Criminal law as a moral stronghold

Abstract

This chapter analyses the position of criminal law in order to understand the dominance of the security discourse. In a morally coherent community, criminal law functions as a last resort — an ultimum remedium. This was the case until the 1970s. Due to rising crime figures and societal unease, the position of criminal law shifted from a legal practice on the periphery to a central institution of moral order. The chapter discusses a switch in the relationship between morality and criminal law. After the 1970s, criminal law was no longer the result of consensus on moral issues, but it was the other way round: criminal law became the defining authority in the design of moral space. It is the moral stronghold in a liquid society, an anchor in a complex world without direction. The chapter shows how ‘the victim’ was the key in this ‘inversion’ of morality and criminal law.