Dangerous Offenders: Punishment and Social Order

Preliminaries -- Contents -- Introduction -- 1 Risk societies and the government of crime -- 2 Dangerousness and modern society -- 3 Guerrillas in our midst Judicial responses to governing the dangerous -- 4 Civil commitment as social control managing the risk of sexual violence -- 5 Calculations of risk in contemporary penal practice -- 6 Criminal careers sex offending and dangerousness -- 7 Risk and blame in criminal justice controversies British press coverage and official discourse on prison security 1993 6 -- 8 Naturalising danger women fear and personal safety -- 9 Drugs and dangerousness perception and management of risk in the neo liberal era -- 10 Dangerous states -- Index.;This highly controversial new book considers how the dangerous offender has become such a figure of collective anxiety for the citizens of rationalised Western societies. The authors consider: * ideas of danger and social threat in historical perspective * legal responses to violent criminals * attempts to predict dangerous behaviour * why particular groups, such as women, remain at risk from violent crime. This inspired collection invites us to rethink the received wisdom on dangerous offenders, and will be of interest to students and scholars in the fields of criminology and the sociology of Risk.