Porous Penality and the Myth of Liberal Punishment: Lessons from South Africa

Drawing on Walter Benjamin, this paper discusses the relationships between law, violence, and punishment. The main argument I make is that state punishment is BOTH a violent and logically contradictory practice and that the state’s legal right to punish often spills over into extralegal penal violen...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Super, Gail (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Published: 2024
In: The British journal of criminology
Year: 2024, Volume: 64, Issue: 1, Pages: 107-123
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Keywords:
Penal Violence
Punishment
Racialisation
Walter Benjamin
Description
Summary:Drawing on Walter Benjamin, this paper discusses the relationships between law, violence, and punishment. The main argument I make is that state punishment is BOTH a violent and logically contradictory practice and that the state’s legal right to punish often spills over into extralegal penal violence, perpetrated by a range of actors against the racialized poor. I use the term penal violence to refer to all forms of violence which are aimed at enforcing law or punishing a perceived transgression of law or norms. The paper focuses on the infliction of penal violence in South Africa on/in three different scales and jurisdictions: Makwanyane and violence in prisons; police and prosecutorial violence; and extralegal civilian violence.
Item Description:Literaturverzeichnis: Seite 121-123
ISSN:1464-3529
DOI:10.1093/bjc/azad017