Editors' Introduction - Ken Pease (1943- ), A Prospective Obituary

Abstract

Those of you who knew Ken Pease will not be surprised at his failure to conform in time for this obituary. It will have to serve as a draft, and we welcome his further input for a revised version. However, this leaves us in the disappointing and methodologically challenging position of writing a prospective obituary. It is therefore serendipitous that, to our knowledge, such a prospective-retrospective has not been previously applied as methodology in a criminological context, and we claim it as an original contribution. Were he with us today, Ken would be proud. Then he would speedily edit the material, adding value and insight throughout while thoughtfully correcting us grammar. Since this is not a posthumous volume at time of going to press, it is clear that we come here not to bury Pease but to praise him. For the former of these two acts would, in present circumstances, lead to somewhat incredulous choking on his part. However, we know this would be accompanied by praise for our foresight and efficiency in completing the task in advance of the traditional deadline. This festschrift belatedly marks Ken's official, if rather early, retirement in 2003, and pays tribute to his various criminological contributions to date. This is despite the fact that we predict these contributions will, no matter how hard we protest, continue for many years to come.