Do enlightenment ideas (still) matter in crime control?

In this chapter I argue that the revival of enlightenment ideals in contemporary policymaking has very little to do with the idea that all people have the same basic needs, rights, and status. References to enlightenment values refer to a politics in which tradition and group identity prevail (Maly, 2018). Such political discourses have been gaining momentum in recent years and they pose a threat to a crime control policy in which human rights have become more important the past 40 years. Pleas for a moderate penal policy are therefore becoming less obvious and are more explicitly the subject of political struggle.