This resource aims to provoke critical thinking for visual images and introduce the concept of visual statements for students on the module, Modern Criminal Justice at UCBC.

1. VISUAL STATEMENTS
Phil Johnson,
Criminology Department,
University Centre at Blackburn College.

2. http://www.independent.co.uk/
news/science/what-colour-is-
the-dress-blue-and-black-or-
white-and-gold-whatever-you-
see-says-a-lot-about-you-
10074490.html

3. Cameras
never lie?
Photograph courtesy
of Steve Powell via
Getty Images

4. Belfast in the 1970s/Blackburn in the ‘now’?
Photograph courtesy of Rebecca Winser, BA Criminology

5. “The Thick Of It”
Effective policy making in the
1970s?
Effective policy making in the
‘now’?
“Yes Minister”

6. The 2013 advert in LA Weekly for “the pay-to-stay program” at Seal Beach Detention Center.
Meanwhile families of offenders in the UK often pay higher insurance premiums or
are refused coverage, because of their perceived higher risk – which includes being
attacked by vigilantes! (The Independent, 4 May, 2017)

8. A lawful constitution requires?

9. Connections between the new methods for
democracies, the prison-industrial complex and
the military-industrial complex?
• Irrational policies resulting from psychological warfare companies like
Cambridge Analytica? These corporations, owned by secretive billionaires
such as Robert Mercer, have been helped by the research from higher
education lecturers and students.
• “Psychological operations – the same methods the military use to effect
mass sentiment change. It’s what they mean by winning ‘hearts and minds’.
We were just doing it to win elections in the kind of developing countries
that don’t have many rules” (Cadwalladr, 2017).
• Flawed research methods that fail to capture what publics truly think?

13. •Although s. 2(2)
of the Unfair
Contract Terms
Act 1977 would
say otherwise…

14. • There were many things going on in this visual statement. The potential
unreliability of images as data was illustrated but so was their potential for
enhanced vision. Some of the difficulties facing policy makers and
politicians (some possibly self-inflicted) were also presented. The media’s
selective vision was criticised as were other responses such as official
notices.
• It was an extreme example of the kinds of things you could do whilst taking
this module; please do not panic as two or three good examples of your
own could be enough to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding
of the learning outcomes. So have your phone ready, as you will never
know when you might need it!
• Remember your task is to create a visual statement in images that
illustrates one or more of the module’s learning outcomes. So, you will
need to produce a small image portfolio, plus a 300 word explanation for it
– this will count for 50% of the summative assessment for this module.
Please see your lecture notes for more information.