British Journal of Criminology Advance Access published online on July 1, 2009
British Journal of Criminology, doi:10.1093/bjc/azp041
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The British Journal of Criminology 0:azp041 (2009)
© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (ISTD). All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
Governing Through Anti-Social Behaviour
Regulatory Challenges to Criminal Justice
* Centre for Criminal Justice Studies, University of Leeds, Leeds LS6 2JT, UK; a.crawford{at}leeds.ac.uk.
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The anti-social behaviour agenda in Britain and the introduction of diverse new powers and regulatory tools represent a major challenge to traditional conceptions of criminal justice. This article argues that the language of regulation has been appropriated and deployed to cloak and legitimize ambitious (yet ambiguous) bouts of hyper-active state interventionism. These may have more to do with quests to demonstrate government's capacity to be seen to be doing something tangible about public anxieties than with meaningful behavioural change. Rather, regulatory ideas are being used to circumvent and erode established criminal justice principles, notably those of due process, proportionality and special protections traditionally afforded to young people. Consequently, novel technologies of control have resulted in more intensive and earlier interventions.
Key Words: anti-social behaviour regulation new powers criminal justice regulatory drift