What Every Sociology Teacher Should Say on Day 1
March 26th, 2009 by SocProf and tagged Sociology
What Jay said:
"The American tendency to define problems in moral terms leads us to come up not with solutions but with punishments."
I am going to make my students learn this by heart. As importantly, this is part of this post:
Although I would nitpick that "zero tolerance" is not so much apolicy as an attitude that applies only one policy to a wide variety of behaviors all redefined as essentially the same (as if you re-defined all sorts of disease as just the same and applied the same treatment, like bloodletting). One size fit all. It is morally satisfying for the moral entrepreneurs who promote zero tolerance but the effectiveness remains to be seen.
Posted in Sociology | 3 Comments »
March 27th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
It’s flattering to know that I’m required reading. But America is not uniformly puritanical and punitive throughout. And with states having run out of money, the costs of locking up everyone are forcing them to become more sensible. Today the Times carried a story about Missouri’s success in dealing with juvenile offenders in a decent and less punitive (and less expensive) way. Cost is also making states rethink the death penalty. In New York, for the past two decades politicians have been talking about getting rid of the irrationally draconian Rockefeller drug laws of the seventies. And now, it looks like reform is actually going to happen.
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SocProf Reply:
March 27th, 2009 at 9:33 pm
But isn’t this also interesting that the ONLY reason considered for revisiting such policies is the lack of money, rather than their intrinsic or societal efficacy?
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SocProf Reply:
March 28th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
And your quote is now officially part of the French socblogosphere!
Denis Colombi had already translated parts of an earlier post of yours here.
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