NCJ Number
177821
Editor(s)
Christine T. Sistare
Date Published
1996
Length
229 pages
Annotation
These 10 essays present diverse perspectives on the history, current meaning, and future implications of legal punishment as a specific mode of social control and coercion, with emphasis on developments in the late 19th and 20th centuries.
Abstract
The essays reflect the perspectives of philosophy, psychology, semiotics, sociology, criminology, feminist theory, and law. Individual papers examine the justifications for punishment from ancient times to the present and examine Michel Foucault's critique of contemporary society as a disciplinary society. Additional essays consider subjectivity in law, medicine, and science with respect to the language used in courtrooms in cases involving persons who are criminally insane or mentally ill and examine the relationship between formal legal punishment and other forms of social control. Further papers consider the legal responsibility of pregnant drug abusers, the use of long-acting contraceptives as a condition of probation, and the use of chaos theory in the physical sciences as a means of challenging the presumed search for truth in law and other social sciences. Index, chapter reference notes, and chapter reference lists