Wendy Fitzgibbon and John Lea, Privatising Justice: The Security Industry, War and Crime Control

centred morality can offer for network societies: recently he highlighted the dangers of such developments when they feed into a vengeful identity politics and when radicalization and right-wing nationalism decrease our preparedness to see the other as a ‘fellowsufferer’ (Boutellier, 2019; Daems and van Stokkom, 2019). A Criminology of Moral Order is not a book for the number-crunching empiricists among us. Boutellier writes with broad brushstrokes: he is interested in big ideas, not in empirical detail. For those with an interest in social and political theory, however, this book has a lot to offer and to critically engage with. His point of departure is fascinating: for Boutellier crime is a moral problem (for him questions about the justification of such behaviour takes precedence over its explanation) and this makes him perceive our responses to crime – including punishment – through a moral lense. As Anthony Bottoms once highlighted, Boutellier’s explanation for the rise of restorative justice practices in contemporary societies has instant appeal because such processes ‘... provide an element of normative clarification in a morally changing society’ (Bottoms, 2003: 103). And yes, Boutellier sometimes is too much of a ‘moral reductionist’ and a ‘moral crusader’ (Daems, 2008) but this also makes it so rewarding to read his work as it is, in the true sense of that beautiful English word, thought-provoking.