Criminal Justice, Risk and the Revolt against Uncertainty

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvii

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2. Introduction

   • John Pratt, Jordan Anderson

   Pages 1-13

3. The Dynamics of Risk Assessment and Preventive Justice

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 15-15

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   2. Risk Assessment, Predictive Algorithms and Preventive Justice

      • Bernadette McSherry

      Pages 17-42

   3. Reflections on Risk Assessment in Community Corrections

      • David Brown

      Pages 43-67

   4. Character Retribution as a Brake on Risk-Driven Criminal Justice

      • Netanel Dagan, Hadar Dancig-Rosenberg

      Pages 69-89

4. Risk and Penal Policy

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 91-91

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   2. Dangerous Neighbors: Risk Control, Community Notification and Sex Offender Release

      • Jordan Anderson

      Pages 93-113

   3. Joint Enterprise, Hostility and the Construction of Dangerous Belonging

      • Henrique Carvalho

      Pages 115-137

   4. Re-examining Risk and Blame in Penal Controversies: Parole in England and Wales, 2013–2018

      • Harry Annison

      Pages 139-163

5. New Dimensions of Risk

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 165-165

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   2. Against the Odds? Unraveling the Paradoxes of Risk Prevention in Counter-Radicalization Strategy

      • Gabe Mythen

      Pages 167-189

   3. Locking-Out Uncertainty: Conflict and Risk in Sydney’s Night-Time Economy

      • Murray Lee, Stephen Tomsen, Phillip Wadds

      Pages 191-215

   4. Climate Change and Migration: Managing Risks, Developing Hostilities

      • Elizabeth Stanley

      Pages 217-244

   5. Crime, Pre-crime and Sub-crime: Deportation of ‘Risky Non-citizens’ as ‘Enemy Crimmigration’

      • Leanne Weber, Rebecca Powell

      Pages 245-272

6. Living with Risk

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 273-273

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   2. When Risk and Populism Collide

      • John Pratt

      Pages 275-300

   3. Thinking About Risk: Responding to Threat and Disintegration in a Fraught World

      • Elliott Currie

      Pages 301-318

   4. Millennials and the New Penology: Will Generational Change in the U.S. Facilitate the Triumph of Risk Rationality in Criminal Justice

      • Jonathan Simon

      Pages 319-344

7. Back Matter

   Pages 345-354

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This book examines the impact and implications of the relationship between risk and criminal justice in advanced liberal democracies, in the context of the ‘revolt against uncertainty’ which has underpinned the rise of populist politics across these societies in recent years. It asks what impact the demands for more certainty and security, and the insistence that national identity be reasserted, will have on criminal law and penal policy. Drawing upon contributions made at a symposium held at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand in November 2018, this edited collection also discusses the way in which risk has come to inform sentencing practices, broader criminal justice processes and the critical issues associated with this. It also examines the growth and making of new ‘risky populations’ and the harnessing of risk-prevention logics, techniques and mechanisms which have inflated the influence of risk on criminal justice. 

• crime prevention
• criminal justice policy
• risky citizens
• security
• crimmigration
• refugees
• night-time economy
• urban gentrification
• community corrections
• penal policy
• human rights

• Institute of Criminology, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand

  John Pratt, Jordan Anderson

John Pratt is Professor of Criminology at the Institute of Criminology, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. His fields of research are comparative penology and the history and sociology of punishment. He has published in eleven languages and has been invited to lecture at universities in South America, North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. His books include Punishment and Civilization (2002), Penal Populism (2007) and Contrasts in Punishment (2013).


Jordan Anderson is currently completing her PhD in Criminology at the Institute of Criminology at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Her research focuses on risk and dangerousness in modern society, with particular attention to post-sentence regulation of sex offenders in New Zealand. Jordan’s research interests include risk, post-sentence regulation, sentencing, and youth justice.

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