cjm 74: Criminalisation

Criminalisation is the title of the themed section guest edited by Christina Pantazis examining the use of criminalisation as a strategy to respond to a variety of social harms.

The contributors suggest that more laws do not always result in more order. Academics and practitioners also point to the partial and biased way the criminal justice system operates. The magazine features a wide range of articles which critically examine the use of criminalisation as a strategy to respond to a variety of social harms.

A number of articles focus on what might be termed the 'over-criminalisation' of social groups such as the poor, young people, and migrants, as well as neighbourhoods that are blighted by poverty.

Other articles examine the 'under' or 'lesser' criminalisation of certain harmful activities such as failure to implement the minimum wage legislation, the failure to respond to harms against women, and the failure to take environmental harms seriously. In doing so, the magazine draws attention to the selective nature of the criminal justice system and questions whether criminalisation is the most appropriate tool to respond to the myriad of social problems we encounter.