Threat Perceptions: The Policing of Dangers from Eugenics to the War on Terrorism is a study of the legal, scientific and social constructions of danger and risk of crime in the United States since the late nineteenth century. Governance of risk has emerged as an intrinsic part of the legislative and administrative processes of contemporary societies. While institutional practices of risk management are more prevalent in contemporary times, the rationality of controlling or eliminating potential risks is not necessarily new in history. Specific aspects of contemporary risk-management techniques were present in certain early twentieth-century crime control policies. Some of the earliest instances were the defective delinquency laws directed at controlling the peril of the so-called "feebleminded" criminals. Similarly, policing of political dissent before and after the advent of McCarthyism contained elements of techniques that have been revised and expanded in the contemporary era of the PATRIOT Act.
The very idea of "risk" is contingent on, and produced through the intersection of various social processes. Prevailing social conditions and political trends influence the production of risk perceptions, just as legislations and judicial precedents institutionalize the calculation and control of risk by criminal justice and security apparatuses of a nation. Simultaneously, the prediction of risk is established by scientific discourses and practices, as psychological profiles, statistical models, and other measures of risk factors render the future calculable-hence, predictable. Thus, a comprehensive understanding of risk management and security practices necessitates the analysis of these processes that essentially transforms a possibility into reality, which then forms the basis of public policies and governmental processes.
Industry Reviews
Ghatak provides a most lucid addition to the literature on the governance of risk in modern America. He masterfully traces the historical roots of new forms of scientific and legal categories and knowledge about perceived dangerousness and risk, from the `psychopathic` criminal, to new ways of constructing the problems of immigration and terrorism. He adds vital new concepts which help us understand and perhaps moderate the tensions between anticipating risk and danger before it engulfs us and holding to the democratic processes and values that most of us hold dear. -- Kevin Stenson, University of Kent, UK
Threat Perceptions recovers for us the the complex mix of political, legal and scientific events in the 19th and 20th centuries, behind the present techniques of risk surveillance and control. Ghatak shows us that while these techniques are vulnerable in their dependence on the shifting grounds of law, politics, and science, they are remarkably robust in their ability to recirculate and reappear. This book will be of great value to anyone studying or worrying about our increasingly intrusive security state. -- Jonathan Simon, University of California at Berkeley
