Wednesday, October 21, 2009

"I stole from a local store"

"Mobilizing shame" also reminded me of this Florida judge's bizarre use of shame as a punishment for shoplifters. Gives an example of a top-down use of exposure to increase obedience--not the same type of social change we've been talking about.

(This American Life story on this here)

1 comment:

Lauren said...

This is so intriguing to me, especially given the most prevalent and/or resonant discourses regarding mass incarceration, punishment, crime prevention, retribution, victim's rights, etc.

We generally seem to approach the issue of criminality from a sentiment more closely resembling "keep-that-filth-away-from-me," a mentality with roots in the marginalization of certain peoples and/or the ghettoization of some communities.

What does it mean when we start (really, return to) methods of public shame as a crime punishment and/or deterrent? What happens when we start to bring such issues into the 'public,' more openly visible sphere in order to mobilize shame? How does this relate to issues like the valorization and/or glamourization of stereotypical notions of blackness, 'ghetto, and criminals?