Mythology, Trials, and Law

• In Event: 477 - Section on Crime, Law, and Deviance Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 15. Culture, Media, and Socialization 1

Abstract

We present an overview of a political analysis of criminal trials as a model for examining power, law, and the state. The analysis includes suggestions for a nonreductionist theory of power. Our analysis focuses upon the discursive formations upon which modern society is based and dependent; how power functions within this form of society, how it is reproduced, why certain social formations occur while others disappear, and how change is possible; and a political theory of law. The modern form of law is hierarchical, individualistic, and highly competitive. The rule of law varies according to this form via a political analysis of the state. The dominant paradigm of Western thought in Eurocentric justice systems has been punishment, the basis for criminal law. The expansion of criminal law and punitive sanctions stems primarily from the growth of centralized state control.

Author

• Pat L. Lauderdale, Arizona State University