British Journal of Criminology

Farrall, Stephen; Gray, Emily

doi: 10.1093/bjc/azac045pmid: N/A

Bell, Emma

doi: 10.1093/bjc/azac030pmid: N/A

In the context of rising populism across the globe, penal populism has returned with a vengeance. However, somewhat paradoxically, this paper asks if the populist moment may be regarded as an opportunity rather than a threat when it comes to promoting less punitive solutions to the crime problem. This is a moment that appears to be marked by a strong desire for increased popular participation in politics, as exemplified by the gilets jaunes movement in France. It is argued that democratization of the policy-making process through greater representativity and accountability could respond to this desire while promoting justice, especially by refocussing attention away from punishment and demonstrating how political, social, economic and legal justice are inextricably linked together.

Enns, Peter K; Harris, Jacob; Kenny, John; Roescu, Andra; Jennings, Will

doi: 10.1093/bjc/azac036pmid: N/A

During much of the second half of the twentieth century, public opinion in both the United States and Britain became more punitive as crime rates rose. These shifting public attitudes had a profound influence on criminal justice policies. What is less understood is how public attitudes in these countries have responded to declining crime rates since the early-1990s. To understand how the public reacts to declining crime rates, we focus on crimes recorded by the police as well as data on actual victimisation. We also draw on more than 4,000 national survey questions to construct measures of public concern about crime and support for punitive criminal justice responses. Our analyses illustrate parallels in the crime drop measured by victimisation surveys in the two countries (with recorded violent crime in England and Wales the exception to this overall trend). The over-time patterns in public concern about crime and punitive sentiment are more complex, with the US public becoming less punitive (in line with declining crime rates) while the British public’s concern with crime appears more in tune with actual crime rates. Given the distinct social, political and institutional settings offered by the two countries, the parallel dynamics of crime and the mixed response of public opinion help illustrate the importance of the comparative analysis of crime and its effects on society as well as the importance of considering multiple measures of public opinion related to crime and punishment.

Karstedt, Susanne; Endtricht, Rebecca

doi: 10.1093/bjc/azac040pmid: N/A

This article explores in which ways politicians’ law-and-order rhetoric and citizens’ attitudes and concerns about crime engage with each other in European countries. The focus is on the ‘constructionist’ or ‘framing’ model which posits that citizens’ attitudes about crime and punishment are influenced and ‘framed’ by political rhetoric. We capture the overall ‘tone’ of political rhetoric around crime and criminal justice using law-and-order statements in political party manifestos. Our indicators of crime concerns and punitive sentiment among the public are ‘crime salience’ (crime as the most important problem) and punitive preferences. We link law-and-order statements with survey data from the Eurobarometer and European Social Survey to explore the relationship between citizens and political elites for 26 European countries between 1996 and 2019. In line with previous research, we show that political law-and-order rhetoric indeed provides a framing narrative for citizens but limited to their punitive preferences. In contrast, European citizens’ assessment of crime as a problem is shaped by the level of serious violent crime (homicide) in their country during this period. This suggests a risk-based assessment and an ‘objectivist’ model. We discuss these results in the context of differences between the politization of criminal law in Europe and the United States.

Wenzelburger, Georg; Staff, Helge

doi: 10.1093/bjc/azac033pmid: N/A

Much writing in comparative criminology on the punitive turn and developments in Western penal states has focused on how the state provides security to its citizens. However, the number of private guards exceeds those of police officers in many European countries, and private security services carry out numerous law and order tasks. Our paper links the literature on private security with comparative penal policy studies. It explores how the cross-national variance in the relative importance of public and private security—which we term ‘the security balance’ – can be explained by quantitatively analysing data on public and private security in 23 European countries from 2009 to 2018. We contribute to the literature on crime and politics by highlighting the significant role of private security in today’s balance of security provision.

Guiney, Thomas

doi: 10.1093/bjc/azac031pmid: N/A

Recent scholarship has underscored the limitations of a theoretical repertoire that reduces the politics of punishment to debates over punitiveness, neoliberalism or penal exceptionalism. In this paper I argue that greater understanding of the dynamic interplay between ideologies and power can provide a richer account of the complex and contradictory landscapes of contemporary penal politics. I seek to show that political parties occupy a prominent position within representative systems of government and this mediating role, at the intersection between ideology and power, is closely associated with the production of penal policy outcomes. Reflecting upon the recent history of the British Conservative Party, I conclude that the politics of punishment is shaped, not only by inter-party competition (and consensus), but the dynamics of intra-party conflict.

Gray, Emily; Farrall, Stephen; Mike Jones, Phil

doi: 10.1093/bjc/azac035pmid: N/A

The socio-economic policies of the British ‘New Right’ administrations have been associated with increases in crime using aggregate data. This paper assesses if the trend remains when we test individual-level relationships using two British cohort studies (the National Child Development Study 1958 and the British Cohort Study 1970). Our results point to a set of long-term ‘period effects’ in which those reliant on the welfare state at specific time-points in the 1980 and 1990s (regardless of their age) were more likely to be drawn into the criminal justice system in adulthood (circa 2000). This paper considers (i) how British ‘New Right’ welfare policies may have had unintended, but lasting consequences for individuals in receipt of social security assistance and (ii) the interplay between micro and macro criminological analysis.

Newburn, Tim; Jones, Trevor

doi: 10.1093/bjc/azac032pmid: N/A

Apparently growing punitiveness in many countries toward the end of the twentieth century prompted considerable criminological activity which focused on attempting to understand trends and contrasts in systems and patterns of punishment. Although to date this literature has tended to treat policing and punishment as being largely separate spheres of activity this paper advances two reasons for paying greater attention to policing in this context. First, and briefly, to reflect the fact that the police are the ‘gatekeepers’ to the penal system, and therefore in some senses inseparable from other penal practices. Second, and more centrally, that in various forms policing both involves, and is often experienced as, punishment. Attempts to understand the nature of and differences between penal states will be enhanced by the inclusion of policing within its ambit.

Estrada, Felipe; Bäckman, Olof; Nilsson, Anders

doi: 10.1093/bjc/azac037pmid: N/A

Since the 1990s, Sweden has witnessed a steady increase in the control measures focused on drug offences. These changes are results of political dynamics once pushed by centre-right parties but thereafter embraced by Social Democrats in government. The article examines the structure of police controls of drug offences and the extent to which these controls have focused on different sociodemographic groups during the period 1995–2015. The study shows that this intensified control of minor drug crimes has resulted in successively larger proportions of youths from deprived areas being forced to provide samples of body fluids. The criminalization of drug use constitutes an example of the significance of crime policy for both crime levels and the composition of the offender population.

Levchak, Philip J; Heimer, Karen; Lang, Joseph B; Lauritsen, Janet L

doi: 10.1093/bjc/azac049pmid: N/A

Black men are overrepresented in United States prisons and the number of Black men incarcerated increased dramatically during America’s “prison boom.” Yet, existing research on male imprisonment rates in the United States has focused on explaining overall rates and has not statistically modeled rates disaggregated by race over time. This study uses seemingly unrelated regression techniques to analyze annual rates of Black and non-Black men incarcerated in state prisons during the period of greatest increase in United States imprisonment rates. The findings show that increasing evangelical religious conservativism is associated with higher Black imprisonment rates and, importantly, this effect is “amplified” when state legislatures are more politically conservative. We also find that as Black populations increase, the punitive effect of religious conservatism is moderated or attenuated, and this holds for the incarceration of Black as well as non-Black men. In addition, consistent with a racial threat perspective, growth in Black populations in states is linked with increases in Black as well as non-Black male imprisonment rates. Together these effects emphasize the importance of examining imprisonment rates disaggregated by race and highlight the joint and conditional effects of religious conservatism, political conservatism, and racial threat for understanding imprisonment in the United States.