The prisoners' dilemma : political economy and punishment in contemporary democracies / Nicola Lacey.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lacey, Nicola.

Series:

Hamlyn lectures ; 2007.

The Hamlyn lectures ; 2007

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Imprisonment.

Imprisonment--Great Britain.

Imprisonment--United States.

Criminal justice, Administration of.

United States.

Imprisonment--Europe, Western.

Criminal justice, Administration of--Great Britain.

Great Britain.

Criminal justice, Administration of--United States.

Criminal justice, Administration of--Europe, Western.

Western Europe.

Physical Description:

xx, 234 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2008.

Summary:

Over the last two decades, in the wake of increases in recorded crime and a cluster of other social changes, British criminal justice policy has become increasingly politicised: both the scale and intensity of punishment and the significance of criminal justice policy as an index of governments' competence have developed in new and worrying ways. Across the Atlantic, we witness the inexorable rise of the US prison population, amid a ratcheting-up of penal severity which seems unstoppable in the face of popular anxiety about crime.

But is this inevitable? Nicola Lacey argues that harsh 'penal populism' is not the inevitable fate of all contemporary democracies. Notwithstanding a degree of convergence, 'globalisation' has left many of the key institutional differences between national systems intact, and these help to explain the striking differences in the capacity for penal moderation of otherwise relatively similar societies. Only by understanding the institutional preconditions for a tolerant criminal justice system can we think clearly about the possible options for reform within particular systems.

Contents:

The Hamlyn Trust vi

The Hamlyn Lectures ix

Part I Punishment in contemporary democracies 1

1 'Penal populism' in comparative perspective 3

2 Explaining penal tolerance and severity: criminal justice in the perspective of political economy 55

Part II Prospects for the future: escaping the prisoners' dilemma 113

3 Inclusion and exclusion in a globalising world: is penal moderation in co-ordinated market economies under threat? 115

4 Confronting the prisoners' dilemma: the room for policy manoeuvre in liberal market economies 170.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 207-223) and index.

ISBN:

9780521899475

0521899478

9780521728294

0521728290

OCLC:

213400652

Online:

Contributor biographical information

Publisher description