Post-welfarist risk managers? Risk, crime prevention and the responsibilization of community-based organizations

Numerous scholars have observed that neo-liberal rationalities have resulted in the replacement of interventionist State-run welfare initiatives with community-based risk managing schemes in a process called responsibilization. These risk management policies have become influential in the domain of crime prevention and in the shaping of the future conduct of the ‘at-risk’ youth. This article details, ethnographically, the goals and activities of 10 responsibilized community-based organizations and the conceptualization of ‘risk’ by practitioners from these organizations. The findings suggest that social abandonment and surveillance-centered risk management schemes co-exist with welfarist notions. The findings have implications about whether crime prevention is as post-welfarist as some theorists maintain.