They Come by Law: Future Dangerousness and the Creation of Violent Criminals

Author: Cary Federman

Source: The Justice Professional, Volume 17, Number 2, June 2004 , pp. 171-185(15)

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

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Abstract:

This paper focuses on the Supreme Court's narratives of violence in capital punishment cases. In particular, I stress the way in which criminals are constructed, criminality structured and appeals denied. This paper demonstrates a discursive link between late 19th and late 20th century criminological understandings of the potential for future dangerousness, rooted largely in the Court's narratives of individual violence, the sole purpose of which is to determine dangerousness within the criminal and not from the crime itself. This paper also explores the Supreme Court's discursive constructions of criminality and deviance.

Keywords: Future Dangerousness; Habeas Corpus; Social Construction

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1080/0888431042000235011