Not so Tough on Crime?: Why Weren't the Thatcher Governments More Radical in Reforming the Criminal Justice System?
Not so Tough on Crime?: Why Weren't the Thatcher Governments More Radical in Reforming the Criminal Justice System?
复制标题
对犯罪不那么严厉？：为什么撒切尔政府在改革刑事司法制度方面没有更加激进？
DOI：
10.1093/bjc/azq015
复制
发表时间：
2010
影响因子：
2.6
通讯作者：
Farrall S
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Farrall S
尽管在公众的想象中，撒切尔时代（1979-90年）几乎与“法律与秩序”和对犯罪的强硬态度同义，但许多犯罪学家并不认为这是一个对刑事司法系统进行激进改革的时期。看起来，撒切尔主义在刑事政策领域远没有在住房、经济或地方政府财政领域那么激进。本文探讨了这种看似矛盾的原因。我们的论点是，撒切尔思想进入这一政策领域的时间较晚，只有在撒切尔离任后才开始以任何一致和激进的方式为政策提供信息。我们将此归因于：（1）优先权赋予了其他与撒切尔主义声称提供回应的“危机”更密切相关的问题领域;（2）撒切尔在执政期间的大部分时间里不得不与党内更家长式的一派进行权力分享;（3）一系列时滞效应。犯罪作为社会和经济力量的表现，在撒切尔改组的早期阶段并没有急剧上升。在犯罪和刑事司法政策方面，激进的撒切尔主义是在撒切尔之后。这应该被看作是失业率急剧上升和社会两极分化的连锁反应，这是由于1990年以来陷入衰退而加剧的其他问题领域的政策激进主义造成的。
Despite becoming almost synonymous in the public's imagination with ‘law and order’ and toughness on crime, the Thatcher years (1979–90) would not be characterized by many criminologists as a period of radical reform of the criminal justice system. Thatcherism, it seems, was far less radical in the criminal policy field than it was in housing, the economy or local government finance. This paper explores the reasons for this seeming paradox. Our argument is that Thatcherite thinking came late to this policy realm and only started to inform policy in any consistent and radical wayafterThatcher had left office. This we attribute to: (1) the precedence accorded other issue domains more closely associated with the ‘crisis’ to which Thatcherism claimed to provide a response; (2) the power-sharing that Thatcher had to engage in with the more paternalist wing of her party during much of her time in office; and (3) a series of time-lag effects. Crime, being the expression of social and economic forces, did not rise dramatically during the early phase of Thatcherite restructuring. In crime and criminal justice policy, radical Thatcherism post-dated Thatcher. It should be seen as a knock-on effect of the steep rise in unemployment and the social polarization resulting from policy radicalism in other issue domains exacerbated by the slide into recession from 1990.