Crime control and local governance: the struggle for sovereignty in advanced liberal polities
Title:
Crime control and local governance: the struggle for sovereignty in advanced liberal polities
Author:
Stenson, Kevin Edwards, Adam
Appeared in:
Contemporary politics
Paging:
Volume 9 (2003) nr. 2 pages 203-217
Year:
2003-06
Contents:
The institutions and practices of pluralistically managed, local crime control or community safety were a product of the period of modernization of public service provision in the UK in the eighties and nineties. They were assembled using a hybrid mix of governmental technologies ranging from attempts to impose sovereign domination over the recalcitrant, to situational measures to harden targets, to social crime prevention, or community security measures to regenerate areas representing high risk. Some of the key advances were made in the margins by local authorities under Conservative governments. Ironically, under New Labour, the drive for centralized control via the performance culture of audit and target setting has reduced the discretionary scope at local level and heightened the emphasis on achieving targets of crime reduction and the restoration of sovereign control, perhaps at the expense of more holistic conceptions of community safety, and also generating a series of other local tensions in managing the contradictions of sovereign government by administrations of the centre-left.
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