British Society of Criminology
Annual Conference
University of Liverpool
July 2014
The Empire’s coming home:
Liberalism, Exclusion and
the Punitiveness of the
British State
J.M. Moore
The “New Punitiveness”
• Increased Imprisonment
– More people
– For longer
• Increased surveillance and supervision
• Reduced tolerance
• Targeting of working class and black and
minority ethnic communities
• Criminal Justice -v- Welfare Solutions
Histories of Punishment
• Civilising
• From Physical to Carceal
– ‘Instead of losing a hand, imprisonment for
ten years’. (Christie 2000:46)
• Alternatives to imprisonment
• Decline of the prison
• Rise of Welfare
The Lost Empire:
Colonial Omissions from Penal Histories
•
•
•
•
•
Mutiny and brutal repression
Criminal Tribes Act
Godna, fingerprinting and bertilage
Prison and Slavery
Further Mutiny and more brutal
repression
• Genocide, torture, rape,
concentration camps
Mills Liberalism:
‘Inclusionary discipline’
I regard it as required by first principles,
that the receipt of parish relief should be
a peremptory disqualification for the
franchise. (Mill 1997b:472)
If it is asserted that all persons ought to
be equal in every description of right
recognised by society, I answer, not until
all are equal in worth as human
beings……a person who cannot read, is
not as good, for the purpose of human
life, as one who can. (Mill 1997c:323)
Mills Liberalism:
the homogeneous race
“Among a people without fellowfeeling, especially if they read and
speak different languages, the united
public opinion, necessary to the
workings of representative
government, cannot exist”
Mill 1977b:547
Mills Liberalism:
‘exclusionary exceptions’
“Despotism is a legitimate mode of
government in dealing with Barbarians,
providing the end be their improvement,
and the means justified by actually
effecting that end.”
Mill 1977a:224
• From
– criminality and crime control,
– rights and responsibilities,
– inclusion and exclusion,
• To
– race,
– terror,
– religion,
– culture
– and immigration