Prisoners of the Sun: The British Empire and Imprisonment in Malta in the Early Nineteenth Century

Theoretical Criminology

Macuare

2011

In theoretical criminology, scholars continue to debate the significance of power-based perspectives in the face of semiotics and vice versa. Among the problems created by 'taking sides' is the missed opportunity that would allow for the synthesis of instrumentalist and culturalist work. Recognizing the merits of both perspectives, this project explores penal tourism in Argentina in ways that reveal key forms of state power alongside important cultural signs, symbols, and messages. In particular, our case study of the Argentine Penitentiary Museum in Buenos Aires delivers a thick description of its collection so as to bridge Foucault's insights on systematic penal regimes with Durkheim's socio-religious concepts: pollution; the sacred; the mythological; and the cult of the individual.

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 58%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Penal tourism in Argentina: Bridging Foucauldian and neo-Durkheimian perspectives

Theoretical Criminology

Macuare

2011

“…During the 19th century, penitentiaries in Europe and the United States became laboratories designed to pursue the new sciences of surveillance, control, and discipline. Promoting a certain dream of order , the modern prison served as a ‘museum for the display and diffusion of this knowledge’ (Scicluna and Knepper, 2008: 503). Although it is tempting to dismiss the terms laboratory and museum as convenient metaphors, a close examination of the history of prison science reveals a conscious reliance on both institutions.…”

Section: Argentine Penitentiary Museum Buenos Airesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Penal tourism and the ‘dream of order’: Exhibiting early penology in Argentina and Australia

2012

Punishment & Society

Aimed at delivering a didactic -as well as a recreational -experience, former prisons have been transformed into museums of past incarceration regimes. That development has become part of a larger phenomenon known as penal tourism. Indeed, visits to famous institutions tap into a timeless curiosity and fascination with the infliction of punishment. Penal tourism also puts on display practices previously hidden behind closed doors, including prisoner abuse, torture, and execution. This analysis builds on previous research at the Argentine Penitentiary Museum and expands to Australia where the Hyde Park Barracks and the Old Melbourne Gaol are explored. Moving beyond mere description, this comparative study considers theoretical implications embodied in the dream of order. Toward that end, the interpretation takes into account both instrumental (power-based, Foucauldian) and expressive (semiotic, neoDurkheimian) perspectives on the exhibition of early penology.

“…Toby Dodge (2003) writes that colonialism is a modernizing project geared toward transforming an economy of a 'pre-modern' society; in doing so, colonial administrators discipline the local people in order to assimilate them to new modes of production. Discipline, of course, also includes imprisonment and corporal punishment for those who resist or fail to adapt to the changing economy and the new regime of authority (see Foucault, 1977;Bezzina, 1988;Mitchell, 1991;Scicluna and Knepper, 2008). Similarly, Ross (1998) reminds us that in the process of controlling labor and consuming resources, colonialism also penetrates culture in ways that project a racial superiority of the conqueror, thereby justifying exploitation, mistreatment, and discrimination of its subjects.…”

Section: Abuse Shock and Disciplinementioning

confidence: 99%

Detained in occupied Iraq

2010

Punishment & Society

The war in Iraq has prompted some criminologists to examine such matters as the illegality of the invasion and subsequent occupation, controversial economic transformations, and the abuse -torture -of detainees at Abu Ghraib. For the most part, criminologists have neglected the problem of mass detention aimed at the civilian population: by 2007, the US military held more than 26,000 Iraqis in a network of large camps. Those civilians remained in long-term custody because the American commanders deemed them 'imperative threats' but not criminal nor terrorist. In an effort to shed critical light on that aspect of the occupation, this work interprets the official narratives used to justify the detention process and the role of American-styled reintegration programs. By doing so, the analysis draws on colonial theory in ways that deepen our understanding of social control and discipline in the new Iraq. Mindful of human rights, the discussion confronts important facets of enduring domination inherent in modern colonial projects.