Explaining the cultural and symbolic resonance of zero tolerance in contemporary criminal justice

Abstract

Zero tolerance has been described as a "popular slogan for politicians talking tough." It is also a slogan with international advocates. In addition to the US, politicians from Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and South Africa have praised this aggressive policing strategy. While this is a testament to the ease with which ideas diffuse between nations in the contemporary world, it does not explain why this particular idea is so popular. Nor does it explain why zero tolerance animated so many in the mid- to late-1990s. In order to answer these questions adequately, it is important to place zero tolerance in a wider social, political, and economic context. As this article argues, zero tolerance resonates in contemporary culture because it symbolizes a variety of tensions and anxieties found in late modern society. These anxieties are revealed through the often volatile and contradictory politics of law and order; through the routine scrutiny of marginal populations in society; and through the high degree of public tolerance for both of these developments. Recent research suggests that the rise of free market neoliberalism and social conservatism in western industrialized democracies provides an important backdrop against which these anxieties emerge. Imbued with meaning and populist appeal, it is the idea of zero tolerance, along with its cultural and symbolic resonance in contemporary criminal justice, which requires explanation.