The New Punitiveness

Examining the whole spectrum of social, economic, political and cultural relations in late modern society criminologists argue that new ways of thinking and acting about crime issues have been noticeable since the last third of the twentieth century. The ‘new punitiveness’ or the ‘culture of control’, as it is often called, is marked by a sudden and startling reversal of its forerunner ‘penal welfarism’ and with it a growing emphasis on punitive practices and fading interest in the idea of rehabilitation. Central to the new punitiveness is an increased emphasis on imprisonment as a way of dealing with wrongdoers, an intensification of the restrictive aspects of the prison or control experience, and a characterisation of the wrongdoer in increasingly negative and one-dimensional terms.