The Human Rights Implications of Contemporary Patterns of Social Control

Abstract

This article, based on a project of the International Council on Human Rights Policy (ICHRP), explores the human rights implications of contemporary patterns of social control: how laws and policies construct and respond to people, behaviour or status defined as 'undesirable', 'dangerous', criminal or socially problematic. It draws on research across five policy areas: infectious diseases, urban spaces and the poor, policing, migration, and punishment and incarceration, as well as a case study of the Roma in Europe. It points to human rights challenges and ways forward with respect to ideas of crime and criminality, penal sanctions, non-criminal sanctions and 'soft' controls, segregation and exclusion, protection and victims' rights, privatization, surveillance, and policy transfer regimes. At the heart of such a response is the need for a dialogue between human rights advocates, critical social science and social policy analysts, and policy makers.

Beginning with an introduction to the 'social control perspective' and its relevance to human rights, the article explores the dominant modes and patterns of social control (and the related challenges and possibilities for human rights advocacy and policy), divided into three broad categories: criminalization and sanctions, segregation, and surveillance. An analysis of underlying forces and contexts, including political economy and global policy transfer regimes is followed by a conclusion that discusses the relevance of human rights principles in monitoring social control, out-lining ways forward for human rights advocacy, including on the specific issue of penalization of people in poverty.

Keywords: human rights, social control, crime, deviance, policy, urbanisation, discrimination