Social Change and Criminal Justice Policy-making

Hamerton, Christopher and Hobbs, Suzanne (2014) Social Change and Criminal Justice Policy-making. In, The Making of Criminal Justice Policy. 1 ed. Abingdon. Routledge, pp. 21-46. (doi:10.4324/9781315798080).

Record type: Book Section

Abstract

This chapter provides a foundation for considering the building blocks of social policy- making, and specifi cally how criminal policy has developed historically. The starting point for consideration is social change theory and the ways in which modern society classifi es and deals with emerging social problems via formal and informal social controls. Within this analysis, the role of the modern nation state is key, as is its operation in maintaining power, managing consensus and protecting the populace. Criminal policy is fundamental to this protectorate role, and the state requires an ongoing awareness of prevailing norms, the codifi cation of norms into rules and the public perception of its ideology. The chapter also examines the complexity of policy- making in the twenty- fi rst century and the concept of living in a globalised ‘risk’ society, with an alert omnipresent media tuned to the harnessing of public disposition and anxieties.

This record has no associated files available for download.