Accounting for crime in the US: Race, class and the spectacle of fear

Abstract

Abstract Expanding critical accounting research on incarceration, this paper explores the consequences of neoliberal techniques and discourses intersecting with race and class in prison practices. As crime is socially constructed we concentrate on two intertwined terrains of struggle: first, the privatization of prisons and second, the “creation of the other”. Controversies over privatization are pervasive and we illustrate that a raison d’etre of privatization – minimizing costs – is discredited and distorted. The devastating consequences of privatization further the divide in communities between those privileged and those vulnerable based on race and class. Through this neoliberal process of privatization and racialization of crime there is a creation of the other – a powerful and hostile discourse. We are troubled that a crime-control dynamic mythologizing and fearing the other has become so institutionalized that domination and injustices are normalized. Accounting contributes to these processes with techniques claiming objectivity, but with undeniable moral impacts. Illustrating these dynamics, we review policies surrounding a four-decade “war on drugs” in the US, appraised as an assault on marginalized (poor) populations. Contrasting to white collar-financial crimes we make visible how incarceration displaces certain groups from significant entitlements of citizenship. While statistics indisputably reveal prejudicial treatment, this is only part of the story. Numbers reduce phenomena to simplistic representations erasing humane meaning and obscuring social dimensions of discrimination and power permeating incarceration practice. Acknowledging these complexities, one aim is developing counter accounts to promote new visibilities to advance social justice.