Actuarial Justice

To what extent has actuarial justice displaced traditional penal practice in

contemporary societies?

The displacement of traditional methods of penal practice within contemporary societies in

favour of the more risk orientated model of actuarial justice has proved a contentious issue

amongst academic and political discourse and still remains an arena of vigorous debate.

The discussion surrounding the progressive area of actuarial justice may be seen to provide

opposing arguments of equal weight and pertinence within modern structures of national

criminal justice systems throughout the globe; however the construction and application

of this theoretical model of criminal justice may differ amongst societies and …show more content…
Case representations

of the way in which differential executions of the same model of actuarial justice may vary

between societies and the disparate consequences they deliver will additionally be considered

to highlight the divergent viewpoints and debates encompassing actuarial justice.

Drawing upon the various outcomes actuarial justice may be argued to impose, with specific

reference to the implementation of the indeterminate sentence for public protection (IPP), the

debate accentuating the harms and inequalities which are promoted within particular models

of actuarial justice and thus the argument that on the whole many traditional methods have

not been displaced in favour of this new risk penology shall be assessed.

The concept of actuarial justice is the process whereby future threats and risks posed by

offenders to society are calculated and as such play a dominant role in contributing to

prevention techniques and policing which endeavour to respond to such perceived …show more content…
It is through the depart of

individualisation to generalisation which has shaped the management techniques associated

with actuarial justice. It can be argued that this model of justice is consequently unconcerned

with the reformation of offenders, instead seeks to filter particular groups through specific

pathways within the justice system dependent upon their risk profile. As such it is possible to

deduce that actuarial justice is primarily concerned with the existing and future threat posed

upon society by offenders, making the paramount concern crime prevention and constraining

lawbreaking activity contrary to providing a suitable response and the comprehension factors

contributing to individual criminality.

The debate and evidence promoting the implication that actuarial justice is indeed displacing

traditional penal methods is one which is widely and comprehensively presented within both

academic and political discourse. Giddens (1994) proffers the suggestion that modern

societies are to a greater extent preoccupied with the notion of future risk, which may be