Challenging Current Conceptions of Law and Order

• NCJ Number: 214909
• Journal: Theoretical Criminology Volume: 10 Issue: 2 Dated: May 2006 Pages: 203-221
• Author(s): Lyn Hinds
• Date Published: May 2006
• Length: 19 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Theoretical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Using two theoretical frameworks to account for the politicization of law and order from the 1960s and onward, this article presents an analytical account of the politicized meaning of law and order.

Abstract

This article distinguishes two meanings of law and order. The politicized meaning that dominates contemporary thinking is strongly linked to getting tougher on offenders at the back-end of the criminal justice system. The historical meaning of law and order focuses on policing public order at the front-end of the criminal justice system. The historical meaning has been downplayed or ignored in contemporary understandings of crime control framed by a politicized meaning of law and order. Analyses of custody and police rates in the United States and Australia from 1970 to the late 1990s show that the majority of United States and Australian States prefer to pursue strategies of policing public order in preference to the custodial control of offenders. However, contrary to common understanding under the influence of the politicized meaning of law and order, the increased partnering of State and community to maintain public order and control crime does not represent a shift of political authority away from the front-end of the criminal justice system to punishment at its back-end. Over the last three decades, law and order has functioned as a code for thinking about crime control in terms of getting tougher on offenders. This is evident with continued increases in imprisonment rates. This article challenges the conventional understanding that increasing punishment in crime control policies has been uniform by making a distinction between two possible meanings of law and order. First, the politicized meaning of law and order which has dominated the crime control debate since the 1960s and 1970s and second, the historical sense of law and order which focuses on the control of public disorder by police. References