This Article Abstract Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by McCallum, D. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Coercive Normalization and Family Policing: The Limits of the ‘Psy-Complex’ in Australian Penal Systems

Victoria University, Australia

Much contemporary social and historical research on problem children and families focuses on the different kinds of power deployed in a complex of legal and non-legal settings. This article reviews socio-legal studies in Europe, Australia and the UK, and additional archival evidence in Victoria, Australia, in relation to a shift towards positivist and ‘welfarist’ approaches to the problem of child criminality and family regulation from the turn of the 20th century. The aim is to assess the applicability for Australia of trends in European social theory that emphasize non-coercive, non-legal correction of families, a productive rather than repressive form of power which incites families to seek to align their conduct to social norms. The article argues that ‘coercive normalization’ - systems of knowing and acting upon children and families arising from the penal system and images of threat - is a significant presence in the complex of power relations that make up a genealogy of family and child regulation in Australia.

Key Words: family • history • juvenile justice • power • psy-knowledge

References

• Brown, D. (2001) ‘Governmentality and Law and Order’, pp. 109-120 in G. Wickham and G. Pavlich (eds) Rethinking Law, Society, and Governance: Foucault’s Bequest. Oxford: Hart .
• Carrington, K. (1991) ‘Policing Families and Controlling the Young’, pp. 108-117 in R. White and B. Wilson (eds) For Your Own Good: Young People and State Intervention. Bundoora: La Trobe University Press .
• Donzelot, J. (1979) The Policing of Families. New York: Pantheon .
• Ewald, F. (1990) ‘Norms, Discipline and the Law’ , Representations 30: 138-161 .
• Foucault, M. (1977) Discipline and Punish. London: Allen Lane .
• Foucault, M. (1990) The History of Sexuality. Volume 1: An Introduction. London: Penguin .
• Foucault, M. (1991) ‘Governmentality’, pp. 87-104 in G. Burchell, C. Gordon and P. Miller (eds) The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality. London: Harvester Wheatsheaf .
• Garland, D. (1985) Punishment and Welfare: A History of Penal Strategies. Aldershot: Gower .
• Garland, D. (1997) ‘"Governmentality" and the Problem of Crime: Foucault, Criminology, Sociology’ , Theoretical Criminology 1: 173-214 .[Abstract]
• Hacking, I. (1986) ‘Making up People’, pp. 222-236 in T. Heller, M. Sosna and D. Wellbery (eds) Reconstructing Individualism. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press .
• Harrington, C. B. (1992) ‘Popular Justice, Populist Politics: Law in Community Organizing’ , Social & Legal Studies 1: 177-198 .[Free Full Text]
• Hindess, B. (2000) ‘Democracy and the Neo-liberal Promotion of Arbitrary Power’ , Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 3(4): 68-84 .
• Hindess, B. (2001) ‘The Liberal Government of Unfreedom’ , Alternatives: Social Transformation and Humane Governance, 26: 93-111 .
• Hogg, R. and K. Carrington (2001) ‘Governing Rural Australia: Land Space and Race’, pp. 43-60 in G. Wickham and G. Pavlich (eds) Rethinking Law, Society, and Governance: Foucault’s Bequest. Oxford: Hart .
• Hunt, A. (1992) ‘Foucault’s Expulsion of Law: Towards a Retrieval’ , Law and Social Inquiry 17(1): 1-38 .
• Jaggs, D. (1986) Neglected and Criminal: Foundations of Child Welfare Legislation in Victoria. Melbourne: Phillip Institute of Technology .
• McCallum, D. (1993) ‘Problem Children and Familial Relations’, pp. 129-152 in D. Meredyth and D. Tyler (eds) Child and Citizen: Genealogies of Schooling and Subjectivity. Nathan: Griffith University .
• McCallum, D. (2004) ‘Law and Norm: Justice Administration and the Human Sciences in Early Juvenile Justice in Victoria’ , Newcastle Law Review 7(2): 62-71 .
• McCallum, D. (2005) ‘Law and Governance in Australian Aboriginal Communities: Liberal and Neo-liberal Political Reason’ , International Journal of Children’s Rights 13: 333-350 .[CrossRef]
• Matthews, J. (1986) Good and Mad Women: The Historical Construction of Femininity in Twentieth Century Australia. Sydney: Allen and Unwin .
• Naffine, N. (1992) ‘Children in the Children’s Court: Can There Be Rights Without a Remedy?’, pp. 76-97 in P. Alstonet al. (eds) Children’s Rights and the Law. Melbourne: Oxford University Press .
• O’Malley, P. (1992) ‘Risk, Power and Crime Prevention’ , Economy and Society 21(3): 252-275 .
• Platt, A. (1977) The Child Savers: The Invention of Delinquency. Chicago: University of Chicago Press .
• Rose, N. (1990) Governing the Soul: The Shaping of the Private Self. London: Rout-ledge .
• Rose, N. and M. Valverde (1998) ‘Governed by Law?’ , Social & Legal Studies 7: 541-551 .[Abstract/Free Full Text]
• Seymour, J. (1997) ‘Children’s Courts in Australia: Their Current Role and Functions’, pp 292-306 in A. Borowski and I. O’Connor (eds) Juvenile Crime Justice and Corrections. South Melbourne: Longman .
• Van Krieken, R. (1991) Children and the State: Social Control and the Formation of Australian Child Welfare. Sydney: Allen and Unwin .
• Van Krieken, R. (2000) ‘Legal Informalism, Power and Liberal Governance’ , Social & Legal Studies 10(1): 5-22 .[Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
• Vaughan, B. (2000), ‘The Government of Youth: Disorder and Dependence’ , Social & Legal Studies 9(3): 366-374 .
• Victoria (1872) First Report of the Royal Commission on Industrial and Reformatory Schools and the Sanitary Station. Melbourne: Government Printer .
• Victoria (1890) Annual Report of the Board for the Protection of Aborigines 1890. Melbourne: Government Printer .
• Victoria (1906a) Royal Commission on the Victorian Police Force.
• Victoria (1906b) Report of the Inspector General of Penal Establishments and Gaols for the Year 1905.
• Victoria (1906c) Court of Petty Sessions, Public Records Office VPRS 266/P Law Department: Inward Correspondence.
• Victoria (1946-7) Department of Human Services. Archives. Children’s Court Clinic.
• Victorian Children’s Aid Society Records (1897-1908) Reports and Statements of Accounts. MS 10051, Box 1/2 (b), La Trobe Collection, State Library of Victoria, 1904.
• White, R. and F. Haines (2001) Crime and Criminology: An Introduction. South Melbourne: Oxford University Press .

Social & Legal Studies, Vol. 16, No. 1, 113-129 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0964663907073452


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This Article Abstract Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by McCallum, D. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?