Crime and Inequality

This detailed analysis explores how social policy is forcing families from less well-off backgrounds to turn to crime. At a time when welfare reforms could mean benefit sanctions for parents, Crime and Inequality is very timely.

From the outset, Crime and Inequality pays significant attention to highlighting relationships between contemporary government policy, low income, minimised life chances, culturally propelled adversities and, ultimately, crime. Within this detailed analysis, a theme of "the criminalisation of social policy" becomes apparent, as do the themes of social policy being inspired by patriarchal ideologies and free-market capitalism.

This may all sound quite radical and far removed from our daily face-to-face youth work practice. Yet, through Crime and Inequality's rigorous critical questioning of social policy, face-to-face workers can better understand some of the structural forces that may contribute to young people and their family members entering the justice system. Of particular relevance is the genealogy of policy that brought about the antisocial behaviour order, which begins to demonstrate that criminalisation theme.