ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the rise of the 'risk society' is extending and strengthening the law and order aspect of state schooling in Britain, the United States and beyond. It begins with an analysis of the liminal nature of 'youth' and goes on to argue that this liminality has brought about a significant increase in the use of closed circuit television and other forms of surveillance in British schools. Tackling social exclusion in Britain rests in part on neighbourhood renewal, addressing 'problems' in the most deprived areas. The need for actuarialism is explained by Young's 'six components of risk', calling to mind what Garland has termed the 'crime complex' of late modernity. The rise of actuarialism in educational settings needs to be considered part of a broader discourse of community safety and law and order, that seeks to anticipate trouble and to exclude and isolate the deviant — an exclusive philosophy that, in the long term, may significantly increase risk.
