Coercive normalization and family policing : the limits of the psy-complex in Australian penal systems

Much contemporary social and historical research on problem children and families focuses on the different kinds of power deployed in a complex of legal and non-legal settings. This paper reviews socio-legal studies in Europe, Australia and the UK, and additional archival evidence in Victoria, Australia, in relation to a shift towards positivist and welfarist approaches to the problem of child criminality and family regulation from the turn of the 20th century. The aim is to assess the applicability for Australia of trends in European social theory that emphasize non-coercive, non-legal correction of families, a productive rather than repressive form of power which incites families to seek to align their conduct to social norms. The paper argues that coercive normalization - systems of knowing and acting upon children and families arising from the penal system and Coercive normalization and family policing Final Draft to Social and Legal Studies May 2006 p. 1 images of threat is a significant presence in the complex of power relations that make up a genealogy of family and child regulation in Australia