The culture of control : crime and social order in contemporary society

The past 30 years have seen vast changes in our attitudes toward crime. More and more of us live in gated communities; prison populations have skyrocketed; and issues such as racial profiling, community policing, and "zero-tolerance" policies dominate the headlines. How is it that our response to crime and our sense of criminal justice has come to be so dramatically reconfigured? David Garland charts the changes in crime and criminal justice in America and Britain over the past twenty-five years, showing how they have been shaped by two underlying social forces: the distinctive social organization of late modernity and the neoconservative politics that came to dominate the United States and the United Kingdom in the 1980s. Garland explains how the new policies of crime and punishment, welfare and security—and the changing class, race, and gender relations that underpin them—are linked to the fundamental problems of governing contemporary societies, as states, corporations, and private citizens grapple with a volatile economy and a culture that combines expanded personal freedom with relaxed social controls. It is the risky, unfixed character of modern life that underlies our accelerating concern with control and crime control in particular. It is not just crime that has changed; society has changed as well, and this transformation has reshaped criminological thought, public policy, and the cultural meaning of crime and criminals. David Garland's The Culture of Control offers a brilliant guide to this process and its still-reverberating consequences.

The past 30 years have seen vast changes in our attitudes toward crime. More and more of us live in gated communities; prison populations have skyrocketed; and issues such as racial profiling, community policing, and "zero-tolerance" policies dominate the headlines. How is it that our response to crime and our sense of criminal justice has come to be so dramatically reconfigured? David Garland charts the changes in crime and criminal justice in America and Britain over the past twenty-five years, showing how they have been shaped by two underlying social forces: the distinctive social organization of late modernity and the neoconservative politics that came to dominate the United States and the United Kingdom in the 1980s.

Garland explains how the new policies of crime and punishment, welfare and security—and the changing class, race, and gender relations that underpin them—are linked to the fundamental problems of governing contemporary societies, as states, corporations, and private citizens grapple with a volatile economy and a culture that combines expanded personal freedom with relaxed social controls. It is the risky, unfixed character of modern life that underlies our accelerating concern with control and crime control in particular. It is not just crime that has changed; society has changed as well, and this transformation has reshaped criminological thought, public policy, and the cultural meaning of crime and criminals. David Garland's The Culture of Control offers a brilliant guide to this process and its still-reverberating consequences.

The author of this book develops the argument that the explanation for some of the more puzzling aspects of contemporary crime control stem from the kinds of social organization and political culture that dominate Britain and America today. The prison, which had been discredited as a cruel institution destined for abolition has been reborn as a seemingly indispensable tool of late modern social life. It has gained this status because it is perceived as an uncomplicated, albeit expensive, means of segregating and controlling the problem populations created by today's economic and social structures. The sectors of the population excluded from the worlds of well-paying work, welfare benefits, and family stability - typically young urban minority males - are increasingly housed in prison or jail, which tends to disqualify them from future social and economic inclusion. Penal solutions are immediate, easy to implement, and can claim to "work" as a punishment for not abiding by laws that protect social and economic order. Further, it relieves the advantaged from guilt for avoiding the collective sacrifice and difficult reforms needed to improve the welfare of the disadvantaged. The author argues, however, that the current state of social and economic structures in America and Britain are not the inevitable future. We have gotten where we are through partly planned and partly unintended political, cultural, and policy choices; the choices could have been different, and they can still be rethought and reversed. Bibliography and index The United States And The United Kingdom Have Both Become Nations Of Stringent Social Control, From Rapidly Growing Prison Populations To Ever Increasing Surveillance, Curtailment Of Civil Liberties, And Restriction Of The Underclass. The Culture Of Control Charts The Evolution Of This Approach To Law And Order--politically, Legally, And In Terms Of The Average Citizen's View Of Criminal Others And Their Civil Liberties. A History Of The Present -- Modern Criminal Justice And The Penal-welfare State -- The Crisis Of Penal Modernism -- Social Change And Social Order In Late Modernity -- Policy Predicament : Adaptation, Denial, And Acting Out -- Crime Complex : The Culture Of High Crime Societies -- The New Culture Of Crime Control -- Crime Control And Social Order. David Garland. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [277]-301) And Index. "The past 30 years have seen vast changes in our attitudes toward crime. More and more of us live in gated communities; prison populations have skyrocketed; and issues such as racial profiling, community policing, and "zero-tolerance" policies dominate the headlines. How is it that our response to crime and our sense of criminal justice have come to be so dramatically reconfigured? David Garland charts the changes in crime and criminal justice in America and Britain over the past twenty-five years, showing how they have been shaped by two underlying social forces: the distinctive social organization of late modernity and the neoconservative politics that came to dominate the United States and the United Kingdom in the 1980s."--Jacket Garland explores the significant changes in crime and criminal justice in America and Britain that have occurred over the past twenty five years, showing that they have been shaped by two underlying social forces : the distinctive social organization of late modernity and the neoconservative politics that came to dominate the United States and the United Kingdom in the 1980s. Prison populations have skyrocketed; and issues such as racial profiling, community policing, and "zero-tolerance" policies dominate the headlines How is it that our response to crime and our sense of criminal justice has come to be so dramatically reconfigured? The changes are linked to fundamental problems of governing contemporary societies, as states, corporations, and private citizens grapple with a volatile economy and a culture that combines expanded personal freedom with relaxed social controls. Paradoxically, it is the risky, unfixed character of modern life that underlies our accelerating concern with control and crime control in particular The U.S. and the U.K. have become nations of stringent social control, from surveillance to curtailment of civil liberties. "The culture of control" charts the evolution of this approach to law and order. We quickly grow used to the way things are.