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Welfare and Punishment

The development of welfare and penal policies are inextricably linked and interrelated social and political phenonema. They, therefore need to be analysed in unison. The reduction of the social state and the expansion in the rates of imprisonment are joint strategies by governments. The punitive shifts that led to the increase in prison populations from the late 1970s onwards in England and Wales have had a much broader influence than simply in the area of Criminal Justice. They have helped to entrench views about the nature of marignalised groups or populations. The work will examine the genealogy of the penal state or the various explanations for its development. Penal policy and social provision are used to provide or give the illusion of social stability. Developments in these areas are often a response to a crisis of legitimacy. This work will argue that the late 1970s crisis that led to the advent of neo liberalism led to not only new economic policies but also that these are linked to new social policies which stigmatise marginal groups. The supporters of these policies argued that the retrenchment of the welfare state was necessary because of a state fiscal crisis. The spectacle of punitivism also served to convince voters that social investment was counterproductive as the management of the “underclass” could only be achieved through coercion - in the areas of welfare and penal policy