As criminal justice has become one of the most hotly-debated issues in contemporary Western politics, the punitive capacity of the State has intensified. This book seeks to test the validity of claims that the UK has experienced a 'punitive turn' over the past two decades and to situate recent trends in the specific context of neoliberalism. It is argued that, whilst particular cultural and political factors are relevant, it is ultimately neoliberalism which has led to the recent intensification of punishment, undermining government's capacity to deal with the structural causes of criminality, leading it to use the crime problem as a wedge issue in a vain attempt to appeal to the electorate across class lines and forcing it to submit the criminal justice system, as all other public services, to the processes of commodification.