6 - Territorializing: How Legal Territory Is Made and Justified

Summary

Chapter 6 explores the institutional context in which the work of territorialisation is performed, its rationale, and its relational logic of cutting and joining. It first introduces the context in which conditions of release are imposed and how legal actors practically choose and design these conditions, relying on internalized institutional norms and practices as well as information on the interactions between the accused and the spaces where the offence is (allegedly, at first) committed. The chapter then presents the competing State interests pursued by different legal actors during the criminal process, focusing particularly on the shifting rationalities of bail from ensuring the accused’s presence in court and preventing crime, to therapeutic and law enforcement.This chapter illustrates how legal actors mobilize both space and time to achieve their different goals.