Book review: Victoria Canning, Gendered Harm and Structural Violence in the British Asylum System
| Published date | 01 February 2018 |
| Date | 01 February 2018 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1362480617743864 |
| Subject Matter | Book reviews |
Theoretical Criminology 22(1)
understandably reluctant to report crimes. At a time when the federal government is
threatening “sanctuary cities” with reduced funding to mandate their cooperation with
immigration enforcement authorities, Policing Immigrants makes a strong case for get-
ting local law enforcement agencies out of immigration enforcement. This is timely and
essential reading for scholars, students, and practitioners interested in policing, immigra-
tion enforcement, and immigrant–police relations.
Victoria Canning, Gendered Harm and Structural Violence in the British Asylum System, Routledge:
London; 194 pp.: 9781138854659, £105 (hbk)
Reviewed by: Amanda Schmid-Scott, University of Exeter, UK
This book situates Britain’s political approach to seeking asylum within a framework of
intentional hostility. Although this is not a new claim in itself, the book makes a signifi-
cant contribution focusing specifically on the structures of harm around asylum. Canning
demonstrates how the British asylum system not only fails to protect people fleeing
persecution, but actually exacerbates traumas many have experienced prior to arrival,
and often debilitating individuals from making a successful asylum claim in the process.
By highlighting the disproportionately high number of women affected by sexual and
gendered violence throughout their lives in comparison to men, Canning reflects on how
these practices impact the lives of women asylum seekers, an area of focus which she
rightly suggests has been largely under-reported. Canning draws from a decade spent
working and volunteering with vulnerable asylum seekers and refugees, mainly in
England’s north-west. This includes ‘thousands of hours’ of activist participation with
organizations and those seeking asylum (p. 4), 10 focus groups with women, some still
‘awaiting asylum outcomes’ (p. 4) as well as around 70 interviews with GPs, rape coun-
sellors and psychologists supporting asylum seeking women through their encounters
with violence.
The book covers an impressively wide range of themes and experiences within the
asylum process, which are explored through utilizing Johan Galtung’s (1969) pioneering
concept of structural violence. These experiences include the oft-named three Ds: desti-
tution, detention and deportation, as well as asylum housing conditions, the role of pri-
vate companies in both securitization and care-practices, access to healthcare and the
often-challenging encounters with Home Office staff. Canning also devotes attention to
how and when asylum seeking women experience forms of violence throughout the tra-
jectory of their lives, including domestic violence, rape and torture. But she also high-
lights the more tacit forms of violence often experienced after their arrival in Britain. In
so doing, she...
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