The Fear of Crime and Self-governance: Towards A Genealogy
| Author | Murray Lee |
| Published date | 01 December 1999 |
| Date | 01 December 1999 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/000486589903200303 |
The
Fear
of
Crime
and
Self-governance:
Towards AGenealogy
Murray Lee
University
ofWestern
Sydney
S
ince the I970s the fear of crime has become an increasingly popular
subject
of
inquiry
for
criminology, victimology and
other
academic
disciplines. Scholars
have
offered an array of explanations from a widely
varied assortment of theoretical positions,
for
the supposed rise of the
crime fearing individual, whom I refer
to
as the fearing subject. Much of
this scholarship has focused on the rationality
or
irrationality
of
these
fears in particular population demographics. This article is somewhat
critical of this approach, although, it does
not
necessarilycall
for
an end
to
the study of fear of crime as such.
'Rather,
coming from a genealogical
perspective,I attempt
to
briefly plot the proliferation of disciplinary and
governmental interest in the fear of crime in the West and explain
how
this interest has effected both the subject of inquiry and the modes of
inquiry themselves. I conclude by suggesting that the power effects of the
knowledge being
amassed
on this subject may actually be implicated in
the production
of
fearing subjects.
At
one extreme, individuals may be "prisoners of fear", locking themselves away
behind steel doors and barred windows.
At
the
other
they may become activists,
banding
together
with neighbours to
prevent
crime by taking aggressive steps to
challenge strangers, intervene when they observe suspicious circumstances, and act
to reduce
the
opportunities for crime
....
[A] great deal of money has been spent by
the government in an effort to encourage
the
latter
...
(Skogan, 1986; 177).
This
statement
illustrates two major
points
about
the
fear of crime as a field of
investigation. First, it reflects
the
profound seriousness with which criminologists,
particularly since
the
late sixties,
have
engaged in this field; thereby indicating
the
important
implications of this work and its influence
on
the
broader criminological
project. Secondly, it reflects
the
interest invested by government
into
the
fear of
crime problematic.
This
interest, as I will explain below, has implications in terms
of
the
governance
of
population
and
the
formation
of
individual
human
subjectivi..
ties as objects of governmental self..regulation.
I would like to take this opportunity to
thank
Dr Kerry Carrington, Andrew Johnson and
Wendy Lee for their support and input
into
this paper.
Address
for
correspondence:
Murray
Lee,
Faculty
of
Social
Inquiry,
UnitJersity
ofWestem
Sydney,
Hawksbury,
Richmond
NSW
2753,
Australia.
Email:
m.lee@uws.edu.au
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AND
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ZEALAND JOURNAL OF CRIMINOLOGY
VOLUME 32 NUMBER3 1999
PP.
227-246
227
228
MURRAY
LEE
The
fear
of
crime, it is argued, has
the
potential
to
change
the
way we as
individual subjects live our lives (see for example Skogan 1986,
Stanko
1990,
Gordon
and
Rigger 1989); it
can
effect our mobility
through
social space,
our
conceptualisation's of others,
the
way we dress, and our confidence. Moreover, it
potentially changes our being, our subjectivity,
the
way we
think
about ourselves,
our unconscious and conscious actions in social space; what is possible within a
society'.
The
study of
the
fear of crime has in recent years become one of
the
major
concerns of contemporary criminological literature.
Hale
(1996, p. 79) suggests
that
in
the
last thirty years
the
conference papers, books, and monographs written
on
the fear of crime number at least two hundred.
This body of literature has focused
on
vast and varied social demographics and on
almost every aspect of social interaction. Fear of sexual assault it is argued - to take
just one well documented example - operates as an imperative of self
...
regulation
whereby women's freedom of movement, self
...
expression,
and
social experience is
compromised due to perceived high risk factors in everyday life (Gordon and Riger
1989, Stanko 1990). This reinforces gender roles, particularly in terms of women's
access to public space through
the
restrictions placed
on
the
freedom of movement of
bodies. Braithwaite, Bilesand Whitrod (1982, p. 222) even go as far as to suggest
that
"[tjhe objective reality of rape, bad as it is, is surely of less importance
[sic]
to women
than
the
way
that
fear hems
them
in to a protracted day
...
to
...
day existence". Research
has indicated
that
women are much less likely to become victims of crime
than
men,
and yet are by far
the
more fearing of crime. Similarly, elderly people - who gener
...
ally have a low risk of victimisation -have been found to be far more fearful of
crime
than
young
men
who make up
the
highest risk category. In light of such
findings there has been an ongoing debate as to whether
the
fear of crime is a ratio
...
nal or irrational response to living in
the
modem
social world.
Fear
of
Crime:AnAlternativeApproach
I am
not
especially interested in engaging in a project of measuring
the
fear levels
between groups of individuals,
nor
am I interested in
the
commonly posed,
but
conceptually flawed, question of whether
the
fear of crime is rational or irrational'.
What
I am more interested in,
and
what
I will pursue throughout this paper, is an
alternative approach to a question posed at
the
beginning of a recent article by
Hale (1996) published in
the
International
Review
of
Victimology.
Aquestion that,
from a genealogical perspective, Hale failed to satisfactorily answer. He asks (Hale,
1996, p. 79):
[wjhat is it about fear of crime
that
has led to its 'discovery' over
the
last quarter of a
century.
Indeed such a question should be of great interest to
the
large group of scholars
working in this seemingly ever changing
and
quickly expanding field.
Before proceeding, however, I would suggest
that
the
question itself is flawed
on
two counts. First,
the
fear of crime has certainly been aconcern for western popula
...
tions well before
the
'last quarter century',
one
only has to refer to
the
literature of
almost any era to find reference to
the
dangerousness of certain locales (see Morris
1957, Shaw 1931), or
the
fear felt of certain classes or dangerous 'types' of person
THE AUSTRALIAN
AND
NEW
ZEALAND
JOURNAL
OF
CRIMINOLOGY
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