Criminalizing Georgian Schooling: Crime as a Mode of Governance since the Rose Revolution Gavin Slade University of Oxford
Zero Tolerance: Justice for All Mandatory custodial sentencing Three strikes and your out drugs laws Anti-Mafia legislation Plea-bargaining More effective police and prosecutors Dependent judiciary Miniscule acquittal rate
The Great Confinement
And the Winner is…Georgia?
Carceral Economics
Positive Externalities Unemployment kept down Prison building helps poor, rural areas Saves on social spending in unequal society and deregulated labour market Helps control politics and opposition Confidence for investors and the wealthy ….and zero tolerance reduces crime!
Victimization Rates
Perceptions Fear of crime relatively high in the 1990s Feelings of security have increased Yet people believe that crime is still increasing Popular punitivism: 32% believe that punishments need to be harsh Feedback loop: state policy creates perceptions of disorder maintaining demand for policy itself However, most feel that prison population is too high and many protest govt policy
Safe Schools : educating for legality idea imported from the US via Sicily : UNICEF research supports introduction of Safe Schools initiative 2008: Project Harmony implement legal socialization project 2010: legislation passed and mandaturi and CCTV enter schools
Mandaturi
2010: Zero Tolerance in Schools Mandaturi report on all disciplinary issues to the Ministry, including truancy, lateness and teacher behaviour Patrol the perimeter of school, CCTV Policing now competing with teaching as a mode of socialization Reduce discretion in punitive responses
Governing Through Crime Use of criminal justice logics and practices in other spheres Policy-making in other spheres framed in a criminological discourse Heavy concentration on crime and victims of crime in the media and govt rhetoric The logic of zero tolerance expanding outwards
Competing Frameworks Response to fear of school crime? - School killings in Victimization levels? Ministry incentive to control schools? - Fear of crime partly produced - Discourse of us vs. them: dzvelibichoba Or wider mode of governance in de-regulated economy? - preparation for post-industrial discipline - prison-school complex
Explaining Criminalization Incentive to control admin of schooling Genuine concerns in society over school crime Control of media and govt emphasis on crime: political utility in fear Developed networks: promote criminal justice logics; power of Interior Ministry Safe Schools policy ideas already floated
Issues for Research: Impacts US research: powerlessness and distrust At odds with developments in other ministries Not popular with teachers in Georgia? But, popular with parents? What about the children themselves? How to design research into this? Where next for Governing through Crime?