ABSTRACT
Used in criminology and other disciplines, the portmanteau 'governmentality' was coined by French philosopher and historian Michel Foucault by combining 'government' and 'mentality' – to refer not only to state practices but also more broadly to the 'conduct of conduct'. Criminologists have used governmentality concepts and themes to make sense of a wide range of crime-control and criminal-justice policies and practices – and a significant, if varied, body of work has emerged. Foucault was certainly not a criminologist (and was actually disdainful of the field), but his ideas on governmentality became widely influential in critically oriented criminology. Three concepts distilled from Foucault's work became central: mentalities (also termed 'governmentalities' or 'rationalities'), program(me)s and technologies (or 'techniques'). By the 1990s, these concepts were informing critically oriented criminology, especially in Australia, Britain and Canada, with Garland arguing that 'the governmentality literature offers a powerful framework for analyzing how crime is problematized and controlled'.
