Grande-Bretagne, Adam Crawford (Center for Criminal Justice, University of Leeds)

Public policy responses to crime, disorder and community safety — which transcend the competency of specific, single organisations and traverse local, regional and national boundaries - have seen the recent re-articulation of relations between the state, civil society and market, which have accompanied the emergence of new forms of governance. In the shift from ‘government’ to ‘governance’, we are witnessing the pluralisation and fragmentation of responsibility for public safety and personal security. This paper will explore the growth of local partnerships in crime prevention and community safety that have proliferated in England and Wales, notably in the light of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, and their implications for governing through crime and insecurity. This paper considers some of the challenges and opportunities presented by the shifting structure for the local governance of crime. In addition, the paper will focus upon a number of sites of tension, ambiguity and ambivalence in recent and current British government’s policies and their implementation. Recent reforms, it is suggested, inspired by a ‘Third Way’ politics, are infused with a heady mix of communitarianism, managerialism and appeals to ‘joined up’ policies. However, these visions clash in many important respects. Moreover, it is around these conflicts and tensions, it will be argued, that we find some of the key determinants of future crime control policies and practice.