Citation

Knox SL. Theor. Event 2003; 7(1).

Copyright

(Copyright © 2003, John Hopkins University Press)

DOI

10.1353/tae.2003.0023

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In a radio address of June 22nd 1996, President Clinton addressed the federalization of notification and registration procedures for repeat sexual offenders. Clinton described the Wetterling Act as one decisive victory in an already advanced law and order campaign. Had not his administration "worked hard to combat the crime and violence that has become all too familiar to too many Americans"? Clinton's "too many Americans" familiar with crime is a rhetorically bounded constituency -- a constituency still recognisable today despite a change of administration and a distinctive shift of priorities around security and imminent threat. Law and order issues have become -- since 9/11 -- the rhetorical stuff of foreign, as well as domestic, policy.