Dr David Scott
Biography
Professional biography
David Gordon Scott has worked at The Open University since September 2016. He has been a visiting scholar at several Universities around the world, including Italy, the USA, and New Zealand. In 2019, he was a Visiting Professor at the University of Toronto, Canada. He previously worked at the University of Central Lancashire (2000-2013) and Liverpool John Moores University (2013-2016).
David gained an MA (with distinction) in Crime, Deviance and Social Policy from Lancaster University in 1996 and was awarded a doctorate in 2006 under the supervision of Professor Barbara Hudson from the University of Central Lancashire. The title of his PhD thesis was "Ghosts Beyond Our Realm".
He is the founder of the 'Weavers Uprising Bicentennial Committee', which is working towards collective remembrance of the 1826 Chatterton Massacre and other avoidable and premature deaths in Pennine Lancashire during the 1825-7 economic recession. This remembrance work has included the naming of those who were killed by soldiers in the uprising and the names of children under the age of 5 who died in the following 12 months. David is also working on the bicentennial commemorations of four other British massacres. The first of which is the 200th anniversary of the North Sands Massacre, Sunderland, 1825.
Research interests
David's research interests include reflections on our collective ethico-political response-ability for the harms of the capitalist state; the historical relationship between socialist ethics and prisons, penal abolitionism, and state-corporate violence; and liberative justice.
Books
His books include Against Imprisonment (Waterside Press, 2018), Controversial Issues in Prisons (Open University Press, 2010) and Why Prison? (Cambridge University Press, 2013). David is, with Michael Coyle, co-editor of the International Handbook of Penal Abolition (Routledge, 2021). His latest single-authored book is For Abolition: Essays on Prisons and Socialist Ethics (published by Waterside Press in November 2020).
With Joe Sim, he edited a book discussing the life and work of Steven Box entitled Demystifying Power, Crime and Social Harm (Palgrave, 2023). He has recently published two further edited books on the historical diversity of penal abolitionism for Bristol University Press. The first is entitled Abolitionist Voices (2024) and explores different abolitionist traditions. The second is entitled Envisioning Abolition (with Emma Bell, 2025) and is focused on socialist and anarchist visions of penal abolition, largely in the late Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Centuries.
His earlier books include Community Policing in SouthWest Lancashire (1994), Heavenly Confinement? (1996), Ghosts Beyond Our Realm (2006), Expanding the Criminological Imagination (2006), Penology (2008), Critique and Dissent (2013), Prisons and Punishment (2014), Emancipatory Politics and Praxis (2016) and Beyond Criminal Justice (2014). He has also published several pamphlets and reports.
David has long been a champion the idea of liberative justice and socialist response ethics. As part of this work, he is currently undertaking historical zemiological and archival research on popular resistance/liberation movements, the legal repression of working-class protest and social murder in the 1820s. His focus is on the importance of bearing historical witness and the ethics of remembrance to hidden British Massacres in the North of England in the 1820s. These include the North Sands Massacre, Sunderland, 1825 and the Chatterton Massacre, Lancashire, 1826. He is currently working on several publications in this area.
Selection of single authored articles and chapters in last 20 years (2006-2026)
Scott, D. (2026) "The moral economy of the 1826 Lancashire rising" in Drake, D.H. et al (eds) (2026) Handbook of Social Justice
Scott, D. (2025) "Libertarian socialism and the struggle for liberative justice" in Scott, D. (ed) Abolitionist Voices Bristol: BUP
Scott, D. (2025) "Socialism and penal abolitionism: voices and visions" in Red Thread, Issue #21
Scott, D/ (2024) "Prison aboliton in overcrowded times: sowing the seeds for change" in Studies, An Itish Quartelry Journal, June 2024
Scott, D. (2023) "An unchristian insitution: penal abolition and the prison chaplain" in Phillips, E. R (ed) Prison Chaplaincy and Catholic Socialist Thought- London: Routledge
Scott, D, (2022) "Escaping the logic of crime" in Piche, J (editor and translator) Pain in Vain Toronto: Red Quill Books
Scott, D. (2021) “Could penal abolitionism work?” in Sociology Review (September, 2021)
Scott, D. (2020) “Do prisons work?’ in Sociology Review (September, 2020)
Scott, D. (2020) "Ordinary rebels, everyone: activist scholarhsip and the penal aboltionist as an insider-outsider" in Hart, E. (ed) (2020) Resisting the Punitive State London: Pluto
Scott, D. (2019) "Penal abolitionism as a philosophy of hope: an alternative futures for public engagement" in Henne, K. and Shah, R. (eds) (2019) The Routledge Handbook of Public Criminologies London: Routledge
Scott, D. (2018) "Saying NO to the mega prison" in Justice, Power and Resistance Volume 2, No. 1
Scott, D. (2018) “The ethics and poitics of criminological research” in Davis, P. and Francis, P. (eds) Doing Criminological Research London: Sage
Scott, D. (2017) "What is to be done? Thinking about abolitonist alternatives" in Prison Service Journal No 231, May 2017
Scott, D. (2016) “Hearing the voice of the estranged Other: abolitionist ethical hermeneutics” in Kriminolosches Journal (September 2016)
Scott, D. (2016) “Regarding rights for the Other: abolitionism and human rights from below” in Weber, L. (ed) The Routledge International Handbook of Criminology and Human Rights London: Routledge
Scott, D. (2015) “Walking among the graves of the living: reflections of an abolitionist on doing prison research” in Drake, D., Earle, R. and Sloan, J. (eds) Handbook of Prison Ethnography London: Palgrave
Scott, D. (2015) “Critical research values and the sociological imagination:lessons from researching prison officers” in Frauley, J. (ed) (2015) C. Wright Mills and the Criminological Imagination Aldershot: Ashgate
Scott, D. (2014) “Playing the get out of jail card for free: creating an abolitionist based consensus?” in Canning, V. (ed) (2014) Sites of Confinement London: EG Press
Scott, D. (2013) “The politics of prisoner legal rights” in Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, Volume 51, No 3 [July 2013]
Scott, D. (2013) “Visualising an abolitionist real utopia: principles, policy and praxis” in Malloch, M. & Munro, B. (eds) (2013) Crime, Critique and Utopia: Themes for a Critical Criminology London: Palgrave
Scott, D. (2012) “Guarding the ghosts of time: working personalities and the prison officer-prisoner relationship” in Prison Service Journal, Number 201 May 2012 pp 18-23
Scott, D. (2012) "Sympathy for the devil: human rights and empathetic construction of suffering" in Criminal Justice Matters, May 2012
Scott, D. (2011) “’That’s not my name’: prisoner deference and disciplinarian prison officers” in Criminal Justice Matters, June 2011
Scott, D. (2010) “Why didn’t prisoner rights come home?” in Criminal Justice Matters, December 2010
Scott, D. (2009) “Punishment” pp 83-102 in Hucklesby, A. & Wahidin, A. (eds) (2009) Criminal Justice Oxford: Oxford University Press
Scott, D. (2008) “Creating ghosts in the penal machine: the prison officer moral universe and the techniques of denial” in Bennett, J., Crewe, B., and Wahidin, A.(eds) (2008) Understanding Prison Staff Devon: Willan
Scott, D. (2007) “The changing face of the English prisons: a critical review of the aims of imprisonment” in Jewkes, Y. (ed) (2007) Handbook of Prisons London: Routledge
Scott, D. (2007) “New labour, New legitimacy: the ‘making punishment work agenda’ and the limits of penal reform” pp 71-81 in Roberts, R. & McMahon. W. (eds) (2007) Social Justice, Criminal Justice London: Harm & Society Foundation
Scott, D. (2006) "The caretakers of punishment: prison officers and the rule of law" in Prison Service Journal November 2006
Teaching interests
David has taught criminology to undergraduate and postgraduate students since 1994 and has worked previously at Edge Hill University, the University of Northumbria at Newcastle, the University of Central Lancashire and Liverpool John Moores University.
David was Chiar of DD105 Introduction to Criminology (Chair in production 2016-2020 and Chair in presentation, 2020-2021) and formerly Qualification Lead of Q57 Social Policy and Criminology. David is currently Qualifaction Lead for Q98 Criminology and Psychology.
Impact and engagement
David has undertaken interviews for BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 5 Live and a number of local radio stations such as BBC Radio Northampton, BBC Radio Merseyside and BBC Radio Essex. He has also featured on national television, including contributions to BBC1 The Big Questions, BBC Wales Today and ITV News. He also recently contributed a viewpoint on prison abolition to BBC Ideas.
David is co-founder and former director of the independent publisher EG Press. He has also made a number of short films and documentaries for The Open University. His short film (made in collaboration with Hamlett Films) "Grenfell Tower and Social Murder" was nominated for Best Film at the Learning on Screen Awards (2018) and nominated for the Best Research Film at the AHRC Film Awards (2018) (for awards won by this film see below). Another film made with Hamlett, 'Advertising, Brandalism and Subvertising', was nomited for Best Educational Film at the Learning on Screen Awards (2019) and in April 2019 his OpenLearn film ' Why we should abolish imprisonment for childtren and young people' launched a week of action calling for the abolition of child prisons.
David has submitted evidence to a number of Parliamentary Committees and Official Inquiries. His research has been cited in the House of Parliament (see Hansard, 25th Janaury 2017) and also in HoC Briefing Papers on Prisons and Punishment (November 2016). David presented the case for the abolition of child life sentences in the House of Commons in November 2017.
He was interviewed for the 2022 short documentary by True Level Media, 'The Chatterton Massacre' ,and is engaging with members of the local community in north east Lancashire as part of his work towards the ethical witnessing and remembrance of the 1826 handloom weavers uprising.
Recent blogs for the Harm & Evidence Research Collaborative (HERC) include:
https://oucriminology.wordpress.com/2016/10/07/prisons-places-of-harm-and-dehabilitation/
His research has been highlighted by OU News on a number of occassions
http://www.open.ac.uk/research/main/news/prison-violence-not-about-staffing
David has contributed short papers to independent media forums such as Open Democracy and The Conversation.
https://www.opendemocracy.net/openjustice/prisons-places-of-harm-and-dehabilitation
He has also published articles in the national newspapers The Independent and The Guardian
http://www.independent.co.uk/author/david-scott-0
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/feb/01/to-cut-jail-suicides-cut-the-prison-population
David contributed to the 2017 documentary 'Injustice' and also participated in the groundbreaking documentary "Punishment: A Failed Social Experiment" (directed by Dale Hallat and first screened 2012).
External collaborations
David has worked with numerous external organisations over the last 30 years. These include INQUEST, a national organising supporting bereaved families of those who die in state custody and lobby government for humanitarian interventions the protect human life; and JENGbA, which is campaigning to abolish child life sentences and the current interpretation of joint enterprise laws.
The film 'Grenfell Tower and Social Murder' (The Open University, 2018), which was made by David in collaboration with Hamlet Films, was awarded four major awards
2018 Life Changing Award, British Documentary Film Festival
2019 Besr Edicational and Training Film, Evcom Gold Clarion Awards
2019 Best Social Welfare Film, Evcom Gold Clarion Awards
2020 World Gold Medal at New Yourk Film And TV Awards
https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/viewfinder/articles/grenfell-tower-and-social-murder/
David has worked extensively with heritage groups, local trade unions, and museums to commemorate historical British massacres and the legal repression of working-class protest in the 1820s. This has included funded projects by the Heritage Fund and Open Societal Challenges.
International links
David was the coordinator of the European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control from 2009-2012. He is a former editor / associate editor of the Howard Journal of Crime and Justice and is the co-founding editor of the International Journal Justice, Power and Resistance.
David is editor of the Routledge Book Series Penal Abolition and Transformative Justice
Publications
Book
Demystifying Power, Crime and Social Harm: The Work and Legacy of Steven Box (2023)
The Routledge International Handbook of Penal Abolition (2021)
For Abolition: Essays on prisons and socialist ethics (2020)
Against Imprisonment: An Anthology of Abolitionist Essays (2018)
Book Chapter
Libertarian socialism and the struggle for liberative justice (2025)
Abolitionism in red and black (2025)
The abolitionist rhizome (2025)
"An unchristian institution": Christian prison chaplains and penal abolition (2024)
Demystifying murder: Open University pedagogy, social murder and the legacy of Steven Box (2024)
“An Unchristian Institution”: Christian Prison Chaplains and Penal Abolition (2024)
Steven Box: A ‘Realist of a Larger Reality’ (2023)
Demystifying Power, Crime and Social Harm (2023)
Mystification, Violence and Women’s Homelessness (2023)
Escaping the Logic of Crime: Language, Categorization and the Writings of Louk Hulsman (2023)
Steven Box : 'A Realist of a Larger Reality' (2023)
Introduction: the six hues of penal abolitionism (2021)
Overcoming obstacles to abolition and challenging the myths of imprisonment (2021)
Introduction: The Six Hues of Penal Abolition (2021)
Abolitionism as a philosophy of hope: ‘Inside-outsiders’ and the reclaiming of democracy (2020)
Ordinary rebels, everyone: abolitionist activist scholars and resisting the mega prison (2019)
Prison Abolition in Question(s) (2018)
Haunted by the Presence of Death: Prisons, Abolitionism and the Right to Life (2018)
The Politics and Ethics of Criminological Research (2018)
Regarding rights for the Other: abolitionism and human rights from below (2016)
Playing The Get Out Of Jail For Free Card: Creating A New 'Abolitionist Consensus'? (2014)
Visualising an abolitionist real utopia: principles, policy and praxis (2013)
The changing face of the English prisons: a critical review of the aims of imprisonment (2007)
Journal Article
Prison Abolition in a Time of Overcrowding: Sowing the Seeds for Change (2024)
Could Penal Abolitionism Work? (2021)
Saying NO To the Mega Prison (2018)
Hearing the voice of the estranged Other: Abolitionist ethical hermeneutics (2016)
The Politics of Prisoner Legal Rights (2013)
Sympathy for the devil: human rights and empathetic construction of suffering (2012)
Why didn't prisoner rights come home? (2010)
The caretakers of punishment: prison officers and the rule of law (2006)
