Book review: H Annison, Dangerous Politics: Risk, Political Vulnerability and Penal Policy

Abstract

Harry Annison’s Dangerous Politics is an in-depth study of the ‘creation, contestation, amendment, and abolition’ of the controversial indeterminate sentence of imprisonment for public protection (IPP) (Annison, 2016: 3). The book addresses the important question, first posed by Brown (2010: 43), of ‘why, in modern liberal societies, do we seem so willing to trade away the liberty rights of those deemed dangerous and why in such a wholesale fashion?’ (p. xi). Annison uses a framework of ‘interpretive political analysis’ (p. xii) to explore how and why the IPP sentence came into existence, and why potentially restraining influ- ences appeared to have little effect on the progress of a policy that was to prove so damaging. By weaving a rich and authoritative narrative, he skilfully incorporates materials from an impressive 63 qualitative interviews with key actors and observers, including politicians, civil servants, special advisers, judges and criminal justice practitioners.