Understanding Transnational Policy Flows in Security and Justice
| Author | Trevor Jones,Tim Newburn |
| Date | 01 October 2019 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/jols.12181 |
| Published date | 01 October 2019 |
JOURNAL OF LAW AND SOCIETY
VOLUME 46, ISSUE S1, OCTOBER 2019
ISSN: 0263-323X, pp. S12±S30
Understanding Transnational Policy Flows in Security and
Justice
Trevor Jones* and Tim Newburn**
This article examines the contribution of scholarly work on `policy
transfer' and related concepts to our knowledge of how far, and in
what ways, particular policy `models' of security and justice travel
across national boundaries, and what might explain this phenomenon.
The article begins by summarizing the key findings of extant empirical
studies of cross-national policy movement in the fields of crime,
security, and justice. It then considers the normative dimension to
debates about policy transfer, observing that much of the literature
adopts a pessimistic position about the problematic nature of inter-
national policy movement in security and justice, and discusses some of
the reasons for such pessimism. The article then reflects on ways in
which normative principles could be applied to considerations of
prospective policy transfer, and the implications for the broader
possibilities for `progressive' policy transfer in relation to crime,
security, and justice.
In security and justice, as with other areas of public policy, it often appears
that the world is getting smaller. The increasingly transnational nature of
social problems and their associated public policy responses has been widely
recognized in contemporary scholarly analysis, not least within research on
crime control, security, and justice.
1
Criminologists and socio-legal scholars
have become particularly interested in `extra-jurisdictional' influences that
shape policies, and in the potential value of cross-national comparative
research in helping us to understand such phenomena. In relation to crime
S12
*School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University, King Edward VII Ave,
Cardiff CF10 3NN, Wales
jonesTD2@cardiff.ac.uk
** Department of Social Policy, London School of Economics, Houghton St,
London WC2A 2AE, England
t.newburn@lse.ac.uk
1 T. Newburn and R. Sparks (eds.), Criminal Justice and Political Cultures (2004).
ß2019 The Author. Journal of Law and Society ß2019 Cardiff University Law School
control and penal policy, previous research has revealed the broader macro-
social factors
2
and distinctive `domestic' institutional features of political
economy
3
that work to shape policy trajectories in different national
contexts.
Although comparative criminologists and legal scholars have to date
devoted less attention to processes of policy formation, and more specific-
ally, the role of cross-national movement of particular policies and prac-
tices,
4
there is a small and developing body of empirical work that focuses
on the international mobility of crime control, justice, and security policies.
This article reflects on the contribution of this research to thinking about the
possibilities for and the desirability of cross-national exchange in policies
related to security and justice.
It addresses two broad categories of question. The first concerns empirical
questions relating to how far and in what ways crime, security, and justice
policies actually travel across national boundaries, what happens to them in
the process, and what factors might explain such phenomena. The second
concerns how we might view cross-national policy flows normatively ±
assuming that they are a significant empirical reality. We begin with a brief
overview of what existing research has revealed about the empirical ques-
tions concerning the extent, nature, and mechanisms of cross-national policy
movement in security and justice. The second section considers the reasons
why much research in relation to policy transfer in crime control has viewed
the phenomenon in a negative light. The third section explores the pos-
sibilities for progressive cross-national policy movement and discusses some
normative principles that might inform assessments of prospective policy
transfer in crime, security, and justice.
CROSS-NATIONAL MOVEMENT OF SECURITY AND JUSTICE
POLICIES: KEY RESEARCH FINDINGS
1. What is meant by `policy transfer' and related concepts?
Space limitations preclude an extensive review of the policy transfer/
mobilities literatures generally or specifically in relation to the field of crime
control.
5
For current purposes, we attempt to offer some conceptual clarity
S13
2 D. Garland, The Culture of Control (2001).
3 N. Lacey, The Prisoners' Dilemma (2011).
4 M. Tonry, `Is cross-national and comparative research on the criminal justice system
useful?' (2015) 12 European J. of Criminology 505; T. Jones et al., `Researching
cross-national mobilities in crime control' (2019) Criminology and Criminal Justice,
doi:10.1177/1748895819864627 (31 July 2019).
5 Broader reviews can be found in Newburn and Sparks (eds.), op. cit., n. 1; T.
Newburn et al., `Policy mobilities and comparative penality' (2018) 22 Theoretical
Criminology 563; Jones et al., id.
ß2019 The Author. Journal of Law and Society ß2019 Cardiff University Law School
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