AMST 3822 Chapter Notes - Chapter 16: Victimology, Metonymy
31 Mar 2019
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Document Summary
Late 1960s state legislatures and congress produced a remarkable stream of laws concerning the power to punish criminals. Most of laws increased the authority to punish and invested public money in criminal justice operations especially expensive prison system. The coherence of this body of law as reflecting a vision of how institutions govern through crime. 1968 omnibus crime control and safe streets act. At the center of new lawmaking rationality is the crime victim. Crime victims are in a real sense the representative subjects of our time. Vulnerabilities and needs of victims define the appropriate conditions for govt. Nature of victim identity is deeply racialized, but primarily white. Though victims are the key subject addressed by crime legislation they are not always or even often directly referenced. Contemporary crime legislation invests these elements with truth and power, causing government agents and subjects to further invest their own attention and capacities in responding.
