Criminal Justice and Neoliberalism

There is an alternative: Challenging the logic of neoliberal penality

“…The evident social and now economic failure of neoliberalism has prompted a severe crisis of legitimacy on a scale akin to that which followed the collapse of the post-war consensus in the 1970s. Once again, there has been a renewed focus on law and order: as the state has lost interest in providing social security, it is ever-more imperative for the state to at least appear to offer greater physical security and to find suitable scapegoats for social problems (Bell, 2011(Bell, , 2013a(Bell, , 2013bGarland, 2001). It is in this specific context that the crime problem has been 'heated up'.…”

“…Yet, there are a sufficient number of similar trends at play in the penal policies adopted by countries caught in the grip of neoliberalism to make a causal link. As I have argued elsewhere (Bell, 2011), it is indeed neoliberalism that makes resort to such policies so politically attractive at present, even if other factors may also be at play. Hall (2011: 9) has argued that 'naming neoliberalism is politically necessary, to give resistance content, focus and a cutting edge'.…”

Transforming ‘Summary Justice’ Through Police-led Prosecution and ‘Virtual Courts’

“…The same expressions of concern that have been raised in connection with the rise in 'out of court' penalties in E&W (Bell, 2011;Padfield, 2012b;Ashworth, 2013) can be applied to policeled prosecution. They both have the issue of 'police discretion' at their heart.…”

“…In Britain the introduction of managerialist models across the spectrum of public services has been occurring since the 1980s (Bell, 2011), but the alterations to criminal justice that are being cemented in place today (Ministry of Justice, 2014a) are a radical escalation of the managerialist project and with some calls for concern.…”

“…This is not least because of the financial pressures facing national governments and the need for downward revisions in public spending, including in areas previously considered immune from budgetary restraint, such as the criminal justice system (Bell, 2011). Hence, in the UK we are seeing swingeing transformations to areas of criminal justice that can both be celebrated for introducing 'modern' and efficient ways of working, but conversely criticised for fundamentally altering the way justice is delivered.…”