In an earlier report I see out an argument that sought to explain

recent developments in crime control from the point of view of the

government agencies and political actors directly responsible for
policy formation (GERLAND 1996).Here I add a second instlement to that
argument by discribing the ways in wich certain shifts in social
structure and cultural sensibities have made policies of this kind
more likely.My claim in this paper is that the reconfigured field
ofcrime control that has developed over the last few decade has its
roots in a new collective experience of crime and insecurity,an
experience wich experience which itself structured by the distinctive
social ,economic and cultural arrangments of late twentieh-century
capitalism.

The pereptual and emotional stands of this collective experience

have been taken up , reworked .an inflected towards particular
outcomes by politicians ,policy makers and openion –formers .the
political process is,in the sense ,determinative .but it would be a
mistake focus all attention upon the process of political
transformation and representation .the newly emerging policie of
crime control also depend for possibility and their popular resonace
upon the pre –existance of certain wide spend social routines and
culutal sensibilities

Evaluation:
In a continuing attempt to explain the emergence of new strategies of crime control in the UK and
USA, a theory of cultural adaptation is developed. The paper argues that the political and policy
shifts of recent years have been conditioned by prior changes that have occurred at the level of
social structures and cultural sensibilities. A historical account of these changes is outlined, together
with a characterization of the culture of high crime societies.