Post-Fordism and Criminality

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to bring some aspects of the recent debate on the transition from ‘Fordism’ to ‘post-Fordism’ to bear on the issues of criminality and crime control. The latter is an area generally ignored by recent debates in social theory about the dynamics of contemporary social change. ‘Fordism’ and Regulation Theory in general derive from studies of the labour process and capital accumulation. Notable attempts to extend the analysis to the level of the state (Jessop 1990, 1994b) have generally focused on welfare and social policy. If it is useful to speak of a transition to the ‘post-Fordist welfare state’ (Burrows and Loader 1994), it may be possible to identify similar dynamics at work in the area of criminal justice and crime control. In what follows I shall firstly elaborate a model of the classic Keynesian Welfare State (KWS) in the context of the expanding post-war economy and explore some of its implications for crime and crime control. Secondly, I shall identify some problems and instabilities in the classic welfare state model in the area of crime and crime control, which might be identified as contradictions to be resolved by any transition to a new form of economy, state, social structure. Finally I shall attempt to examine some of those changes and developments as they are identified by post-Fordism and critically assess their implications for crime and crime control.