LAW AND SOCIETY

2011
Stephen M. Morewitz*
Stephen Morewitz & Associates
and Art Jipson*
University of Dayton

 

 1.  What is your vision of a just world in relation to your division’s mission?

The Law and Society Division of the Society for the Study of Social Problems (SSSP) continues to have a distinct vision of a just, democratic, and humane world. Our division and its members seek to understand how the legal system, law, and normative structures shape relationships large and small. The interaction between individuals, groups, communities, and societies are directly influenced by the nature and consequences of law.  Therefore, the Law and Society Division continues to perform a unique function within SSSP. The members of the Division seek to examine how and why legal systems grow and change, how and why they respond to their environment, how and why society affects the legal system, and how and why the law can both advance and limit human potential for community.

In a world that has come under increasing surveillance by state and non-state actors alike, the task of the Law and Society Division is to shed light on the problem of power and authority; to question the role, the function, and the settled place of law in society. Our concerns have no particular disciplinary boundary. Our vision of a just world is local, regional, and global. Consequently, our vision requires a concentration on legal forms to achieve justice and equity, to redress the illegalities we see around us that are ignored by state and corporate actors, and encourage a greater understanding on law’s limits, in an effort to understand how the law is connected with other social forces operating within and across societies.

2. What are one or two demonstration projects, nations or states that have most effectively addressed your division’s mission at any time in history and what are/were their important features?

The Lindesmith Center in New York was created to sponsor research and distribute information that shows how irrational and unjust contemporary American drug policy really is. Iceland is a modern nation that values highly equality and fairness for all its citizens. In this small nation there is almost a tribal feeling of obligation to care for all citizens. In addition, Innocence Projects initiated by Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld serve to utilize the tools of the legal system in achieving justice for those denied a fair appraisal of their legal situation. Similar programs evolved in universities and states around the country to reinvestigate court convictions and utilize DNA testing in ascertaining the innocence of over one hundred individuals in Scheck and Neufeld's program alone.  The most recent rise in thoughtful and critical social media represents another venue that addresses the mission of the Law and Society Division.  While the use of social media is dependent upon the user, the possibility of sharing information about the misuse of Law across communities and nation-states has never been as robust as it is today. 

3. What are the key difficulties that you and others working toward your division’s mission face in your work toward a better world?

Our members are highly diversified in terms of social, ethnic, cultural, religious, political, and intellectual backgrounds and viewpoints, which may make consensus on approaches to the study of law difficult to achieve in the division.  There is always the problem of assembling the necessary data to accumulate enough research to present one’s findings in situations that are difficult to maneuver. Moreover, there exists the problem of the political feasibility of presenting our work in open and scientific dialogue.  Focusing on the margins of legal, criminological, and social work presents problems of acceptance, dispersion of information, and the accumulation of relevant data.  We recognize and applaud the rise of non-dominant forms of study, discourse and information dissemination.

4. What are some key articles or books you would recommend to SSSP colleagues and their students who work outside of your Division’s area but want to learn more about it?

Bruce A. Arrigo, Dragan Milovanovic, and Robert C. Schehr. The French Connection in Criminology: Rediscovering Crime, Law, and Social Change. (State University of New York Press, 2005).  

Gregg Barak, Varieties of State Crime and Its Control (Criminal Justice Press, 2000).

Peter Brooks and Paul Gewirtz, Law’s Stories: Narrative and Rhetoric in the Law (Yale University Press, 1996).

Ian Browmlie, Principles of Public International Law (Oxford University Press, 2003).

Kitty Calavita Invitation to Law and Society (University of Chicago Press, 2010).

Susan Caringella, Addressing Rape Reform in Law and Practice (Columbia University Press, 2009).

John H. Currie, Craig Forcese and Valerie Oosterveld International Law: Doctrine, Practice, and Theory (Irwin Law 2007).

Richard Delgado, Critical Race Theory: An Introduction (NYU Press, 2001).

Cary Federman, The Body and the State: Habeas Corpus and American Jurisprudence (SUNY Press, 2006).

David Garland, The Culture of Control: Crime and Social Order in Contemporary Society (University of Chicago Press, 2001).

Marie Gottschalk, The Prison and the Gallows: The Politics of Mass Incarceration in America (Cambridge University Press, 2006)

Alan Hyde, Bodies of Law (Princeton University Press, 1997).

Richard A. Leo, Police Interrogation and American Justice (Harvard University Press, 2008).

JoAnn Miller and Donald C. Johnson, Problem Solving Courts: New Approaches to Criminal Justice (Rowman & Littlefield, 2009).

Dragan Milovanovic, An Introduction to the Sociology of Law (Criminal Justice Press 2003).

Stephen J. Morewitz, Death Threats and Violence. New Research and Clinical Perspectives (Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 2008).

Michael Petrunik and Richard Weisman, “Constructing Joseph Fredericks: Competing Narratives of a Child Sex Murderer,” International Journal of Law and Psychiatry (2005): 75-96.

Alain Pottage and Martha Mundy, Eds. Law, Anthropology, and the Constitution of the Social: Making Persons and Things (Cambridge University Press, 2004).

Austin Sarat, Ed. The Killing State: Capital Punishment in Law, Politics, and Culture (Oxford University Press, 1999).

Austin Sarat and Jonathan Simon, Eds. Cultural Analysis, Cultural Studies, and the Law: Moving Beyond Legal Realism (Duke University Press, 2003).

Malcolm Shaw, International Law (Cambridge University Press, 2003). 

Jonathan Simon, Governing through Crime: How the War on Crime Transformed American Democracy and Created a Culture of Fear (Oxford University Press, 2007).

Bruce Western, Punishment and Inequality (Russell Sage Publications, 2006).

David Wolcott, Cops and Kids: Policing Juvenile Delinquency in Urban America, 1890-1940 (Ohio State University Press, 2005).

In addition to scholarly sources, the Division of Law and Society members also recommend that those interested in social media and web sources seek out academic sites for insightful and productive commentary.  Note that the listing here is simply suggestions and that blogs are variable by their nature:

International Law   http://www.cforcese.typepad.com/pil/

Law Professor’s Blog Network   http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/

Slaw.ca (A Cooperative Canadian Legal Weblog)   http://www.slaw.ca/

The Becker-Posner Blog   http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/

Sentencing Law and Policy   http://www.sentencing.typepad.com/

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