ebook img

“Wild Justice” - The Anarchist Library PDF

18 Pages·2012·0.12 MB·English
by  
Save to my drive
Quick download
Download
Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.

Preview “Wild Justice” - The Anarchist Library

TheAnarchistLibrary Anti-Copyright “Wild Justice” CrimeasanAnarchistSourceofSocialOrder Bob Black BobBlack “WildJustice” CrimeasanAnarchistSourceofSocialOrder Spring2012 theanarchistlibrary.org Spring 2012 Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 TheSourcesofSocialOrder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 LawandAnarchy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 CrimeandPriorRelationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 CrimeasSelf-Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 SocialControlfromBelow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Vengeance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 VendettasandFeuds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 RisksandCostsofCriminalSelf-Help . . . . . . . . . . . 21 IsCriminalSelf-HelpJust? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 WhichIsBetter? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 3 cisBaconputit,whereyouhadoneenemy,nowyouhavetwo.And Introduction thestateisbestofallatprotectingthestate.Underanarchy,there willbeonlyoneenemy,andyou,andyourfriends,andthefriends We’ve all heard the phrase “law and order” — as if they go to- of anarchy will deal with the common enemy, feeling a sense of gether.Thesloganassumesthatlawpromotesorder,andthatcrime solidarity,justlikeDurkheimsaid! subvertsorder.“Anarchistsbelievethephraselawandorderisone What Bacon called wild justice is better than no justice at all. of the great deceptions of our age.”1 I’m going to discuss just one I like my justice to be a little wild. For all its drawbacks, taking of the reasons why this slogan is a lie. One reason is that law it- thelawintoyourownhandscanbeasourceofsatisfaction,even selfmaycreateorperpetuatedisorder.Thisisafamiliaranarchist exhilaration,thatyoujustcan’tgetbyworkingthroughthesystem. theme2whichIwillnotgointohere.Anotherreason,whichisnot Iearlierinsisted,andIstilldo,thatvengeanceisn’tjustareflexive, familiar,isthatoftencrimepromotesorder.Crimecanbeasource emotional lashing-out. But neither is vengeance just the result of oforder—especiallywherethelawisn’t—andthisissurprisingly a cold cost-benefit analysis. It has an emotional dimension, and common.Ifcrimeiseverasourceofsocialorder,itcanonlybean whynot?It’sexpressiveaswellasinstrumental.Vengeancecanbe anarchistsourceofsocialorder.Thiswillbemythesishere. empowering. Along with the justice of vengeance, there’s the joy Untilrecently,socialscientistsonlynoticedonewaythatcrime ofvengeance.Andisn’tanarchismtheonlypoliticsofjoy? promotesorder.AsÉmileDurkheimputit,“Crimebringstogether   upright consciences and concentrates them.”3 The community 1“IntroductionbyHowardZinn:TheArtofRevolution,”inHerbertRead, Anarchy & Order: Essays in Politics (Boston: Beacon Press, 1971), xv. “Law and orderisthehistoricalillusion;lawversusorderisthehistoricalreality.”Stanley Diamond, “The Rule of Law versus the Order of Custom,” The Rule of Law, ed. Robert Paul Wolff (New York: Touchstone Books, 1971), 140; see also Edgar Z. Friedenberg,“TheSideEffectsoftheLegalProcess,”ibid.,45. 2See, e.g., “Law and Authority,” Kropotkin’s Revolutionary Pamphlets, ed. RogerN.Baldwin(NewYork:DoverBooks,1970),216–17&passim.Inthetime- lesswordsofChicagoMayorRichardDaley:“Thepolicearenotheretocreatedis- order;they’reheretomaintaindisorder.”QuotedinGertrudeBlock,“Language Tips,”NewYorkStateBarAss’nJournal83(5)(June2011),57. 3ÉmileDurkheim,TheDivisionofLaborinSociety,tr.GeorgeSimpson(New York:Macmillan,1933),102.“Crimehastheusefulfunctionofmaintainingthese totheresultsobtained.Ontheotherhand,individualsarenolongersubjectto [collective]sentimentsatthesamedegreeofintensity,fortheywouldsoondi- anyothercollectivecontrolbuttheState’s,sinceitisthesoleorganizedcollec- minishifoffensesagainstthemwerenotpunished.”ÉmileDurkheim,TheRulesof tivity…WhiletheStatebecomesinflatedandhypertrophiedinordertoobtaina SociologicalMethod,ed.GeorgeE.G.Catlin,tr.SarahA.Solovay&JohnMueller firmenoughgripuponindividuals,butwithoutsucceeding,thelatter,without (8thed.;NewYork:TheFreePressofGlencoe,1964),96.Asimilarviewhasbeen mutualrelationships,tumbleoveroneanotherlikesomanyliquidmolecules,en- attributedtoGeorgSimmelbyLewisCoser,TheFunctionsofSocialConflict(New counteringnocentralenergytoretain,fixandorganizethem.”EmileDurkheim, York:TheFreePress,1956),127;seeGeorgSimmel,Sociology:Inquiriesintothe Suicide:AStudyinSociology,ed.GeorgeSimpson,tr.JohnA.Spaulding&George ConstructionofSocialForms,tr.&ed.AnthonyJ.Blasi,AntonK.Jacobs&Mathew Simpson(NewYork:TheFreePress,1951),389. Kanjirathinkal(Leiden,Netherlands&Boston,MA:Brill,2009),1:29(referringto 32 5 comes together against the common enemy: the criminal. But pleself-acting,individuallyorcollectively,forself-protectionhave recentlyanothersociologist,DonaldBlack(norelation)hasargued beenunderrated.Peoplearealreadyoperating,usuallyapartfrom that some crime is really self-help social control. You can fight thelaw,andoftenagainstthelaw,invariouswaystoresolvetheir crimewithcrime.Youcanalsousecrimetodealwithharmfulacts conflicts. This is what we should try to convince people of. They which aren’t crimes. This is a lot more common than you might shouldbeinformedthat“anarchyisfoundinallsocietiestosome think. degree.”65Andthattherewouldbeeffectivewaysinanarchistsoci- etytodealwiththedisputes,whichmayalwaysbewithus,which arise in everyday life, and also — more severely — ways to deal The Sources of Social Order withchronicpredatorsorpeoplewhojusthavenoself-control. I am not convinced that there so many chronic troublemakers, We already live in a mostly anarchist society, in the sense that even now, that enough of them couldn’t be convinced, cured, or the state plays a relatively minor role in controlling antisocial be- havior. This is a classic anarchist argument,4 but I think that the contained; or shamed and shunned; or run out of town; or as a last resort — and I accept this, as all primitive stateless societies anarchistshaven’tmadeasmuchofitastheycould.DonaldBlack haveapparentlyacceptedit—evenkilled,ratherthancompromise writes that “the more we study law, indeed, the more we realize howlittlepeopleactuallyuseittohandletheirconflicts…”5 the anarchism that everybody else wants to live, or try to live, if everybodyelseeverwantstolivethisway,oratleasttogoalong withthoseofuswhodo.IndiscriminatetolerancedidintheFlower “theimportanceofacommonopponentfortheinnercohesionofagroup”)&1: Children.IfthechoiceisbetweenHannibalLechterandanarchy,I 279ff. preferanarchyminusHannibalLechter. 4See,e.g.,AlexanderBerkman,WhatIsCommunistAnarchism?(NewYork: But, this issue is more silly than serious. One of the greatest Dover Publications, 1972), 186; Rudolf Rocker, Anarcho-Syndicalism (London: PlutoPress,1989),19. ironiesofstatesocietyisthatthestateismuchworseatprotecting 5“SocialControlasaDependentVariable,”inTowardsaGeneralTheoryof usthanitisatpreventingusfromprotectingourselves.66 AsFran- SocialControl,ed.DonaldBlack(2vols.;Orlando,FL:AcademicPress,1984),1: 3.MyargumentowesagreatdealtoDonaldBlack,“CrimeasSocialControl,”in TowardsaGeneralTheoryofSocialControl,2:1–27. concluded,ifThomasSzaszthinksmentalillnessisamyth,heshouldmeetmy Halfofallcrimesarenotevenreportedtothepolice.JamesF.Ander- upstairsneighbor! son&LaronistineDyson,CriminologicalTheories:UnderstandingCrimeinAmer- Alongwithamutualfriend,“CalCrusher,”Iharassedtheneighborwith ica(Lanham,MD:UniversityPressofAmerica,2002),37.Thisstatisticrefersto threateninglettersfromanimaginarylawyer.Thiswas,inpractice,whatanarcho- the seven “index” crimes — all felony “street” crimes — in the Uniform Crime leftists, in theory,call solidarity,direct action, and mutual aid — but which, in ReportscompiledbytheFBI.AccordingtotheNationalCrimeSurvey(basedon practice, they don’t practice. We practiced direct action and mutual aid. How self-reports),in1982(theannualvariationisslight),39%ofaggravatedassaults, manyofmyanarchistenemiescansaythesame?IfIrecall,thepersecutorcom- 42%ofrobberies,45%ofrapes,and49%ofburglarieswerenotreportedtothe mittedsuicide. police.MichaelR.Gottfredson&TravisHirschi,AGeneralTheoryofCrime(Stan- 65Black,BehaviorofLaw,124. ford,CA:StanfordUniversityPress,1990),19.Nogovernmentagencyregularly 66“IthasoftenbeensaidthattheStateisasintrusiveasitisimpotent.It compiles data on corporate or white-collar crimes, which are almost never re- makesasicklyattempttoextenditselfoverallsortsofthingswhichdonotbe- portedtolawenforcementagencies.Noonecompilesstatisticsonmisdemeanors longtoit,orwhichitgraspsonlybydoingthemviolence.Thencetheexpenditure eveniftheyarereported. ofenergywithwhichtheStateisreproachedandwhichistrulyoutofproportion 6 31 Weneedtoconfrontthepopularfearofanarchismhead-on,and Itisn’tbecauseofthefearofpunishmentthatmostpeopledon’t useeveryhonestargumenttodispelit.Mostofthetraditionalan- kill,orsteal,oruseheroin,orrunredlights.It’susuallyforother archist answers still have some validity — although they need to reasons. They may just not go in for those things. They may be becriticallyrevisedandmodernized.Buttheseanswershaveobvi- influencedorinhibitedbyeducation,orbymoralvalues,orbyforce ously failed to convince more than a few people — as, indeed, all ofhabit.Mostimportantly,6 theymayberesponsivetowhatother ourargumentshavefailedtoconvincemorethanafewpeople. peoplethinkofthem. The supposed protections of the law are overrated, and anar- No doubt law imposes some order, for better or for worse. But chists have overlooked some of the evidence of this.63 The preda- in addition to social order enforced by law, there’s a much larger torypredilectionsofsomepeopleareexaggeratedbythelaw-and- amountofsocialorderbroughtaboutapartfromthelaw.Andthat orderestablishmentandtheiracademiccampfollowers,although, includesorderbroughtaboutagainst thelaw. weshouldn’tpretendthattherearen’tsomebadguys,orthatthey InMaxWeber’sfamousdefinition,thestate“isahumancommu- will all respond well to love and therapy.64 The capacities of peo- nitythat(successfully)claimsthemonopolyofthelegitimateuseof force withinagiventerritory.”7 Hedidwelltoplace“successfully” But,whoaretherealcriminals?Criminalsaretherealcriminals.AmI in parentheses, and to speak of a mere “claim.” No state has ever beingsimple?Sure.Bettertobesimplyrightthansimplywrong. succeededinmonopolizingtheuseofforce.Fewifanystateshave 63Forexample,oneoftherareexamplesofexperimentalresearchincrimi- eventriedto.Thereissomedegreeofanarchyineverysociety.8 nologyisreportedinGeorgeL.Kelling,TonyPate,DuaneDieckman,&CharlesE. Brown,TheKansasCityPreventivePatrolExperiment:ASummaryReport (Wash- Stilllesshasthestate(anystate)eversucceededinmonopolizing ington,DC:ThePoliceFoundation,1974),availableatwww.policefoundation.org. the“legitimate”useofforceeither,ifthismeansthatthosesubject Preventivepolicepatrol—thatis,policedrivingaroundlookingfortrouble,or tothepowerofthestate,consciouslyacceptitspower—notonly pretendingto—wassystematicallydiscontinued,withoutnoticetothepublic,in that they accept it as a brute fact, but that they accept it as right. oneneighborhoodafteranother.(Thepolicestillansweredservicecalls,asthe firedepartmentdoes.)Thewithdrawalofpreventivepolicepatrolprotectionhad Usually, all that we have evidence of is that most people, most of noeffectonreportedcrimerates.Ithadnoeffectoncitizenperceptionsoftheir thetime,acquiescein,theyareresignedto,thepowerofthestate, safety.Policepatrolisthususelessforcrimecontrol.Needlesstosay,nopolice which is not necessarily the same as endorsing the state or its le- departmenthas,onthebasisofthisdiscovery,discontinueddriving-aroundpa- gitimacy or its justice. Much criminal violence is seen by its per- trol(withstopsfordoughnuts).SeealsoHerbertJacob,TheFrustrationofPolicy: PoliceResponsestoCrimebyAmericanCities (Boston,MA:Little,Brown&Co., 1984). 64Irecalltheexperienceofafriendofmine,“ZackReplica”(apseudonym), my collaborator in Dial-a-Rumor (see Bob Black, “Tales from Dial-a-Rumor,” Friendly Fire [Brooklyn, NY: Autonomedia, 1992], 71–89). Zack, who is handi- 6“Notthefearoflegalpenalties,butthefearoflossofstatusinthegroupis capped,livedinBerkeley,CaliforniaatthesametimeIdid.Zackhadbeenrather theeffectivedeterrent…Regardlessoftheofficialmethodsofdealingwithcrimi- sympathetictotheargumentsoflibertarianpsychiatristThomasS.SzaszinThe nalsweshallretainthismethodofcontrolbygrouppressure.”EdwinH.Suther- MythofMentalIllness:FoundationsofaTheoryofPersonalConduct (NewYork: land,PrinciplesofCriminology(NewYork:Lippincott,1947),374. Harper&Row,1961).Butonehastohavedoubtsaboutapsychiatristwhosewife 7“PoliticsasaVocation,”FromMaxWeber:EssaysinSociology,ed.&tr.Hans committedsuicide.Zackhadabelligerentupstairsneighbor(Iforgethisname), Gerth&C.WrightMills(NewYork:OxfordUniversityPress,1958),78(emphasis a paranoid schizophrenic who was threatening Zack with violence for no rea- intheoriginal). son. It takes a big bad brave man to threaten somebody in a wheelchair. Zack 8DonaldBlack,TheBehaviorofLaw(NewYork:AcademicPress,1976),124. 30 7 petrators—reasonablyornot—aslegitimatesocialcontrol.9They Hebelievedtheirdangertobe,asIdo,greatlyexaggerated.But thinkthattheirviolenceislegitimate,too. (hegoesontosay)“delinquency”will“certainlynotdisappearfol- lowing a revolution, however radical and thoroughgoing it may turn out to be.” Therefore: “It is worthwhile and indeed necessary Law and Anarchy thatanarchistsshouldconsidertheproblemingreaterdetailthan theynormallydo,notonlythebettertodealwithapopular‘objec- Donald Black’s definition of law is simply that law is govern- mentalsocialcontrol.10 tion’butinordernottoexposethemselvestounpleasantsurprises and dangerous contradictions.”61 Sage advice: but anarchists have All other social control is nongovernmental social control and is therefore, by definition, anarchist.11 Black has also formulated usuallyslightedthematter.62 somepropositionsaboutlaw,includingthisone:Themorelaw,the 61“CrimeandPunishment,”Malatesta:HisLife&Ideas,comp.&ed.Vernon lessnonlegalsocialcontrol,andviceversa.12 Thus“Crimesofself- Richards(London:FreedomPress,1977),105.Foranexample,ananarchist,“Scott helparemorelikelywherelawislessavailable.”13Whenthereisno W.,” who recently, in “The [sic] Anarchist Response to Crime,” laid out a post- revolutionaryanarchistcrime-controlscenario—completewithpolice(renamed law,andthereisonlynonlegalsocialcontrol,that’sanarchy.And “militias,”assistedby“forensiccollectives”and“detectivecollectives”)andpris- Blackdoesn’thesitatetocallitthat.Heisfamiliarwith,anddraws ons,andheexplainedthatwewillneedafewgenerationstoeradicatecrime.Then uponthehistoricalandethnographicevidenceofviableprimitive itwillwitheraway,perhaps.Theterm“collective”isapparentlyunlimitedlyelas- anarchist societies. And he even anticipates a gradual evolution tic,inclusive,andapproving,ifevendetectivesandcrimelabtechniciansareokay, solongastheyareorganizedintocollectives.Scott’sessay,andmyrejoinder,“An 9Black,“CrimeasSocialControl,”2:13.Myargumentdoesnotdependupon AnarchistResponseto‘TheAnarchistResponsetoCrime,’”areavailableonline theassumptionthatthosewhoinflictunilateralviolenceonothers,thinkingthat atTheAnarchistLibrary. theyarejustified,arejustifiedbymoralstandardsprevailinginothersectorsof 62Theproblemof“delinquency…hasnotoccupiedagreatspaceinanar- society,orevenintheirown.Formostofmyreadersitmaybealmostunthinkable, chisttheory,PeterKropotkinbrushingitasidecontemptuously.Inafreesociety forexample,thatwife-beaterscanthinkthatthey’rejustified,butusuallytheydo therewillbenocrime.”StuartChristie,“Publisher’sForeward”toLarryTifft& thinkso.LookingbackonAmericanhistory,therewasvigilantejustice,which DennisSullivan,TheStruggletoBeHuman:Crime,Criminology,andAnarchism wasenforcedbyself-appointedgroups(usually,ofthebettersortofpeople)where (Sanday,Orkney,Scotland:CienfuegosPress,1980),xiii.Christiewasright,but lawenforcementwasconsideredtobecorruptorineffectual.It’sdifficulttojudge, unfortunately,theTifftandSullivanbookaddsnothingtoananarchisttheoryof today,howfairthatjusticewas,ifbyfairnessismeant,convictingandpunishing crime.Itismostlyjustliberalhumanistmoralisticwhiningandwhimperingto theguilty.ThentherewaslynchlawintheSouth,which,sofarasweknow,was, theeffectthatthestateistherealcriminal.That,besidesbeingself-contradictory in that sense, almost never fair — but then it was always carried out with the nonsense(crimeisdefinedbylaw,whichisproducedandselectivelyenforcedby connivanceoflocallawenforcement.Iwouldbethelastpersontosaythatsocial thestate),legitimizestheconceptofcrime,whichpresupposeslaw,whichpre- controlisalwaysagoodthing.Iamonlysayingthatithappens,andnotonly supposesthestate.Abetter,andbetterwritten,andbrieferversionofarelated fromstateaction.Wenolongerhavevigilantesorlynchmobs.Self-helpcriminal argumentisinAlexComfort,AuthorityandDelinquencyintheModernState:A socialcontrolisnowalmostalwaysindividual.Inanarchistjargon,itisstill“direct CriminologicalApproachtotheProblemofPower (London;RoutledgeandKegan action,”butit’susuallynot“mutualaid.” PaulLtd.,1950).Dr.Comfort(yes,he’stheauthorofTheJoyofSex)arguesthat 10Black,BehaviorofLaw,2 wherethereexistsastate,predatorsandpsychopathsarelikelytostaffitindis- 11Black,“SocialControlasaDependentVariable,”1:2 proportionatenumbers.Notonlydoespowercorrupt,powerattractsthealready 12“Lawvariesinverselywithothersocialcontrol.”Black,BehaviorofLaw, corrupt.That’sfine—asfarasitgoes.IfAKPressorPMPresshadevenaslight 107. interestinreprintinggenuineanarchistclassics,theyshouldreprintthisone.But, 13Black,“CrimeasSocialControl,”2:17. sincetheydon’t,theywon’t. 8 29 Conclusion toward a possible future anarchy — on the other side of modern statesociety.14 My argument is just this: that, in a statist, law-ridden society You might not be comfortable with the term “social control.” like ours, social order isn’t only, or even mainly, imposed by law. Black’sdefinitionisthatitrefersto“anyprocessbywhichpeople Ithasothersupports.TheoneI’vesingledoutiscrime,fortworea- define and respond to deviant behavior.”15 You might not like sons:(1)becauseit’sbeenlargelyoverlooked,and(2)becauseit’sa the word “deviant” either, since you may suspect that you are genuinelyanarchistsourceoforderwhichisofsomeimportance. one. You might say it another way, but Black is only saying that Ithinkthatthisargumentshouldbeaddedtotheexistingargu- when some people do things that other people don’t like, the ments why anarchy doesn’t mean chaos. It’s consistent with the other people may do something about it, or at least react in some otherarguments.ItisanticipatedbyKropotkin’sclassicargument way. That’s inevitable. You can abolish law, but you can’t abolish thatcollectiveself-help,“mutualaid,”isamajorsourceofsocialor- consequences. Since society itself is interpersonal interaction dereveninstatesocieties,60 althoughKropotkinmadelittleifany when it assumes definite forms,16 it is implicitly limiting, as an referencetomutualaidasameansofdisputeresolution.Anarchists extreme anarchist individualist such as Renzo Novatore seems to also argue that in a cooperative, egalitarian society, there would haveseen,anddeplored.17 be much less crime (and virtually no property crime). What’s left Someanarchists,suchasTolstoy,haveadvocatednonresistance; wouldbehandled,wheneverpossible,inalesspunitiveandmore but none, to my knowledge, has advocated nonreaction. Even go- conciliatorymanner. ing limp is a reaction. Even turning the other cheek is a reaction. Inananarchistsociety,aconflictisn’twrenchedoutofitsinter- They are attempts to shame the victimizers or to win over public personalcontext—ifithasone—as,wesuppose,inadecentralized opinion:theyarepowerploys.Socialcontrolisnotnecessarilyco- anarchist society, it usually will. There doesn’t have to be a judg- ercion. It may just be influence.18 Certain people may have to be ment of guilt or innocence. Anarchist methods work best where beaten into polite behavior, but for others, persuading, mocking, the law is at its worst, where the conflict or grievance involves a shamingorshunningsuffices.There’snoreasonwhyananarchist dispute, not impersonal unilateral aggression, and arises out of a societycan’treduceoverallsocialcontrolasiteliminateslegalso- priorrelationship.Theevidenceofanthropologysupportsthosear- guments.Itsupportsmyargument. Thepopularfearofanarchismaboveallconsistsofthefearthat, 14Black,BehaviorofLaw,123–137. without military and police protection, people would be helpless 15Black,“SocialControlasaDependentVariable,”1:n.1,5.But“Deviant against violent predation. Errico Malatesta saw this, as he saw behaviorisconductthatissubjecttosocialcontrol…”!Black,BehaviorofLaw,9. Thisapparentcircularityneednotdistractusfromthemainpointthatextralegal many things, clearly: every anarchist “is familiar with the key conduct,includingcrime,hassomeofthesocialeffectsclaimedforlaw.Criminol- objections:whowillkeepcriminalsincheck?” ogistsask:Whydopeoplecommitcrimes?Blackasks:“Whydopeoplecommit socialcontrol?”Black,“SocialControlasanIndependentVariable,”1:14. 16Simmel,Sociology,1:23. 17RenzoNovatore,TowardtheCreativeNothing (n.p.:VenomousButterfly, 60PeterKropotkin,MutualAid:AFactorofEvolution,ed.PaulAvrich(New 2000)(notpaginated). York:NewYorkUniversityPress,1972),esp.chs.7–8. 18Black,“SocialControlasaDependentVariable,”1:5 28 9 cial control entirely.19 What’s more, nongovernmental social con- Which Is Better? trol is less punitive than law. It tends instead to be conciliatory, compensatoryortherapeutic.20 Inalaw-riddenstatesocietysuchasours,neitherlawnorcrime isalwaysthebestwaytodealwithdisputes.Derivingastheyboth dofromthestate,lawandcrimecompetetobethelesserevil.There Crime and Prior Relationships isn’t any general answer. It all depends on the nature of the dis- pute, the social status of the disputants, what the law actually is, Thepolicearen’talwaysineffectual.Theyoftencatchcriminals theavailabilityorunavailabilityofthirdpartiessuchasmediators insuchcasesasbankrobbery,counterfeiting,andthreateningthe or arbitrators or judges, and the facts of the case.59 Nobody has President. But it’s possible to identify areas where they are least even tried to measure to what extent social order in this society effective. One of them is where the victim and the criminal have depends on law enforcement, or on crime, or on activity which is somesortofcurrentorpriorrelationship. neither law enforcement nor crime, or on other influences. That’s Most so-called street crime isn’t committed by strangers. It’s impossible.Nobodycouldquantifythesefactors.Butnobodywho committedbyfamily,friendsandneighbors.Thetypicalrapeisn’ta iswell-informedcanminimizetheimportanceofanyofthem,with womanbeingdraggedbythehairintoanalleybysomelust-crazed thepossibleexceptionoftheenforcementofthecriminallaw. bruteofaman.Thetypicalrapeisdaterape.Bynowthatshouldn’t surprise anybody. But some other research findings probably will surpriseyou. 59Black, “Social Control as a Dependent Variable,” 2: 7–8. I have not dis- ButbeforeIreportthem,Iwanttogiveyouanexampletothink cussed herethe thirdfactor — the forms of dispute processing as such (concil- about. A loans his bicycle to his friend B. B originally meant to iation,negotiation,mediation,arbitration,adjudication,etc.)astheyhavebeen return it, but he never did. A finally goes over to B’s apartment classifiedby,e.g.,Nader&Todd,“Introduction,”9–11;FrankE.A.Sander,“Vari- and,findingthedoorclosedbutnotlocked,walksin.Heretrieves etiesofDisputeProcessing,”inTomasic&Feeley,eds.,NeighborhoodJustice,26– 29.Amusingly,Sanderdismissesseveralevidentlylessrespectablemechanisms, hisbike.BtriestostophimbutApusheshimaway.Somepeople includingself-help,as“notofcentralconcernherebecauseoftheirlimitedutil- wouldsaythatAwasjustified.OtherswouldsaythatAhadalegit- ity or acceptability,” ibid., 29 — although a community study in the same vol- imategrievancebutwenttoofar.Fewpeoplewouldconsiderthis umefoundaprimaryrelianceonself-help,SuzannR.Thomas-Buckle&Leonard tobeahighlyseriousincident. G. Buckle, “Doing onto Others: Disputes and Dispute Processing in an Urban AmericanNeighborhood,”ibid.,79–80.WithrespecttoAmericancriminalprose- Buttothelaw,Aappearstohavecommittedtwomajorfelonies: cutions,onlyadjudicationmatters—theattemptstoinserttheotherdisputing burglary(becauseofwhatis,technically,abreak-inatadwelling) procedures into the legal system have been few and far between and usually androbbery(becauseheusedforceinretakingthebike).It’slegally “court-annexed,”i.e.,theyarejustwaysforprosecutors(whomustapprovethese referrals)tounloadsomeofwhattheycallgarbagecases.Ontheriseandrapid 19Blackdeniestheargumentofsomeofhiscritics(acriticismwhichalso fallofthesefailedreforms,seeRomanTomasic,“MediationasanAlternativeto occurredtome)thathistheoryimpliesthatthereisafixedlevelorquantityof Adjudication: Rhetoric and Reality in the Neighborhood Justice Movement,” in socialcontrolinallsocieties.Black,“SocialControlasaDependentVariable,”1: NeighborhoodJustice,215–48.Bailreform,pretrialdiversion,sentencingreform, 15n.20.Surelythereare,orhavebeen,societieswithlesssocialcontrolthan,say, andspeedytrialrulesareamongotherfailedreforms.MalcolmM.Feeley,Court NorthKorea. ReformonTrial:WhenSimpleSolutionsFail (NewYork:BasicBooks,1983),chs. 20Black,“SocialControlasaDependentVariable,”1:8–12. 2–5. 10 27

Description:
cis Bacon put it, where you had one enemy, now you have two. And the state is best (8th ed.; New York: The Free Press of Glencoe, 1964), 96. A similar view .. Variable,” 1: 14. 16Simmel, Sociology, 1: 23 360 (N.Y. Ch. 1822). The ultra -
See more

The list of books you might like

Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.