Too much security?

Conference item

Major changes in the governance of crime are occurring within, on the margins, and outside the public sphere. Exemplified by the development of risk assessment, crime prevention, community safety, insurance, and private security, these changes call into question traditional modes of crime control and challenge existing criminal justice values. This article asks what exactly is on offer when security stands as the justification for public and private action, to whom, and at what cost. It goes on to identify several significant paradoxes entailed in the pursuit of security, whose attendant costs need to be taken into account. Yet, whereas punishment provokes us to ask why, how, and in what measure the state may inflict pain upon its citizens, security has not been thought to require special justification because in many ways it seems preferable to punishment. The paper contends both that security is in need of special justification and that it is necessary to develop guiding principles in order to regulate its pursuit. This leads to the larger question of whether and in what manner it is possible to regulate the 'security society' so as to ensure accountable, fair, and inclusive provision of protection. © 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Authors: Zedner, L

• Publication status: Published
• Host title: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF THE SOCIOLOGY OF LAW
• Volume: 31
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 155-184
• Publication date: 2003-09-01
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijsl.2003.09.002
• ISSN: 0194-6595