Peculiar Institution

America's Death Penalty in an Age of Abolition
1. Auflage 2010
ISBN: 978-0-19-959499-3
Verlag: Oxford University Press

Buch, Englisch, 432 Seiten, Format (B × H): 167 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 788 g

For many Europeans, the persistence of America's death penalty is a stark reminder of American otherness. The practice of state killing is an archaic relic, a hollow symbol that accomplishes nothing but reflects a puritanical, punitive culture - bloodthirsty in its pursuit of retribution. In debating capital punishment, the usual rhetoric points to America's deviance from the western norm: civilized abolition and barbaric retention; 'us' and 'them'.

This remarkable new study by a leading social thinker sweeps aside the familiar story and offers a compelling interpretation of the culture of American punishment. It shows that the same forces that led to the death penalty's abolition in Europe once made America a pioneer of reform. That democracy and civilization are not the enemies of capital punishment, though liberalism and humanitarianism are. Making sense of today's differences requires a better understanding of American society and its punishments than the standard rhetoric allows.

Taking us deep inside the world of capital punishment, the book offers a detailed picture of a peculiar institution - its cultural meaning and symbolic force for supporters and abolitionists, its place in the landscape of American politics and attitudes to crime, its constitutional status and the legal struggles that define it. Understanding the death penalty requires that we understand how American society is put together - the legacy of racial violence, the structures of social power, and the commitment to radical, local majority rule.

Shattering current stereotypes, the book forces us to rethink our understanding of the politics of death and of punishment in America and beyond.

Zielgruppe

Academics and students working in criminology, sociology or American politics. General readers interested in current affairs, especially American politics, society, and culture.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Garland, David

Fachgebiete

• Rechtswissenschaften Recht, Rechtswissenschaft Allgemein Rechtssoziologie, Rechtspsychologie, Rechtslinguistik
• Rechtswissenschaften Strafrecht Kriminologie, Strafverfolgung
• Rechtswissenschaften Ausländisches Recht Common Law (UK, USA, Australien u.a.)
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Kriminalsoziologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Rechtssoziologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Prologue
1: Thinking about capital punishment
2: The American way of death
3: Capital punishment in the shadow of lynching
4: Capital punishment in long-term perspective
5: The decline of the death penalty in Europe and America
6: The causes of capital punishment's decline
7: The American state in comparative perspective
8: American society, American violence, American culture
9: Capital punishment and the American social structure
10: An American abolition: Furman v Georgia in context
11: Backlash: the new meanings of capital punishment
12: Rationalize, civilize, democratize: the Supreme Court strategies
13: The uses of capital punishment
14: The peculiar institution explained

Über Autor(innen)

David Garland is Professor of Sociology at New York University. He is one of the leading sociologists writing on punishment and crime control, his major works including Punishment and Modern Society, and The Culture of Control.