Description:
A magisterial comparative study, Proud to Punish recenters our understanding of modern punishment through a sweeping analysis of the global phenomenon of "rough justice" the use of force to settle accounts and enforce legal and moral norms outside the formal framework of the law. While taking many forms, including vigilantism, lynch mobs, people's courts, and death squads, all seekers of rough justice thrive on the deliberate blurring of lines between law enforcers and troublemakers. Digital networks have provided a profitable arena for vigilantes, who use social media to build a following and publicize their work, as they debase the bodies of the accused for purposes of edification and entertainment. It is this unabashed pride to punish, and the new punitive celebrations that actualize, publicize, and commercialize it, that this book brings into focus. Recounted in lively prose, Proud to Punish is both a global map of rough justice today and an insight into the deeper nature of punishment as a social and political phenomenon.
Review Quotes: "Proud to Punish offers a brilliant, compelling analysis of contemporary vigilantism and the politics of extrajudicial punishment. The authors offer innovative insights into crimefighting discourses, retributive violence, its public reception, and responses from law enforcement authorities; and vividly illustrate how these factors become implicated in local and global vigilante configurations." --Atreyee Sen, co-editor of Global Vigilantes: Perspectives on Violence and Justice