Book Review: Punishment, Crime and Market Force
| Date | 01 March 1993 |
| Published date | 01 March 1993 |
| DOI | 10.1177/000486589302600109 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
91
BOOK REVIEWS
Punishment, Crime
and
Market Force, Leslie T Wilkins, Aldershot,
Dartmouth
(1991) 180pp (Australian agent Gower Publications, Pyrmont) $79.50.
Leslie Wilkins has published
the
results of his research and thinking in academic
journals and books for well over 40 years. He is widely regarded as a major
contributorto
the
development of criminology in
both
the
United
States
and
Britain.
Therefore, when a new book of his arrives
on
the scene it is an event to be taken
seriously.
From
his first major work, Social
Deviance
in 1964, to his more recent
Consumerist
Criminology
in 1988 he has displayed a
rare
ability to challenge the
fundamental assumptions underlying
the
operation of criminal justice systems, and
he has done it again with this work.
The
starting point for this intellectual excursion is
the
author's fascination with
the
need
to explain
the
wide variations in incarceration rates between different
countries which
appear
to have similar socio-economic conditions, asubject which
has also exercised
the
mind of this reviewer. Wilkins cites
the
available evidence of
incarceration for
European
countries (with
the
actual
data
being
quoted
from the
Daily
Telegraph
I),
and
he also cites
the
Australian
data
for different States and
Territories. Regrettably, he does not also present
the
American evidence which
shows a doubling of
the
incarceration
rate
over
the
past
decade.
Nevertheless, he is able very quickly
and
authoritatively to dismiss any suggestion
of association between incarceration
rates
and
crime rates or any
other
criminal
justice data. He does, however, tantalisingly raise the possibility
that
there
is a link
between
the
relative use of incarceration
and
certain economic data. While
recognising
that
this is a tentative finding, Wilkins suggests
that
the
link is to
'the
extremes of wealth
and
poverty as represented in
the
index of percentage of income
going to
the
top 5%
of
the
population'.
(One
is tempted to rush into a flurry of
number crunching to
test
the
validity
of
this finding with new
data.)
But
the
statistical conundrumwhich
prompted
this important work is only a small
part
of its substance.
The
bulk of the book
can
perhaps best be described as a wide
ranging review of
the
current
and
past thinking
that
underlay
the
definition of crime
and
the operation of criminaljustice. This review explores many pathways, including
socio linguistics
and
moral philosophy,
and
in every
area
his analysis is both
insightful
and
provocative. He also displays a wry humourwith reflections such as
'A
society
that
does
not
have
the
death penalty is probably amore desirable society in
which to live (even if
one
does not propose to commit murder)'.
The
book concludes with a hard hitting
chapter
on policy implications that flow
from the theoretical analysis. Wilkins argues here for a general de-escalation of
public and media attitudes to crime
and
amuch higher level
of
private business
involvement. He argues
that
it is only private business that understands market
forces,
and
he suggests
that
the
demand for punishment can be seen in
market
terms
as similar to any
other
demand
for a scarce
and
expensive resource. Furthermore, he
suggests
that
the
'product
image' of crime should be changed using
market
research
techniques. His approach would lead to
the
wider use of electronic monitoring of
offenders
and
greater
emphasis on reparation
and
mediation,
but
not
necessarily to
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