NCJ Number
184090
Date Published
1996
Length
278 pages
Annotation
This book portrays upright citizens who harbor a "strange liking" for criminal behavior and criminals who conceive of prison in positive terms as a nurturing environment or as a refuge from life's problems.
Abstract
The author reveals a complex dynamic in which criminals and non-criminals live together in a symbiotic as well as an adversarial relationship, needing and serving each other. She presents positive images of prison and examines theories of punishment and the public fascination with criminals. In addition, the author explores the metaphor of "filth" in criminal justice and the tendency to romanticize criminals. She points out that society has highly differentiated and paradoxical feelings about crime and punishment and that the criminal justice system is deeply psychologically rooted and based on conflicting feelings of attraction and repulsion about criminals. An appendix identifies cases in which prosecutors described a defendant, a defendant's witness, or a defendant's acts with a metaphor of filth. References and notes