Commodifying Justice: Discursive Strategies Used in the Legitimation of Infringement Notices for Minor Offences

Methven, E

Commodifying Justice: Discursive Strategies Used in the Legitimation of Infringement Notices for Minor Offences

Methven, E

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Publisher:: Springer
Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique, 2020, 33, (2), pp. 353-379
Issue Date:: 2020-06-07

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Methven, E https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3428-3905
dc.date.accessioned	2020-12-16T01:12:03Z
dc.date.available	2020-12-16T01:12:03Z
dc.date.issued	2020-06-07
dc.identifier.citation	International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique, 2020, 33, (2), pp. 353-379
dc.identifier.issn	0952-8059
dc.identifier.issn	1572-8722
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/144741
dc.description.abstract	This article examines discursive strategies used by police and politicians to describe and justify the application of penalty notices to minor criminal offences. Critical discourse analysis is used as an analytical tool to show how neoliberal economic thinking has informed the prism through which infringement notices have been rationalised as a legitimate alternative to traditional criminal prosecution, while also highlighting the contradictions inherent in neoliberalism as an ideology through which to view the embrace of legally hybrid powers in the criminal justice system. Discursive strategies identified in the article include the use of ideological key-words ordinarily associated with free market economics and managerial efficiency; the adoption of militaristic vocabulary and metaphors in representations of policing and space; the strategies of assimilation and formulation to represent police views as uniform and coherent; and the use of nominalisations to legitimise the lack of procedural safeguards attached to infringement notices. The logic of—and the language ordinarily associated with—the domain of private business, the ‘free market’, and deregulation has infiltrated the criminal justice sphere. In addition, the naturalisation of neoliberal economic discourse in political and police representations of infringement notices produces and sustains important ideological effects, by disguising the ways in which the expanded use of administrative sanctions in public order policing intensifies state power at the expense of due process of law.
dc.language	en
dc.publisher	Springer
dc.relation	University of Technology Sydney
dc.relation.ispartof	International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.1007/s11196-020-09710-z
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess
dc.subject	1801 Law
dc.subject.classification	Criminology
dc.title	Commodifying Justice: Discursive Strategies Used in the Legitimation of Infringement Notices for Minor Offences
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	33
utslib.for	1801 Law
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Law
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
utslib.copyright.status	closed_access	*
pubs.consider-herdc	true
dc.date.updated	2020-12-16T01:11:40Z
pubs.issue	2
pubs.publication-status	Published
pubs.volume	33
utslib.citation.issue	2

Abstract:

This article examines discursive strategies used by police and politicians to describe and justify the application of penalty notices to minor criminal offences. Critical discourse analysis is used as an analytical tool to show how neoliberal economic thinking has informed the prism through which infringement notices have been rationalised as a legitimate alternative to traditional criminal prosecution, while also highlighting the contradictions inherent in neoliberalism as an ideology through which to view the embrace of legally hybrid powers in the criminal justice system. Discursive strategies identified in the article include the use of ideological key-words ordinarily associated with free market economics and managerial efficiency; the adoption of militaristic vocabulary and metaphors in representations of policing and space; the strategies of assimilation and formulation to represent police views as uniform and coherent; and the use of nominalisations to legitimise the lack of procedural safeguards attached to infringement notices. The logic of—and the language ordinarily associated with—the domain of private business, the ‘free market’, and deregulation has infiltrated the criminal justice sphere. In addition, the naturalisation of neoliberal economic discourse in political and police representations of infringement notices produces and sustains important ideological effects, by disguising the ways in which the expanded use of administrative sanctions in public order policing intensifies state power at the expense of due process of law.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/144741