Source: (2007) Theoretical Criminology. 11(2): 261–281
Conventionally, crime is regarded principally as harm or wrong and
the dominant ordering practices arise post hoc. In the emerging
pre-crime society, crime is conceived essentially as risk or potential
loss, ordering practices are pre-emptive and security is a commodity
sold for profit. Though this dichotomy oversimplifies a more
complex set of changes, it captures an important temporal shift. As
the intellectual offspring of the post-crime society, criminology must
adapt to meet the challenges of pre-crime and security. This article
examines the key features a theory of security needs to encompass.
It explores the immanent capacities of criminology for change and
suggests exterior intellectual resources upon which it might draw.
It concludes that the pre-crime society need not be a postcriminological
one.
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