criminal law and religious institutions’ positions in line with each other. It is clear that criminalisation contributed to conservative views on abortion, though this position was not universal. France, for instance, positioned abortion within the framework of family planning as a ‘social practice’ in the late nineteenth century, much earlier than other European countries. This was ascribed to a number of factors, the most common ones being the lack of effective contraceptive methods and 13 Criminalisation the closure of foundling homes, where those facing
‘scenes’ provides the target for a new wave of stigmatisation and criminalisation of contemporary cultures of intoxication, at odds with official policy supporting the expansion of the night-time economy. 282 ASBO nation The relationship between the individual, the state and the market reflects tensions between leisure-time pursuits in a consumption and profit-oriented society on the one hand, and the criminal justice- driven ‘law and order’ agenda of the government on the other. At its heart is a process of identifying and criminalising certain transgressive
193 EIGHT The advance of criminalisation Social science research has not been very effective in providing alternative understandings of youth crime. Neo-positivism, along with administrative criminology, through criminal career research, has dominated the theorising and old explanations of youth crime. Its influence on policy has been enormous, shifting the focus away from exploring how and why the young might engage in crime or how the state might be criminalising the young. Alan France (2007) Understanding youth in late modernity, pp 113–14 Introduction
cannabis cultivation. Trafficked persons who are exploited for the cultivation of cannabis in the UK are committing criminal offences under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. However, if we recognise people trafficked to grow cannabis as having been abused and exploited, and as victims of crime or human rights violations as a result of coercion and abuse, then punishing them should be seen as highly inappropriate. The criminalisation of trafficked persons is also counterproductive for efforts to prevent trafficking and prosecute traffickers. The criminalisation of
, values and norms. Criminalisation, ‘the attachment of the criminal label to the activities of the group which the authorities deem it necessary to control’ ( Hall et al, 1978 : 190), is a process. It operates along a continuum and involves multiple state and non-state actors. The process starts from establishing and determining what constitutes the status quo (stability of the existing order) and what is considered to be a ‘threat’ to the stability/status quo, whether an idea or an act, and the actors (individuals or groups) that pose a threat in their thoughts or
Introduction The criminal justice system (CJS) is thought to be rooted within values of fairness, equality and due process. However, there are many facets of criminal justice which can be considered unjust. This chapter provides an overview and exploration of some of the key issues concerning the criminal injustice system. What is a miscarriage of justice? A miscarriage of justice occurs when the criminal process fails to work in a way which achieves a ‘just’ outcome. This may be for victims, offenders or the community that is impacted by a crime
This book represents the first full-length critical and interdisciplinary assessment of Loïc Wacquant’s work in English. Wacquant’s challenging critique of the neo-liberal government of crime and the punitive culture to which this is related has shaken criminology to its foundations. In a bold political analysis he describes how the US-led revolution in law and order has dismantled the welfare state, replacing it with a disciplinary and penal state. Wacquant’s analysis also details the spread of neo-liberal crime control measures and the underpinning ‘pornographic’ discourses of crime across the developed world, although critics have questioned the extent to which this model of criminal justice really is gaining the worldwide dominance alleged.
Written by criminologists and policy analysts, Criminalisation and advanced marginality offers a constructive but critical application of Wacquant’s ideas. The contributors welcome the opportunity presented by Wacquant’s work to re-engage with a radical politics of law and order, criminalisation and marginality, whilst raising issues of gender, resistance, conflict and history which, they argue, help to enrich and further develop Wacquant’s analyses.
The book concludes with a chapter from Professor Wacquant himself responding to the commentaries upon his work. It fills an important gap in the existing literature and will be exciting reading for academics and students of criminology, social policy and the social sciences more broadly.
97 SIX Carbon criminals Introduction What distinguishes critical criminology from mainstream criminology is its concern with structures of power. These are seen to be institutionalised in particular ways, and to reflect social interests that oppress specific categories of people. In other words, critical criminology is premised on the idea that the present operation of the criminal justice system is unfair and biased, and operates in ways that advantage certain groups or classes above others (McLaughlin, 2010). Given policy and practice developments in
, punitiveness and criminalisation blameworthiness. Unlike the recourse to deterrence, this is not an argument based on the avoidance of future harm but is essentially a retributive claim. Proportionality is usually used by penologists to quantify the punishment that an offender deserves. It could also be used more widely to gauge which forms of blameworthy conduct should result in criminal rather than civil liability. Evidently, there are recent examples of very serious conduct which escapes criminal censure while other obviously more trivial varieties do not. Some of
within the discipline of criminology, often positioned to green or rural criminology that have also been sidelined (Donnermeyer and DeKeseredy, 2014: 93, cited in Graham et al, 2022 ). The article’s innovative analysis is twofold: firstly, it will apply the concept of ‘under- and over-criminalisation’ of ‘original criminal selectivity’ to the topic of foxhunting ( Vegh Weis, 2017 ; 2022 ). This is particularly pertinent given that the same privileged relationships inform both. Not only are they evident in the under-criminalisation of the wealthy and powerful, but
