Crime And Insecurity

Concerns over insecurity have become central issues in political debates across Europe and the western world, and crucial changes have followed in the wake of these concerns. This book contributes to an understanding of these developments.

'Crime in an Insecure World' investigates the alarming trend across Western societies of treating every imaginable source of harm as a crime. The book explains why selected issues of national security, social security, corporate security and domestic security are at the top of the political agenda.

Concerns over insecurity and questions of safety have become central issues in social and political debates across Europe and the western world. Crucial changes have followed as a result, such as a redefinition of the role of the state in relation to policing - a central theme of this book - and an explosion in the growth of private policing. These developments have, in their turn, heightened feelings of insecurity and safety, particularly where populations have become increasingly mobile and societies more socially fragmented, culturally diverse and economically fragmented. Responses to insecurity now increasingly inform decisions made by governments, organisations and ordinary people in their social interactions. This book makes a key contribution to an understanding of these developments, approaching the subject from a range of perspectives, across several different disciplines. The three parts of the book look at broader theoretical and thematic issues, then at cross-national and pan-European developments and debates in European governance, and finally explore specific examples of local issues of community safety and the broader implications these have. Leading figures in the field draw upon criminological, legal, social, and political theory to shed new light on what has become one of the most intractable problems facing western societies.

And introduction -- Recommendations -- The context of insecurity -- The security situation immediately after the fall of Basra -- Six weeks later: continuing criminality in Basra -- Legal obligation of coalition forces to provide security in Iraq -- Coalition attempts at reconstituting security in Southern Iraq -- Acknowledgements.

The feeling of insecurity is a little known phenomenon that has been only partially explored by social sciences. However, it has a deep social, cultural and economic impact and may even contribute to define the very structures of the state. In Latin America, fear of crime has become an important stumbling block in the region’s process of democratization. After long spells of dictatorships and civil wars, violence in the region was supposed to be under control yet crime rates have continued to skyrocket and citizens remain fearful. This analytical puzzle has troubled researchers and to date there is no publication which explores this problem. Based on a wealth of cutting edge qualitative and quantitative research, Lucía Dammert proposes a unique theoretical perspective which includes a sociological, criminological and political analysis to understand fear of crime. She describes its linkages to issues such as urban segregation, social attitudes, institutional trust, public policies and authoritarian discourses in Chile’s recent past. Looking beyond Chile, Dammert also includes a regional comparative perspective allowing readers to understand the complex elements underpinning this situation. Fear and Crime in Latin America challenges many assumptions and opens an opportunity to discuss an issue that affects everyone with key societal and personal costs. As crime rates increase and states become even more fragile, fear of crime as a social problem will continue to have an important impact in Latin America.

Threats of terrorism, natural disaster, identity theft, job loss, illegal immigration, and even biblical apocalypse--all are perils that trigger alarm in people today. Although there may be a factual basis for many of these fears, they do not simply represent objective conditions. Feelings of insecurity are instilled by politicians and the media, and sustained by urban fortification, technological surveillance, and economic vulnerability. Surveillance in the Time of Insecurity fuses advanced theoretical accounts of state power and neoliberalism with original research from the social settings in which insecurity dynamics play out in the new century. Torin Monahan explores the counterterrorism-themed show 24, Rapture fiction, traffic control centers, security conferences, public housing, and gated communities, and examines how each manifests complex relationships of inequality, insecurity, and surveillance. Alleviating insecurity requires that we confront its mythic dimensions, the politics inherent in new configurations of security provision, and the structural obstacles to achieving equality in societies.

Contemporary Criminological Issues tackles some of today’s most pressing social issues, from the criminalization of Indigenous peoples to interpersonal violence, border control, and armed conflicts. This book advances cutting-edge theories and methods, with the aim of moving beyond the scholarship that reproduces insecurity and exclusion. The breadth of approaches encompasses much of the current critical criminological scholarship, serving as a counterpoint to the growth of managerial and administrative criminologies and the rise of explicitly exclusionary and punitive state policies and practices with respect to ‘crime’ and ‘security.’ This edited collection featuring two books, one in English and one in French, includes important contributions to knowledge and public policy by eminent experts and emerging scholars. This book is published in English.