Book Review: Why We Harm
Document Type
Book Review
Publication Date
7-9-2014
Publication Title
International Criminal Justice Review
DOI
10.1177/1057567714542282
ISSN
1556-3855
Abstract
In Why We Harm, Lois Presser explores how discourses of power create paradoxical justifications for harm. Genocide, meat eating, intimate partner violence (IPV), and harm caused by incarceration and the death penalty are examined in depth as exemplars for the author’s narrative framework for understanding harm. The author utilizes qualitative data from previous published studies on each of the topics examined, as well as Supreme Court cases that have evaluated aspects of penal harm, and her own research involving interviews with residents of Tennessee, including 60 meat eaters and 30 individuals asked to discuss their thoughts on incarceration and capital punishment. Throughout the book, Presser situates her analysis in the nexus of criminological theories including social learning, strain, control, rational choice, labeling, techniques of neutralization, control-balance, and reintegrative shaming theories. By taking into account harm agents’ subjective perceptions and the role of discourse in the definitions of one’s position as powerful or powerless, the author extends several extant theories and makes an important contribution to the literature.
Recommended Citation
Agnich, Laura E..
2014.
"Book Review: Why We Harm."
International Criminal Justice Review, 24 (3): 307-308 Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
doi: 10.1177/1057567714542282
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/crimjust-criminology-facpubs/27
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