Dangerous Subjects, Actuarial Knowledges, and Revisiting the ‘New Penology’: Critical Carceral Studies

Session Submission Type: Complete Thematic Panel

Abstract

The papers in this panel explore penal rationalities and practices in various locations ‘on the ground’. In so doing, they engage with understandings of risk/dangerousness and practices of actuarialism, managerialism, and constituting penal subjects. While recognizing diversity within punishment, these papers productively revisit ‘new penology’ and ‘actuarial justice’ scholarship by examining how managerialism, bureaucratization and notions of risk shape the penal field. This panel is part of a three part series (entitled Critical Carceral Studies) that aims to facilitate discussions about carceral ideologies, practices and thinking about and beyond mass incarceration.

Sub Unit

• Area IV. Criminal Justice Policy and Practice / 41. Prisons and Jails

Individual Presentations

• The Symbolic Functions of Penal Managerialism: Revisiting the 'New Penology' - Leonidas Cheliotis, University of Edinburgh

• Parole Discourses: Constituting Subjects, Unleashing Effects, and Locating Risk - Robert J. Werth, Rice University

• Against Evidence-Based Oppression: The Criminogenic Consequences of Actuarial Justice and the Notion of Risk - Tim Goddard, Florida International University; Randolph Myers, Old Dominion University

Chair

• Malcolm M. Feeley, University of California, Berkeley

Discussant

• Joshua Page, University of Minnesota