ABSTRACT
Radical egalitarian communitarians such as Bill Jordan (1992, 1996), Elliot Currie (1993, 1996, 1997) and Jock Young (1999) focus on inequality, deprivation and the market economy as causes of crime and promote policies to eliminate poverty which they define as a degree of deprivation that seriously impairs participation in society. Jordan (1992) has argued persuasively that in recent years in the UK and similar western societies we have witnessed deterioration in social relations due to the poor being denied access to material goods and thus their experience of power is simply one of being unjust. He observes that following the major socio-economic transformation that occurred during the last 20 years of the twentieth century there has been the formation of two very different opposing communities of ‘choice’ and ‘fate’. On the one hand, ‘communities of choice’ are those where individuals and families have developed income security strategies which are associated with comfortable ‘safe’, convenient, healthy and status giving private environments. On the other hand, ‘communities of fate’ are those bound together into long-term interdependencies because of lack of opportunities to move geographical location, gain access to good education or healthcare, get decently paid legitimate – ‘on-the-cards’ – employment or share in the cultural enjoyments of mainstream society.
