Towards a Sociology of State Violence: Detention, Incarceration, and Deportation

• In Event: 1567 - Section on Sociology of Law Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 5: The State

Abstract

Drawing on a critical analysis of prominent Supreme Court cases concerning the War on Terror, mass incarceration, and immigrant deportation, I argue that the U.S. state has developed a series of institutions that operate to effectively “disappear” people from public and political life. While discussions of disappearance often focus on a specific type of state violence, several important features of state enforced disappearance characterize all three of the cases considered here. Firstly, disappearances focus on particular communities on the basis of sociological categories such as gender, age, race and ethnicity, and religion, among others. Secondly, disappearances foster a sense of uncertainty regarding why someone has been disappeared and render it difficult to ascertain information about the individual. And, lastly, disappearance has protracted and extended effects—psychological, social, economic—on the families and friends of the disappeared person. In the U.S., capitalism plays a critical role in the development of institutions that disappear individuals.

Author

• Amina Zarrugh, Texas Christian University