The Politics of Violence

Abstract

This chapter shows that the issue of violence poses political and cultural challenges that are a significant obstacle to criminal legal reform. These challenges are even more difficult to surmount than the opposition of vested interests that often work to block reform. Virtually all states have adopted at least some decarcerative reforms (often against the opposition of interest groups such as prison guard unions or prosecutor associations). However, most of the reforms that have been enacted pertain only to nonviolent crimes. The reluctance of lawmakers to end excessive sentences for more serious crimes reflects deeply rooted and widely shared images of people who have committed an act of violence at one point in their lives as monstrous and irredeemable others. The second section of this chapter critiques this myth of monstrosity, which is deeply rooted in racist tropes and stereotypes, and is in tension with a substantial body of social scientific evidence.