Erecting the Boundaries of Exclusion

Abstract

The current concern with risk management has not just led to the exclusion of offenders but also of potential offenders from mainstream society. This is perhaps the most potent symbol of the punitive turn. Although offenders have long been banished from society, most strikingly by their transportation to far-off colonies in North America and Australia, the State’s current capacity for exclusion has arguably never been greater. As the Neoliberal State has become increasingly interventionist in the lives of the poorest and most vulnerable members of society, its capacity for the control and subsequent exclusion of these same populations has become greater than ever before. It has been greatly assisted in its task by the development of new technologies of surveillance which have enabled it to extend control outside the four walls of the prison and into society at large. The State now has increased capacity to monitor suspicious activities and to try to preempt criminal behaviour before it even occurs, suggesting that the scenario played out in the 2002 film Minority Report might not entirely belong to the realm of science fiction. In addition, the rise of the victim as an increasingly prominent character in public discourse about crime has provided the State with the discursive tool necessary to draw ever-starker boundaries between offenders and the fictional law-abiding majority. All of these trends are analysed in turn.