NCJ Number
167416
Journal
British Journal of Criminology Volume: 36 Issue: 4 Dated: (Autumn 1996) Pages: 445-471
Date Published
1996
Length
27 pages
Annotation
This article analyzes crime control strategies in contemporary Great Britain, the United States, and elsewhere and argues that the normality of high crime rates and the limitations of criminal justice agencies have created a new predicament for governments.
Abstract
The response to this predicament has been a recurring ambivalence that explains the volatile and contradictory nature of recent crime control policies. The most visible phenomenon of recent penal policies in Great Britain and the United States is punitiveness in government policies and political rhetoric. Weaknesses and limitations associated with punitiveness are noted, as well as problems of power and authority on which it is based. Other crime control strategies are contrasted with strategies based on a punitive response, including responsibilization, defining deviance down, and redefining organizational success. The author suggests that dualistic, ambivalent, and often contradictory crime control policies are underpinned by similarly dualistic and ambivalent criminological thinking patterns. 138 references and 31 footnotes