Penal Policy 2019-20
LAWS3074
Dr Harry Annison
Seminar 6
The Risk Society
Talk of ‘risk’ has become ubiquitous in the literature on crime, criminal justice and
penal policy – and indeed politics more generally.
This can mean quite different things, to different people. Some point primarily to the
spread of actuarial risk assessment tools that had their basis in the development of the
insurance industry to other areas including criminal justice; others focus on the rising
fear and insecurity that is argued to pervade many people’s life experiences in late
modernity.
Essential Reading
Simon and Feeley ‘The Form and Limits of the New Penology’ in Blomberg
and Cohen (eds). Punishment and Social Control (2nd ed, 2003), pp75-116
[available as pdf in the Blackboard Seminar 6 folder]
Gray (2017) ‘The Ebbs and Flows of Anxiety’ in Lee and Mythen (eds) The
Routledge International Handbook on Fear of Crime London: Routledge
[available online]
Annison (2020) ‘Re-examining risk and blame in penal controversies: Parole
in England and Wales, 2013-2018’ in Pratt and Anderson (eds) Criminal
Justice, Risk and the Revolt against Uncertainty Palgrave [available as pdf
in the Blackboard Seminar 6 folder]
Prompts
1. What is the ‘new penology’? How does it differ from the ‘old penology’?
Belated forms of risk management, system analysis to criminal process
Resistant to innovation but is catching up with modern bureaucratic
life/law
Has made its way into law and policy such as tort/employment
discrimination law
Differs as it has been developed from frustrations/public anger does not
stem from careful calculation
Discourse differs
2. What are the ‘limits of the new penology’?
Successful new story of crime as it cannot even provide reassurance that
something significant is being done to prevent crime
Has not given ‘the truth’ about crime
Thus, we must rely on older representations and this limits the progress
