Introduction

This chapter sets the scene for subsequent chapters by reviewing the scholarship relevant to the conceptual and empirical development of the criminalisation of social policy. It maps three distinctive moments; its emergence in the 1980s and 1990s; its further consolidation and proliferation in the early 2000s and the attention it received in the period after the economic crisis and during austerity (2007 onwards). The literature reviewed is broad in focus, in that it includes literature considered relevant for understanding the depth and breadth of the criminalisation of social policy, even if this particular concept was not explicitly used or an alternative conceptualisation was chosen for the exploration of similar concerns. Much of the literature discussed is concerned with the contexts of the UK and the USA, where the criminalisation of social policy has been given much attention, but it is also supplemented with the literature from other European countries.

First, the chapter sets out general introductions to the fields of social policy and crime policy before exploring some of the commonsensical ways in which the two fields meet or intersect. It then uses the different timelines described above to elaborate three key periods in the development scholarship on the criminalisation of social policy. A specific focus is placed on the body of work relevant to understanding the criminalisation of social policy inspired by the contributions of Donzelot (1979) and Foucault (1977). Prior to concluding the chapter, contributions which challenge the utility of the criminalisation of social policy thesis or call for its conceptual and empirical refinement are elaborated.

Introducing social policy

Social policy is both an academic discipline and a field of government policy concerned with a wide variety of social issues. Welfare or social policy functions to construct and support the welfare state by guaranteeing economic protection and addressing the social risks associated with old age, illness, disability, unemployment and so on and by introducing measures to support human wellbeing (Gallo and Kim, 2016). For example, the Beveridge Report in 1940s Britain established social security, education, housing, health and employment as the five pillars of the British welfare state (Knepper, 2007). These pillars have over time changed and increased in number to reflect changing societies (Grover, 2010) and for example, personal social services (local authority provided services for vulnerable groups) were also incorporated (Knepper, 2007).