By Tess Bartlett - Rethinking Crime and Punishment

penal policy development where they have claimed the right to speak aboutvictimisation through their own highly political lens.However, it is not the typical crime victim who is represented by politicians and themedia, but instead an ideal victim. An example of this can be seen in theUnited States, where advocates of Megan’s Law (Office of Attorney General, 2007)reiterate that ‘Megan could have been anybody’s child. She was everybody’s child,a poignant symbol of the obligation that each of us has [to keep children safe]’(Megan Nicole Kanka Foundation, n.d: Par. 8) 7 . Against such innocence, offendershave also been transformed to represent the particularly ‘evil’ subgroup whomvictims’ representatives and politicians believe are significantly different from thelaw­abiding community (Pratt & Clark, 2005). The victim and the offender havetherefore been typified as being representative of all that is good on the one hand andall that is bad on the other. Consequently, members of the public who are thereceivers of this information are more likely to become increasingly sympathetic tocrime victims and increasingly punitive towards offenders. The increased fear ofcrime, when coupled with its politicisation, has seen the public and the victimbecome more central to penal policy debate, ultimately leading to penal populism.MethodologyThe research for the thesis was undertaken using qualitative documentary analysis(with components of quantitative analysis used in Chapters Two and Three), anintegrated method used to locate, identify, retrieve and analyse documents for theirrelevant significance and meaning (Altheide, 1996). The use of qualitativedocumentary analysis allowed the research to be reflective and interactive wherethemes emerged throughout the research process (Altheide, 1987). The thesis usedprogressive theoretical sampling. This sampling method allowed documents to beselected for theoretical reasons as the research and its arguments progressed(Altheide, 1996). The materials being analysed consisted of newspaper articles,parliamentary debates (as reported in Hansard and in the Appendix to the Journal ofthe House of Representatives), media releases, annual reports, yearbooks, and7Megan’s Law is an informal name given to laws in the United States that were named after sevenyear old victim Megan Kanka and require the public availability of information regarding sexoffenders.17