An expanding culture of control?: the municipal administrative sanctions act in Belgium

This article provides an in-depth study of the Act on Municipal Administrative Sanctions 1999 (MAS), which is the first major piece of legislation regulating antisocial behaviour in Belgium. MAS provides municipalities with an instrument to sanction antisocial behaviour and conduct perceived to dist...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Devroe, Elke (Author)
Contributors: Bruinsma, Gerben ; Vander Beken, Tom
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Published: 2017
In: European journal on criminal policy and research
Year: 2017, Volume: 23, Issue: 1, Pages: 59-76
Online Access: Presumably Free Access
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Keywords:
Administrative sanctions
Anti-social behaviour
Antisoziales Verhalten
Culture of control
Incivilities
Kriminalprävention
Orte
Police
Policing public space
Description
Summary:This article provides an in-depth study of the Act on Municipal Administrative Sanctions 1999 (MAS), which is the first major piece of legislation regulating antisocial behaviour in Belgium. MAS provides municipalities with an instrument to sanction antisocial behaviour and conduct perceived to disturb public order. The article uses Garland’s (2001) thesis on the culture of control to analyse whether MAS has led to increased government control and the exclusion of significant groups of the population. The research is based on a multiple case study in which the application of MAS was analysed over a 25-year period of security policies in Belgium (1985–2010). The Act’s implementation was studied in the two Belgian cities of Antwerp and Liège in order to consider the influence of the Flemish government and the Walloon government, respectively, in this policy area. The article uses insights from this comparison to revisit the culture of control thesis and its limitations in understanding the political competition that exists over the formulation of policies on antisocial behaviour.
ISSN:1572-9869
DOI:10.1007/s10610-016-9321-2