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Penalisation of Poverty and the Rise of Neo-Liberalism

NCJ Number
193216
Journal
European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research Volume: 9 Issue: 4 Dated: Winter 2001 Pages: 401-412
Author(s)
Loic Wacquant
Date Published
2001
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This article extends the author’s analysis in the book titled Prisons of Poverty, which argues that inmate population increases in the United States and Europe result from policies that disproportionately affect people in poverty.
Abstract
The book argues that advanced societies are increasingly using the correctional system as an instrument for managing social insecurity and containing the social disorders created at the bottom of the class structure by neo-liberal policies of economic deregulation and retrenchment in social welfare policies and services. This neo-liberal penalty began in the United States and then diffused throughout the world. However, European countries are not blindly following the policies of the United States. Instead, Europe’s is intensifying both social and penal approaches to poverty and activating the policing functions of welfare services. The analysis concludes that developing a common European approach is essential to prevent the spread of the penalization of poverty and its harmful social consequences and that this approach should include discourse, judicial policies and practices, and collaborations between activists and researchers on the social and penal fronts. Footnotes and 22 references