Penal Politics

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History
- shift in consensus in CJ politics
- post War -insulated from pol debate - bipartisan consensus
- Thatcher Admin 1979 - breakdown in consensus
- capitalised widespread fear of ungovernability
- tough measures with neoliberal pragmatism
1997 UK General Election
- Labour shifts to New Right politics
- "tough on crime, tough of causes of crime"
Populist Punitiveness def
- Bottoms 1995
- the pursuit of a set of penal policies to win votes rather than to reduce crime or promote justice
- electorally advantageous sentiments based on media and public appeal
populist punitiveness feeds on
- features of late modernity
- breakdown of community values
- weak social bonds
- rise of individualism
- sense of insecurity
- = risk adverse society
Culture of Control
- Garland (2001)
- Political "acting out" - political reactions have become more pronounced
- as the conditions of political speech have changed over time
- eg tough on sentencing
disadvantages of "political acting out"
- avoids realistic recongition of underlying problems
- rhetoric prevents rehabiltiative measures
- allows governmets to reinforce their legitimacy
Unjustice outcomes - populist punitiveness
- Bulger murders
- sensationalist discussions in press resulted in many politicians damning boys "worthless!" "evil"
- affecting law and order outcomes
- sentencing decisions
- rehab faced great public opposition
unjust outcomes - riots
- 2011
- gesutural, excessive penal politics
- condemned by David Cameron "appalling behaviour"
- "criminality pure and simple"
- sentences typically 4x longer
- resulted in 70% more receiving custodial sentences
- dramatic punitive shift in sentencing

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Penal Politics

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Penal Politics

Updated

5/5/2015, 8:08:35 PM

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