1st Edition

The Politics of Crime, Punishment and Justice Exploring the Lived Reality and Enduring Legacies of the 1980’s Radical Right

By Stephen Farrall, Emily Gray Copyright 2024
252 Pages 37 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

252 Pages 37 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

This book explores the impact of right-wing political ideology on crime, the criminal justice system, and attitudes towards punishment in Britain. Grounded in a rigorous analysis of repeated cross-sectional surveys such as the British Social Attitudes Survey and the British Crime Survey, as well as individual-level cohort data such as the 1958 National Child Development Study and the 1970 British... Read more

Table of Contents

Foreword by Robert J. Sampson

Author’s Preface

Acknowledgments

 

Part One Introduction

Chapter One: Re-Imagining the Study of the Politics of Crime

Chapter Two: Linking Crime, Political Legacies, and the Life-Course Perspective

Chapter Three: Thatcherism and the Reshaping of Policy Consensus in Britain (1979–1997)

 

Part Two Introduction

Chapter Four: Social Welfare, Housing Policies, and Changes in the Social Locations of Crime

Chapter Five: Economic Restructuring, Truancy from School, and Engagement in Crime over the Life-Course

Chapter Six: What Does Radical Social and Economic Change do to Popular Opinions on Crime?

Chapter Seven: Reconfiguring the Structure of Criminal Justice

Chapter Eight: The Spatial and Temporal Development of British Prisons from 1901 to the Present: The Role of De-Industrialisation (with Philip Mike Jones)

 

Part Three Introduction

Chapter Nine: Conclusion: Crime - A Relational Understanding of Individuals, Institutions, and Ideology

 

Appendix: Modelling the Relationship between Radical Policy Change and Crime

Index

Biography

Stephen Farrall is Professor of Criminology in the School of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Nottingham. He is known for his research into the fear of crime, why people cease offending, and the politics of crime and the criminal justice system. He is the series editor for Routledge’s International Series on Desistance and Rehabilitation.

Emily Gray is Assistant Professor at the University of Warwick. Her work focuses on the long-term relationships that connect crime with social policy and youth justice. As PI, she has recently begun to explore the long-term trends pertaining to homicide on non-lethal violence in England and Wales.

"By casting their attention to macrolevel economic and policy changes in the Thatcherite era, Farrall and Gray provide a unique take on the course of both criminal careers and crime policy in contemporary Britain."

- Robert J. Sampson, Harvard University