Rethinking Law and Order
| Published date | 01 December 1999 |
| DOI | 10.1177/000486589903200309 |
| Author | George Pavlich |
| Date | 01 December 1999 |
| Subject Matter | Reviews |
lR
EV
lEW
S
Rethinking Law and Order
Hogg, Russell and David Brown
Sydney:
Pluto
Press,
/998 256
pp
Rethinking Law and
Order
promises through its title to be ambitious. Briefly, the
book challenges current images of
the
scope, causes and remedies of crime as
well as the predominant 'uncivil' politics of law and order within which such visions
are formulated. It focuses on the Australian case, but recognises
that
the
themes are
more pervasive, often mirroring or influencing developments elsewhere (e.g., in the
USA,
UK, France,
New
Zealand, etc.).
The
aim is to try to, "construct a more
responsible and constructive law and order politics which takes crime, fear of crime
and criminal justice
more
rather
than
lessseriously" (p, ix).
The
book seeks to create
a
picture
of
crime
using
systematic
'social
knowledge'
(rather
than
populist
commonsense),
that
is at home in a 'civil' political arena, which encourages open,
reasoned debate and diverse viewpoints.
The
authors recognise
that
law
and
order
matters raise complex moral issues which are masked by the semblance
of
rigidly
formulated, simple
and
short-term solutions (e.g.,
'three
strikes
and
you're
out'
policies). Implying an allegiance to a revamped social democracy -alla Hirst's
"associativedemocracy" - Hogg and Brown hold
out
the
possibility of a 'nee-liberal
society' in which a'civil' politics of law
and
order would take account
of
diverse
opinions,
and
aspire towards inclusion, civility, equality
and
meaningful citizenship.
So much for
the
bare argument,
but
rich seams of thought reside in
the
chapters
that
flesh
the
argument out.
The
first few chapters are particularly incisive, and
begin by exploring how and why an 'uncivil' politics of law and order has become a
'standard' feature of Australian (and international) political arenas (p. ix). Such a
politics, we are told, is "parochial, punitive, opportunistic and mistrustful" (p. 180).
It is typified as closed, exclusive, dismissive of alternative viewpoints or opposing
'expert' knowledge, populist, and orientated towards short-term remedies (p. 1-2).
When
such an ethos focuses on issues of crime
and
punishment,
the
effect is to
sanction a narrow, commonsense view of law
and
order (summary
on
p. 21). Via
images "conjured up in polls, safety surveys
and
law
and
order rhetoric" (p. 11), this
commonsense also offers a highly selective image of criminal behaviour as random,
rare and committed by strangers. Crime is here presented as an urgent problem to
be suppressed only
through
immediate -
and
mostly punitive or revengeful -
measures (p. 4). Chapters 3 and 4 usefully deconstruct such precepts by showing
how selective criminal justice images of crime
tend
to be, and
how
much more
ordinary crime is
than
quantitative justice statistics would suggest.
The
authors'
analyses of 'violence', and'crime for material gain', usefully illustrate
the
points
regarding commonsense conceptions of,
and
responses to, crime.
At
this point in
the
authors' narrative, I confess to losing
the
plot
somewhat. It
is
not
that
chapters 5
and
6 are without value. Far from it. Chapter 5 summarises
some effects of, and approaches to, law
and
order politics in international perspec-
tive.
Chapter
6 details related themes in
the
context
of Australia, concluding with
some merit
that
in
light of this law
and
order politics,
the
old political 'left' and
'right' are "spent political forces" (p. 179).
Of
particular
note
is
the
authors' intrigu-
THEAUSTRAUAN
AND
NEW
ZEALAND JOURNAL OF CRIMINOLOGY
VOLUME
32
NUMBER
3 1999
PP.
325-333
325
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