New and Old Penology: Community Corrections and Anti-Violence in Perspective

• In Event: Poster Session

Abstract

This poster examines the community corrections component of the Kansas City No Violence Alliance (NoVA) in the context of late modern penality. NoVA is a unique, multi-agency focused deterrence initiative that addresses violent crime by identifying individuals in highly criminal social networks and targeting them for increased criminal justice scrutiny and social service provision. Although community corrections is but a single component of NoVA (alongside law enforcement, social services, and the community), an examination of the role of probation and parole in the larger NoVA initiative has implications for our understanding of violence reduction in a “culture of control” (Garland, 2001). With its unique blend of goals and strategies that reflect both the old and new penologies (Simon & Feeley, 1992), NoVA’s community corrections component operates with a tenuous balance between surveillance and service provision, control and permissiveness, aggregation and individualization. From the identification of individuals through social network analysis, to the one-size-fits-all message of increased enforcement, to the individualization of probation and parole case management, NoVA vacillates between the new and old penologies as it contributes to and reinforces a culture of control.

Author

• Kristen Denise Maziarka, University of California, Irvine