Melani Van Der Merwe

In this chapter we explore the history of “crime” and “security” and how it is that “security” has begun to move closer to the centre of the criminological stage. Central to these developments, we will argue, has been criminology’s “utilitarian” character, which Foucault so caustically depreciates, and the way in which its “use-inspired” (Stokes, 1997) nature, to use a less acerbic term, has coupled developments within criminology to the shifting priorities of practical politics. In developing our arguments, our focus will be on criminology within English-speaking contexts as it is here that contemporary criminology has been primarily shaped.