Contagion, Counter-Terrorism and Criminology: Strategies for Contestation?

Abstract

This chapter seeks to examine criminology's role in the social contestation of the contagion phenomenon. The argument is advanced that criminology is well-placed to scrutinise such developments, particularly given the increasingly synergistic and 'plastic' relationship between the 'special' and the 'normal' within criminal justice. The important role played by human rights in contesting excessive securitisation, moreover, will require deeper criminological engagement with human rights. In this regard, it is argued that the application of governmentality-informed criminological concepts may help to illuminate the process and context in which departures from human rights standards are made and the 'rationalities' and 'knowledges' facilitating them.