Exploring the Punitive Turn

This chapter will use Simon’s notion of Governing through Crime to explore the politics of law and order in this period. Simon argues, in late modernity, that law and order has become politicised. Crime and punishment are clearly political matters. However, the broad consensus of the post war period in the UK disappeared to be replaced by a discourse that portrayed any notions of rehabilitative approaches as being “weak on crime” or “on the side of the criminal”. In this process, individual cases such as the murder of Jamie Bulger come to be seen as representative of the failings of a broader system. This chapter will examine two specific cases – The Strangeways Riot, and the murder of Jamie Bulger to explore their impact on wider social policy