Questions of crime and security today often seem dominated by a contest between populism on the one hand and epistemic crime control on the other. These positions appear to press conflicting claims: the former seeks to speak for ‘the people’, or ‘victims’, or ‘law-abiding citizens’ who have been ill-served by remote penal elites; the latter (e.g., the evidence-based policy movement) claims that emotive irrationalism in crime policy should be countered by institutions that enhance the power and influence of experts/knowers. Our aim in this chapter is to reconstruct the visions of crime governance to be found in populist and epistemic ideologies and to clarify what is at stake in disputes between them. In so doing, we question the assumption that they are competing alternatives. We argue, instead, that populism and technocracy are twin pathologies of our contemporary anti-political malaise, both of which ‘disfigure’ the ideal and practice of democracy by neglecting the normative force of democratic procedures.
Chapter
4. Penal populism and epistemic crime control
Ian Loader and Richard Sparks
Chapter
25. Criminal justice policies and practices
This chapter studies criminal justice policies, practices, and the people who work within the system. It begins by tracing the origins and influences of criminal justice policies. Criminal justice policies predominantly come from the government, but other organisations and individuals such as academics, the media, corporations, and lobbyists can influence them. The motivations behind these policy influencers may vary, but they all share the ultimate aim of ensuring that their preferred strategy is implemented in practice. The chapter then considers the significant impact that ‘penal populism’ can exert on policy, and how government policy is shaping the ways in which the ‘adversarial-lite’ principle is implemented. It assesses use of both of those policies in practice in the courtroom and the community to see how key principles can play out in reality. Finally, the chapter reflects on the effects of all the components upon the people who work in the criminal justice system.
Chapter
10. Public opinion, crime, and criminal justice
Mike Hough and Julian V. Roberts
This chapter summarizes research on public opinion about crime and criminal justice in developed industrialized societies. It starts with an assessment of what can be said about public knowledge about crime, documenting widespread misperceptions about the nature of crime, about crime trends, and about the criminal justice response to crime. It then considers public attitudes towards crime and justice, which tend to be largely negative. The chapter presents evidence of the links between levels of knowledge and attitudes to justice, suggesting that misinformation about crime and justice is the likely source of negative public ratings of the justice system. Penal populism and populist punitiveness are considered. The chapter ends by exploring issues of public trust in justice, confidence, and legitimacy.
Chapter
2. Criminalizaton: historical, legal, and criminological perspectives
Nicola Lacey and Lucia Zedner
This chapter examines the relationship between legal and criminological constructions of crime and explores how these have changed over time. The chapter sets out the conceptual framework of criminalization within which the two dominant constructions of crime—legal and criminological—are situated. It considers their respective contributions and the close relationship between criminal law and criminal justice. Using the framework of criminalization, the chapter considers the historical contingency of crime by examining its development over the past 300 hundred years. It analyses the normative building blocks of contemporary criminal law to explain how crime is constructed in England and Wales today and it explores some of the most important recent developments in formal criminalization in England and Wales, not least the shifting boundaries and striking expansion of criminal liability. Finally, it considers the valuable contributions made by criminology to understanding the scope of, and limits on, criminalization.
Chapter
10. Public opinion, crime, and criminal justice
Mike Hough and Julian V. Roberts
This chapter summarizes research on public opinion about crime and criminal justice in developed industrialized societies. It starts with an assessment of what can be said about public knowledge about crime, documenting widespread misperceptions about the nature of crime, about crime trends, and about the criminal justice response to crime. It then considers public attitudes towards crime and justice, which tend to be largely negative. The chapter presents evidence of the links between levels of knowledge and attitudes to justice, suggesting that misinformation about crime and justice is the likely source of negative public ratings of the justice system. Penal populism and populist punitiveness are considered. The chapter ends by exploring issues of public trust in justice, confidence, and legitimacy.
Chapter
11. Crime news, trial by media, and scandal hunting
Chris Greer and Eugene McLaughlin
A rapidly evolving digital media landscape, inhabited by a network of outlets, is amplifying crime consciousness, exploiting crime’s infotainment potential, and reshaping public attitudes towards crime and criminal justice. At the same time, in depth analysis of crime news has dropped off the criminological radar. In this chapter, we argue that because criminologists have not kept pace with transforming news media and markets, crime news remains under-researched and under-conceptualized. We begin by revisiting three classic concepts that continue to dominate crime news research: newsworthiness, moral panic, and penal populism. Though these concepts are still important for understanding crime news, their institutionalization and taxonomical application within criminology has marginalized analysis of dramatic shifts in the production and nature of crime news, the markets in which it circulates, and its power to shape crime consciousness and criminal justice rhetoric and practice. We then explore how ‘trial by media’ and ‘scandal hunting’ are not only redefining crime news, but also exposing institutional failures in public protection and challenging both the efficacy and the legitimacy of the criminal justice system. It is in this context of an unruly networked digital environment that we situate the disruptive challenge posed to criminal justice by the rise of what we define as media justice.
Chapter
2. Criminalization: Historical, legal, and criminological perspectives
Nicola Lacey and Lucia Zedner
This chapter examines the relationship between legal and criminological constructions of crime and explores how these have changed over time. The chapter sets out the conceptual framework of criminalization within which the two dominant constructions of crime—legal and criminological—are situated. It considers their respective contributions and the close relationship between criminal law and criminal justice. Using the framework of criminalization, the chapter considers the historical contingency of crime by examining its development over the past 300 years. It analyses the normative building blocks of contemporary criminal law to explain how crime is constructed in England and Wales today and it explores some of the most important recent developments in formal criminalization in England and Wales, not least the shifting boundaries and striking expansion of criminal liability. Finally, it considers the valuable contributions made by criminology to understanding the scope of, and limits on, criminalization.
