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Abstract
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VioLit summary:
OBJECTIVE:
The purpose of this article by Feeley and Simon was to explore a paradigmatic shift in penological practices.
METHODOLOGY:
The authors employed a non-experimental, exploratory investigation into modern penology.
FINDINGS/DISCUSSION:
Throughout this article, the authors refer to current penology as "the new penology". The new penology, according to the authors, is an ideological and practical shift in penological practices. According to the authors, the new penology is characterized by three features: (1) new discourses (risk and classification replaces treatment and retribution), (2) new goals (internal efficiency replacing rehabilitation and crime control), and (3) new techniques (high-level statistics used to manage offender populations).
Unlike the old penology, which emphasized individual responsibility and accountability, the new penology is concerned with methods of risk-classification, management, and control. The discourse of the new penology is characterized by references to statistical populations, risk calculations, and emphasizes systemic rationality. The goal of the new penology is to identify and managing risk-groups at low cost; the main objective is to make crime manageable through systemic processes. Evidence of this change in objectives is seen by a decline in the significance of recidivism as a measure of reduced crime. Recidivism, rather than being an indicator of the success or failure of crime prevention programs, is now viewed as a measure of internal success. Further, the authors stated that parole and probation are no longer viewed as means to reform criminals, rather, these mechanisms are now seen as control strategies designed to manage risk-groups. The authors contended that these shifts in objectives are responses to the complicated and difficult demands of the social world. New techniques of the new penology include advanced statistical methods for research, new forms of custodial centers (e.g., boot camps), electronic monitoring systems, and other forms of intermediate sanctions. These techniques, while if justified on rehabilitative grounds, are successful in terms of managing risk-populations. The authors stated the predominance of incapacitation as a punishment philosophy is clear evidence of a technique of the new penology.
Increases in parole, probation, and prison populations are also evidence, according to the authors, of the new penology; these mechanisms are now used to control and manage offenders rather than rehabilitate or reform. Additionally, sentencing reform that includes determinant sentencing are interpreted by the authors as designed to manage collections of high-risk offenders, rather than treat or reform individuals. While drug testing and electronic monitoring are often justified in term of treatment and reform, the authors contended that success is questionable; however, these mechanisms unquestionably succeed in the area of control and management. Also, traditional research in criminology has primarily concerned itself with developing intervention strategies. Under the new penology, however, criminologists are increasingly trained in operations research and systems analysis. The authors also stressed the idea that the new penology focuses on internal referents of success.
The authors also see the development of the new penology as a response to a reinterpretation of poverty. The underclass, according to the authors, is a term referring to a portion of society permanently excluded from main-stream society. The underclass are without skills, and cut-off from economic and social integration. Therefore, according to the authors, the underclass are viewed a permanently high-risk, dangerous group that must be under the management of the criminal justice system. The authors also stated the new penology is both cause and effect of increases in prison populations. The authors concluded that the discourse, practices, and objectives of the new penology have the potential to consider the problems of high-risk offenders as permanent.
(CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado)
Criminal Justice System
Theory
Correctional Decision Making
Correctional Institution
Crime Effects
Crime Intervention
Violence Effects
Violence Intervention
Justice System Policy
Adult Crime
Adult Inmate
Adult Offender
Adult Violence
Offender Punishment
Offender Sentencing
05-05 |