Australian Politics and Policy - Senior, 2019a

Garner Clancey and Brenda Lin (with Brendan Delahunty)
Key terms/names
corporate crime, criminal justice system, fear of crime, hyper-criminalisation, law
and order policy, penal welfarism, policy transfer, ‘punitive turn’, ‘tough on crime’
‘Law and order’ policy refers to the decisions and actions of governments relating
to issues of crime and justice. Policy in this area has traditionally been referred to
as criminal justice policy but is more commonly being referred to as ‘law and order’
policy – reflecting the increasing punitive nature of debates, laws and policies in the
criminal justice domain. In the interests of simplicity, reference will be made to law
and order policy throughout this chapter.
In Australia, states and territories are responsible for law and order policy.
Consequently, the laws and procedures used in each state and territory to define
criminal conduct and determine how crimes are investigated, arrests made,
evidence gathered, charges brought, defences raised, trials conducted, sentences
rendered and punishment carried out will be slightly or significantly different. Laws
determining what types of conduct should be the subject of the criminal justice
system are shaped by the social, political and moral concerns of the day.
The criminal justice system is (mainly) composed of three key government
institutions: the police, courts and prisons.
• Police: the primary role of police is to enforce the criminal law, maintain public
order and ensure community safety by investigating criminal activity and
Clancey, Garner, and Brenda Lin (with Brendan Delahunty) (2019). ‘Law and order’ policy. In Peter J.
Chen, Nicholas Barry, John R. Butcher, David Clune, Ian Cook, Adele Garnier, Yvonne Haigh, Sara C.
Motta and Marija Taflaga, eds. Australian politics and policy: senior edition. Sydney: Sydney University
Press. DOI: 10.30722/sup.9781743326671
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