NCJ Number
215049
Journal
British Journal of Criminology Volume: 46 Issue: 3 Dated: May 2006 Pages: 379-398
Date Published
May 2006
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This essay critiques the ways in which the terrorist threat is being depicted and addressed by law-and-order institutions and explores the possibility of setting a criminological agenda that includes analyses of and responses to current concerns about the management of "new terrorism."
Abstract
The risk-society thesis proposed by Ulrich Beck is used to examine the novel features of "new terrorism," including the use of weapons of mass destruction, the terrorist commitment to producing catastrophic effects without regard for the survival of individual terrorists, and the pervasiveness of the terrorist threat across national borders. Beck's risk-society thesis contends that qualitative changes in the nature of risk, coupled with the loosening of institutional structures, have transformed social relations in Western cultures. The authors advise that the criminological agenda regarding the "new terrorism" must not only examine the nature and bases for the terrorist risk, but also the forms of governments' terrorism countermeasures that may transform nations and communities in unanticipated and ultimately detrimental ways. In addition to an application of Beck's risk-society thesis to the "new terrorism," this essay also considers the relevance of Michel Foucault's social constructionist perspective reflected in his governability thesis. This thesis pertains to the ways in which risk is being given priority in Western democracies. For Foucault, governability, as both a set of organized practices and a guiding rationale, is a historic feature of political power. This essay discusses how Beck's risk-society thesis and Foucault's governability thesis can be used in a criminological analysis of "new terrorism." 35 references