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Displaced Expertise: Three Constraints on the Policy-Relevance of Criminological Thought

NCJ Number
206294
Journal
Theoretical Criminology Volume: 8 Issue: 2 Dated: May 2004 Pages: 211-231
Author(s)
Kevin D. Haggerty
Date Published
May 2004
Length
21 pages
Annotation
This paper identifies and discusses three developments that have obstructed the shaping of policy based on criminological research.
Abstract
The long-standing relationship between criminal justice policy and the findings of criminological research has eroded over the past two decades. Three interrelated factors have contributed to the gap between criminal justice policy and criminological knowledge based on research. First, the rise of neo-liberal forms of governance have made criminological knowledge and preferred sites of intervention increasingly irrelevant to the practice of governing. Neo-liberalism emphasizes the individual as the responsible agent of his/her own security, health, and happiness. In the area of criminal justice, this has been manifested in a form of "prudentialism" under which individuals are expected to take the initiative in seeking expertise and commodities designed to enhance individual security. In this process, criminology's traditional concern with broader social or rehabilitative governmental strategies has diminished, replaced by a focus on individual protection through the monitoring and control of risky individuals and dangerous places. A second development that has contributed to the rupture between criminology and criminal justice policy is the ascendancy of a highly symbolic public discourse about crime. Although criminal justice policy in the United States has always been shaped by political considerations, what is different now is the ignoring of rational forms of criminal justice policy development under the ascendancy of a more explicitly symbolic politics that is attracted by expediency and persuasive appeal. Experts who specialize in the rational, evidence-based development of social policy have increasingly been displaced by individuals whose realm of expertise is "political savvy." A third factor in the separation of criminal justice policy from criminological input is the transformation of the criminal justice system by new technologies of detection, capture, and monitoring. The resources of psychology, sociology, and statistical analysis as the basis for devising crime prevention strategies are now discarded as the focus has shifted to technologies that can deter, detect, monitor, and capture criminals. The perspective is why bother to prevent the development of criminal behaviors when we can be so effective in identifying, capturing, convicting, and incapacitating the criminals. 68 references