Becoming Anti-social: The Nexus of Welfare/Juridical Control

Abstract

The role of agents of social control in the regulation and policing of families and individuals deemed ‘problematic’, ‘dysfunctional’ or ‘risky’ has been a dominant criminological theme historically (Platt, 1969; Donzelot, 1979; Cohen, 1985; Garland, 1985), as well as featuring in contemporary debates about prediction and prevention of early-stage offending (Goldson, 2000, 2007). The growth in policies associated with ‘early intervention’ (Respect Task Force, 2006; ACPO, 2008; Youth Taskforce, 2008), which operate in response to proximate warning signs conceived as markers of future criminality, has emerged as a key strategy behind the reinforcement of both ‘welfare’ and ‘juridical’ actions. Interventions targeted at families ‘in need’, or children and young people engaged in minor anti-social behaviour and deemed to be ‘at risk’ of engaging in future criminality, have occupied the spaces between ‘help’, ‘assistance’ and ’support’, while skirting the boundary with increasing levels of monitoring and surveillance.