Book review: Demonising the Other: The Criminalisation of Morality
| Author | Dave Wood |
| Published date | 01 December 2018 |
| Date | 01 December 2018 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0264550518809848b |
| Subject Matter | Book reviews |
Demonising the Other: The Criminalisation of Morality
Philip Whitehead
Policy Press; 2018, pp. 128; £45; hbk
ISBN: 9781447343417
Reviewed by: Dave Wood, Director of Metanoeo CIC
In this short monograph, Philip Whitehead takes on the huge and imminently rele-
vant task of challenging the underlying thinking which allows us to demonise other
people. Whitehead starts by defining the problem: ‘Arguably, we have moved into
a situation where there is a greater disposition towards othering than towards the
well-being and flourishing of all’ (p. 4). Unashamedly, he relates this to a social
construction which seeks to maintain the, ‘privilege of the elite ...[through] ...the
production and reproduction of the demonised and relegated others’ (p. 5). But
what is othering and the other, and how is this relevant to the work of practitioners in
the criminal justice system?
In the first of four short but informative and well-written chapters, Whitehead
begins to unpack the relevance of othering to criminal and social justice within a
historical context. As he explores the impact of, ‘the capitalist spirit of recent cen-
turies’ (p. 14), the first point of significance to practice is highlighted: the con-
struction of an anxiety-driven culture. From my experiences of probation practice, it
was the use of this anxiety-driven culture which led to the development of an overtly
risk-dominated culture in which a justifying narrative of public protection is used to
dominate the lives of people who are quintessentially demonised as others in the
form of offenders.
After highlighting this issue, Whitehead turns to the world of criminology to seek
a positive alternative approach. Importantly, challenging the notion of otherness of
offenders, he observes that ‘offenders are just like us, indistinguishable from the law-
abiding’ (p. 25). Whitehead notes how this is a challenging notion for a politicised
criminal justice system which, since the era of Howard and Major, has sought to
demonise those who offend (along with trade unionists, benefit cheats, the unem-
ployed, etc.) whilst not applying the same othering process to tax avoiders. Of
particular interest is the exploration of how the work of probation has deliberately
been eroded as a result of this narrative, narrowing the discussion to individual
choice rather than a wider discussion regarding the socio-economic context.
With the context explored the style of the third chapter varies, as Whitehead
seeks to bring the evidence to bear in the form of a court case. Calling a number of
witnesses to represent a variety of wisdoms, the chapter considers what it is to be
human and the impact of capitalism on this with respect to criminal justice. For me,
this was a particularly interesting chapter, not just because of its unique style in
representing a trial, but also as its contents paralleled much of my own research
Book reviews 457
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