NCJ Number
225239
Journal
Punishment & Society Volume: 10 Issue: 4 Dated: October 2008 Pages: 355-374
Date Published
October 2008
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This article utilizes the New Penology perspective to trace the ways in which notions of risk and dangerousness are embedded in the counterterrorism discourse and practices developed in Israel.
Abstract
Counterterrorism policies developed in Israel appear to be aimed at managing more effectively suspected and accused terrorists as a large group, not as individuals. In order to provide security, Israel created a host of social control methods. These measures are administered in the name of national security at the expense of those who are not involved with terrorism. In addition, Israel adopted managerial practices to seclude large groups within a framework of a cost-effective administration. This analysis sheds light on the ways in which the presentation of risk plays a central role in legal, penal, and public decisions as well as institutional practices. The contextualization of risk and its use within policy practices supports the conception that risk is a social construct. The data presented in this article reveals just how this process works: control agents and the media present a specific population as threatening the existence of Israel. Table, figures, and references