When Crime Policies Travel: Cross-National Policy Transfer in Crime Control

Abstract

Cross-national policy movement in crime control has only recently become the focus of scholarly attention. Research findings suggest, despite appearances to the contrary, that fully fledged policy transfers are rare. In practice, soft transfer (in terms of symbolic dimensions of policy) appears more prevalent than harder manifestations (e.g., the travel of institutions, instruments, and practices). Soft transfers are usually associated with penal policies that have emotive political appeal. Hard transfers are more likely to occur when policies have a strong technical flavor. A number of mechanisms influence policy transfer, ranging from purposive and self-conscious lesson drawing to more imposed forms of policy adoption. A number of factors facilitate or constrain the degree to which policies travel and how they take shape during and after the process, from matters of cultural and political attraction to the activities of policy and moral entrepreneurs. This field of research was once dominated by a focus on the Global North as the site of policy transfer or the source of policy influence, but increasing attention is now paid to circulation and spread of policy models within the Global South and from South to North.