Community Protection Warnings and the practices of the preventive state

This article explores preventive justice through the use of Community Protection Warnings (CPWs), a civil measure used to tackle anti-social behaviour in England and Wales. Through a qualitative study of frontline practitioners’ experiences, this article argues that CPWs are a preventive form of punishment, framed through non-punitive intentions and as ‘just’ a warning, while their use in practice demonstrates coercive and punitive outcomes. Drawing on Beckett and Murakawa’s notion of the shadow penal state, in which the reach of the penal system is extended through new entry points outside of the criminal justice system, we argue the use of CPWs implies a penumbra to that shadow, further stretching the state's punitive reach with fewer due process protections.