Making the Unthinkable Thinkable

Abstract

This book has used a critical criminological standpoint to draw attention to and think through what may be seen as three interrelated concerns: the persistence of the prison, the potential dangers of security ideologies in both the penal and the public realms and the counterproductive nature of punishment. It has argued that prisons, punishment and the pursuit of security form a triad of overlapping ideologies, each apparently focused, in part, on responding to social threat in the interests of creating safer social conditions for all. However it has been shown that these ideologies also serve a number of other functions associated with maintaining political economic structures and prevailing distributions of wealth and power. As a result it is more difficult to recognise the failings and contradictions in the way security and safety are often pursued and to consider alternative solutions.