testimonies from the margins, revealing institutionalised deceit and pursuing ‘truth recovery’, the presentation argues that critical social research is transformative. It addresses ‘personal troubles’ as ‘public issues’, seeking alternative accounts to secure ‘truth’ and acknowledgement.

Phil Scraton PhD, DLaws (Hon), is Emeritus Professor in the School of Law, Queen’s University, Belfast. Recently Lowenstein Fellow at Amherst College, Massachusetts, USA and Visiting Professor at the Universities of Auckland, Monash, New South Wales and Sydney. His research includes: controversial deaths and the state; rights of the bereaved and survivors following disasters; the politics of incarceration. Widely published, recent books include: Power, Conflict and Criminalisation; The Violence of Incarceration; The Incarceration of Women; Hillsborough: The Truth; Women’s Imprisonment and the Case for Abolition. He has written major reports for the NI Human Rights Commission and the NI Children’s Commissioner. Director of The Hillsborough Project 1989-95 he was principal author of Hillsborough and After: The Liverpool Experience and No Last Rights: The Promotion of Myth and the Denial of Justice in the Aftermath of the Hillsborough Disaster. He led Hillsborough Independent Panel’s research team and was lead author of its ground-breaking 2013 Report, Hillsborough. Adviser to the families’ legal teams throughout the inquests, the new edition of Hillsborough: The Truth was published in 2016. Awarded Freedom of the City of Liverpool and honorary DLaws by its university, his alma mater. Factual consultant on and contributor to the 2017 BAFTA winning documentary Hillsborough. He has been awarded a Leverhulme Emeritus Fellowship to research the unique work of the Hillsborough Independent Panel, the conduct of new inquests and the forthcoming legal proceedings. Castaway on Desert Island Discs in 2017, he has been commissioned to lead a month-long international research symposium on deaths in controversial circumstances hosted by the University of Sydney.

This seminar starts at 2.00pm, and will be held in the Seminar Rooms, Institute of Criminology, Sidgwick Avenue, Cambridge, CB3 9DA. A drinks reception in the basement foyer will follow this seminar for attendees.

The IoC Public Seminar Series is open to all interested in attending, with no ticket required. If you wish to be added to the seminar mailing list, please contact: enquiries@cim.cam.ac.uk