Second-chance punitivism and the contractual governance of crime and incivility: New Labour, old Hobbes

Mackenzie, S. (2008) Second-chance punitivism and the contractual governance of crime and incivility: New Labour, old Hobbes. Journal of Law and Society, 35(2), pp. 214-239. (doi: 10.1111/j.1467-6478.2008.00436.x)

Abstract

The growing application of mechanisms of contractual governance to behaviour that breaches social norms, rather than the criminal law, appears to represent an ethopolitical concern with delinquent self-reform through the activation of technologies of the self. In fact, there is little empirical evidence that the contractual governance of incivility leads to such self-reform. Beneath the ideology of contractual agreement to observe social norms lies what this paper calls a ‘second-chance punitivism’ which operates to crystallise behavioural elements of the Hobbesian social contract, after breach, into a more specific form. The responsibilising and individualising properties of this form of contractual governance set the moral-ideological platform for a retributive punitivism, when the rational agents it creates fail to live up to their image, and are taken to have wasted their ‘second chance’.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: The definitive version is available at www.blackwell-synergy.com
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Mackenzie, Professor Simon
• Authors: Mackenzie, S.
• Subjects: H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare; K Law > K Law (General)
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Sociology Anthropology and Applied Social Sciences
• Research Group: The Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research
• Journal Name: Journal of Law and Society
• Publisher: Blackwell
• ISSN: 0263-323X
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2008 WileyBlackwell
• First Published: First published in Journal of Law and Society 35(2):214-239
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher.