NCJ Number
204926
Editor(s)
Tim Newburn,
Richard Sparks
Date Published
2004
Length
287 pages
Annotation
This edited book of collected papers examines issues relevant to the convergence of criminal justice policies around the world.
Abstract
The papers collected in this book generally discuss the changing relationships between national traditions in criminal justice and transnational criminal justice agendas; in particular, the topic of criminal justice convergence is examined. The overarching question posed by all the authors involves an inquiry into how crime policy travels. Chapter 1 introduces the book, discusses “policy transfer” within the crime control arena, and points out the difficulties inherent in comparative criminology. Chapter 2 analyzes the concepts underlying the notion of crime control policy transfer and questions what is actually transferred when policies and strategies jump borders. Chapter 3 presents a comparative analysis of the divergent types of “neoliberal” criminal justice practiced in the United States and Australia, while chapter 4 considers the current trajectories and future possibilities of the enhanced policing capacity within and across Europe. Chapter 5 explores the way in which social control is culturally embedded by analyzing comparisons of North American and Italian approaches to punishment. Chapter 6 discusses the necessity of carceral clawback through an examination of recent attempts to introduce reforms in women’s imprisonment in Canada and England. Chapter 7 considers both “structural-cultural” and “agency-led” approaches to the explanation of the international convergence of penal policy. Chapter 8 explores how youth justice is impacted by the process of globalization and multi-tiered modes of governance, particularly in England and Wales. Chapter 9 explores the emergence of a bureaucratic criminology in South Africa in the 1990’s, while chapter 10 examines policy transfer concerning local crime control efforts in advanced liberal democracies. Finally, chapter 11 provides a case study of how international policing policies and practices influenced the policing of a heroin market in a working-class suburb of Sydney, Australia. The editors of the book caution that there are tensions running through the papers in terms of focus and level of analysis. On the one hand are analyses focusing on the macro-level concerns of globalization, while on the other hand are analyses focusing on the meso- and micro-level issues of governance. Readers are invited to overcome the difficulties with reconciling these approaches which are at the same time both broad and empirically specific. Index