ABSTRACT
In the last two decades, our society's attitude towards criminals has become increasingly intolerant, hostile and exclusionary. Offenders are increasingly represented in political rhetoric and popular culture as ‘some kind of external threat, as people who are different from ourselves and who do not properly belong in our society and against whom we need to raise physical defences or who ought to be contained in their ghettoes or failing that in prison’ (D. Faulkner, cited in Cayley 1998: 32). 1 In practice, we are sending more offenders to prison and making them stay there for longer periods and in tougher conditions. Nor is this in order to improve their character; prisons are increasingly being run on the basis that their purpose is simply to incapacitate and to deter. In addition to imprisonment, there is mounting interest in other stringent measures – such as electronic monitoring and curfews – and in reviving sanctions designed to expose offenders to public view and humiliation. And, of course, in parts of the United States, repeat offenders are receiving life sentences and being put in chain gangs, and those convicted of murder are increasingly being put to death. Meanwhile, we are investing more in alarms, locks, closed-circuit television (CCTV) and other security hardware in the hope that they will protect us from criminals.
