Raymond Plant
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199281756
- eISBN:
- 9780191713040
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199281756.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics, Political Theory
This book has two central aims. The first is to give a fair, comprehensive, and analytical account of the central features of the neo‐liberal view about the role and limits of the state in the modern ...
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This book has two central aims. The first is to give a fair, comprehensive, and analytical account of the central features of the neo‐liberal view about the role and limits of the state in the modern world. It considers important ideas such as the contrast between a state based on rules and the one based on outcomes, the implications of this contrast for the rule of law, for the ideas of freedom, social justice, and rights. It provides a full account of the neo‐liberal view of the relationship between the state and the economy and to civil society and voluntary organizations. It draws upon a wide range of works by neo‐liberal thinkers to build up the theoretical case for this conception of the role of government and politics. The thinkers at the heart of this part of the study are Hayek, Buchanan, Mises, Menger, as well as others who while not regarding themselves as neo‐liberals nevertheless have contributed to neo‐liberal ideas. These include Oakeshott, Nozick, and Rothbard. The study also looks at the public policy implications of neo‐liberal ideas in relation to the role of the welfare state and other forms of public sector provision. The second part of the book provides a detailed critical appraisal of some of the central neo‐liberal doctrines particularly in relation to the core ideas of freedom, justice, rights, the role of collective organizations in civil society, and the provision of welfare. The book argues that contrary to neo‐liberal arguments there is no coherent way of providing a sharp and categorical distinction between neo‐liberalism and Social Democracy on the one hand and libertarianism on the other.Less
This book has two central aims. The first is to give a fair, comprehensive, and analytical account of the central features of the neo‐liberal view about the role and limits of the state in the modern world. It considers important ideas such as the contrast between a state based on rules and the one based on outcomes, the implications of this contrast for the rule of law, for the ideas of freedom, social justice, and rights. It provides a full account of the neo‐liberal view of the relationship between the state and the economy and to civil society and voluntary organizations. It draws upon a wide range of works by neo‐liberal thinkers to build up the theoretical case for this conception of the role of government and politics. The thinkers at the heart of this part of the study are Hayek, Buchanan, Mises, Menger, as well as others who while not regarding themselves as neo‐liberals nevertheless have contributed to neo‐liberal ideas. These include Oakeshott, Nozick, and Rothbard. The study also looks at the public policy implications of neo‐liberal ideas in relation to the role of the welfare state and other forms of public sector provision. The second part of the book provides a detailed critical appraisal of some of the central neo‐liberal doctrines particularly in relation to the core ideas of freedom, justice, rights, the role of collective organizations in civil society, and the provision of welfare. The book argues that contrary to neo‐liberal arguments there is no coherent way of providing a sharp and categorical distinction between neo‐liberalism and Social Democracy on the one hand and libertarianism on the other.
Marc Mulholland
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199653577
- eISBN:
- 9780191744594
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199653577.003.0014
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History, History of Ideas
America fought the Vietnam War as a warrant for its solidity as an anti-Communist ally. In so doing, it brought to the surface widespread concerns that consumerist capitalism was being corrupted by ...
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America fought the Vietnam War as a warrant for its solidity as an anti-Communist ally. In so doing, it brought to the surface widespread concerns that consumerist capitalism was being corrupted by militarism and ethical hypocrisy. The movements of 1968 rejected the shades of pre-war authoritarianism and intimations of neo-authoritarianism. In this, it was successful to a considerable degree. With the state partly de-legitimized, New Left and New Right ideas jostled for succession. As post-war capitalism entered into crisis, due to a squeeze on bourgeois income from a militant labour movement, Neo-Liberalism emerged as the bearer of libertarianism. Democratic revolution in the Mediterranean indicated that the threat of social revolution was now far more easily contained. Euro-Communism presaged a drawing of the claws of ‘proletarian democracy’.Less
America fought the Vietnam War as a warrant for its solidity as an anti-Communist ally. In so doing, it brought to the surface widespread concerns that consumerist capitalism was being corrupted by militarism and ethical hypocrisy. The movements of 1968 rejected the shades of pre-war authoritarianism and intimations of neo-authoritarianism. In this, it was successful to a considerable degree. With the state partly de-legitimized, New Left and New Right ideas jostled for succession. As post-war capitalism entered into crisis, due to a squeeze on bourgeois income from a militant labour movement, Neo-Liberalism emerged as the bearer of libertarianism. Democratic revolution in the Mediterranean indicated that the threat of social revolution was now far more easily contained. Euro-Communism presaged a drawing of the claws of ‘proletarian democracy’.
Kevin Albertson, Mary Corcoran, and Jake Phillips (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781447345701
- eISBN:
- 9781447346579
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447345701.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
Criminal justice used to be thought of as a field autonomous from politics and the economy, with the management of crime and punishment being seen as essentially the responsibility of government. ...
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Criminal justice used to be thought of as a field autonomous from politics and the economy, with the management of crime and punishment being seen as essentially the responsibility of government. However, in recent decades, policies have been adopted which blur the institutional boundaries and functions of the public sector with those of for-profit and civil society interests in many parts of the penal/welfare complex. The impact of these developments on society is contested: Proponents of the ‘neo-liberal penality thesis’ argue economic deregulation, welfare retrenchment, individualised choices – and associated responsibility – may be aligned by market forces into efficient delivery of ‘law and order’. Set against the neo-liberal penal position are arguments that the corporate sector may be no more efficient in delivering criminal justice services than is the public sector, and reliance on the profit motive to deliver criminal justice may lead to perverse incentivisation of NGOs or state agencies. It is to this debate we add our contribution. Criminal justice is an ideal sector in which to consider the implications arising from the differing incentive structures held by different institutions, both private and public, citizens, governments, social enterprise and the corporate sector. All agree on the need for criminal justice, even as they compete in the policy sphere to dictate its form and delivery.Less
Criminal justice used to be thought of as a field autonomous from politics and the economy, with the management of crime and punishment being seen as essentially the responsibility of government. However, in recent decades, policies have been adopted which blur the institutional boundaries and functions of the public sector with those of for-profit and civil society interests in many parts of the penal/welfare complex. The impact of these developments on society is contested: Proponents of the ‘neo-liberal penality thesis’ argue economic deregulation, welfare retrenchment, individualised choices – and associated responsibility – may be aligned by market forces into efficient delivery of ‘law and order’. Set against the neo-liberal penal position are arguments that the corporate sector may be no more efficient in delivering criminal justice services than is the public sector, and reliance on the profit motive to deliver criminal justice may lead to perverse incentivisation of NGOs or state agencies. It is to this debate we add our contribution. Criminal justice is an ideal sector in which to consider the implications arising from the differing incentive structures held by different institutions, both private and public, citizens, governments, social enterprise and the corporate sector. All agree on the need for criminal justice, even as they compete in the policy sphere to dictate its form and delivery.
Peter Squires and John Lea (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9781447300014
- eISBN:
- 9781447307587
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447300014.001.0001
- Subject:
- Social Work, Crime and Justice
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 ...
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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 has recently shaken mainstream 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 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, the book offers a critical but constructive 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 and the discipline of criminology itself. The book concludes with a chapter from Professor Wacquant 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.Less
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 has recently shaken mainstream 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 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, the book offers a critical but constructive 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 and the discipline of criminology itself. The book concludes with a chapter from Professor Wacquant 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.
Kevin Albertson, Mary Corcoran, and Jake Phillips
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781447345701
- eISBN:
- 9781447346579
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447345701.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
This chapter outlines the process of political innovation through which governments have coordinated other agencies and sectors to achieve often complex goals, for example, through the transfer of ...
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This chapter outlines the process of political innovation through which governments have coordinated other agencies and sectors to achieve often complex goals, for example, through the transfer of political and/or financial risk, and through attempts to include and motivate non-state organisations in a range of ways. It is this pursuit of innovation which underpins both the reasoning behind privatisation and marketisation, and the continued efforts to manage its consequences, both expected and unforeseen. The essays in this volume consider the scale and impact of marketisation and privatisation in the area of criminal justice. concepts of marketisation are reflections of an increasingly monopolistic neo-liberal hegemony which promises citizens a utopian political project for ensuring individual freedom (subject only to market forces), and private and social enterprise opportunities to bid as the state transforms from provider to auctioneer of public goods and services. This chapter summarises the analyses offered in this edited collection and contextualises these perspectives to develop our knowledge and understanding of the process of privatisation and marketisation, the impact of it and the extent to which newly marketised and privatised services result in ‘justice’.Less
This chapter outlines the process of political innovation through which governments have coordinated other agencies and sectors to achieve often complex goals, for example, through the transfer of political and/or financial risk, and through attempts to include and motivate non-state organisations in a range of ways. It is this pursuit of innovation which underpins both the reasoning behind privatisation and marketisation, and the continued efforts to manage its consequences, both expected and unforeseen. The essays in this volume consider the scale and impact of marketisation and privatisation in the area of criminal justice. concepts of marketisation are reflections of an increasingly monopolistic neo-liberal hegemony which promises citizens a utopian political project for ensuring individual freedom (subject only to market forces), and private and social enterprise opportunities to bid as the state transforms from provider to auctioneer of public goods and services. This chapter summarises the analyses offered in this edited collection and contextualises these perspectives to develop our knowledge and understanding of the process of privatisation and marketisation, the impact of it and the extent to which newly marketised and privatised services result in ‘justice’.
Elizabeth A. Wissinger
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814794180
- eISBN:
- 9780814794197
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814794180.003.0010
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gender and Sexuality
I explore in this chapter how, in recent decades, modeling work has come to require embodying the ideal of a malleable body, especially since the 1980s and 1990s, when digital technologies ...
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I explore in this chapter how, in recent decades, modeling work has come to require embodying the ideal of a malleable body, especially since the 1980s and 1990s, when digital technologies facilitated the desire to manipulate appearances, since digitization enabled an infinite malleability of appearance down to the tiniest pixel. Modeling work increasingly became the work to always be ready for, or in the process of, transformation, and in so doing, models glamorized this practice for the general public.Less
I explore in this chapter how, in recent decades, modeling work has come to require embodying the ideal of a malleable body, especially since the 1980s and 1990s, when digital technologies facilitated the desire to manipulate appearances, since digitization enabled an infinite malleability of appearance down to the tiniest pixel. Modeling work increasingly became the work to always be ready for, or in the process of, transformation, and in so doing, models glamorized this practice for the general public.
Mark Monaghan and Simon Prideaux
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781447316749
- eISBN:
- 9781447316770
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447316749.003.0009
- Subject:
- Sociology, Migration Studies (including Refugee Studies)
This final chapter pulls all of the varying strands together. The chapter acknowledges the gaps in criminological understanding of State crime but calls for a more holistic approach to be taken: an ...
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This final chapter pulls all of the varying strands together. The chapter acknowledges the gaps in criminological understanding of State crime but calls for a more holistic approach to be taken: an approach that synthesises the nature of the new global hegemony of neo-liberalism, profit, governmental alliances, contraventions of international law, political violence/terrorism and the devastating consequences of inflicting social harm. In this latter respect, it is argued that the lens of social harm brings all the elements of such behaviour together. Social harm has a longitudinal dimension that keeps criminal and moral behaviour under scrutiny well beyond the initial, more obvious violations of morality and/or criminal law. Indeed, the socio-economic, ecological and psychological aftereffects of war, invasion, torture, genocide and unnecessary unemployment can be measured as they affect communities, families, the ecosystem, social infrastructure and communal health and livelihood issues. With a sense of optimism, the chapter argues that an examination of the dubious actions by the State and powerful can spark a prolonged sense of moral outrage in the eyes of public well beyond the initial atrocity and thus hold rogue state actions and the corrupt acts of the powerful more accountable.Less
This final chapter pulls all of the varying strands together. The chapter acknowledges the gaps in criminological understanding of State crime but calls for a more holistic approach to be taken: an approach that synthesises the nature of the new global hegemony of neo-liberalism, profit, governmental alliances, contraventions of international law, political violence/terrorism and the devastating consequences of inflicting social harm. In this latter respect, it is argued that the lens of social harm brings all the elements of such behaviour together. Social harm has a longitudinal dimension that keeps criminal and moral behaviour under scrutiny well beyond the initial, more obvious violations of morality and/or criminal law. Indeed, the socio-economic, ecological and psychological aftereffects of war, invasion, torture, genocide and unnecessary unemployment can be measured as they affect communities, families, the ecosystem, social infrastructure and communal health and livelihood issues. With a sense of optimism, the chapter argues that an examination of the dubious actions by the State and powerful can spark a prolonged sense of moral outrage in the eyes of public well beyond the initial atrocity and thus hold rogue state actions and the corrupt acts of the powerful more accountable.
Ellen Mickiewicz
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199977833
- eISBN:
- 9780199397068
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199977833.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics, Russian Politics
This chapter presents an overview of Russia in the world and Russia through the eyes of its future leaders. 108 high-level students met in 4 focus groups from each of the three universities and ...
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This chapter presents an overview of Russia in the world and Russia through the eyes of its future leaders. 108 high-level students met in 4 focus groups from each of the three universities and across a large variety of disciplines. The experienced Russian moderator never imposed, a “scenario” of questions. Although America is acknowledged to be the most important country in the world, Russians (average citizens and leaders alike) do not like America. Bombing Serbia and the Bush Doctrine of bombing and regime change are on their minds. Their interest in the United States is asymmetrical: Americans do not return it and its media often report news from Russia inaccurately, another sign read as careless disparagement. America has extraordinary inequities and unregulated selfishness that post-Soviet Russia exhibits on a more massive scale and without democratic institutions.Less
This chapter presents an overview of Russia in the world and Russia through the eyes of its future leaders. 108 high-level students met in 4 focus groups from each of the three universities and across a large variety of disciplines. The experienced Russian moderator never imposed, a “scenario” of questions. Although America is acknowledged to be the most important country in the world, Russians (average citizens and leaders alike) do not like America. Bombing Serbia and the Bush Doctrine of bombing and regime change are on their minds. Their interest in the United States is asymmetrical: Americans do not return it and its media often report news from Russia inaccurately, another sign read as careless disparagement. America has extraordinary inequities and unregulated selfishness that post-Soviet Russia exhibits on a more massive scale and without democratic institutions.
Ian M. Cook
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- February 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780190078171
- eISBN:
- 9780190099589
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190078171.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, Asian Politics
Cook examines the context and function of the ongoing moral and cultural policing of young people and minorities in Mangaluru by vigilante Hindu groups with government complicity. Based on long term ...
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Cook examines the context and function of the ongoing moral and cultural policing of young people and minorities in Mangaluru by vigilante Hindu groups with government complicity. Based on long term ethnographic fieldwork with the city’s burgeoning population of students and underemployed youth, Cook argues that the violence is fueled by the resentment against what is seen as the cultural pollution of ‘excessive’ freedom among middle class youth. Many of the vigilantes are underemployed youth, structurally shut out from gainful employment and prestigious education. Instead they assume positions as self-appointed guardians of Indian culture and putative ‘Hindu values’, as well as protectors of young women against the seductions of western immorality, and the imagined sexual predation by men from the minority community. Cook explains this as a contradiction within neo-liberalism: a tension between the ‘Western cultural values’ that are resented by the vigilantes, and their simultaneous celebration of a neo-liberal culture of economic freedom that they hope will deliver them into a life of success. Their failure in the latter seems to fuel their commitment to combat the former.Less
Cook examines the context and function of the ongoing moral and cultural policing of young people and minorities in Mangaluru by vigilante Hindu groups with government complicity. Based on long term ethnographic fieldwork with the city’s burgeoning population of students and underemployed youth, Cook argues that the violence is fueled by the resentment against what is seen as the cultural pollution of ‘excessive’ freedom among middle class youth. Many of the vigilantes are underemployed youth, structurally shut out from gainful employment and prestigious education. Instead they assume positions as self-appointed guardians of Indian culture and putative ‘Hindu values’, as well as protectors of young women against the seductions of western immorality, and the imagined sexual predation by men from the minority community. Cook explains this as a contradiction within neo-liberalism: a tension between the ‘Western cultural values’ that are resented by the vigilantes, and their simultaneous celebration of a neo-liberal culture of economic freedom that they hope will deliver them into a life of success. Their failure in the latter seems to fuel their commitment to combat the former.
Katharina Swirak
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781447345701
- eISBN:
- 9781447346579
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447345701.003.0007
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
This chapter is based on the premise that marketisation extends beyond strategies such as privatisation or monetisation, but encroaches into our life-worlds more subtly. Based on the analysis of ...
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This chapter is based on the premise that marketisation extends beyond strategies such as privatisation or monetisation, but encroaches into our life-worlds more subtly. Based on the analysis of recent Irish youth justice policy reforms, it is suggested that softer aspects of marketisation become visible in the way that ‘problems’ or ‘solutions to problems’ are written and talked about. Importantly, this chapter traces how dominant discourses ‘travel’ from sites of administrative governance into the imaginations of front-line workers engaging with young people. It is further argued that the introduction of administrative governance is emblematic of neo-liberalism’s distinct mode of reason with the problematic effect of constructing young people and their families as responsible for their own self-improvement and self-realisation. Through its anti-political nature, administrative governance eschews important considerations relating to the wider contexts of youthful ‘offending’ and the professional field of ‘youth justice work’.Less
This chapter is based on the premise that marketisation extends beyond strategies such as privatisation or monetisation, but encroaches into our life-worlds more subtly. Based on the analysis of recent Irish youth justice policy reforms, it is suggested that softer aspects of marketisation become visible in the way that ‘problems’ or ‘solutions to problems’ are written and talked about. Importantly, this chapter traces how dominant discourses ‘travel’ from sites of administrative governance into the imaginations of front-line workers engaging with young people. It is further argued that the introduction of administrative governance is emblematic of neo-liberalism’s distinct mode of reason with the problematic effect of constructing young people and their families as responsible for their own self-improvement and self-realisation. Through its anti-political nature, administrative governance eschews important considerations relating to the wider contexts of youthful ‘offending’ and the professional field of ‘youth justice work’.
Tom Smith and Ed Johnston
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781447345701
- eISBN:
- 9781447346579
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447345701.003.0010
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
The right to legal representation is a fundamental right, and arrangements for funding this are crucial to ensuring access to justice for those accused of criminal offences. Criminal legal aid has ...
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The right to legal representation is a fundamental right, and arrangements for funding this are crucial to ensuring access to justice for those accused of criminal offences. Criminal legal aid has long been regarded as an entitlement for most citizens, particularly the most economically vulnerable. However, criminal legal aid has been cast in a different light in recent years, viewed not through the lens of welfarism but subjected to neo-liberal values such as cost neutrality, marketisation and managerialism. This was particularly evident in the ‘Transforming Legal Aid’ consultation of 2013, which resurrected the idea of competitive tendering for provision of criminal legal aid services. Although not pursued in full, subsequent changes – including cuts of 8.75% to fees for legal aid lawyers – appear to have significantly affected the scope of criminal legal aid. The number of providers of such services has consistently declined over the past decade and firms have frequently reported significant financial pressure. Arguably, these reforms – justified in neo-liberal terms – have affected access to justice and by extension the quality of justice offered by the Criminal Justice System, CJS. This chapter will examine the market-driven reform of criminal legal aid in recent years, and consider two apparent examples of impact: evidence of an increasing number of litigants-in-person in criminal cases; and the outsourcing of police station work to independent ‘agents’. The chapter will also question some of the apparent contradictions in neo-liberal reform of criminal legal aid, such as the deliberate policy of reducing the size of the provider market; and the ‘false economies’ created by the pursuit of efficiency and economy: goals which are underpinned and enforced by the Criminal Procedure Rules.Less
The right to legal representation is a fundamental right, and arrangements for funding this are crucial to ensuring access to justice for those accused of criminal offences. Criminal legal aid has long been regarded as an entitlement for most citizens, particularly the most economically vulnerable. However, criminal legal aid has been cast in a different light in recent years, viewed not through the lens of welfarism but subjected to neo-liberal values such as cost neutrality, marketisation and managerialism. This was particularly evident in the ‘Transforming Legal Aid’ consultation of 2013, which resurrected the idea of competitive tendering for provision of criminal legal aid services. Although not pursued in full, subsequent changes – including cuts of 8.75% to fees for legal aid lawyers – appear to have significantly affected the scope of criminal legal aid. The number of providers of such services has consistently declined over the past decade and firms have frequently reported significant financial pressure. Arguably, these reforms – justified in neo-liberal terms – have affected access to justice and by extension the quality of justice offered by the Criminal Justice System, CJS. This chapter will examine the market-driven reform of criminal legal aid in recent years, and consider two apparent examples of impact: evidence of an increasing number of litigants-in-person in criminal cases; and the outsourcing of police station work to independent ‘agents’. The chapter will also question some of the apparent contradictions in neo-liberal reform of criminal legal aid, such as the deliberate policy of reducing the size of the provider market; and the ‘false economies’ created by the pursuit of efficiency and economy: goals which are underpinned and enforced by the Criminal Procedure Rules.
Jill Annison, Tim Auburn, Daniel Gilling, and Gisella Hanley Santos
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781447345701
- eISBN:
- 9781447346579
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447345701.003.0012
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
This chapter investigates changes that have taken place in the recent past in relation to interventions with adult offenders in England and Wales, particularly in the context of the application of ...
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This chapter investigates changes that have taken place in the recent past in relation to interventions with adult offenders in England and Wales, particularly in the context of the application of risk technologies and the increasingly managerial and market-driven set of arrangements. This review draws on criminological frameworks which examine such neo-liberal penal reforms, where social problems have been reframed as crime problems and where the application of the political policy of austerity has brought about the fragmentation and reduction of local services. Quantitative and qualitative data from a 2-year ESRC-funded research project are presented to illustrate and analyse the situations regarding ‘low-level’ offenders, whose cases were heard in a Community Justice Court in a large city in England. Detailed examination of this data reveals a complex picture of offending patterns, social issues and the pre-existing involvement of a wide range of statutory and third-sector agencies, even for many deemed ‘low-risk’ offenders. In many of these cases pathways out of crime seemed elusive, with rehabilitative interventions being framed in terms of penal narratives which emphasised individual responsibility and which denied wider structural problems. This critique raises concerns about the implications and consequences of these issues, particularly in relation to the widescale changes that were brought about by the Transforming Rehabilitation agenda. It argues that for constructive and effective interventions to take place in the field of community sanctions, including the therapeutic justice approach explored here, social justice and a more holistic approach to rehabilitation need to be (re)placed as central pillars of the criminal justice system.Less
This chapter investigates changes that have taken place in the recent past in relation to interventions with adult offenders in England and Wales, particularly in the context of the application of risk technologies and the increasingly managerial and market-driven set of arrangements. This review draws on criminological frameworks which examine such neo-liberal penal reforms, where social problems have been reframed as crime problems and where the application of the political policy of austerity has brought about the fragmentation and reduction of local services. Quantitative and qualitative data from a 2-year ESRC-funded research project are presented to illustrate and analyse the situations regarding ‘low-level’ offenders, whose cases were heard in a Community Justice Court in a large city in England. Detailed examination of this data reveals a complex picture of offending patterns, social issues and the pre-existing involvement of a wide range of statutory and third-sector agencies, even for many deemed ‘low-risk’ offenders. In many of these cases pathways out of crime seemed elusive, with rehabilitative interventions being framed in terms of penal narratives which emphasised individual responsibility and which denied wider structural problems. This critique raises concerns about the implications and consequences of these issues, particularly in relation to the widescale changes that were brought about by the Transforming Rehabilitation agenda. It argues that for constructive and effective interventions to take place in the field of community sanctions, including the therapeutic justice approach explored here, social justice and a more holistic approach to rehabilitation need to be (re)placed as central pillars of the criminal justice system.
Vickie Cooper and Maureen Mansfield
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781447345701
- eISBN:
- 9781447346579
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447345701.003.0014
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
This chapter explores the gendered impacts of the austerity-driven probation reforms, which include the dismantling of community-based services for economically marginalised women and the alarming ...
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This chapter explores the gendered impacts of the austerity-driven probation reforms, which include the dismantling of community-based services for economically marginalised women and the alarming 131% rise in women recalled to custody. Blame for these deleterious effects has been apportioned to the privatisation of Probation Trusts in England and Wales and the subsequent dominance of ‘Community Rehabilitation Companies’ – where, in practice, larger, cheaper service providers are pushing out smaller, specialist services. Whilst we don’t disagree with this narrative, we argue that the neo-liberal tropes of the gender responsive reform programme – that preceded the privatisation of Probation Trusts – is an important policy context for understanding the contractual inequalities that we are seeing unfold today. The roll out of the gender responsive reform programme marked a key moment in the landscape of women’s voluntary sector as it encouraged them to compete with other voluntary services and prove ‘better value’ for money. This form of marketisation, we argue, has resulted in women’s services attenuating or, at best, compromising the political values and ethics that previously underpinned their ‘specialist’ approach to working with women in the criminal justice system.Less
This chapter explores the gendered impacts of the austerity-driven probation reforms, which include the dismantling of community-based services for economically marginalised women and the alarming 131% rise in women recalled to custody. Blame for these deleterious effects has been apportioned to the privatisation of Probation Trusts in England and Wales and the subsequent dominance of ‘Community Rehabilitation Companies’ – where, in practice, larger, cheaper service providers are pushing out smaller, specialist services. Whilst we don’t disagree with this narrative, we argue that the neo-liberal tropes of the gender responsive reform programme – that preceded the privatisation of Probation Trusts – is an important policy context for understanding the contractual inequalities that we are seeing unfold today. The roll out of the gender responsive reform programme marked a key moment in the landscape of women’s voluntary sector as it encouraged them to compete with other voluntary services and prove ‘better value’ for money. This form of marketisation, we argue, has resulted in women’s services attenuating or, at best, compromising the political values and ethics that previously underpinned their ‘specialist’ approach to working with women in the criminal justice system.
Mike Nellis
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781447345701
- eISBN:
- 9781447346579
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447345701.003.0016
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
In 2012, alongside its part-privatisation of the Probation Service, the Ministry of Justice secretly conceived a strategy, hubristically named ‘New World’, to upgrade ‘obsolete’ Radio Frequency (RF) ...
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In 2012, alongside its part-privatisation of the Probation Service, the Ministry of Justice secretly conceived a strategy, hubristically named ‘New World’, to upgrade ‘obsolete’ Radio Frequency (RF) electronic monitoring technology with Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking, and subject unprecedented numbers of offenders to it by 2020. Replacing the existing private sector delivery infrastructure with a hitherto untried model was pursued more openly, but obscured larger ambitions. Over five years ‘New World’ failed spectacularly, and expensively. Subsequent official audits indicted its implementation and actually questioned its conception, but neglected the ideological context and the disruptive political strategy which underpinned it. ‘New World’ was a calculated exercise in ‘disruptive’ neo-liberal statecraft, and the failure of its first iteration does not mean the end of it.Less
In 2012, alongside its part-privatisation of the Probation Service, the Ministry of Justice secretly conceived a strategy, hubristically named ‘New World’, to upgrade ‘obsolete’ Radio Frequency (RF) electronic monitoring technology with Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking, and subject unprecedented numbers of offenders to it by 2020. Replacing the existing private sector delivery infrastructure with a hitherto untried model was pursued more openly, but obscured larger ambitions. Over five years ‘New World’ failed spectacularly, and expensively. Subsequent official audits indicted its implementation and actually questioned its conception, but neglected the ideological context and the disruptive political strategy which underpinned it. ‘New World’ was a calculated exercise in ‘disruptive’ neo-liberal statecraft, and the failure of its first iteration does not mean the end of it.