TMA 03
How does the concept of ‘problem populations’ highlight the entangled nature of the relationship between crime control and social welfare policy? In what ways does the entanglement raise issues of social justice?
Within this essay I want to successfully explain what I meant by problem populations, how a problem population is made up. What difficulties they face and how they are treated. How these problem populations can highlight the entangled relationship between crime control and social welfare policy. I will draw upon the case studies of Hurricane Katrina, Banlieue in France & urban populations in Britain.
‘Social Justice, a device for challenging particular forms of inequality or unfairness’ (pg 168)
When talking or reading about definitions of problem people or problem populations, we can look to the French sociologist Loic Wanquant, he writes of the ‘ghetto in the USA, banlieue in France, quarrtieri periferci in Italy, problemomrade in Sweden, favela in Brazil, villa miseria in Argentina and rancho in Venezuela’(pg 111). These areas all have common threads, poor, crime ridden, deprivation, high unemployment, alcoholism, drug abuse, lack of public service and a lack of respect for where they live and how they live. These areas are not seen as normal, a large city that has areas where the poorer members of the society reside, what comes to mind would be large council estates full of local authority or social housing. So problem populations are identified as the poorer groups of society and not the more affluent groups in society. Poor people are seen to behave in a certain way and live their lives in a certain way, what research tends to tell us is that this way is the wrong way and not always seen as socially acceptable. ‘Poor and disadvantaged groups come to be regarded as problem populations afflicted by deficiencies’ (pg 124). These deficiencies or stereotypes are seen as poverty, criminal behaviour, alcoholism, unemployment,...