ABSTRACT
In 2001, Garland introduced the term ‘culture of control’ to characterise the profound changes in the cultural attitudes and responses to crime that had taken place in the preceding three decades across the USA and Western Europe (Garland, 2001). Garland defined these changes as the ‘crime control complex’: an inherently contradictory set of criminal justice policies, aiming to create an impression that the state is capable of controlling crime and the resulting societal risks. These policies are characterised by the ‘indices of change’, such as the decline of the rehabilitation ideal or the growing use of imprisonment. Garland attributed these changes to the societal developments of late modernity, which have resulted in an increased sense of insecurity and fear of crime. Whilst the social climate from which Garland’s account emerged might have changed, as crime rates have been steadily decreasing (Loader, 2016), the legacy of the ‘culture of control’ arguably remains, and its effects on the administration of criminal justice are likely to be long-lasting.
