Crime Control

CRIME CONTROL The rapid growth of the crime control industry is a frightening aspect of contemporary U.S. society. Incarceration represents the ultimate form of surveillance: 24 hours a day, within four walls, monitored by humans, by machines, restricted in their movements. We are witnessing the creation of gulags. In 1993, Norwegian criminologist Nils Christie published his seminal study, Crime Control as Industry. This study examined the expansion of what Christie labeled the crime control industry in …

…of a punitive attitude toward juvenile offenders. These "over applied" policies (e.g., increased waivers of juveniles to the adult system and mandatory sentencing of juveniles) put some youth in facilities who could be served successfully in the community. Such policies have had a negligible effect on crime and have contributed to overcrowding in prisons, jails, and juvenile institutions. Some believe that such policies have also helped to expand an already large crime control "industry".