Factors That Influenced The State Of The Criminal Justice...

Managerialism and populism are key concepts that have influenced many state-organised responses to crime. Populism, on one hand, is defined by Shils (1956, p.100-1) as existing â€Å"wherever there is an ideology of popular resentment against the order imposed on society†, so it is seen to establish policies that reflect the voices and needs of the public. Whereas McLaughlin (2013) defines managerialist policies as â€Å"a set of governmental knowledges, techniques and practices which aim to fracture and realign power relations within the core agencies of the criminal justice system† (2013, p.260). This is so the criminal justice system is run in a more cost-effective, efficient way (Pratt, 2007, p.133). McLaughlin discusses two ‘waves’ of†¦show more content†¦Garland (2001) provides that as crime became more apparent, one of the main problems arising was the difference in what the public expected from the criminal justice system in terms of justic e and their protection (Garland, 2001, p. 113). Roberts et al (2003) cited in Pratt (2007, p.28) argues that imprisonment is the most important and significant aspect of penal populism with one of its recurring themes relating to accommodating both harsher and longer sentences of imprisonment (Pratt, 2007, p.28). As we can see from this, penal populism has become dominant within policy areas to ensure public safety. There has been a decline in rehabilitative ideals of punishments following the Criminal Justice Act 1991 (CJA), and instead, Garland (2001) suggests how the ‘just deserts’ philosophy has become, what he argues to be a â€Å"generalised policy goal† (Garland, 2001, p.9). By this he means that instead of rehabilitating offenders, by focusing on a more populist form of policy-making, the punishments are deserved. This is further supported by Cavadino and Dignan (2002) who discuss how the idea of retributive punishments, particularly ‘just deserts’ have been â€Å"revived† in some way over the past few decades. Instead, shifting to more of a ‘law and order’ ideology discussed within the CJA 1991 whereby punishments such as incarceration are much more appealing and effective than more romantic forms of punishment (Cavadino