Liberalism and Crime: The British Experience

In Liberalism and Crime, Robert Sullivan offers an alternate way of looking at liberalism, using the usurpation of the welfare state in Britain by a free market-oriented economy as his crucible. Not content with the academic interpretation of liberalism as an offshoot of analytic philosophy, Sullivan has woven together a convincing demonstration that liberalism is born out of an alternative approach—one based in active thought and reasonable argument. The tapestry of this study touches on the breakup of British Marxism, the influence of crime on British polity, and the arguments of Ronald Clarke against "medical criminology." Shifting societal responsibility onto the individual citizen, this new, alternative, model of liberalism was fully ushered in by the rise of Margaret Thatcher and continued with Tony Blair and the New Labour movement in the 1990s. Because similar shifts occurred in the United States simultaneously, this argument should be of interest to both general American and British readers, as well as academics in political theory, cultural studies, criminology, and British studies.

This book explores one of the most significant events in 20th century Anglo-Saxon liberalism: the shift in Britain from the welfare state to the risk society.

Robert R. Sullivan is Professor of Political Science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.