Definition:

The idea of risk society was proposed in 1992 by Ulrich Beck where his ideas arose for the
developing discipline of risk management established within sociology. He stated that risk society is
found within two interrelated theses, with one being reflexive modernization and the other these
being the issue of risk (Beck, 1992b). Ulrich Beck and Anthony Giddens proposed the notion of ‘risk
society’, the term is used to describe the different types of risk which were created due to the result
of the industrialisation and modernisation (Beck, 1992b).

Risk society is a complex phenomenon, it is not simply about calculating the odds of hazard or
danger (Kemshall, 2003), the idea of ‘risk society’ may suggest that it is a dangerous world which has
become hazardous. However, Giddens (1999) does not suggest that contemporary society is more
risky, but he stresses that the society is now preoccupied with the future and the safety, this
introduces the notion of risk. With risk it always has a negative significance as it refers to avoiding
unwanted outcomes, but risk can also be seen as a positive in terms of taking bold initiatives in a
problematic future (Giddens, 1999).

Risk is human made especially by those who have power, the government and welfare state.

Beck proposes that it was built on three different key processes, these processes are redistribution
of wealth and risk, individualization and destandardization of labor.

Both Giddens and Beck support this process of transition and modernisation which has proposed a
variety of man made or ‘manufactured’ risks.

Modernity:

Modernity refers to social, cultural and intellectual condition which helps to fix the distinct with
Western society, the notion of modernity is used as a statement of the world’s condition, this is
often as a replacement of capitalism, industrialization, secularization, rationalization and the
media/communication society or any other institutional traits (Hope and Sparks, 2012).

According to Beck, modernity is developing to becoming reflective modernity meaning that it is

becoming its own reflection, a new type of social change (Beck, 1992b). It first was pre-modernity
which developed to simple modernity in nineteenth century, this changed with the coming of
industrial and nation-state society, secondly is the change from simple modernity developing and
merging into reflective modernity which is changed with the coming of global risk society
(Beck,1992a).

The hazards of pre-industrial were explored and examined by Beck (1992) to see whether they were
just as damaging as the risks that were being faced in modernity. Beck proposed that we are not
moving and progressing towards a post-modern society but rather moving into what he calls ‘the
second modernity’ (Beck, 1992a).

Beck (1992) proposes that modernity has not been replaced but rather has become more
problematic he argues that in order for society to evolve, modernisation must become ‘reflective’,
this is where ‘reflective modernity’ is introduced. Risk is bound to the concept of reflexive
modernization, where risk could be defined as a way of dealing with hazards and insecurities which
are introduced by modernization (Beck, 1992a), risks are consequences of which relate to the
threatening force of modernization, they are politically reflexive. Beck argues that we are
experiencing a new wave of modernity, contemporary modernity is reflective which is characterise
by new risks with a “potentially global impact” (Ericson and Doyle 2003:74).
Techno-scientifically produce risks which constitute to real threats to human beings as they are
beyond human perceptions and because no one is held responsible for the hazards of risk society
meaning that those whose lives have been damaged or touched by these hazards cannot be
compensated because of how the risks involved in the reflexive modernity are problematised (Beck,
1992b).

Simple modernity was concerned with wealth distribution through welfare-state protection and
regulations through insurance principles.

Modernity was defined by Giddens (1991:14-15 cited in Lupton 2013) as the

“the institutions and modes of behaviour established first if all in post-feudal Europe, but which in
the twentieth century increasingly have become world-historical in their impact”

 Modernity is equivalent to the ‘industrialised world’, incorporating capitalism, the

institutions of surveillance and nuclear weapony as well as the process of industrialism.
Modernity depends upon the notion emerging in the seventeenth-century Enlightenment
that the key to human progress and social order is objective knowledge of the world through
scientific exploration and rational thinking. It assumes that the social and natural worlds
follow laws that may be measured, calculated and therefore predicted.”- p.6
 “The modernist concept of risk represented a new way of viewing the world and its chaotic
manifestations, its contingencies and uncertainties. It assumed that unanticipated outcomes
may be the consequence if human action rather than the result of God’s will, largely
replacing earlier concept of fate or Fortuna (Giddens, 1990:30). Reddy claims that
‘[m]oderns had eliminated genuine indeterminacy, or “uncertainty”, by inventing “risk”.
They had learnt to transform a radically indeterminate cosmos into a manageable one,
through the myth of calculability’ (1996:237)”-p.7

Reflexive modernity:

As stated by Beck (1992b), he claimed that contemporary society is at the edge of transition
between the ‘industrial society’ and ‘risk society’. ‘Risk society’ is defined as an inevitable structural
condition of advanced industrialisation. According to Beck, modern society has become a risk society
with how it’s occupied by debating, preventing and managing risks which it has produced. The
reflective modernization intensifies the fear of risk, because we are reflective we are more aware of
risk (Lupton, 2013).

The change within nature of society is in relation to the production and distribution related to the
environmental impact as a globalizing economy which is based on scientific and technical
knowledge, this becomes more central to the social organization and social conflict. Although, in the
earlier class-based societies it was mainly the working class/proletariat, who were victimized
whereas in the emerging risk society all groups including the rich are being threatened, here he
stressed about how risk and class position overlap on national and international scales.

Late modernity

- securitalisation

- neo liberal
Social scientists and politicians draw on that the notion of late modernity as a risk society, but both
Beck and Giddens have interpreted this idea differently, nonetheless within both of their analyses
they separate the notion of risk from the notion of hazard or danger (Walklate, 2011).

Globalisation

Globalisation is where organisations develop global influence/ international influence, with this it
creates fears (Hope and Sparks, 2012). It has many more flows of money, goods, technologies and
ideas but with all of these it opens new opportunities for crimes to be committed. There are
significant global crimes which can occur for instant drug-crimes, human trafficking, threats of
terrorism and cybercrimes. One major outcome is that globalisation increases people’s awareness of
risk which increases fear and anxiety of the perceived crimes which could occur (Ewald, 2000 cited in
Hope and Sparks, 2012). With the new technology opens up new areas and opportunities for new
crimes such as cybercrime which is global in nature, not only are the public in the line of being
victimized of such crimes, but even those who have power like the government are in the fire line of
being under threats with cyber attacks due to the new technology developed in the society.

Fear of crime:

As stated by Garofalo (1981), fear is understood to be a feeling we have when we react to threats, it
has a profound impact on any society, the choices regarding where people to choose to live and
socialize depends on their perception of the safety of that area/neighbourhood, town or city. The
role of social construction is what has an influence on people’s perception, as stated by Scott (2003),
crimes have an immediate effect on the living areas in society, crimes such as burglary, robbery etc,
these types of crimes create a high degree of fear and increases anxiety around the society. The
government and state use the notions of risk in order to increase the fear of crime, with this anxiety
tends to increase which leads to internalising regimes of risk avoiding behaviours (

Some theorists have situated the debate of fear of crime in the sociological discourse of modernity, in
either post-modernity, late-modernity, second-modernity or reflective modernity, in the centre upon
notions of risk, trust and individualisation (Scott, 2003). Scott (2003) plea’s that fear of crime is an
expression of technological advancements which characterises the risk society along with social and
cultural transformations which is labelled and known as individualisation. Upon living in this risk
society in an age of individualisation comes re-questioning and redefining safety, security and
certainty (Scott,2003).

The fear of crime debate has been linked with reflective modernisation through the theme of trust,
where it is argued that fear of crime is a remark of lack of trust in other people and agencies such as
governments (Carrabine, 2013).

Beck (1992b) brought attention to the link between crime management and risk management, both
of these are concerned with classes of hazards, also crime and technology scientific both have
damaging effects on trust between people and trust in organizations of which are responsible for the
management of risks.

Following Beck’s perspective on reflective modernisation, Ewald (2000) argues how crime is one
side-effect of modernity and how it belongs to the class of manufactured risks. This argument is also
elaborated by Manuel Castells who also argues how criminal activities are becoming global and how
the networking of criminal organisations is capturing world society, political and cultural life,
therefore crime shares a number of communalities with the risks which are described by Beck and
Giddens. Thus, fear of crime is an expression of uncertainties with crime risk.
Individualisation:

Problem of Crimes

Nowadays, our society is divided into classes, rich and the poor. The poor tend to start off their lives
in families who have problems, problems such as alcoholism or drug addicts therefore they would
need money to carry on with their habits therefore they may attack the rick people for money.
These classes of people in the society tend to the each-other, especially the poor hating on the rich
as they would like to live how the rich live like living in beautiful neighbourhoods for instance. Drugs
and alcohol have a big influence on crime in societies, the addicts need to commit crimes in order to
carry on with their habits, many of the crimes in societies are committed by drunk men or women.

Governmentality/Foucault

Governmentality is a term introduced in 1970s by Michel Foucalt who used it in his work on modern
forms of political power. This term is combined by government and ‘rationality’ which suggests a
form of political analysis focussing on knowledge of which make objects visible and available for
governing (Foucault, 1997). As stated by Foucault,

Although governmentality is applied by different people in different ways, however it has been
embraced as a valuable theoretical perspective for understanding power and rule across diverse
fields such as crime, local government and public service reform.

Governing through crime

Western states have moved from the governance of crime to governing through crime.

This is the idea of the potential of crime or of a person to be criminal inscribed as the core value of
governance and social control throughout society.

Actuarial Justice

Risk factors and management had become important and highlighted in 1980s, this is where the
public waned more accountability and rationality in the policies of the system, here is where the
new system ‘actuarialism’ emerged. Within the previous society, this was based around punishment
of an individual in order to better the society, this was then challenged by the new ‘risk society’ with
the objective being to find the risky population by using scientific calculations.

In 1992 a new penology was identified by Malcolm Feeley and Jonathon Simon it was introduced as
‘actuarial’. Actuarialism was defined by Feeley and Simon (1994) as an approach to crime control
and crime management which is disbursed with concerns about motivations behind the offences
and replaces this with technologies of risk minimisation with the hope of it potentially eliminating
threats to social orders. They characterised actuarial justice with techniques which is used to
identify, classify and manage groups which are categorised by levels of dangerousness and
objectives de-emphasizing the offender (Kempf-Leonard and Peterson, 2000).

‘actuarial justice’, which is the management of crime opportunities and risk distribution rather than
the management of individual offenders and behaviours (Feeley and Simon, 1992).

This only has interest in monitoring and keeping offenders within the criminal justice system, it
doesn’t tend to look at rehabilitation for the offenders or tries in any way to resolve the problem of
crime (Kemshall,2003)
Problems with actuarialism:

There are a few problems of actuarialism for instance does ‘actuarial justice’ actually work, meaning
does this achieve the objectives it was introduced for which is identifying and reducing the risk of
young people of reoffending,

In actuarial justice it accepts deviance as being normal and it

This essay will give a brief context for the term risk society by Ulrich Beck (1992) before it moved
forward to discuss some characteristics of risk society, modernity, reflective modernity,
globalisation, it will also look briefly on individualisation which is seen to occur within reflective
modernity. The essay will look into the works of Beck and Giddens and how they perceive the idea of
risk society. There are many features to modernity as it develops, one being globalisation and
governmentality. Whilst discussing such work of Foucault about the globalisation and
governmentality, it will talk about the boomerang effect which eliminated the class of inequality and
discuss how no matter the social class of the people, they power that they may or may not have will
not stop the crimes from happening to them. In governmentality, Beck argues that even those who
have power and who are in power will be able to escape the problem of crime, that due to the new
technologies, new areas for opportunities for crime will occur, such crimes as cybercrime, and cyber
threats/terrorism threats. The work of actuarial justice/actuarialism will be discussed in the essay, it
will discuss what exactly it is about and how it works along. Along with the actuarial justice it will
discuss some of the problems which occurred with the problem of crimes, whether they new system
actually worked with the offenders, or if it was just a way to monitor the offenders in the criminal
justice system.

Foucault., M. (1977) Discipline and Punish: the birth of the prison., New York: Pantheon Books