Liquid legitimacy: negotiating compliance with community sanctions

Fergus McNeill, G. Robinson

    Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper

    Abstract

    Paper examines how compliance with community sanctions has been theorised and discussed hitherto and explore the limited extent to which questions about the legitimacy of such penalties have been addressed. Drawing on our own 'dynamic' model of compliance with community sanctions developed elsewhere (Robinson & McNeill 2008), we focus in this chapter on the ways in which legitimacy might ebb and flow during the life of a community sanction, and the associated implications for compliance. We focus in particular on the problems presented both by the perennially contested purposes of such sanctions and from the inherent tensions that exist between the pursuit of what Bottoms (2003) has referred to as 'external' and 'internal' legitimacy. Our analysis, which focuses primarily on the latter (that is, legitimacy vis-a-vis the subject group rather than external audiences), suggests that from the ourview of offenders subject to community sanctions, legitimacy is highly fluid or 'liquid'. The notion of 'liquid legitimacy' in our title is thus intended as a fairly straightforward metaphor. However it also recalls Bauman's (2000a) discussion of 'liquid modernity' because, like Bauman, we are concerned with how the object of our analysis (in our case, legitimacy) changes its forms and shapes as a community sanction is negotiated, constructed, contested and reconstructed by the various actors and audiences involved - all of them navigating uncertainties, risks and problems of trust. Our central argument is that, to the extent that community sanctions are oriented to purposes beyond the purely retributive, and to the extent that they seek to encourage active engagement or what we call substantive compliance on the part of offenders, attention to legitimacy is crucial.
    LanguageEnglish
    Publication statusUnpublished - Jun 2009
    EventInternational Symposium on Legitimacy and Compliance and Criminal Justice - Centre for Criminal Justice Studies, University of Leeds
    Duration: 25 Jun 2009 → 26 Jun 2009

    Conference

    ConferenceInternational Symposium on Legitimacy and Compliance and Criminal Justice
    CityCentre for Criminal Justice Studies, University of Leeds
    Period25/06/09 → 26/06/09

    Fingerprint

    sanction
    legitimacy
    community
    offender
    modernity
    penalty
    metaphor
    uncertainty
    Group

    Keywords

    • compliance
    • community sanctions

    Cite this

    McNeill, F., & Robinson, G. (2009). Liquid legitimacy: negotiating compliance with community sanctions. Paper presented at International Symposium on Legitimacy and Compliance and Criminal Justice, Centre for Criminal Justice Studies, University of Leeds, .
    McNeill, Fergus ; Robinson, G. / Liquid legitimacy: negotiating compliance with community sanctions. Paper presented at International Symposium on Legitimacy and Compliance and Criminal Justice, Centre for Criminal Justice Studies, University of Leeds, .
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    abstract = "Paper examines how compliance with community sanctions has been theorised and discussed hitherto and explore the limited extent to which questions about the legitimacy of such penalties have been addressed. Drawing on our own 'dynamic' model of compliance with community sanctions developed elsewhere (Robinson & McNeill 2008), we focus in this chapter on the ways in which legitimacy might ebb and flow during the life of a community sanction, and the associated implications for compliance. We focus in particular on the problems presented both by the perennially contested purposes of such sanctions and from the inherent tensions that exist between the pursuit of what Bottoms (2003) has referred to as 'external' and 'internal' legitimacy. Our analysis, which focuses primarily on the latter (that is, legitimacy vis-a-vis the subject group rather than external audiences), suggests that from the ourview of offenders subject to community sanctions, legitimacy is highly fluid or 'liquid'. The notion of 'liquid legitimacy' in our title is thus intended as a fairly straightforward metaphor. However it also recalls Bauman's (2000a) discussion of 'liquid modernity' because, like Bauman, we are concerned with how the object of our analysis (in our case, legitimacy) changes its forms and shapes as a community sanction is negotiated, constructed, contested and reconstructed by the various actors and audiences involved - all of them navigating uncertainties, risks and problems of trust. Our central argument is that, to the extent that community sanctions are oriented to purposes beyond the purely retributive, and to the extent that they seek to encourage active engagement or what we call substantive compliance on the part of offenders, attention to legitimacy is crucial.",
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    McNeill, F & Robinson, G 2009, 'Liquid legitimacy: negotiating compliance with community sanctions' Paper presented at International Symposium on Legitimacy and Compliance and Criminal Justice, Centre for Criminal Justice Studies, University of Leeds, 25/06/09 - 26/06/09, .

    Liquid legitimacy: negotiating compliance with community sanctions. / McNeill, Fergus; Robinson, G.

    2009. Paper presented at International Symposium on Legitimacy and Compliance and Criminal Justice, Centre for Criminal Justice Studies, University of Leeds, .

    Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper

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    McNeill F, Robinson G. Liquid legitimacy: negotiating compliance with community sanctions. 2009. Paper presented at International Symposium on Legitimacy and Compliance and Criminal Justice, Centre for Criminal Justice Studies, University of Leeds, .