The Problem of the Body in Modern State Punishment

Abstract

Modern, liberal democratic states and civilized, squeamish moderns would rather avoid the sights, sounds, and smells of the body in pain. So we eliminate them where that is possible and we hide them behind the scenes when it is not. The body thus creates a problem for modern liberal state punishment, especially in the United States, where nonphysical penalties, such as fines, restitution, or compensation, are notably underdeveloped and where mass imprisonment and capital punishment dominate the penal scene. The problem is that the human body is the unavoidable object of state punishment even when it is avowedly not punishment's target. It is this problem of the body, and the state's handling of it, that I would like to explore.

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