Controlling crime and disorder

This chapter reviews New Labour’s crime policy. The Labour government, under Tony Blair, concerned itself with more fundamental ‘third order change’ or ‘paradigm shifts’. From the first utterance of the ‘tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime’ mantra, Labour made it very clear that crime and law and order would be headline priorities. These ‘paradigm shifts’ that Blair presided over were dominated by politicians in an effort to respond to what they felt to be the concerns of the public. A rebalancing of the criminal justice system away from the offender and increasing efforts focused on the victims of crime have been fundamental shifts in emphasis. A distinct change of focus in terms of the aims of the criminal justice system has also been witnessed.

Criminology · Sociology · Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance