An Investigation into Social Control by Neglect

An Investigation into Social Control by Neglect, funded by The Southlands Methodist Trust. The research investigates the conceptual parameters of a new criminological theory: social control by neglect. It explores the absence of institutional control and social support in the lives of certain groups. Theories of social control have normally been cast in terms of types of institutional control e.g., surveillance or incarceration. This project investigates the withdrawal of the state and its institutions in the neoliberal post-welfare global north and examines the failure to care for certain groups through indifference, underfunding, deprivation, and abandonment. Social control by neglect is understood as ranging from malign institutional indifference to criminally negligent manslaughter. Four case studies in the areas of criminal justice, disability welfare, homelessness and migration will illustrate the conceptual parameters of the theory involving key informants in the four sites.