This book reconceptualises the concept of moral economy in its relevance for, and application to, the criminal justice system in England and Wales. It advances the argument that criminal justice cannot be reduced to an instrumentally driven operation to achieve fiscal efficiencies or provide investment opportunities to the commercial sector.

Philip Whitehead is Reader in Criminal and Social Justice at Teesside University, UK. Previously he worked for the Probation Service for 27 years and held numerous positions including Research and Information Officer. He has researched various aspects of probation and criminal justice since the 1980s and is the author of numerous books and articles.

Foreword; Simon Winlow and Steve Hall

Prologue

1. Theorising Morality: Assembling the Intellectual Resources

2. Moral Economy: Exploring a Contested Concept

3. Moral Economy, Criminal Justice and Probation: 1979 to 2010

4. Moral Economy, Markets and Privatisation: 2010 to 2015

5. Reconceptualising the Moral Economy of Criminal Justice