The tragic core of criminal justice: Coercive social control and the loss of innocence. (September 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Marenin, Otwin
• Is Part Of: International journal of law, crime and justice. Volume 58(2019)
• Page Start: 91
• Page End: 99
• Publication Date: 2019-09
• Subjects: Law -- Periodicals; Criminology -- Periodicals; Justice -- Periodicals; Justice pénale -- Administration -- Périodiques; Criminologie -- Périodiques; Sociologie juridique -- Périodiques; Electronic journals; 340.11
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijlcj.2019.04.003
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1756-0616

Abstract

Abstract: Practitioners and academics in Criminal Justice are engaged in tragic work. The core defining aspect of criminal justice is using coercion, or the threat of it, to ensure social control. As noted by many writers, force to compel others taints the character of the compeller who cannot remain both good and innocent, even when force is used for good ends, I argue that a tragic sense of life, which accepts the impossibility of being both good and innocent, is the practical and conceptual glue that defines criminal justice as a discipline.